June 10 2015
Many of you have probably read our previous blogs posted while our last DTS was on outreach in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. We shared testimony after testimony of God’s goodness as His Word and His love encountered the peoples of these countries. However, we now want to share a few testimonies of how this time impacted the lives of our students who saw these stories unfold first hand. We love the way that God uses us and trusts us to impact the nations, and we recognize that He is faithful to use these experiences to grow and impact us as well in the process! We are blessed that many of these young people have now chosen to come back and join staff to help disciple students in Training Schools to come! Here are their testimonies:
“God broke the stronghold of fear in my life during DTS. God really removed my fear of man as I stepped out to do evangelism in Redding and the Middle East. Now I can say I care more about what God thinks than what people think of me. My love for God grew so much that it became so worth being uncomfortable to follow God and be obedient, regardless of what others might think. I have gotten to the point where I would rather make God happy than be comfortable and happy myself.”
-Elise
“Before coming to YWAM Redding I struggled with a lot of fear and a false perception of myself and the role that I have to play as a woman. During my time here God broke off the feeling that a women’s place in missions is to be a homemaker while only the husband goes out. God completely restored my view of what I can do in Jesus. As a woman I can follow after Him in just the same ways that a man can. I really regained my voice here at YWAM Redding, and I now know that my long term calling is to go out on the streets and share the gospel!”
-Meghan
“During my time in DTS I learned that my identity is rooted in how Christ sees me, and not in the lies other people put on me. I began to not only see the truth of who I am, but also get a more accurate lens of who God is in His character and nature, which freed me even more from the walls and negative baggage I had carried for so long. I received so much inner healing from my past; I could now breathe and feel the love of God that was always there, and walk in his FREEDOM! During our outreach time, God began to strengthen me, and give me more boldness to speak about him. My fears began to fade more and more. It was a time of building more faith for the impossible!”
-Susanna
“When I came to DTS I was actually so ready just to get on with outreach that I actually thought immediately beyond the first 12 weeks of lecture phase because I felt as though whatever I would hear I had most likely already heard. But man oh man was I so wrong. So much healing and character refinement “purification” took place in my life and heart in just 12 short weeks and it prepped me for outreach. Going after the power aspect of evangelism when Paul speaks about, “My message and preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration with the Spirit’s power.” was never a foreign concept in my walk with Jesus, that stuff was just super normal to my experience with Him from the beginning. On the field during outreach a man told me he had tennis elbow and knee problems so I started by placing a hand on his knee and praying for it. I stood up and asked how it was and he said it wasn’t better at all. I responded by saying I would pray again and then Holy Spirit told me to ask him to check his elbow. His face was perplexed and asked me if I healed it and I told him Jesus is here and touched it so yeah it’s healed. He checked it and all the pain was completely gone and it was healed. He started shaking his head in disbelief and laughing out loud and then I told him to check his knee which was also completely healed the second after he tried it out! Come on Jesus! Lesson to be learned here, that Jesus also taught me, is that power doesn’t need a translation. Holy Spirit doesn’t need to be translated He is universal. He is always communicating the way He knows we, or in this case they, need!”
-Brandon