Goodbye university, hello…missions?

Posted by admin on Feb 17, 2010 in Academy | 0 comments

After enjoying a wildly hectic Fall semester at the Laurentian Leadership Centre during a federal election—with students jumping between various internships, volunteering on campaigns and spending every spare moment on the Hill to witness political bloodbaths between Stephen Harper and any opponent who dared confront him—I was looking forward to a change of pace.

I then coasted through an easy and nostalgic final semester to find myself staring down that most formidable of graduate challenges: the disturbing allure of the working world and the uncertainty about what the next step should be.

After a few agonizing months of struggle, I decided on something completely spontaneous and far removed from anything I had expected to pursue: a six-month Discipleship Training School (DTS) in Melbourne, Australia with Youth with a Mission (YWAM).

I had never considered joining an organization like YWAM, even for a short time. Sure, I was interested in international development, human rights, writing and a huge diversity of other possibilities, but volunteering with a ministry-focused place like YWAM had never struck me as appealing or suitable to my interests.

Nevertheless, by late June last summer I found myself on the other side of the world, starting a program like nothing I had experienced before. I had traveled extensively, but never felt so completely lost and out of place.

Fast forward three months (and the corresponding weeks of lectures on everything from the Bible and spiritual warfare to relationships, church planting, endless hours of prayer and worship, cultural encounters in every corner of Melbourne and beyond) and suddenly I found myself in Indonesia. We had started DTS outreach.

Thankfully, working in a developing country was more in my element. Past overseas trips to everywhere from Mexico to Kenya allowed me to hit the ground running, as our team charged into a busy month of painting, assisting in orphanages and slums, prison ministry, sports evangelism, visiting hospitals, construction projects and more.

In the prison, I had the opportunity to meet the leader of the Bali 9, a group arrested on charges of drug smuggling, punishable by death under Indonesian law. Remarkably, he had found God in 2006, read the Bible nine times, and developed an inspiring faith, all while sitting on death row!

A thousand pictures later, our group moved on to East Timor, the newest country on earth. Here our focus shifted to village development, and we spent two weeks apiece in three different regions, teaching English, helping in the health care clinic and running community vision meetings. We even had the chance to enjoy fireworks on East Timor’s Independence Day.
Following a short time of debriefing back in Australia, the program wrapped up, and I spent an additional month working with Youth Street, the youth ministry headed by YWAM Melbourne. During this time of reflection, I was fascinated to discover that DTS had been exactly the change of pace I needed.

Am I planning on doing missions long term? Not at this point. But ultimately, DTS was another confirmation that my TWU education—and the leadership experience that went with it, whether at the LLC, as an RA, on TWUSA or in clubs—has equipped me with the necessary tools for the future, regardless of where I end up.