Manchester DTS Gathering

The DTS Gatherings continued their tour round the country, with Manchester being the latest Olympic hosting city to play host.
The latest incarnation of the DTS Gathering took place in Manchester from 26 March–2 April 2011. Smaller and more intimate than previous Gatherings, this was still a great time of learning and doing. A total of 66 people from eight YWAM locations in the UK and Europe (Carlisle, Harpenden, Nuneaton (The King’s Lodge), Leeds, Liverpool, Wrexham, York and Norway.) took part, to learn about evangelism and then go out and do it.

Teach and do

The aim of each DTS Gathering is to train the Discipleship Training Schools (DTSs) in evangelism and then get out and do it. Each morning involved good practical teaching on evangelism from Yan Nicholls, Connie Taylor and Carl Tinnion (YWAM England’s national leader).
Then it was time to apply that teaching. Because this was the first Gathering where the various focus areas of Forever had arranged specific outreaches, there was a wide choice (see below for details about what the focus areas did in outreach). As a result, the DTS trainees experienced all sorts of outreach, from sports, arts, to cleaning the streets, treasure-hunting, and evangelising during a concert and a family fun day.

Serve

A key element of all this outreach was to serve and build relationships with the local churches and Christian organisations in the city. By reaching out in Hulme and the surrounding boroughs in Manchester, and seeing people come closer to God, we were able to strengthen already existing relationships and establish new ones.  By doing so, we were also laying the foundations for a permanent long-term YWAM presence in the city. Bring it on!

Focusing our efforts

The Gathering in Manchester also gave the various focus areas of the Forever team the opportunity to begin to try out different forms of outreach efforts. Here, the area coordinators report back …

Prayer

Forever Prayer Coordinator Hayley reports: Manchester was the trial run for one of the prayer resources we have been working on. It’s based on the concept of prayer-walking, with a little more information and making the most of technology.
Using Google’s My Maps, we created four different prayer walks through various locations of the city. Along the walks were specific places to stop and pray, with information about the area and suggested things to pray for. The aim is to create several of these prayer walks for each Olympic host city.
The Gathering attendees went out several times through the week with maps in hand to pray around central Manchester. Feedback was very positive: people enjoyed following a specific route and having relevant information. Many commented that having suggestions for prayer helped them focus, especially when they had never been in the city before. I was really encouraged by this, as this is something I hope to continue to develop as time goes on so that by 2012 all maps are ready to go.

Arts

Forever Arts Coordinator Catherine reports: This DTS Gathering saw YWAM Leeds and some of the YWAM Arts network leading the Arts outreach for the week.
Following an Arts Gathering in Leeds hosted by the YWAM team there, those attending travelled across to join us in Manchester for a time of using Arts as a platform for building relationship with the local community. This meant daily seeking God about what would be relevant to do to connect with people in the local area and then working throughout the day to put things in place for the afternoons, when the trainees joined the team to facilitate outreach. Throughout the week this saw the use of chalk drawing on pavements, graffiti lessons on reclaimed boards and building cardboard houses.
All of this led up to the family fun day at the weekend when the team donned fancy dress and hosted balloon-modelling and face-painting.

Youth and Children

Forever Youth and Children’s Coordinator Helena reports: Youth and Children's didn't have a lot of focused activities and outreach in Manchester, though we still managed to find children to swing round and dance with, and to tell stories to (using Jeffrey the Monkey, a very nice crocheted finger puppet).
We found ourselves doing litter pick in the student area and networking with various leaders across the city, building up a good picture of what goes on there already. We enjoyed meeting a band from Make Jesus Known, who also do a performance in the city centre on a regular basis and work in local schools.
The YWAM Arts network did some fabulous arts outreach in a local park, which the local children enjoyed immensely. We’re really excited about the opportunity to go back at some point in the future.

Social Justice

Forever Social Justice Coordinator Lucie reports: I found the Manchester Gathering exciting because it was the first time we had run outreaches in our different focus areas, and it gave us a taste of what might work and what it might look like leading up and during the Olympics.
We had a speaker from Hope for Justice, an anti-trafficking organisation based in Manchester come to talk about how trafficking affects Manchester, and also spoke about what he does in his role. He told stories about survivors of trafficking who have been rescued in Manchester and gave us some practical points to pray for.
Later in the week, a few of us went to give some flowers to the women working in prostitution in the city. We were told where most of the women worked and drove there. The area was really rough and potentially quite dangerous, and so we were glad when we saw very few women working there, though we would have hoped to have connected with more throughout the week.

Sports

Forever Sports Coordinator Dondi reports: During the DTS Manchester Gathering we were able to see glimpses of what different aspects of sports outreach could look like.
We started by joining a local church football club. We were able to go along to their practice and play a few matches with the youth. This programme focused on building relationship with the players and creating an environment that made it comfortable to talk about various issues in life.
Another outreach consisted of running a football clinic for 12–18 year olds, in which we ran areas of shooting, dribbling, passing and juggling. During the skill sessions we were able to share how Jesus had affected our lives and how that affects our football playing. We also set up goals and started kicking the ball around in a park and students from the area came to join in. The last day was a big football tournament where teams in the area were able to compete in a friendly environment.
It was a good week of serving the community through the aspect of sport.