Hi Friends!

Have you ever wanted to take a couple of years and do Missionary work or perhaps you know someone interested in being trained to do Missionary work?  There is a DTS, which means Discipleship Training School, coming up in Heredia, Costa Rica in September of this year. Although there are DTS all over the world, this one is one that my son and his wife are leading. I want to go to  it so badly but, fat chance. :)  Its for 5 months I believe and 2 of those months will entail a mission trip to Cuba.  I'm hoping to be on a month long mission into Guatemala for the month of August so I doubt Paul will ever agree to me going off for another 5 months. As a matter of fact, I didn't exactly ask Paul if I could go, I just sorta sweetly told him I was going to be gone the month of August to Guatemala. I made the information casual.  Kinda like an every day thing for me to leave the country for a month.  But, I was gone for 3 weeks last year so, whats another additional week?  He spent that entire time redoing the bathroom so when I came home it was like a little mini palace bathroom... as palace like as you can possibly get for a bathroom not any bigger than a closet and inside a cabin. :)

So anyhoos, here is the information for your consideration:

Youth With A Mission is an international volunteer movement of Christians from many backgrounds, cultures and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. Also known as YWAM (pronounced "WHY-wham"), our purpose is simply to know God and to make Him known. 

When YWAM began in 1960, our main focus was giving young people opportunities to demonstrate the love of Jesus to the whole world, according to His command in Mark 16:15. Today, we still focus on youth, but we have members (known as “YWAMers”) of almost every age and many of our short-term efforts have grown into long-term endeavors that have impacted lives and nations.

YWAM has a decentralized structure that encourages new vision and the exploration of new ways to change lives through training, convey the message of the gospel and care for those in need. We are currently operating in more than 1000 locations in over 180 countries, with a staff of over 18,000.

A Discipleship Training School (DTS) is a five month course, three months of what is called the Lecture Phase.  It is twelve intensive weeks of classes on a wide variety of topics, like The Father Heart of God, World Missions, Hearing the Voice of God, etc...  The last two months is called the Practical Phase, or the Outreach, where the principles learned in the first twelve weeks are put into practice on an international level.  It is cross cultural and for this particular DTS will be multi-national, the first part being in Cuba, (or somewhere else for those who don´t feel ready for Cuba)  and then other nations to be determined.
  The cost for the Lecture Phase is $1200, which covers food, housing, and transportation, the price of the lecture phase is determined later in the school, but it is recommended that students be prepared for about $1500-$2000 for the outreach phase, which includes airfare, food, other transportation, and housing.  Those who complete the DTS can then take secondary schools if desired.  Here in Heredia we have the School of Frontier Missions (SOFM) which begins in April, and the Environment and Resource Stewardship School (EARS) which takes place every January.  The DTS begins on September 12th and ends mid-February.  For more information, or to apply: (www.ywamheredia.com) 

            I just finished this book, No Greater Love, by Kathi Macias. It was really good.  It is written loosely based on historical events and set in Pretoria, South Africa during the violent upheaval.
Forbidden Romance - Race issues
Unlikely Martyr - tear jerking
Unlikely Hero - didn't see it coming.

Bye for now!