What are you doing this fall? I have a suggestion for you, that is if you want to see your life changed for ever and be used to touch the lives of the poor and oppressed, both in North America and Northern Thailand. My friends up in Winnipeg Canada are running a YWAM Justice Discipleship Training School (JDTS). It is a five month intensive in spiritual and missional formation. Here is what Kim and Jamie, the YWAM leaders up there have to say about it.
“One of the aspects of my life that I am most passionate about is seeing people get the chance to experience Christ in new and transformational ways, participating in His mission alongside a tight-knit community of fellow Jesus followers. Few things embody this experience better than our annual Justice Discipleship Training School (JDTS). Having worked with YWAM for more than 17 years, I am more convinced than ever that his program is the “genuine article”.
“What does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” -Micah 6:8
Our JDTS is a five month intensive in spiritual and missional formation. The first three months concentrates on engaging students in a holistic discipleship experience that challenges the mind, heart and body in a praxis oriented program. Offered in the heart of Winnipeg’s inner city West End, students will integrate in one of the city’s most culturally diverse, yet poor neighborhoods. Our emphasis on justice means that as part of the community, students will engage the realities of poverty, injustice, racism and much more, all the while having the opportunity to respond in exciting new ways.
With a strong emphasis on hands on training, every fourth week of the lecture phase will be an intensive local outreach where students will get to be involved in grass-roots urban/justice ministries in the city. This will allow students to experience and engage the realities of urban missions during the training phase, making the most of what they are learning.
After a short Christmas break, the students return for the outreach & service phase of the school. This phase is an international, cross-cultural missions service outreach, where students will begin to explore the implication of what they have learned beyond simple application. Again with an emphasis on justice, students will participate in “preaching the Gospel” with their whole selves – in word and deed. Our first school served in restoring the tsunami devastated community of the famous Phi Phi Island in southern Thailand, while two other schools served in Uganda. Our most recent schools served among displaced people in Chiang Mai, Thailand and Tijuana, Mexico.
The upcoming 2011 JDTS will travel to northern Thailand for their international outreach, working among the migrant community and tribal groups living along the Thai-Burmese border, who are among the poorest and highest at-risk people groups of Thailand.
I have known my friends up in Winnipeg for many years and I endorse this school with no hesitancy. I have also had the opportunity to teach on this school, and it has been a growing, refreshing and learning time. This community really loves each other, and those around them. If you are looking for a change, or something that will change you I urge you to check out YWAM Winnipeg’s Justice DTS.
Justice Discipleship Training School
September 26th 2011- February 24th 2012
(includes Christmas break)
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