Blog 12: September DTS Lecture & Outreach Phase
MARCH 2025
THANK YOU:
Hi all!!! I am so grateful for the opportunity to write to you all again. Thank you so, so much for all your prayers and support towards my team and me. And I want to reiterate I truly mean it; this season, though tough, stressful, and busy for me, has still been full of joy. I want to apologise because this update is long overdue. I am sorry if this conveyed a lack of appreciation towards your support towards me. I truly am incredibly grateful for all of you, your prayers, and your financial support for me. During this DTS season, I tried writing this update numerous times but found it hard during this busy season full of new responsibilities.
After writing this, I plan to intentionally plan how I can give more consistent updates in the future so that this long of a gap doesn't happen again.
Once again, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to continue serving God in this. Your prayers & support the last 6 months have enabled me to lead this current September DTS well. You will be pleased to know that you have enabled me to disciple/lead a school consisting of 24 students, including a family of 5 and a staff team of 4 others.
My desire and prayer with this update is to share/write how you, God & I were able to impact their lives. So I hope you enjoy reading this update.
My Prayer for us:
“Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us reading this update fixate our eyes on the eternal things and the things that are truly important to you. Lord, I pray that you would help us to see the impact of what was sown in this season. And Lord, I ask that you would allow us to share in your joy and expectation for what was sown in this season. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen. ”
When writing this update, I wanted us to consider the eternal impact of what happened the last 6 months during this discipleship training school. So I would love it if you would take a short moment to pray and ask God for His perspective/thoughts on the impact of this year's discipleship training school. My desire is that with God’s perspective, you are able to read this update with so much joy and anticipation for the fruit that has come and is to come from the seeds planted in this season. This is because God has genuinely accomplished so much these last 6 months, and I just want you to also share in the same joy & excitement He has shared with me.
OVERVIEW OF CONTENTS:
Lecture Phase
Outreach Phase
Testimonies & Impact
Whats Next?
Prayer Requests
A Typical Worship Night on Base
LECTURE PHASE:
Meet the School:
I want to begin by introducing you to the amazing students that my team and I have had the privilege to know and disciple this year. Our school had a total of 24 students from 7 different nations. They were incredibly teachable and wonderful to lead.
(Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, USA)
What Happened During Lecture Phase:
Lecture Weeks:
During the lecture phase, we focused on a different topic each week, and the weeks are arranged in a way that we spend the beginning portion focused on the idea of seeing God rightly and then the later half on the idea of seeing God’s instructions for our lives rightly. This includes God’s command to love God and go make disciples. The weeks are structured like this because I really believe in order to hold God’s commands & teachings with reverence and awe, we first need to see God with reverence & awe. We also need to see God as a relational God who desires holiness, righteousness, and intimacy with us.
Below I want to share a little about what was taught/done during each of these weeks to help us to have a better understanding of how we were impacted during our time in the lecture phase.
Topics for Weeks One to Five: During this half of lecture phase we focused on seeing God rightly.
Jesus - Starting with Jesus, we unpacked who Jesus was, with an emphasis on what He did for us. The main point this week was this: “Jesus, through the cross, has made us clean!!" Meaning we can come to the Father & experience intimacy with God right now. This was the beginning of freedom from a performance mentality for many of our students. We spent time leading them away from this wrong belief that before they could approach God, they needed to clean themselves up; they needed to do a bunch of “good” deeds before they could come to the Father to receive His love or be connected with God. We emphasised this truth of “you are loved & connected already”; therefore, live like it.
Character & Nature of God/Hearing God’s Voice - Next we explored God’s character & nature with an emphasis on the fact that God is a relational God that longs for relationship and intimacy with His creation. Then, continuing with this emphasis on God’s heart for relationship, we talked about hearing God’s voice. This week our students grew in their understanding of how great God’s love & pursuit is towards them. They also grew in their understanding that God is a communicator and that God doesn’t only listen to prayers but also wants to speak to them.
Intimacy with God - Next we talked about the importance of being rooted in God's word and the importance of spiritual disciplines like worship, prayer, and meditation on God's word. During this week, one of the elders on our base spoke on how we can always continue to grow in relationship with God and warned us about what kills growth & intimacy with God. Our desire is that they feel more equipped to live a lifestyle of intimacy with Jesus and their growth will not be surface level but permanent.
Father Heart of God - During this week we talked about God the Father with an emphasis on what having Him as our Father means for us. We also took time to acknowledge that our earthly fathers were not perfect and shared the idea that we often can have a wrong view of God because of things our earthly fathers did. This week was a beautiful time of vulnerability and healing for many of the students, with many students taking steps to forgive their earthly fathers or even reconnect with them.
Holy Spirit - Next we talked about another part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. We spent the week exploring who the Holy Spirit is, what His role is in the Trinity, and how we engage with the Holy Spirit. During this week our school grew in their understanding of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and fruits of the Spirit. For many, their home churches didn’t talk much about these things, so much of it was new to them. We also talked about the importance of prophecy for building up the church, practiced how to prophesy, and discussed what not to do/say when prophesying.
Kingdom Identity & Access - During this next week, we talked about many different topics, all surrounding the theme of our identity in Christ and what this actually means for us. During this week, we discussed many identity-shaping things, and our school became more aware of healthy or unhealthy places we put our identity in. During this week we also discussed the idea that we can potentially idolise giftings/talents/encounters with the Holy Spirit over a relationship with God. It's this idea that if we are not careful, we can love the fruits of our relationship with God more than God Himself. This was a essential warning/reminder for our school.
Photo Intermission: Pause from reading and enjoy some photos during lecture phase.
Photos from Welcome Night and the Other Schools:
Random Fun Moments with the Students:
Topics for Weeks Six to Eleven: During this later half of the lecture phase, we continued to learn more about God but transitioned into focusing on seeing God’s commands rightly. Specifically, God’s great commandments & the great commission.
Biblical Worldview - Rather than the typical Biblical Worldview lecture where we learn about other religions and how they compare to Christianity, this week focused on how to see this world from God’s perspective and what is our responsibility as believers. Our speaker regularly invited our school to see each country as another room in God’s house and to see ourselves as stewards of this earth. As a school, we were also taught to not idolise the roles of being a pastor/speaker/missionary because we need believers to influence all spheres of society. During this week our speaker also invited us to ask God what cause/issue does God wants us to fix/heal with Him. As a result, we regularly did exercises where we took time to listen to what breaks God’s heart and think of solutions with Him. This week we emphasised that prayer in response to God’s heartache is important, but so is our active action & response.
Evangelism - During this week we focused on helping our school improve their evangelism skills. Our speaker gave practical tips on how to approach strangers, how to share the gospel in different contexts and varying time constraints, and how to do it with/in reliance on God. During this week we also discussed the tissue box analogy. This comes from the idea that many of us do not know what to say when approaching someone, and because of this unknown, we are often too scared to try to approach someone. Using a tissue box, our speaker encouraged us to just try, explaining that sometimes we need to just speak and rely on God to give us the words in the moment and the idea that as we speak, the next words will come out, just like how in a tissue box. In a tissue box, you won’t necessarily see the next tissue until you pull out the top one. During this week we also did three whole days of evangelism, during which we saw people coming to the Lord, healings, and our school grow in their confidence to evangelise.
Outreach Preparation/Simulation - This was an enjoyable and essential week for our school. It was hands-on because our base worked together to simulate an outreach experience for our school. We had people in our base act and set up different scenarios so that we could see and disciple our school in their responses. We simulated the following scenarios: going through airport security and passport control in another nation, participating in children's ministry activities, eating unusual dishes at a host's house, engaging in street evangelism despite exhaustion, spending the night on the floor of a church, leading a church service, and facilitating a spontaneous Bible study. After this week our school felt so much more prepared and excited for the real outreach experience.
Fear of the Lord - Unfortunately, I was quite sick for this week, so I do not have many notes or comments from this week, but looking back at our school reviews, it was one of our school favourites. During this week our students grew in their understanding of a concept: what exactly is the fear of the Lord and what does it look like to live a life led by this reverence & awe of the Lord? In this week we discussed the idea of laying down privileges & preferences when following the Lord and that our walk with God will require sacrifice & surrender from us.
Missions/Radical Love - The last week we explored the life of Jesus & Paul in the New Testament to have a greater understanding of what it looks to live a lifestyle missions and what it looks like to radically obey Jesus’ great commandments to love God and to love others. We discussed all that Paul gave up in order to see the great commission obeyed in his life. We also spoke about the unreached people groups in the world and the growing church in these unreached areas. During this week our school grew in excitement to see the unreached reached and grew in their desire to also love the people in the nations they will be going to. [Mexico, Philippines & Brazil].
I understand that was quite lengthy, so I want to thank you for taking the time to read it if you did. I invite you to pause and think about how exciting it is that 17 & 18-year-olds are investing months of their lives to know God deeper and getting excited to respond to the call over their lives.
Impact On the Students:
Our lecture phase was quite special. We experienced so much of God’s goodness in this season, with so much unity, joy, and healing in the school. When we asked our students to share their overall experience of the lecture phase, many of the students answered that they would love to do it again and would highly recommend it to others. During our lecture phase, we saw the students grow so much in their relationship with the Lord. Many came in not believing in miracles, not knowing they could hear God’s voice, and struggling to believe God’s love toward them. By the end of the lecture phase, many of them were so sure of miracles such as healing that they were so excited to go pray for strangers during our evangelism times and whilst on outreach. Our school was finished with the lecture phase, so much more confident that they could hear God’s voice, and finished with a greater sensitivity & awareness of God’s love towards them.
Already at this time many of our students had made the decision to come back to do other second-level Bible schools where they would either spend three or nine months studying the Bible, including all the historical context behind each book in the Bible.
Another amazing testimony is that we also had many baptisms during our school this year. As you look at the photos below, take time to ask God to share with you the joy He experienced when watching these moments.
- BAPTISMS -
Moises’ Baptism:
Rachel’s Baptism:
Leonie’s Baptism
Outreach Location Reveal:
This year we had the privilege to send teams to the Philippines, Mexico & Brazil. Below is the video we used to reveal the outreach locations to our school and their reactions. It is so exciting to see their excitement to go make God known in the nations.
This Year’s Outreach Reveal Video
Outreach Reveal Reactions
Outreach Phase:
Meet the Outreach Team:
I want to begin by introducing you to Team Philippines!!!
Top Row: Elias (USA), Warren (USA), Sanne (Netherlands), Simon (Germany), Laura (Germany), Tina (Germany).
Bottom Row: Renee (New Zealand/Australia), Lobke (Netherlands), Dineke (Netherlands), Me (Philippines/Canada), Olivia (USA).
What We Did on Outreach:
MANILA:
Manila was our first location, and we spent a total of two weeks there. While in Manila, we worked with the YWAM Ships staff team to do ministry with a local church called Shekinah Church, an orphanage, and a jail. When we weren’t partnering with a specific ministry, we also did street evangelism and handed out bibles.
This was our team's first exposure to how people lived in the slums. They had the opportunity to complain about how it was not enjoyable to do ministry there. But instead of complaining, our team was filled with so much compassion for the people living in the slums that we regularly visited them, took time to build relationships with them, and went to church with them. I was incredibly proud of our team. They regularly chose to have compassion on strangers. They also made the decision to no longer complain because they realised how privileged they were in their own home countries. Saying this is one thing, but doing it is a lot harder. To my amazement, no matter the tough or uncomfortable conditions, our team never complained.
During our time in Manila, our team learnt to choose compassion and gratitude and grew in their commitment to love and help those in need.
- Photos from our time in Manila -
BATAC:
Our second location was Batac, the town I was born in. We spent a total of two weeks in Batac doing street evangelism and working with the church my uncle attends. During this time we stayed at my aunt's house and got the opportunity to regularly share God’s love with my extended family and my aunt's co-workers. We also got to visit the place where my dad grew up, pray for the students at a local school, and help a pioneering church with funds to build new walls and replace their roof.
During this time our students grew in their understanding of what it means to live a lifestyle of missions as we made evangelism times less scheduled and more spontaneous. It was initially difficult for our team to get into the mindset of evangelism without a schedule, but by the end of our outreach, all our students expressed how they want to continue living this lifestyle out. In our school we teach that the missional lifestyle is a lifestyle of always being interruptible to God’s love for those around us. It is a lifestyle in which we regularly ask God the question, “Is there someone around me now that needs to be encouraged or reminded of your love?” while they go grocery shopping, go to the gym, or while at work/school.
- Photos from our time in Batac -
LAOAG:
Our third location was Laoag, just one hour north of my hometown, Batac. We spent a total of two weeks partnering with a pioneering YWAM base. While here, we did ministry with several churches, visited the local prison, and led several kids ministries & women's Bible studies. We also regularly did street evangelism during our time in Laoag.
During this time our students became more convinced of the impact and power of evangelism as we regularly met people who were so open to hearing more about God. We got to see many healings and also led people to the Lord during our time in Laoag. It was also the location where our students got to lead more ministries, so they grew a lot in their ability to preach/teach and facilitate Bible study times.
- Photos from our time in Laoag -
CEBU:
Cebu was our last location, and we spent a total of four weeks in this location. YWAM Cebu pioneered the base in Laoag. Therefore, much of our ministry in Cebu was similar to our last location in Laoag. Almost every day we did street evangelism or led a kids ministry/mother's Bible study. Once or twice a week we would go visit a local prison. During our time here, we saw a lot of growth in our students as they became bolder to approach strangers on the street and bolder in how they shared their faith.
Also during this time we regularly taught on the topic of hearing God’s voice and helped many people learn how to hear & recognise God’s voice more. It was our team's favourite location, and by the end of our time in this location, many people in our team expressed their desire to continue doing missions in their lives, whether that’s actually going out to other countries or going back to their own countries to help/lead ministries similar to the ones they led on outreach.
- Photos from our time in Cebu -
Overview of Impact:
During our time on outreach, our team spent a total of 35 days doing street evangelism, led 12 church services, led 20 kids ministries/services, led 5 prison services, did ministry in 2 orphanages, preached in public transportation 3 times, visited 6 courses, preached 30 times, gave 34 testimonies, and presented 28 skits.
During outreach we saw 14 people get healed, 34 people make the decision to follow and accept Jesus, prayed for 600+ people, distributed 100+ Bibles, and baptised Dineke.
These are other fun random stats during our time on outreach. As a team, we had so much fun together and had 56 different inside jokes that we kept saying on repeat. Drank 22.5 litres of sweat, which was our team's favourite electrolyte drink. Sanne was called 20 different names because her name was apparently hard to pronounce. I forgot that my student was allergic to mangos and offered it to him 12 times. And lastly, we got sunburnt every day.
Dineke’s Baptism:
Graduation:
This year we had the privilege to graduate 24 amazing students. This was genuinely an amazing school, which I grew so close to. It was sad to see them leave, but thankfully many of them are returning to our base to staff or do a second-level school or pioneer new ministries.
Overall, our school grew so much in their knowledge of the Lord and their identity in Christ. Those that aren’t returning to do missions with YWAM are continuing to do so in their own home countries. I am incredibly proud of how they are pursuing participation in their local church communities, seeking opportunities to serve, and willing to lead youth & young adult groups. They have really learnt how to live a lifestyle of missions.
I want to say thank you for giving me the privilege and opportunity to lead this school. It was an absolute joy to see so many young people fall more in love with God and fall more in love with those whom God loves. I have seen their love for studying God’s word, passion in worship, zeal for prayer, and compassion for the unreached grow so much. I really do believe that many of these students will continue to make a huge impact wherever they go and will continue to lead people to the Lord. Thank you for taking the time to sow into their lives with me; I am truly grateful.
So please enjoy the graduation photos below. When looking at these photos, I encourage you to pause with God, then listen to what He is saying about this school. My desire is for you to see them from God's perspective so that you can also share in the joy He was experiencing at their graduation.
Graduation Photos:
Whats Next?:
Over the coming months, I plan to continue learning Dutch so that I can pass my mandatory Dutch exams later this June. I will also be preparing/planning the upcoming school. This includes doing interviews, preparing content, planning speakers, and training my staff team.
This year we will be receiving four new staff from previous schools and some from other bases. It will be exciting to get to know them and grow our unity as a team.
Lastly, I will be visiting Canada in July after my exams; therefore, I hope to see and connect with you while I am there. I plan to be in Canada for around a month and I am so excited to see you all.
Prayer Requests:
I want to thank you so much for taking the time to read about what I have been doing the last few months. I know it was a lot to read and look at, but I hope that you were encouraged by the testimonies and learnt more about what I am doing here at YWAM Amsterdam. I am excited to continue pursuing the Lord and continue helping others deepen their relationship with God. This upcoming season will also be busy for me, so I would love it if you could join me in prayer for the following points. Thank you in advance for taking the time to pray over me and our school.
Prayer Points:
Pray for God’s wisdom on how to plan the next Discipleship Training School.
Pray for health over my staff team and I.
Pray for greater unity within my staff team.
Pray that our team would continue to fall more in love with God and grow in our fear/reverence of God.
Pray for favour to learn Dutch & pass my Dutch exams. [These exams are required by the Dutch government.]
Pray for a greater love for the upcoming students.
An Old Video of our Prayer Points While on Outreach:
I meant to share this earlier but got busy with the practical of leading the outreach and the school. But I thought it was too funny to not share.
THANK YOU FOR WATCHING, READING & PRAYING!!!!!
I also look forward to seeing you all in July and some proper rest these coming weeks hahaha.
This is a funny photo that my team took of my sleeping on the ride back from Ministry.
