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
Overview from the Leaders of Foundation School: https://vimeo.com/28131632
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
