From January 11th through May 27th of next year I have the opportunity to take part in Youth With A Mission (YWAM), one of the largest missions organizations in the world. There are currently over 15,000 full time YWAM members serving in over 160 nations, but through much prayer I have decided to begin my adventure at Destination Paradise, a discipleship training school (DTS) in San Pedro, Belize.There are three different phases that I will be completing within the program over a span of 5 months. The first 12 weeks will be the lecture phase where we learn about global ministry from first class speakers that come to the base in person; challenging us to grow in our leadership roles and our relationships with God and helping us develop our SCUBA diving skills. The outreach phase spans over the next 8 weeks, where we put the principles and learning gained during the lecture phase into practice through means of a long-term mission trip. I have chosen to do an international outreach which means that I will be doing mission work outside of Belize. The final 16 weeks are the internship phase where I will journey back to Bellingham and intern for The Firs for my third summer and apply my new skills. YWAM will be an exciting, intensive, and challenging way to exponentially grow in my faith and get ready to put my talents and passion to work for the Lord. The programs are tough, for it is both a school of the head and a school of the heart, but I am excited to put myself outside of my comfort zone and to put the verse in Matthew 28 in motion and "go and make disciples of all nations."
