It’s been just over a year since we re-established our (Discipleship Training School) DTS centre here at YWAM Harpenden. Emmanuel and Janice Entee were appointed to lead the centre last year, with a focus on re-building a strong, growing training program.

Emmanuel, how have you seen your vision for the DTS centre grow over this past year?
Our vision has three components: Foundation, consistency and focus. The foundation of the vision is to re-align our DTS’s to YWAM foundational values. Consistency means multiplication and development of our DTS staff. The focus is apostolic pioneering with our outreaches - whether that be local or international, giving initiative to new projects or working alongside existing YWAM projects. We’ve seen growth in each of these components, which we are excited about! We’ve seen our DTS’s realigned to our foundational values. We’ve seen multiplication in our numbers but also development in the quality of our staff and the DTS’s we are running and outreaches are becoming more intentional and strategic.

Over the last year we have seen 41 students come through the discipleship training schools. These schools have also seen teams going to 4 nations for their outreach phase. How have you seen God working through the DTS’s here?
One of the ways we´ve seen God working through the DTS´s is in our work with local churches here in Harpenden and Luton, to work with them in evangelism. We´ve also been able to send our teams for a mid term outreach to Leicester to work with Islamic and Hindu communities there in partnership with YWAM Leicester and local churches. Reaching the nations right here in England!

Recently our October DTS left for outreach. The school split into three teams heading to Brazil, South Africa and Italy. What is the vision you have for DTS outreaches from YWAM Harpenden?
Our vision for DTS outreaches is to partner with existing ministries overseas as well as pioneering new initiatives. In the last year and a half we’ve come alongside ministries which are at the forefront of bringing hope to the marginalised in countries like South Africa, China and Brazil. Closer to home, we have engaged in equipping youth leaders in the local churches to be able to reach and disciple the members of their youth groups. A very strong component of all of this has been prayer – both in evangelistic and discipleship initiatives- where we have seen God step in and change peoples lives.

The January school has just started. Janice, can you tell us about the school and how it is going so far?
I’m leading the January school with Steve and Jo Bishop who have just joined the DTS centre having previously worked in Argentina leading the DTS’s there. The first week of the school has gone really well. We have a total of 10 students from 4 different nations: England, Brazil, USA and Germany. We purposely chose to keep the school smaller so that we could give our full attention to all of the students. It is great to see the students coming with open minds and open hearts. Our heart is to be able to give our attention not to just run a training school but to be able to mentor and disciple these students just as Jesus did with his disciples in how he was with them as they travelled, ate together and taught them.

This New Year has also seen some new members of your team come to join the DTS centre. I’m sure this is huge encouragement for you. What is your vision for seeing the team grow and how that is part of YWAM Harpenden?

Janice - One of the things we’ve seen through leading the DTS centre is the desire and need of the whole base to have a larger team to be able to run effective schools – schools impact the life of our whole community! DTS is our lifeblood – all our new recruits come through the DTS, so we need to get it right. We also want to see a greater number who can take on pastoral care within the school.

Emmanuel - The overall vision for the growth of the team is to achieve the three fold vision God has given to us of foundation, consistency and focus. Already we’ve seen fruit in these areas as we’ve seen a stronger commitment and desire to align our DTS’s and the department to our foundational values. We are committed to see four DTS’s a year in the future - running productive schools as well as being able to equip and develop our staff and multiply our outreaches abroad.