Despite all the processing and debrief time I’ve had overtime, I don’t think I can even begin to know or understand everything that God taught me and my team in Africa. All I can confidently say right now is that I am not the Lauren I was before I left for outreach. Outreach was incredibly difficult for many reasons, the typical reasons one might experience – cultural differences, jet lag, living and working side by side with people, etc., but my team also experienced a lot of unique challenges. Despite it all, we found and lived out the inexpressible joy Peter talks about. Here is a small snapshot of what my outreach was like and the ways God grew and transformed me.

Week 1: When we arrived we began working at a home for orphans and vulnerable children. We did skits, gave testimonies, shared messages, played games, and worshipped with the teens there as they were on break from school. I know for a fact I learned more from the kids in those four days than we were able to teach them. I was blown away by their knowledge and understanding of God and who He is and learned that laughter and joy had no language barrier. 

Week 2:  We went to a village where we built a house for a woman and her family. Because I got food poisoning I had to stay back. I decided to pray for my team while I was sick and God spoke so clearly to me that day. I remember feeling so grateful I was able to hear from God for the first time in what felt like years. 

Week 3: It was an intense week with lots to do. Door to door in the morning, open air with testimonies, messages, worship, and skits in the afternoon, and Jesus Film in the evenings. This week I learned to surrender all expectations and I realized how much I have to rely on God and His strength and not my own. This week was incredibly difficult, but so much fruit came from it in so many ways. We saw people give their lives to Christ, we saw people healed, and we were able to give a woman a Bible who had been praying for one for 3 months.

And I was able to share my story on how God healed me and delivered me from mental illness, and the forgiveness I received from Him. It meant so much that I was able to share my story with people! My prayer and desire for my story to mean something outside of an AA meeting was answered that week. I was able to see God’s faithfulness in my own life not only in the past, but as it unfolded. 

Week 4: We were at our house due to sickness, so we worshipped and prayed as a team and painted out our prayers. God taught me what it meant to have discipline when it came to my faith, and what it meant to choose Him in every moment. I spent an entire day probably praying for my classmates and getting different verses for them. 

Week 5: I met a woman who was a believer, and her prayer request for us was for her to receive a burden to pray more and that blew me away. The peoples’ hunger and desire for a deeper relationship with God and their love for Jesus inspired me endlessly. We were able to see people come to Jesus, give them Bibles, and we were blessed enough to see three of them come to church that Sunday! I was, and still am, in awe of how God is moving in this village, and my whole team saw the church being a light that would spread into the rest of the village, the region, and into the nation.

Week 6:  We worked with a soccer ministry doing various tasks. We fertilized the soccer field, dug up some of the damaged stands, prayed over the boys and the field and the future of the ministry, taught English, shared devotionals, and played/watched soccer practice. Seeing the physical fruits of our labor and being able to work with a long term ministry focused on discipleship was such a blessing! But maybe the highlight of it all was being able to share my testimony on what was my 500th day sober. God’s timing is just really cool!

Week 7: I was asked to give the message and I spoke on God’s faithfulness. I talked about how faithful He was to my team during our struggles on outreach, and how faithful He is to keep the promises He has for the church. Being literally half way across the world teaching to, as well as learning from my brothers and sisters in Christ, is truly an experience I pray I never forget.

Week 8: It could not have been a better way to end outreach. We worked with the soccer ministry again, with my favorite part being making up little parables about different Biblical principles to share with the boys at practice. We also got to teach some of the students about the Father Heart of God!

I hope I never forget the friends I made or the experiences I had. I am so beyond grateful for every single bit of my time in Tanzania. I was so blessed by my team and every single person I met while I was there. God taught me so much and I grew so much. I am so much more confident in who God is and who I am in Him. I finally have a faith that is my own. It’s one based in truth, and it finally won’t falter when the Earth gives way. 

My time in DTS may be over but I don’t believe my time in YWAM is. And I know for a fact that no matter what happens God is not done with me yet. And He’s not done with you reading this, or my classmates, or Tanzania. He’s not done until every knee bows and confesses that He is Lord. And it is a deep honor that we get to be a part of that.

Written by Lauren Leaseburg

I think DTS students can all agree that one of the most exciting parts of a DTS is finding out where we are going on outreach, and learning about the ministry we will be doing there. For me, that would be more of an understatement. Going on outreach and serving the people overseas was something I’d been wanting to do for a long time.

Early on into my DTS, God laid it on my heart to go to Ethiopia for the two month outreach. At first, I was a bit confused because Ethiopia would have never been on my radar. I would have wanted to stick with something more comfortable, more familiar. I would’ve wanted to go somewhere I had been before. I think it is safe to say though God had different plans for me. He had plans that turned my entire life upside down and challenged me in ways I couldn’t comprehend.

Looking back, now that it’s over, the way I was challenged created so many stories and lessons from God that were so beneficial for my growth. One example of that growth came from understanding the greatest commandment Christians could ever live- unconditionally loving one another just as Jesus would.

Although I could choose from many lessons and situations that God taught me, I will just share one right now. In this situation God taught me very early on into our trip to remember why we were there in the first place. A theme that we seemed to carry throughout our ministry and interactions with the locals was to be kind to everyone you encounter, and to love like Jesus.

One specific example occurred in our first week in Ethiopia. Everyone’s spirits seemed to be pretty low as our ministry plans ended up changing throughout the week and we were in a place where we needed to create a new ministry plan. As we kept praying, we decided to do a prayer walk around the area and to hand out candy to families.

It was pitch black at night, with only the street lights shining brightly enough to cast a light onto the gray cobblestone that paved the streets of Korah. I was pretty skeptical about going out and giving out candy. I had heard stories from locals that it can cause massive fights, and that it can ultimately do more harm than it does good. But still, I was willing to try.

We are about thirty minutes into our prayer walk when we find a little boy sitting outside the compound gate on a piece of cardboard. I looked up at him and I saw a very familiar face. I saw a face of hopelessness and fear, as though he had lost everything and had nothing to rejoice over. He looked very disheveled – dust all over his face, holes in his jeans, and no shoes with him in sight.

I look over to one of my teammates to see her pulling out a bag of Carmela, the Amharic word for “candy”, out of her brown backpack. She then walked up and offered the candy to him. His expression when he saw that piece of candy was the most heartwarming feeling ever, so full of joy and happiness over such a small act of kindness.

That day God reminded me of two verses: Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light for my path,” and Matthew 5:15-16 “Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

These two verses made me think of how the street lights were shining through the shadows to reveal us, just the same as when we spread joy and show kindness, we illuminate and give a glimpse of Jesus’ character shining through us. It’s amazing how the simplest acts of generosity and love can actually shine so bright!

Written by Hailey Arraf

The road that leads to Twin Lakes is a long and winding mountain pass. Escalade, the car we are using to go up the mountain, slowly gains in altitude as she pulls her six, increasingly anxious passengers to ever more dizzying heights. What once seemed like massive pines, Goliaths among trees, have now blended into a single mass; a swirling sea of green that even Van Gogh could never replicate. The road is narrow, and our creaking vehicle lumbers on like a drunken tightrope walker. Matt, at the wheel, moves forward as if Philippians 1:21 is his favorite Bible verse. I glance behind me. The mood shifts from Matt’s invincible nature, to concern in the middle seats, to a deep terror in the back. The music shifts to the chorus coming out of the car radio.

“Country Roads, Take me Home!

To the place, I belong!”

Eva and Fleur have their fists clenched, heads down, white-knuckled. I can’t help but smile at the irony in John Denver’s lyrics as we are all fervently praying that this road will not take us Home just yet!

God did indeed still have plans for us, however, because at the end of that pass lay life, not death. Twin lakes, a small plateau holding pools of still, crystal water, acts as a refuge amongst the mighty peaks of Larabee and Tomyhoi. As we step out of Escalade, our laughter dies away as we are filled with wonder at the peaceful scene- and by the cold as well! The temperature had dropped a whole 30 degrees. No, we are not prepared for this!

As I’m tying my hammock to a tree, my mind drifts into thoughts about the last few weeks of lecture. If I’m being honest, I’m tired. I’m exhausted by the weight of the need I feel to discern every possible aspect of what I’m taught, filtering out Truth, falsehood, and the things in which I need to seek out answers. Weighing more heavily than anything else is what it means to hear God’s voice. Am I living under His Word, or am I living my Christian life under the shadow of his silence? Am I missing something? As I’m thinking all of this, my classmate Andy walks up out of the fog. He ends up teaching me how to tie a Sheet Bend knot for my hammock and we continue on with our silence and solitude.

After awhile it starts raining. What started as a slow drizzle becomes heavy sheets of bone-chilling water. But, high up in the clouds, in a tent, sit six friends around a lantern. Six friends brought together by their pursuit of God’s voice playing a game of Hearts in a world that God breathed into existence. Roars of laughter break into the night as Eva wins yet another trio of hearts. I’m suddenly struck by the beauty of fellowship. My friends and I would be walking side by side for some time yet. Our growth would be defined by challenging one another, by listening to one another, by telling each other to “Come and see.“ The Lord walks with us faithfully, and thankfully we don’t need to always walk with Him on our own. He sends us people to walk with us on the journey.

Yet nothing lasts forever, as they say. I know that as time moves forward, so will our lives. As DTS winds down to its end, the distance between us would multiply. We would be separated by oceans and borders, by our experiences and the Lord’s will for our lives. Yet in this sadness, I’m reminded of the mountains of the eternal creator. “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8) In the shadow of his wings I see a world where no good ever fades, where friendships are renewed, and where the light of God chases away all evil and darkness.

In the shadows of the mountains, I believe the Lord speaks to me.

“I’m with you.” 

Lord, when you will it, do take me Home. To the place, I belong.

Written by Jack Billington