Another Student Shares about their Port-au-Prince DTS

Goodbye Lecture Phase! Hello Outreach!

Dear friends and supporters, we apologize for the fact that we have given you an update for so long. In the past three weeks, the intensity of DTS has really picked up as we prepare for outreach. In all the chaos, it’s been hard to even find a spare minute to summarize the weeks.

So here is a little tiny bit about the past tree weeks. Three weeks ago, we had Mike Brown and Jasen Chung come as a team to speak to our class. Our time with them was full of mind-blowing revelation of God’s love, life in Christ, and the church. They both brought such rich and powerful content. This week was possibly one of the most transformational weeks we experienced in the whole DTS.

The following week, we had the pleasure of having the director of one of the Carribean YWAMs come to our class. She has asked us not to mention her name for safety reasons in certain places she does ministry. She brought a strong message on surrender, dependence on God, and loving the lost. Her message was incredibly effective because it was clear that she truly lives what she believes. We could see this because she told powerful stories from her own life.

This past week was our last week of lecture phase. We didn’t have a speaker, but we were working very hard preparing for outreach with dramas, dances and lots of team time. Also, staff taught on topics like expectations for outreach, team unity, and the importance gratitude.

As lecture phase comes to a close this week, we look back on this past three months in absolute amazement. We are all truly grateful and blown away by all that God has done here. After all the powerful things that have happened during lecture phase, we have great expectations for what God is going to do on outreach. Needless to say, we are so excited to head out on this new adventure and season.

So please be praying for us  as we head out on outreach. Here are some things you can pray for

Pray for each of our teams as we head out to Jamaica, Benin, Brazil, Haiti, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. Pray that God would use us to transform these nations.

Pray that people’s hearts would be open to the gospel in every place we go, and that God would do miracles and move in powerful ways. Pray for unity, love, and a lifestyle of gratitude.

Thank you for all your support and prayers these past three months. It means the world to us, and we really have seen miracles because of it. If we’ve only learned one thing from these past three months, we’ve definitely learned that God answers prayers in big ways.

Much love from your DTS Fam Jam!

Big Z Shares about Outreach

This week we received the exciting news that all our students will go on outreach. God has been so faithful as our students have learned what it really means for them to do the possible and Him to do the impossible.

A School Full of World Changers

One of our students, Eleah Warchal wrote this to fund raise for our school. After reading this I think this is what we would all like to say if we could say it.

Life here in Haiti is beautiful. I live in a house with 80 people, half of whom have lived in this country all their lives. They’ve been through more than I can imagine, each and every one of them. These are the strongest women and some of the bravest men that I have ever met. They’ve lost family members and friends in an earthquake, from cholera, murder, starvation, disease, and flooding. They have not let their circumstances define them.

And they’re not going to let circumstances define their nation. 

These men and women, from age 17 to 51, are the next leaders of Haiti. I’ve lived, loved, eaten, studied, ministered, traveled, laughed, and cried with them. I’m learning their language and their culture, and they’re giving me grace for my failed attempts. [ahahaa]

Some of these students come from rather well off families [by Haitian standards] , and some of them are from the biggest slum in the western hemisphere, Cite Soleil. Some of them used to be involved in voodoo. They come from so many different paths, and they’re headed to so many different places.

Blackberry, a 17 year old son of a pastor, sings like no one’s business, and 21 year old Santia’s voice brings goosebumps to the whole classroom. 20 year old Berline speaks English practically perfectly, and 22 year old Derose has one of the biggest servant’s hearts of anyone I’ve ever met. Fabienne, from the town of Cap Haitenne, came to our school after some of our staff found her passing out tracts with her sister in law. Her family was strongly involved in voodoo, and did not fully support her coming to our school. D’Joudy is gifted with immense authority when it comes to teaching and speaking, and all of us agree God is going to use her powerfully. Rony, proud father of two beautiful children, is attending our Discipleship Training School with his wife, and has huge plans for working with family ministry. 51 year old Solnher has a huge passion to preach the gospel and can go hours without stopping. Vanessa has the most gentle spirit and is giving half of our school pedicures to raise money to go on her outreach trip.

The Haitian women especially, bring so much to our family here. Haitian women are not valued, they’re not told that they have anything to offer the world. They’re not encouraged to walk out in the areas that they’re gifted in or told that they can go far. Here, they’re finding out just how powerful they are. They’re finding that they have something to offer the world and God. They’re finding how God is going to use them to heal and redeem this beautiful and broken country.

All of us are finding things here. We’ve found God, in a way that we’ve never found Him before. We’ve found healing, and we’ve found hope. We’ve found strength and courage. We’ve found callings and dreams. And now we want to take what we’ve found and take it to the nations.

Taking what we’ve received to the nations is the biggest part of our school here. We’re sending teams to Jamaica, Brazil, all over Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Africa. This Africa team is one of the ones we’re most excited about. Haitian slaves were taken from Benin, West African, so virtually all Haitians have African DNA. With their DNA comes voodoo. Benin is the cradle of voodoo, and Youth With A Mission has been trying for years to get Haitians to Benin to fight against the darkness and evil that ties Haiti to the religion that has done so much to destroy their country. And this year, we’re doing it. Actually, God is doing it, and we’re humbly and excitedly standing by. We believe so strongly in the need to get Haitian students to Africa that this past week we had not one or two, but FIVE foreign students give up their tickets and they money they had raised to go to Africa to support Haitians students going there. Now these five will be staying in Haiti for their outreach, enabling our Haitian brothers and sisters to return to their ancestor’s country. Their generosity and selflessness was such a powerful thing to witness. That’s how much we believe in what these Haitian men and women are doing. We need you to believe in them too.

Together, for all of our teams, we need over $100,000 to get all of our students to the locations God has called them. That’s not a small amount of money. None of us have anywhere near that much money, and most of us don’t know where our money for our outreaches is coming from. The Haitian students especially: in Haiti, the average annual wage is $300. The cost for our outreaches range from $1200- $3500.

That’s why I’m writing this to you today. To ask if you’ll consider helping to sponsor one of our Hatian students. I believe so much in each of these girls and boys, men and women. I get goosebumps thinking about where God is going to take them. Would you like to be a part of shaping their lives? Would you consider financially and absolutely prayerfully supporting one of them? There are photos and names of each one of our students on our school blog, portauprincedts.wordpress.com, if you want to support a specific student. Or, if you want simply to support our school outreaches in general, that is incredible too.

Please do let us know if you’re willing to consider supporting our school in this! It would honestly mean the world, and it will have an impact beyond what you can imagine. These aren’t just your average joe students- they are the future of this nation that I’ve fallen in love with.

Thanks for reading, and God bless you! If you can’t support us financially, just pass this on. If you have any rich relatives or fairy godmothers or billionaires looking for an incredible cause to support, please send this on to them, too.

Sending Immense Faith from the Caribbean,
The DTS FamJam

Week Seven: Doing Battle

This past week, we had the pleasure of joining once again with our sister base in St. Marc. Terry Snow, our YWAM Haiti national director, came to share with us. Terry has lived in Haiti for 25 years, and as a result has great authority here. He spoke about spiritual warfare, and as he shared examples from his life, we got a fresh understanding of what spiritual warfare means for each of us in our day-to-day lives. We also discovered that obedience and dying to ourselves is key to spiritual warfare.

Because he’s lived here for longer than most of us students have been alive, Terry has played a part in much of this country’s history. He told stories about wars and political corruption that he found himself in the midst of, and as he did, we realized that spiritual warfare influenced every part of his story.  Terry said that spiritual warfare is “the struggle to gain influence over men and their choices.” This made us understand that spiritual warfare isn’t something that only falls under the categories of angels and demons, but it affects every part of our lives as well.

After Terry talked about the way spiritual warfare affects our lives, he explained that in order to engage in this fight we must be obedient. When we obey God, we take spiritual ground and break strongholds. When we disobey, we give ground to Satan, and things can go very wrong.  Terry shared specific examples from his life, where instant obedience was crucial (no matter how crazy the action the Lord was asking him to take). If he hadn’t obeyed, his life could look drastically different. In one situation, disobedience could have cost him his life.

We also learned about counting the cost in spiritual warfare. If we are obedient to God and take spiritual ground, Satan will try to hurt us even more. We have to be willing to sacrifice and even be persecuted. We have to really die to ourselves and give everything to God.

All of Terry’s amazing stories opened our eyes wider than they’ve been before. We can now see that spiritual warfare is a daily event that we have to participate in. We learned that spiritual warfare is something that affects all of life, but we don’t only fight by breaking off spirits. The best way for us to fight is in simple, daily acts of obedience.

Love from BelVille,
The DTS FamJam

When Emily Didn’t Visit

Praise God, Tropical Storm Emily stalled over the Dominican Republic and never reached our side of the island!

After planning, relocating things in the house in case of flooding, making sure the tent city down the street was prepared for the potential storm, and making sure we all knew what to do if we got hit hard, we saw a miracle!

Emily never came!

God is truly merciful. Had Emily hit Port, our neighbors still living in tents would have been devastated.  Instead of spending our weekend helping to clean up what would have been a giant watery mess, we were able to spend time in Montrouis finishing one of the tanks we started on mini-outreach, going home with our Haitian students for the weekend, and enjoying gorgeous sunshine all weekend long.

Keep praying for safety and mercy over the island as hurricane season continues!

Love from (dry) Port-au-Prince,
The DTS FamJam

Tropical Storm Emily

We just want to let all of our friends and family across the globe know that as Tropical Storm Emily nears our island, we are completely and absolutely safe here in BelVille.
We have stocked up on water, food, and gas and will be laying low for the next few days as we are expecting several inches of rain and high winds with Emily’s arrival.

Please don’t be alarmed if you don’t hear from us for a few days. With the possibility of heavy rain and storms, our internet may be down for a few days. Know that we are one-hundred percent safe and our house is very much at peace right now.

More than anything, be praying for our friends and neighbors still living in tents. They have little resources and few options for alternative shelter. These rains and storms could very much destroy everything they have. As you are thinking about us, please be remembering our friends who don’t have the luxury of a safe home to tough out the storm in.

Love from the Island,
The DTS FamJam