Wait...What are you guys doing???

Team Huss is going on a GREAT ADVENTURE!  Our purpose is to know Him and make Him known.  Here are some answers to questions you might have...

What is DTS?
The best description of what it is can be found in this short video: https://vimeo.com/178657032.

DTS stands for Discipleship Training School.  YWAM (Youth with a Mission) is the organization that does DTS.  There are MANY different DTSes offered at over 200 different locations around the world with focuses anywhere from photography to fitness to performing arts to blazing trails to unreached people groups to medical missions and the list goes on.

“DTS is a full-time, residential course, consisting of 11-12 weeks of classroom training, an 8-12 week outreach, and 1-2 weeks of debrief. It’s an exciting season of discovery, as students receive fresh revelation of God’s love and an understanding of their unique calling within the Great Commission. Students then live their calling by going into all the world and making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19)!

Outreach is where the lessons you learned in the classroom become heart reality. Your faith will be challenged to be expressed in action. It’s an opportunity to serve others and share your faith with people who may never hear the Good News otherwise. It’s a journey with Jesus – and a huge step of faith to let Him guide you… even to the ends of the earth.”

Which DTS are y’all applying for?
We have applied for the Family Discipleship Training School in Kona, Hawaii.  The way YWAM describes it is “the Family DTS is about reaching the nations and transforming communities by developing mission-minded families and launching healthy families into international missions. Our goal is to see the end of divorce in the Body of Christ so that their marriages and families will bring glory to God in all they do and so that future generations will be raised to know the Lord.”

Why Kona?
The YWAM Kona campus is obviously in a gorgeous setting (here is a video of the campus: https://vimeo.com/157811508), but that is not why we chose to apply here.  The program that our kids will attend while we are doing our classroom work is called Foundation School, and it is unique to YWAM Kona.  It is a small-scale DTS for ages 4-17 where “the children will learn how to hear God’s voice, understand Jesus as a role model and God as our father.  Plus, your children will have the privilege of guest speakers from around the world coming to the classroom to teach.  This school will definitely give the children the Truth in tangible ways they may have never heard before.” 

Here are a couple of videos that explain more about Foundation School: 

Testimony from 8-year-old boy: https://vimeo.com/174274871


Kids talking about Foundation School: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRKoHprf62Y


When will you go?
We have applied for the session that runs April 5 – August 17, 2018.

What about school?
We are working with our kids’ schools to ensure that they can get full credit for the 2017-2018 school year.  At Foundation School, they are focused on the child’s heart change, not so much the academics.  However, they spend 1 hour a day on schoolwork that we send from home.

What about work?
Ben will apply for a leave of absence with HFD.  If it is declined, he will possibly have to resign.  This is not a decision we make lightly.  We have covered it in prayer, and we know that God is calling us to this right now in our lives.  Is it risky?  Yep!  But that’s what following God is all about.  Taking steps that seem crazy to others, but that we know we are meant to do for His kingdom.

Why now?
Because we know God is telling us to do this now.  It’s as simple and as complicated as that.

Why at all?
Ben and I both grew up in families where sharing the Good News of Jesus was what we did.  Both of us have grown up serving people in our communities as well as taking the Gospel internationally.  As a young adult, I took a 15-week course called “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement” that woke me up to missional living, whether at home or abroad.  And of course our eyes became wide open to the orphan crisis as we grew our family in a very unconventional way over the last 6 years.  So this is just another step in obedience to the unique calling that God has on our lives.

From the beginning of our marriage, Ben has said that he saw us serving overseas as full-time Kingdom workers.  His plan was that we would GO after he retired so that we could live off his pension and not have to “bother people” for funding.  Well, God had other plans for us!  Ben did some soul-searching and realized he was holding tightly to the “security blanket” of his job and needed to let it go to fully put his trust in God.  (Then his pension was completely taken away thanks to the mayor of Houston.)  And God wouldn’t let up on me about this Family DTS that I heard about from another family last year.  So we prayed, we listened, and we’re obeying.

What will you do / where will you go after DTS?
That’s a great question!  So far, God hasn’t revealed that next step to us.  For now, we know for sure that we are meant to apply for this Family DTS in Kona.  And we will continue to pray and seek His guidance for our next step.  As of today, we don’t have plans to sell the house and cars since we do not know if we will need to come back to Texas before being launched into the full-time mission field.  We’ll keep you posted. 😉

Will you stay with YWAM?
That’s another great question!  We are not sure at this point, but either way, this is top-notch training that we know will help prepare us for GOing!  We have also heard from others who did this training that it was an incredible time of healing for their family.  We know that God has big things in store for Team Huss!

Will you be fundraising?
Yep!  Taking this step of obedience isn’t easy.  We truly thought that our days of fundraising were over.  But God.  He had other plans for us.  Looking back at the two adoptions we fundraised for, it is truly in those times that God was the most real to us.  So many times He showed us (through many of you) that “He funds what He favors.”  The total amount is daunting, but we know that He is faithful.  Stay tuned…

The cost breakdown is as follows:

Airfare Houston to Kona for all 9 of us                                                                            $10,000
DTS Lecture                 $3995 x 3 adults (Ben, Lauren, Valik) =                                  $11,985
Foundation School     $1800 x 2 kids age 6-11 (Eden, Callie) =                                  $  3,600
                                        $2700 x 4 kids age 12-17 (Max, Slavik, Zachary, Vlad) =     $10,800
Outreach Trips            $4000 x 9 people =                                                                      $36,000

TOTAL                                                                                                                                    $72,385