Join us every week through November as we check in on Kim Hart, a young woman from England doing her five-month Discipleship Training School (DTS) at the Youth With A Mission training center in Harpenden, England. Kim tells us about what she’s learning, what it’s like to live in a community with other young Christian missionaries-in-training, and how God is changing her. We’ll travel with Kim and her classmates as they occasionally hit the road during their DTS lecture phase, and then go abroad with them as they take what they’ve learned to another nation to serve the people there. Editor, YWAM International Communications Network.

Friends,

Thank you for travelling with me on this five-month ‘blog-journey’ of my Discipleship Training School. This week we’re exactly half way through the lecture phase, which is exciting and a little sad all at the same time. It feels in some ways like the last seven weeks have flown by and in others ways like I have been here forever! I’m excited to see what challenges and opportunities are up ahead.

At the end of last week and over the weekend we finished the Re-engage program in style. We had a visit from Lord Michael Hastings who brought with him the honors he received from the Queen, and the following evening we had a session with Dr. Charles Warren, who is Prince Williams’s lecturer at St. Andrews College. He discussed the topic of global climate change. Rachel Davis, from CARE, taught on the subject of human trafficking which greatly impacted me. She revealed the depth of the deception that is involved when traffickers take young women from their hometowns and cities and entangle them in a life of prostitution or forced labor… leaving them vulnerable, trapped, and without hope. Rachel believes that as followers of Jesus we can make a difference in the lives of people enslaved by trafficking, and like her I envision a future where the trade no longer exists. Until that day comes, we were encouraged to do what we can to speak up for the voiceless and oppressed. God has strengthened my resolve to see justice done in this arena in my lifetime.

Saturday night was another wonderful evening together as we dressed up in our “fancy dress” (which for me meant a costume but for most other people meant “smart clothing”) and enjoyed what’s called a “Love Feast” together. We then danced the night away, which is becoming somewhat of a habit with my DTS classmates.

This week we’re back in the classroom together studying “Destiny by Design”, that is, understanding who God says we are and then walking into the destiny He has for us. Brooke Passehl is teaching this week and she is an awesome communicator. She radiates passion to see people living in the fullness of God and in what they were created to do. The teaching is intense but very freeing and I am already experiencing the benefit of knowing what God says about me and valuing it more than anything or anyone else in my life.

This week we are looking ahead to what will be an exciting two weeks of outreach in England. On Saturday we are travelling to Liverpool to stay onboard the Next Wave, a YWAM ship that is currently docked there. We’ll join with their crew and do some outreach at a music festival over the long holiday weekend here. We’ve heard that conditions on board the ship may be a little more cramped than we’ve been used to but I think it will make for some great stories. On Wednesday, we’ll return to the YWAM Harpenden training center to refuel for an evening, and then we’re off to neighboring Bedford to serve at an adventure camp for teenagers for one week (oh, the hardship!).

So, we have a busy two weeks ahead. I look forward to sharing stories of our first road trip - seasickness and all. See you after Week 8!

Kim