January DTS 2012 Graduate

The last 8 months have really been amazing, with 20 trainees from 12 different nations, it has been a real mix of ideas and experience. Such a privilege to spend this time with them, going through teaching and leading a team on outreach. To be a part of what God has done in and through them and to look back on it with them makes what I do so worth it.

This is the second School that I have staffed, and I really enjoy the graduations, they are full of both excitement over what has happened and also over what is too come. One of the greatest joys about staffing a DTS (discipleship training school) is watching how much people change and grow over the time, and also to hear what they are planing to go to next, where they feel God is taking them. Which is why we not only give our trainees a certificate of graduation, but also commission them into what God is calling them too by praying for them.

The evening itself was simple yet full of joy. As each of our trainees came up to collect their certificate they marked on a map of the UK where they had been with a thumb print. as the evening went on the board was filled with lots of colour. We had worship and a time of reflecting on some of the ways which we have all seen God impact our lives and the lives of those we met over this school. We finished by presenting the certificates and then spent the rest of the evening in a mixture of joy and sadness as we spent time together for the last time before people started to head back home.

The school was called Impact UK, and these guys certainly left a mark everywhere they went. As well as being greatly impacted themselves. God has really done so much over these last 8 months in and through all these guys, and I am excited to hear what they go on to do.