Weymouth and Portland DTS Gathering

June saw a DTS Gathering with a nautical flavour. Rossie Henderson-Begg reports.

The latest Discipleship Training School (DTS) Gathering took place in Weymouth and Portland, the home of the sailing for the 2012 Olympics next year – a lovely beached destination!

A total of 44 people attended, so this was quite small compared to some of our Gatherings, but it still had a great impact on the lives of the DTS trainees and the local community. As always, we had many nations represented – 15 in total (Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, England, Netherlands, Malaysia, New Zealand, Scotland, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand, USA, Wales and Zimbabwe), covering every continent in the world!

Churches together

We had the amazing opportunity to work with a number of different churches around the area, as well as attending and sharing at a More Than Gold meeting of church leaders. (Forever is a partner in More Than Gold, the umbrella organisation coordinating the Church’s response to the opportunities offered by the Olympic Games.) The main churches we worked with were Underhill and Easton Methodist churches in Portland, and St Francis’ Church in Littlemoor (Weymouth).

One main thing that stood out to us during the week was the unity and excitement of the local churches. The pastors are working together, coming up with their own initiatives for reaching the area next year during the Olympics, and are very open for us as YWAM to come and serve, both in the short- and long-term. The church leaders we met and worked with are inspirational, having such a passion and heart for their towns.

Opportunities knock!

Another reason this Gathering stood out to us was the way the outreaches were organised. The pastors were phenomenal, organising so many outreach opportunities throughout the week: cream teas at the local church, Healing on the Streets, primary-school classes, cleaning the streets, gardening, youth groups, sports ministry – you name it, we probably had a team doing it! We also did a lot of street evangelism and treasure hunting.

The schedule was quite packed, as we had teaching each day alongside the outreaches, but the trainees got into it and saw some amazing things happen. Having the churches organise so much meant we were able to serve them and the area in the ways they felt were most needed and beneficial.

Sailing forward

One exciting aspect of this Gathering and the building of relationships with the churches in Portland and Weymouth is that it doesn’t end there! At the end of July, some of the Forever team returned to lead a short-term summer outreach, to continue to bless and serve. (There will be a report from this outreach in the September newsletter.)

We don’t have anyone yet who feels a call to establish a long-term YWAM team Weymouth and the Isle of Portland, but we are hopeful that God will continue to use us to bless the churches and see God impact the local communities in these lovely seaside places!

You can get a downloadable pdf version of this report from the Press Releases page.