The Discipleship Training School (DTS) started just over a week ago now, with 21 trainees from America, Canada, Germany, England, New Zealand, Israel, and South Africa. After the new year, we have felt like we’ve really hit the ground running – first in terms of preparation and continuing staff training, and now in all the little details of organising a group this size for activities, housing, food, ministry, etc. We’re glad for Saturdays like this one where we can take time to just breathe and be with each other.

The experience of staffing a DTS in Belfast is new for us and offers some unique opportunities and challenges. The variety of ministry possibilities for the DTS is abundant, and hosting the DTS on the Shankill Road (where we live) connects the trainees directly to a lifestyle of outreach, where we live in the same places as the poor, addicted, and bereaved. As you may know, we don’t have a central ‘base’ in Belfast, and our staff are housed in various flats in the Shankill area, and the trainees are in two different houses about a 15 min. walk apart. Our lecture space is rented from a local church. The challenges, therefore, that are most different than in Closkelt are in managing the community aspect of DTS. We think it’s going quite well, but it’s a lot of work to get meals organised and have people show up at the same place at the same time.

Our DTS staff team are these people: Jonny Clark, the Belfast and Ireland director, is leading the DTS; Mikael is assistant leading with Jonny (as he is also busy with other responsibilities); Renee is staffing and helping train the new staff; Rob is a pastor of many vocations – from prison chaplain to hospital chaplain – and is staffing a first DTS after many years in ministry; Stephanie is a talented artist and graphic designer staffing her first DTS; Bless is helping with the DTS part-time after moving with her husband and son from Thailand where she is from and has been with YWAM for many years. Other YWAM Belfast staff are helping when possible.

The group is strong and talented, but we are a bit stretched after one of our DTS staff had to return home suddenly the day the DTS started.

Yesterday, we announced that our outreach phase locations will be 1. Ireland & South Africa combo and 2. Ireland, Israel & Palestine combo. The trainees have until Tuesday to pray about where they feel they should go, and then we will form the teams.

Locally, Renee and Steph are leading a small group which will be doing children’s ministry in a school on the Shankill and with a church working in a socially deprived area across town. Mikael is leading a small group that will be working in the Feed Cafe on the Shankill doing ministry from there, as well as ministry around town (the group is quite musical, and we’re excited to get them involved in open mics, etc.). Jonny and Rob’s small group will be working with teenagers.

We appreciate your prayers very much.

If you want to stay better updated, you can:

• Follow us on Twitter for insights into our daily life.
• Follow YWAM Ireland on Twitter , where insights and pictures from DTS activities are often posted.

(Someone actually gave Mikael a Blackberry phone before Christmas – quite an upgrade from a phone that was just a phone. After a month of figuring out how it works, he’s trying to use it to communicate while on the go – such as posting pictures from lectures this week via Twitter).

Ok. Enough words.

Thanks for all your love.

• In parts of June, we’re in the USA.
• Between 4 – 20 July, we’ll be in Galway, helping facilitate Creideamh, a festival involving teams from around the world (totaling about 100-200 people) for creative outreach simultaneous to an arts and a film festival in the city. This gig was organised with Tine and connects with local parishes. Check it out at the Creideamh website.
• Preparing for the DTSs next year.

What’s on for the rest of YWAM Ireland (visit the ywamireland.org website for more info):

• A venue at the Summer Madness festival in early July, titled the Yak Shak. Check out the website for more info and a schedule of events.
• An outreach to Israel and the Palestinian Territories 23 July – 6 August
• And of course everything else that normally happens year round (and whatever else we forgot)…

The latest YWAM Ireland newsletter is available for download here, with updates on schools, events and outreaches in 2009, as well as a cool testimony from one of our staff, Lidia from Argentina, who’s currently leading an outreach in India.

YWAM Ireland website & Facebook group
For more information on YWAM Ireland, you can visit the updated YWAM Ireland website, or even join the YWAM Ireland Facebook group, where you can stay current with our events and outreaches.

New YWAM Northern Ireland website

In other news, YWAM NI has just released a new website (and replaced the old one). It’s got a simple, blog feel, and has basic information available at the moment. Keep posted as more information on YWAM NI’s ministries and happenings are updated.