Thank you Jesus! We finished strong! Finished my Youth With A Mission's Discipleship Training School!
I can still remember it clearly. July 12, 2019. It was the day of our graduation in YWAM's Discipleship Training School!
So much has happened since that time to the time I am writing this.
Before we get into that though, we gotta do a little bit of back tracking into what we were up to during our mission trip.
First of all, I want you guys to meet or re-meet my classmates! We are the YWAM ATC DTS January 2019!
Now the DTS is a 6 month training course for people who want to get into missions (at least in surface detail). The real objective is to Know God and make Him known. The 6 months is divided into 2 phases. The lecture phase and the outreach phase.
During the lecture phase we are taught lessons to really know God and what He has done, is doing and will do. Who He is and that we can have a relationship with Him. Other activities include training in preaching, arts and other ministry tasks to enable us to do 1 thing, preach the gospel of Jesus!
During the lecture phase we would also do street evangelism, play praise and worship songs in public and open air preaching! It was nerve wracking for an ambivert like me!
Here is a photo of a group of students we preached the gospel to near Marikina River.
That's the bulk of it. The 2nd part is where it all comes together. The Outreach phase. Outreach missions!
For our outreach we went to a number of different locations, namely:
Lagyo, Mauban Quezon Province, Binangonan Rizal, Sta. Mesa Manila, Antipolo, Baguio and Tacloban.
I will go ahead and share some of our awesome stories for each location! Let's go!
Antipolo, YWAM Training Center
This is where our Major Outreach starts as we staff for the Discipleship Training Week! We got to encourage and staff 16 young people as they got to know God and make Him known!
The DTW included lectures, character building activities and an outreach to Camias 2, a subdivision in lower Antipolo! God is good!
Mauban, Quezon Province
Even though we went to Mauban during our midterm outreach, we were not able to do any ministry in the city. This time we finally got the chance! We did house-to-house evangelism (in the city proper, in Remedios, and in Liwayway), help the King of Glory Church with their Sunday service and conduct a small music workshop.
Lagyo, Mauban, Quezon Province
This is round 2 for us here in Lagyo as this is where we had our midterm outreach! We were privileged to follow up on the houses we went to during our house-to-house evangelism! There were real changes in the houses we went to! One particular house where we prayed for someone who had a heart problem was now in working shape! Another house which did not really welcome us on our first visit, were now eager to listen to the gospel!
We also helped with the Sunday service of the local church there, Go Center church, a church started by previous YWAM missionaries in Lagyo. We also went to Boton, a 1hr boat ride away from Lagyo and did house to house evangelism as well as hold a Bible study service. To conclude we had a youth sports fest and was able to bless the church with 2 brand new guitars! God is good!
Binangonan, Rizal
This is a breath of fresh air for us as we get to a more urban place for our outreach. We are partnered with Faithful One Christian Church here and have been given the privilege to help them with their prayer meeting, youth fellowship and Sunday service. We also got to do an evangelistic event in the parking lot of PureGold Binangonan as we were given permission to do so! We also did house-to-house evangelism and trained some of the young people on how to do evangelism and discipleship.
Sta. Mesa Manila/ YWAM Manila
We went ahead and gone to Sta. Mesa Manila. Here we did a couple of things.
- We mainly stayed and partnered with YWAM Manila, a YWAM base initiated by YWAM ATC and is currently renting a condo unit. We then partnered with 2 churches that they are partnering with.
With the partner churches, we did a lot of street evangelism and most of our attendees were kids! Gotta love'em kids!
- We did a prayer walk from YWAM Manila (which is near SM Sta. Mesa) to Luneta Park! It was a time I wept for what was happening to the Philippines. So much to be done and while I can't really do much for now, we started with a prayer.
Baguio
Our 2nd to the last location, in Baguio we partnered with a Free Methodist church. The pastor was actually the father of one of my classmates in the DTS. In Baguio we did more of an empowering season for the church. We lead a total of 2 Bible studies, 2 prayer meetings, 1 youth service, 1 Sunday service and 3 house/park evangelism! My personal favorite was when we went to Burnham park! As we were walking, I got the leading to talk to a guy who was doing Henna tattoo.
However the challenge was "evangelism" wasn't allowed in the park premises. So we got a henna tattoo from him and shared the gospel to him by doing the God test. Remarkably his friend followed and got to hear the message of the gospel as well!
It was also here that I got the privilege to preach in one of the youth services. God was just so amazing when I got to preach on Philippians. My main point was one of those times God ministers to you while you minister to others. All in all understanding that it is all God's ministry.
Philippians 1:21
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Tacloban
First of all going to Tacloban was already quite the adventure! From Baguio we traveled at 12 midnight towards Cubao to get the earliest bus to go to Tacloban, around 9:00am. When we arrived in Cubao however, it was a different story as the earliest bus we could take to go to Tacloban was at 3:45pm.
By His grace, we were able to travel and get to Tacloban! We partnered with YWAM Tacloban the same way we partnered with YWAM Manila as YWAM Tacloban was also initiated by YWAM ATC (Antipolo Training Center).
We did street evangelism, 1 on 1 evangelism in parks, prayer walks and served the local church there.
One major highlight was Kids Ministry everyday in Palanog, a place near Tacloban.
It was a place where the children were hungry. Hungry for love, and we all know that the only love that can really only fulfill the gap in man's or children's heart is God's love.
After all that traveling, after all the people, smiles and testimonies, there is one thing that I now know very true. God exists and He is doing an amazing work and we get to enjoy Him and work with and for Him!
Thank you for taking the time to read through this letter! Thank you to all our ministry partners, those who gave to send us to all the places and people! Thank you to our families who trusted God and let us go. Thank you to all the churches, YWAM bases and people who helped us along!
Thank you YWAM leaders! YWAM ATC!
Thanks be to God! All the glory belongs to Him!
NOW WAIT! Does the story ends here? No! As my leaders said, the real outreach starts after the DTS! So where am I and what am I doing now?
Where: I am now in Davao! Currently staying with my family and applying all the awesome stuff I developed in YWAM.
What: I am now a YWAM-er, a full time missionary under Edge Media Ministries. Developing programs and hosting programs for the Edge Media as well as doing campus ministry in Davao City National Highschool. Lastly I am serving the local church.
Why: To Know God and Make Him known!
Please do keep me and the team in your prayers!
LASTLY
If you would like to be a part of the ministry by partnering with me, sending me as a missionary here in Davao, please let me know! Please pray for me, and if God would allow you, partner with me through giving.
You can give right away through paypal!
paypal.me/ullrichlariosa
You can also message me here or in facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/aace234
Thank you and may God bless us all!