YWAM Thailand ~ National Office

Three and a half years ago, while several Partners' staff were sitting in a small bamboo hut in the Umphiem Refugee camp, a dream was born to see more discipleship take place among the young Karen in the hills along the Thai-Burma border.

Inside the refugee camps in Thailand, there are thousands of Karen young people who, after finishing school, often end up stuck inside the camps with little to do. What if some of these youth could be given a chance to spend their time doing the most essential thing in life - getting to know God? And thus, the Relief and Development DTS for Karens was born.

Discipleship Training Schools (DTS) in general aim to prepare messengers of the Gospel, helping people to know God in depth. The goal is to form Christian character while establishing Biblical relationships between the student and God, and between the student and his family and friends. The emphasisis on developing a daily walk with God rather than to accumulate information. Lecture phase is followed by several months of active evangelism. The Relief and Development DTS does all of this plus includes an additional four weeks of teaching on topics such as farming, healthcare, sanitation, and weaving. Our DTS is run in a small Karen village called "Way Te Loo" less than an hour's drive from Mae Sot, about 6 hours north-west of Bangkok. Three bamboo buildings make up the DTS "campus" which is surrounded by beautiful farmland making it a very peaceful place.

On October 3rd, 2007, we started our third DTS in Way Te Loo. This year we have 7 students and 6 staff. We’ve had a great time together so far learning and experiencing the Father Heart of God with Bones Anderson as the speaker. Please pray for our new students. DTS and the concepts they are learning is so new to all of them. Pray for them to open their hearts widely for what God wants to do in their lives. Our staff is really inspired after the DTS Workshop we had at our place in August. We thank God for the inspiration and friendship we experienced with more than 70 people serving in DTS’es in Vietnam, The Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand. Our base was also blessed financially with a gift of more than 46,000 Baht (US$1500) which was an answer to our prayer and desire for a LDC projector. God is so faithful!

Three of the seven months will be spent sharing the Gospel with the needy Karen in the mountains. These people often have nothing else to eat other than rice and chillies and many cannot read or write. Our hope is that the additional weeks of teaching covering the more "practical" topics will give the students tools that they can use when they reach out to those living under difficult conditions.