Mission Made Possible

I have successfully completed my first week of the DTS at YWAM. After one week I know this school is something that will transform my life and form the person I will become.

On Tuesday I was able to take my first warm bath (bucket shower) since I arrived in the Philippines and it was the best thing ever!!! In the states we take for granted such a simple factor in our everyday activities but a warm bath really made a difference starting my morning off. Baguio’s weather is pretty cool compared to Manila and Zambales, in the mornings its probably low 70’s and during the day maybe the 80’s and at night it gets into the low 60’s. So the water up here is really really REALLY cold in the morning. It is equivalent to polar plunging every time you take a bath. But we have a water heater that goes inside the bucket and it takes about an hour to warm up, so we just have to wake up early to warm up the water! Another thing I’ve learned I take for granted is the reliability of our toilet systems and having water always readily available. About 99% of the time we go into a bathroom we know that it is going to flush and that there will be toilet paper provided for us. However, in the Philippines you have about a 50% percent chance that the toilet will flush and a 2% chance that there will be toilet paper provided. So ALWAYS bring toilet paper with you everywhere you go.

Here is the current DTS-YWAM Schedule

530-Wake Up

600-Personal Devotions
700-Breakfast
800-Worship/Intercession
900-Lecture
1230-Lunch

200-400-Growth Group, Evangelism, One-on-One, Recreational time, Work Program
530-Dinner
700-900-Study night, skills development, q & a, growth group, and fun night

900-Silence

1000-Lights off

The schedule is kinda crazy but it hasn’t been too bad because it gives us something to do and we always have time for a break in between activities. This week has been good but it’s just orientation so we haven’t really started our lecture phase yet. Even though we haven’t officially started the lecturing, I’ve learned so much already about culture, relationships, and different ways of life. In the school there are six girls and three boys. I have three roommates. Cherrie-22, Rosan-23, and Pheobe-28. My classmates are all from the Philippines but different islands (Mindano) and one other girl is from Vietnam.  It’s crazy because the six girls will sit in my room and we will have people from 3 different countries in one room and we could sing a simple song like “God is so good – halleluiah” in 4 ways; English, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and then another dialect of Tagalog called Vician! It’s so cool. A couple nights ago we did culture presentations and we all had to make snacks and I made SMORES for everyone and they really liked them! Then we had to do skits and it was just terrible because I can’t act to save my life. There were three of us in my group that represented the U.S, Vietnam, and one staff is from Malaysia. Our skit was on how different cultures deal with conflict.

The DTS that I am attending is called a Mega DTS. There was suppose to be from 50-100 students but in the end there is only 9 of us and we all agree that God is really going to have us grow as a team. We think the quality of each person, and how we are going to grow, will over throw the quantity of having 100 students.

The relationships that I have with my classmates are unlike any other relationships I’ve had before. We have all become really close already even though we’ve only been here for one week because everyone is sharing such personal stories of their life prechrist/after Christ/who has impacted us the most in our lives/and why we wanted to do a DTS. A lot of people didn’t get through their stories without crying having to deal with broken homes, troubled teenage years, and grieving losses of loved ones. My life has been like a walk in the park compared to some of these people. There are a lot of really serious things I’ve learned about each person. I am so thankful to have had good parents growing up. To have a house, food, and family, I have really been blessed. I look like such a spoiled person throwing away food I can’t eat or being picky about what I eat. Filipinos eat EVERYTHING from chicken intestines, baby ducks, and dried blood. But they also have really tasty and good food that I love like cheese lumpia and pandasal and cheese whiz!

God Bless,

Ashley