Viewing DTS...

Katrinaw1209's photostream on Flickr.

October Update

Hello All!

I’ve officially been in Wisconsin on the DTS course for 3 weeks! It has been such an amazing time already and I’ve learned so much about myself and about God. I cannot wait to see what He has in store for me and the rest of the students here in the next few months.

A Little about the base:

Although it is called YWAM Madison, we are actually 15 miles north of the city near Columbus. Our base is surrounded by cornfields and the nearest store is 10 minutes away. Currently, we do not have wifi on the base, so when we want to get in touch with anyone back home we have to drive to a café that has such. Due to not having a car, I am reliant on other drivers. It definitely teaches patience and communication!

My dorm room, Bhutan, is shared between myself and 12 other girls and the other 14 girls stay in Japan down the hall. The boys’ room is across the hall in China where all 11 of them stay. Our staff stays in various sections of the building along with the ones that have children. There are three little ones that are growing up out here and they are such a joy to have around.

Week 1: Learning about the Father Heart of God

The first week here was really tough. I had a lot of soul searching and drawing near to God that I had to do. With my past of struggling with anxiety at certain days I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to handle all the demands and living with 60 other people. God definitely reached out to me and after crying out to Him and breaking down, I believe Him and I have overcome this problem of mine. I am so thankful for the friends and staff members that He placed around me as they were so supportive and prayed with me every day.

Those first few days also had a lot of orientation about the base involved and ‘get to know you’ questions. The other students here are very open and everyone answers the questions (as some of them were deep ones!) so honestly. I feel like I’ve known the people here for so much longer than 3 weeks. We are also allowed to pick what church we want to attend every Sunday and my first place to worship was at Black Hawk’s downtown Madison location.

Week 2: Learning about coming to God with a

 Clean Conscience

The second week was where everything officially started. My day begins with a 5:45AM alarm and a 6AM work out. Generally, we are done around 6:45AM to hit the showers and prepare for the day ahead. Breakfast is 7:15-7:45 with quiet time (individual devotions) until 8:45AM. Live worship performed by various students till 9:30AM and class until 1:00/1:30PM. After class we have community responsibilities, or chores, and on different days we have another class session or outings etc. Then it’s dinner time, I do my chore, which is dinner clean up, and we have focus nights or electives afterwards. The day usually goes until 8PM then I have more free time. This Sunday’s choice was Black Hawk Downtown followed by a trip to the laundry mat and a place to use wifi.

Week 3:

Such an exciting week! Survivor camping happened! This involved driving 4 hours north to YWAM’s Northwoods location and navigating to where our backpacks were and going through ‘customs’. The staff were recreating what it would be like to go to a communist country. They were of course, still our staff, so we did experience the harshness, but when it comes down to it, they really do care for us. After getting our rations of dried beans and a bit of rice we had to then jog/run to our camp and set up our tarp tent. Four hours of capture the flag later it was back to our camp to get ready for sleep. We were woken up at 4AM after getting to bed at 1AM by a ‘night raid’. We then had to lie out in the woods to stay away from the government for an hour and half. It was back to sleep for a few hours after that and an attempt to make breakfast in the morning. Our alarm went off before we had chance to cook food though….so at this point we’ve gone since the night before with no food. We spent the rest of the day doing different games and growing closer together as a school. It was also so eye opening to have this experience and gain a little insight into how others have such persecution to deal with every day.