My journey with YWAM
YWAM - Youth with a Mission
Youth With A Mission is a international missionary organization, that was founded 1960 and belongs to the charismatic movement. It works with about 20.000 full time volunteers worldwide with the theme "know God and make him known" in over 180 countries on more then 1.100 campuses. The main focus is to send out people into short and long term missions. The works of YWA can be devided into the three areas of evangelizing, training and mercy ministries. Worldwide YWAM offers seminars and schools for any interests. To start with YWAM you have to absolve a DTS. Within the University of Nations (UofN) you can also achieve degrees like Bachelors and Masters.
DTS - Discipleship Training School
A DTS is a 5 months discipleship training school to grow in your relationship with God. You have the opportunity to explore your talents and gifts and to use them to glorify God. Learn how to use your talents to be a light in the dark.
A DTS consists of 3 months lecture phase at base of your choice and 2 months outreach phase in a different country. There you can apply everything you just learned.
Every base offers different focuses just as dancing, hiking, photography, bible and so on.
I did my DTS in San Pedro, Belize, with the emphasize on leadership and diving. Our outreach brought us to Indonesia. We went to different islands like Bali and Kalimantan (Borneo) and we spend a lot of time in the slums, in mountain villages and orphanages.
BCC - Bible Core Course
BCC is like many other courses and seminars a second level school. It can only be done if you did a DTS. In this seminar you read God's word, study it deeply and bring it to life. Its focus is to read and understand the texts in the historical context of the countries, where they were written.
During the 3 months of school we were able to visit and explore these countries. Our 6 weeks journey of the formation of the bible brought us from Lausanne (base) through Italy, Greece and Turkey to Egypt and Israel.