Serving a Young Generation

Here in Australia the school year is just coming to an end. For year 12 students, they have had their last day of high school ever. And to celebrate, the majority of students attend an event put on at about 7 different locations around Australia.

The July Youth DTS had the opportunity to attend one of the locations at Airlie Beach, Whitsundays. At this particular location, there were approximately 2,700 seventeen and eighteen year olds who for many was their first time away from home without their parents.

Partnering with a chaplaincy program, the team assisted the students all through out the night and into the morning. They put on the main events, cleaned up messes, chilled with students at their hotels, cooked them pancakes, and walked them home to safety.

“Many of the students were curious why we wanted to come and help them when we didn’t get paid to do it. It brought up a lot of good conversations about life and how we could have so much fun in helping people!” – Vlad, DTS student

October Reef to Outback DTS helps strengthen local youth

Posted by Oct DTS - - News

As YWAM Townsville looks to strengthen, influence, and build capacity locally; the opportunity arose to deliberately partner with church youth groups. The Reef to Outback DTS have been able to involve half the students into four local churches which meet on a weekly bases. They have been sharing personal stories and teachings on different topics each week to challenge and champion the youth of Townsville to lead out in their spheres of influence. It is great to impact our community in this way and the DTS students are loving it.

“I am so blessed to have gone to the churches with my team. We were so impressed with the youth at that church. We shared personal experiences, why God wants to communicate with us, and about developing our relationships with Him. One girl shared about how she could see through God’s creation that everyone is beautiful in their unique ways, and God loves us so much! She also realized that we should treat each other equally, and see each other in the way that God sees us.
Overall, it was a great experience, and I am so excited for next week!”

Destini Rutschmann, Canada

Self-esteem, Bullying, and Binge Drinking

Posted by Youth DTS - - DTS, DTS, DTS, News, Youth Ministry DTS, Youth Street

The three topics of self-esteem, bullying, and binge drinking are hot topics amongst youth in Australia. That is why the Youth DTS set out on outreach determined to discuss these topics and bring light into these areas. During the four days that the team was in Cairns, they presented 11 seminars to over 300 students!

It was incredible to see people’s reactions to the topics and be made aware of some of the risks and outcomes that can come from bullying and binge drinking. The team, along with the school’s chaplains, are anticipating to see change in their schools and hopefully some better decisions made before students go on summer break.

A DTS student’s experience:

“The most amazing feeling in life is seeing a student after the seminar in some random place and them telling you that they enjoyed the seminar or perhaps just want to chat with you more. The seminars in my opinion had a lasting impact on both the schools and students. I’ve found that each topic was relevant to the student’s lives and in some way or another we made an impact in the lives of each one of them. For me, seeing the student’s faces as we shared our own personal stories was so impacting because it shows them how they too can overcome or totally prevent themselves from going down the same path!”

-Marci, student

Impacting Youth Skate Culture

Posted by Youth DTS - - DTS, DTS, DTS, DTS, Youth Ministry DTS, Youth Street

As the Youth DTS embarks on their fourth week of outreach here in Australia, the team has noticed that there seems to be a trend happening amongst the young people. In many of the communities visited, the popular place to hang out is the local skatepark. Many times these areas don’t have the best reputation but what the team has come to discover is quite different than the rumors they’ve heard.

“Young people are very open I’ve found. When you get into what they like they open up very quickly and that opens up new doors for conversations that you can have to encourage them. The main thing when talking to them is that I wanted to give them something that they could hold onto and inspire them when they go through times of trouble by sharing my own personal story with them.”

-Vlad, student

The team ran skate competitions and held other activities for young people to take part in while hanging out at the skatepark. During this time they connected with over 200 people. Youth flocked to the skateparks to see what was going on. These youth have so much potential and the Youth DTS were determined to help these young people see it in themselves!

Say Hello to the October Reef to Outback DTS!

Posted by Oct DTS - - DTS, News, Reef To Outback DTS October

The October Reef to Outback (RTO) DTS has begun. The quietness of the base has departed as 56 students from 9 different nations have come together to serve, build, care and connect with individuals and communities around Australia and the Pacific. The energy and excitement was greatly welcomed by YWAM Townsville Staff with a center wide Morning Tea. The first week was full with orientation, lectures, and a cross-cultural experience from the Pacific DTS when they blessed us with some dance and song during a morning tea before they left for Papua New Guinea on outreach. During the 2^nd week of ‘lecture phase’ the DTS received input from our Director, Ken Mulligan. The students also spent an evening on board the YWAM Medical Ship for a tour. That night they also found out their Outreach locations. There will be 6 teams, 2 staying here in Australia, three teams will be headed to various locations through out Papua New Guinea, and the last team will be going to Fiji. The students and staff are now headed into the 3^rd Week of Lectures, where Joanne Blaik, the Training Director, will be speaking. Its shaping up to be another great DTS and the team are excited to see what’s in store through their time at YWAM Townsville!

Youth topic: Choices

Posted by Youth DTS - - News

Last week as part of the Youth DTS outreach, we spoke to over 100 students in two different schools about the topic of choices here in Newcastle, Australia. Newcastle is known for a lot of teen suicide and depression so it was really good to be given the chance to speak in the high schools! Especially since we are a Youth focused DTS specializing in these topics.

We partnered with a local woman who is hired by the local churches in the area to go into the high schools and teach year 7s and 8s Scripture Class each week. This lady is a rock-star! Going off of her theme for the month we spoke to the students about “Choices”. Reminding them that sometimes they need to take the road less traveled and not always make choices just because that’s what everyone else is doing. And also that their choices will either have a positive or negative effect on themselves and others.

The students at the schools responded really well and we were able to have some great discussions with them about bullying, family life, depression, self harm, our relationship with God, and what choices they wanted to make in the future! Some students even came back afterwards with some of their friends who weren’t in the class just to get them to hear our stories!

“I was able to go into a high school and share my story about me making some choices and other people making choices and that had an effect on me. After I was finished telling my story we got into small groups and I was with two young girls. One of the girls, opened up to me and in seeing how well our team bonded together she said she wanted to get right with God and become a Christian. Then I asked if I could pray for her and she said yes. It felt amazing to be able to talk to her and help her understand some of what I’ve been learning while I’ve been on DTS.”

Meg, DTS Student

Dreams become a reality!

Posted by Youth DTS - - News

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It’s one thing to have your own dreams but how cool is it when you’re able to help make other’s dreams a reality?

This last week on outreach, the Youth DTS helped YWAM Newcastle celebrate their 20th birthday! Not only were they trying to prepare for over 75 guests that would be attending the two-day event but they were also in the middle of trying to complete a large building project on their main facility.

YWAM Newcastle has a large focus on youth work and so the Youth DTS were ready to jump and serve wherever they were needed! What better way than to scrub floors, paint walls, grind steel, and sing songs to create a fun atmosphere? They were determined to help build a place for young people to call “home”!

The dirty-work was fun, the celebrations were even better… but what really a highlight for the team was to see Youth Street, YWAM’s weekly youth program, re-launched out of the YWAM Newcastle’s main facility called; The Warehouse. So after all that work the Youth DTS were finally able to see YWAM Newcastle become home to the youth of the city and run the first main event: “Youth Street’s Got Talent”!

YWAM Medical Ship Australia’s Video

Posted by helenm - - News, Papua New Guinea, YWAM Ships

The YWAM Medical Ship has arrived back safe in Townsville this week, completing another year partnering with many to provide training, health and community development in Papua New Guinea. Many of our students have had the opportunity to serve on board the ship over the past 3 years and we are excited for the release of the newest video from YWAM Medical Ships, highlighting the work that has been achieved since 2010 in Papua New Guinea, celebrating the many hundreds of volunteers and support from many nations.

Eat, sleep, and breathe YOUTH

Posted by Youth DTS - - DTS, News, Youth Ministry DTS

We’re a youth-focused DTS which has given us many opportunities to connect in with the young people of Australia through camps and Saturday youth programs called Youth Street. Finishing up our ‘lecture phase’ of DTS in Townsville now brings us to the ‘outreach phase’. We will be spending the next 6 weeks traveling around Australia speaking in schools on topics like prevention of binge drinking, bullying, and self-esteem. We’ve got a long way to go but are excited to impact this generation!

Where does our 6-week journey begin?

Newcastle, New South Wales (Australia). This place eats, sleeps, and breathes youth work. In our first week of being here we’ve already been able to participate in their Youth Street program. Youth Street was started here in Newcastle so it’s fun to be working alongside the “experts” and gain more experience.

Another project that we’ve been working on while being here in Newcastle is helping them finish their building renovations. When finished, they will finally be able to run their Youth Street program out of a building constructed just for youth! It’s been incredible being a part of the progress of building and serving in whatever way we can.

Meet our new Staff Interns!

Posted by Ship DTS - - News

The past month has seen 13 new staff from 7 different countries arrive at YWAM Townsville. They have been busy training throughout this time and getting orientated to their new home. In lectures they have learnt more about the history and vision of YWAM Townsville, and what it means to be working in missions full time. Over the next few years they will continue to get input on numbers of things, including how to develop their skills within their ministry area, how to continue to grow in their relationship with God, what it means to work in and lead teams and how to meet the needs of the poor and needy.

The team have had a great time settling back into life at the base and getting to know one another. It is a privilege to have them here at the base and as a group they are excited to see what these next few years will have in store!