The Year Everything Changed
Since I was a kid, I knew the regular 9-5 lifestyle wasn’t for me. I wanted a life of adventure with God—I wanted to travel and make a deep, lasting impact on people’s lives.
In 2019, my birthday started with this one line: This year I am launching you to the nations. But I had no idea how I could go from my hometown to traveling the nations and spreading the kingdom of God.
Two weeks after my birthday, I went to a stadium event called The Send in Orlando, Florida. I heard about Youth With A Mission (YWAM) for the first time, and decided I wanted to live a passionate life devoted to missions.
But my thought, “this sounds exactly what I want to do” started to get overpowered by normal life. I was overwhelmed by what I “should” do—everyone’s expectations for me to work a 9-5 job.
“Have you ever heard of YWAM?”
A few weeks later, I met a Christian leader over dinner. Out of the blue he asked me, “Have you ever heard of a place called YWAM?” After that, things just seemed to keep falling into place—and I found myself in Kona, Hawai’i.
The best phrase I could use to define my Discipleship Training School (DTS) was “divine alignment”. During Training Phase in Kona (first three months), what God had planted in my heart began to rise to the surface, and I found so much clarity about my future and calling.
I’d spent so much time wandering outside of the purposes of God, but DTS was the ending to the wilderness season. I finally started the best chapter of my life!
From my Hometown—to the Nations
My DTS outreach (next three months) in Papua New Guinea was the most alive I’d ever felt. Right before I left, I realized the only thing that would hold me back was fear.
So on Day 1, I decided to do what scared me the most: street preaching.
As we arrived in the village, I decided to approach a group of five locals and begin to share the Gospel with them. In about 45 seconds, a group of five people became a crowd of 60, and the townspeople swarmed around to listen.
At that moment, I felt the presence and peace of God come over me like never before. All fear of public speaking left me, and I felt the Holy Spirit begin to direct what I was saying.
For the next three months, I didn’t experience fear of preaching the Gospel once. I saw God do things in me and through me that I had only dreamt about before.
My Discipleship Training School changed me forever!
