What is DTS?

Greetings from Kona, Hawaii! It’s been awhile since I have posted a blog, so I am going to give all of those who read this blog a simple run down of what a DTS (Discipleship Training School) is, what we do and what our goal for DTS students is. A DTS is the flagship school of Youth With a Mission (YWAM). If anyone would like to be part of YWAM long term they are required to take a DTS before they can work with the mission. This may sound a little weird to some, but it is done this way so everyone who works with YWAM will be on the same page as far as beliefs and values go. DTS is a school that lasts six months. It consists of three months of lecture on topics such as the character and nature of God, hearing God's voice, and spiritual warfare, etc...; the next three months are spent on a field assignment (outreach). This is the application portion of the school where students put into practice all they have learned and seek out the lost so they can disciple them. As a staff, my role in the school is directly for the students, I take part in discipling a group of men for the lecture phase, having one on ones with them, where I take time with them and process what is going on in their lives at the current point in time. I am also blessed with the opportunity to lead an outreach team for the field assignment phase of the school.

What do we do in DTS? I have given a short summary above but I would like to dive deeper into this topic. Most people who come to DTS are either young in the Lord or sometimes they do not know the Lord yet. What we try to do through a DTS is lead people into a correct perspective of God and what his will and purpose is for their life. We do this through the teachings during the lecture phase and through the application of the teaching during the outreach portion. The school lectures are a time where speakers are brought in to teach specifically on a topic they are educated on and point students toward the correct view of Jesus, The Holy Spirit and God the Father. We see a lot of change in people during these teaching times, especially during the teaching on the Father Heart of God. During the lecture phase we have worship a few mornings a week and prayer (intercession) on the other mornings. After class students have work duties for a couple of hours and/or they have small groups or one on ones with staff. The small groups and one on ones are built into the schedule as a processing time for the students so they can talk about the lectures and anything that has arisen in their hearts concerning the topic. This is the basic layout of a DTS lecture phase, along with different odds and ends added in over the course of the three months.

I'll group the goal of DTS and what a field assignment is into this last paragraph. The field assignment of a DTS is a three month trip to a different location from the lecture phase. During this time students are going out from the base so they can put into practice what they have learned during the DTS. Sharing with others the love of Jesus and bringing others into the same revelations of God as they received during the lecture portion of DTS. It is really a time for the students to step out into their callings and to advance the Kingdom of God through showing the love of Jesus Christ; which leads me into the goal of DTS. Our goal is to graduate students who can model the same thing they have been witnessing during the DTS. We want to create a reproducible model of discipleship so that when students go home or when they go onto something else in missions they have a model to base what they do from. Our goal is not to fix people so they are all better, but to get people more intimate with their Father God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit, so they can continue to be sanctified even when they have left the DTS environment.

This is simply a short summary of what I am going to be doing for the next six months. If you would like to partner with me either in prayer or financially it would be an enormous blessing. You can contact me at Cbergus@gmail.com if you have any questions, would like to partner with me, or if you would like to know more about DTS. God Bless.