For the last two and a half years of my life I have been a full time missionary with the missions organization Youth With A Mission ‘YWAM’. YWAM has many different locations (campuses) around the globe, and the campus that I have been on staff at is called YWAM Northwoods. YWAM Northwoods is located in Northwest Wisconsin in the small (really small) town of Weyerhaeuser, near Chetek, between the cities of Rice Lake and Eau Claire.
What I have been doing at the YWAM Northwoods campus has been staffing and helping run the two schools that the campus offers. The first school is called a Discipleship Training School (DTS). A DTS is a three month school that is split up into two parts: the first part is a three month lecture phase, and the second part is a two month outreach. The Lecture Phase consists of three months of teachings on things like: Discipleship, How to Study the Bible, Prayer/Intercession, The Devotional Life, Evangelism, Missions, God’s Heart for us as His Children, The Fear of the Lord, as well as other teachings about Christianity. Also during the Lecture Phase we do local outreaches to areas around the campus (Rice Lake, Chetek, Eau Claire areas), and will occasionally go into the Twin Cities for ministry. Most of the local ministry is intentional for the students of the school to immediately practice the things that they are learning in the classroom. The Lord has us go to churches and help with Youth Groups and the Sunday services, He sends us to malls and other public areas to evangelize, we got anywhere that the Lord leads us to for local ministry.
The other part of the Discipleship Training School (DTS) is the Outreach Phase. Every DTS that is a part of YWAM has to have at least a 7 week Outreach as part of the school. YWAM has over 2,000 different base locations all over the world, and every base has its own countries that they “adopt”.Our base as YWAM Northwoods has adopted four countries within the 10/40 window (see picture below). The 10/40 window is the most unreached part of the world and it encompasses the places of the world that have had the least amount of Gospel exposure (some have had none). I have been to Thailand for three years in a row now, working in the small mountain village of Nahong, a wonderful village that had never been exposed to the Gospel previous to our group coming and sharing the past three years. Thailand is 96+% Buddhist, and the people of Nahong have known nothing except Buddhism and Spiritism forever, and God is using us to share Jesus Christ’s Gospel with them! The second school that I have been a part of is the School of Biblical Foundations (SBF). The SBF is a three month school that teaches students to deeply study and understand the Word of God. The goal is to equip you with the necessary skills to thoroughly disciple new believers in any cultural setting! Our outreaches focus on teaching, preaching, and evangelism in local settings such as churches, schools, malls, etc.! Matthew 28:18-20: And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Jesus commands us as His disciples to go into all nations with His authority, to preach the Gospel and baptize in the name of the trinity and to teach everything that He commands us in His Word. That is what DTS, and SBF is all about: God being known and glorified! Well, when I said yes to God’s calling me to be on staff here at YWAM I felt He wanted me to commit to 2 years. My two years will be up in June, the time really flew by. Normally what happens after DTS is I would staff the next school we offer called the School of Biblical Foundations (SBF); this is a 24/7 job like DTS is. During this past school the Lord spoke to me that I needed to step down from staffing SBF and that I need to "slow down and seek Him". I believe that God is going to show me more things about my present time here in YWAM as well as my future in getting further schooling, whether I stay in YWAM past June or not, and getting married to Christine (if you still haven’t met/heard about her, I will be blogging more about her soon). In the next 3 months I will still be working here on the YWAM Northwoods campus, overhauling our DTS system, as well as pursuing different ministries off campus that include working at a youth center and possibly teaching English to Somalis. I will have a hand in the SBF by helping students with homework and different outreaches but other than that I'm anxious to find out what God has planned for me in these next 3 months and beyond. So please keep me in your prayers as I seek the Lord. Something that I have committed to with my life is keeping God at the center and seeing the Lord glorified. In doing that, I submit everything to Him, all my plans, goals, and dreams, and He creates in me bigger plans, goals, and dreams that I could never have imagined. I want nothing more but to live a life that reflects Christ and His goodness so I leave each step up to Him. Proverbs 3:1-6: "Do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him; And He will make your paths straight." This doesn't mean I sit on the couch and wait to hear from God and then move, I am very proactive in this process. As I live for Jesus Christ, He continues to teach me how to seek Him, hear Him, and follow Him and in that creates many opportunities to act. We need to continually be moving in our walk with God or we will only fall away. Thanks so much again for taking the time to be a part of what God is doing in me and through me. What God is doing in me and through me is your inheritance as well as mine! I'll keep you updated! Love and blessings, Zach Luke 21:33: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” –Jesus Christ