When I came to YWAM Mazatlan to do my YWAM DTS I was honestly kind of scared. I was a kid who wasn't living the greatest lifestyle. All I knew about YWAM was what they had told me in the 5 days I was on the base doing a missions trip with Homes of Hope. I felt like a turtle without a shell; as if when I walked through the door everyone was going to see me the way that I saw myself when I looked in the mirror. I saw a kid who was a disappointment. I was constantly afraid that the next time someone in authority talked to me, it was going to be the time that I got caught in my sin. I was miserable and I felt abandoned. However, God broke through to me on that missions trip; and somehow that kid signed up to do DTS (Thanks Jesus).
So let's skip forward a bit to about a month before the DTS. I started thinking, (I do that way too much) and I convinced myself that since I was kind of going in blind and didn't even know if I really wanted to leave the comfort of The USA for 5 months to pursue a God I was unsure of. I was so convinced that the staff were going to be these perfect, holy people who never struggled with anything. I figured that my fellow students were probably just below them and I was going to be this sort of devil stepping into a world of angels; but somehow despite all of that. I came. I put on a mask and decided that I wasn't going to take it off. I was going to be as perfect as everyone around me.
God has this thing that he does though, it's where he spots you hiding in the darkness and he illuminates it and he offers you a way out, (John 1:5). That's what he did for me. He showed me that even though I wasn't perfect it was okay because Jesus was. He showed me that even though the wages of sin is death he gave me a free gift of life through Jesus (Romans 6:23). He changed me, not because I feared his punishment; but because I couldn't belive how beautiful his sacrifice and love for me was.
So are you ready for DTS? Yeah, I promise you are. No matter where you are at. No matter what you've done It's okay. God is crying out for you. I promise you that no matter how bad you feel about the things that you have done, it's not too much for you too make a huge impact for Christ, just ask Timothy, (1 Timothy 1:15)
We're not perfect. We're a bunch of people doing our best to know God and make Him known. We're always growing and we want you join us, let's grow together.
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