Support Ireland's Ywam Townsville DTS

Hello Everybody my name is Ireland Giberson. I am excited to announce that I am going to Ywam Townsville Australia Global Health DTS in January 2025! Ywam stands for Youth With A Mission. A Global Christian organization built on knowing God and making him known. DTS is an entry level program of YWAM and it stands for Discipleship Training School. It is a five and a half month course. In my DTS I got to choose an elective. This is something that I am passionate about. I chose the Global Health DTS. I will get a taste of some elements of global health and development from interactive sessions with trainers who are actively engaged in work in Papua New Guinea and Australia. This elective is designed to fuel my understanding of what it means to transform a community while preparing for outreach. There will be teachings on how to engage in health and wellbeing efforts in missions. I will get to practice delivering health and community development teachings, and seek to carry the heart behind health, not merely the absence of disease, but the presence of wellness in all areas of life. During my outreach portion I may have the opportunity to put this into practice by coming alongside the Medical or Dental outreaches in Papua New Guinea, or working in communities to see the presence and awareness of wellness increase. Helping people that do not have access to proper healthcare.

Here is a little more about what DTS is...

DTS (discipleship training school) is made up of 2 phases, lecture and outreach phase.

The lecture phase consists of the first 3 months focusing on knowing God and strengthening our faith. During the lecture phase each week there will be a different topic covered. These topics include relationships, identity, hearing God's voice, Bible study, nature and characteristics of God, missions and so much more! The teachings are done by missionaries who have spent years in the field.

Outreach phase is to make God known. During outreach we are actively putting into practice the knowledge and teachings that we learnt in the first three months. The outreach phase lasts 9 weeks and it will potentially be throughout Northern Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the Pacific and beyond. When in the outreach phase we are broken into teams all going to different places for different purposes. Outreach activities vary from high school programs, to working in slums, to helping promote healthy villages in Papua New Guinea, to supporting the work of YWAM Medical Ships. The outreach has a strong focus on selfless serving and building relationships with communities being the hands and feet of God and sharing our faith however we can.

I cannot wait to go and deepen my faith and spread the love of God. I would love it if you joined my journey! You can join me on my journey in a variety of ways. I will need lots of prayer as I prepare to go and while I am at YWAM Townsville. I would also ask that you prayerfully consider financially supporting me. For my DTS my goal is to raise $9,000. This includes my flights, tuition, vaccines, living expenses and outreach costs. If you have any questions at all or would like to know more feel free to reach out. I am more than happy to answer any questions that you have :). During my time and DTS journey I plan on sending out updates via email and social media to keep everyone informed and involved in what I am doing and learning. If you feel led to give I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much for taking the time to read what God is doing in my life.