Week one has come and gone.

YWAM Jax Beach Winter 2013 DTS: Staff and Students

It's gone already??

Well week one is finished. Funny how when you are in the middle of it how slowly it goes, yet in the grand view of things in a blink of an eye it's gone. I DTS. This last a very full week of details. We also had many chances to start getting to know the students and even getting to already hear real battles that they have overcome and are continuously fighting to overcome.  I also successfully made it through the week without injuring myself, referring back to the first week of the Fall DTS. I am so blessed and honored to be apart of what God is going to do through the above team and you can be apart of it too (I'll tell you how shortly). 

This week it has been awesome to see these students putting 100% into everything they do from work duties, to stepping up when challenged to share their testimonies, and even getting their out of class assignments done early. It has also been even more amazing to see that their hearts are truly engaged to grow as close to the Lord as they can, and are willing give everything they've got. I truly am honored to get to walk with them in this process. As for myself it has been a little strange because I have been dealing with insecurities, and stepping out of my comfort zones in areas that I in no way shape or form feel like I am capable to succeeding within, yet everything I've done I have completed and feel like God taught me through. I am definitely in a season of being stretched and in fact he's already been preparing my heart for that, by sharing with me in one quiet time that I am going to learn what it means to make Him Lord of All my life. So, I am excited for this journey personally, and the fact that I have close to other forty journeymen that I am going to get to travel with.

What's the goal??

We are all setting out as a full team of YWAM Jacksonville Beach to raise close to $250,000 in the next 5 months within this tuition free Discipleship Training School. Each student that was accepted was give the personal goal of raising $7,500 to pay for the expenses within a DTS. Yet, if they've done everything they can to raise the money we as  team would be raising so al funds raised goes to the benefit of the team as a whole. 

Yesterday, we were separated into 3 small teams which will be our outreach teams so we have smaller numbers to race towards. My team (that I will be leading into the 10/40 window to take the Good News) has a wonderful mix of people and contains 13 young adults. My team needs to raise a total of $82,500 to be funded fully (that's just the students). Ansley and I, as their leaders, have to raise enough for our individual monthly expenses, and raise the money for at least our plane tickets/visas so I will estimate that we need to raise probably close to $10,000 between the 2 of us. Calculating all the numbers my team needs to raise $92,500. Seems like a large sum, and in many cases that is a large sum, but we know that we are all where God wants us and are committed to working together to raise the funds necessary to complete the task the Lord has set before us. Note: any prayers you can lift up would be greatly appreciated and if you would like to partner us in the ministry through YWAM Jax Beach please feel free to give by clicking the above link. If you have any other questions just email me at mistylwallace85@gmail.com.

Prayer points??

-That we would raise the funds necessary to pay for all expenses of the school, and to raise over the amount to get the base out of debt.

-That our hearts would be open for the growth that the Lord wants to extend to us.

-That we as staff will acquire all the tools necessary to be there for the students in every way possible. 

-That we will be a blessing to everyone we come in contact with.

-That lives will be changed.

-Personally, that I gain the partnerships necessary to continue in the ministry that the Lord has called me to through YWAM Jacksonville. 

New year, new students, new journey

Happy 2013!

Can you believe we are already almost half way through January? I feel like so much has already happened in these short couple weeks, so let me give you a brief update of the end of 2012 into what coming for this year.

Me pictured in Urbana Daily praying for a
student to be directed and given clarity.

December I got the chance to travel home and spend Christmas with my family, which was go go go but good to have gotten that chance because I know I am not always going to get those opportunities. The day after Christmas I left and drove to St. Louis, MO to represent YWAM International at the Urbana 2012 conference where 16,000 college students who are all interested in missions came together to worship God, gain some amazing teachings, and check out all the options available to them for the desire to do missions here in the U.S. and around the world. It was amazing but I am not going to say we were kind of shocked due to our booth, though we had a large space, lacking when it came to the visual appearance of materials in comparison to the other booths around us. That's where comparison is definitely not a thing of the Lord. All we, 14 YWAMers from around the world, could do was pray and to seek God's heart for our booth and pray that He would bring the right students to us. Well it wound up being that we had the perfect set up, not meaning to but it kind of was like a trap because the students would walk in the middle of the booth thinking it was the ally to the next aisle which would of course allow us to talk to them. I was so blessed to listen, pray, and minister to the students. It was so cool to see a theme as the students came by the booth. I felt that Lord was showing me the second generation koreans, cambodians, vietnamese, etc. were all telling me while at the conference they felt like God told them to go back to their home lands and do ministry there which was the last place they wanted to go but so beautiful to see God restoring and redeeming possible hurts of past generations through this current generation. Another cool thing was to work with YWAMers from all over and it be like family eventhough we'd never met before the day we all arrived.  I learned so much and was blessed by each other them and pray that our paths cross again someday.

Back row standing from the left: me, Justin Henry, Wikus and Christine Vorster, Mark Fisher, John Henry, Ryan Dutra, Craig, and Kevin Tsui. Kneeling the front: Zack Stevens, Ryan Unger, Katrina Stevens, Gabby Hurt, and Greg Ruhland.

One amazing thing that happened while I was in St. Louis was that on the 29 of December my niece Emilee Anne Wallace was born. So January 1 once the conference was over, I drove straight to my brother and sister-in-laws house in Springfield, TN to hold and love on her before I had to leave the next morning to come back to Florida.

Miss Emilee Anne and Me

They day came to come back to Florida on January 2. So Michael and Sarah Young and their boys Nathan and Eli and I loaded up and started our journey back. We were all reunited that evening with the staff that will be working together for the next 5 months with the Discipleship Training School that starts on January 13. We had staff training, and worked up to the the moment students started arriving. They will continue to arrive today and tomorrow and then we'll kick off at 5:30 P.M. tomorrow what is going to be an amazing adventure. For the next 5 months the staff and myself are going to be fully available to the students here who are longing to dive deeper into a relationship with God. We will have three months of lecture including teachings as simple as relationships and get into deeper subjects like Father heart of God, and Making Jesus Lord of all in our lives. It is definitely going to be a journey, but we are soo excited to partner with God and these students in it. After the lecture phase I am going to get to lead an outreach of a team of the students I have been working closely with and take the passion for the Lord to the nations. I know this season is going to be a lot of work, and the Lord has already told me in my personal walk it is going to be a hard but amazing season. 

So here's to 2013!