This is a book that my parents read when my brother and I were small, and I could recognise a lot of their approach to parenting as I read it. Gordon MacDonald has written several books and I have found them to be stuffed full of wisdom and insight. He is very careful to only write about things that he is living out. He shares stories, both of his successes and his learning moments and helps us think about intentionality in how we steward our family.

This book is a must read for any parent or discipler. It is very thought provoking and challenges our whole approach to training our children for freedom, giving them tools to make good choices. It is not a book that gives an A, B, C approach to parenting, but one that encourages us to look at the reasons behind what we say and do, and to make sure that we are controlling the one person we can control - ourself! We have watched the dvd series and are listening to the mp3s of it too!

Hey there! My name is Maddie Adams and I was a trainee on the October 2010 Discipleship Training School. I am one of those people who can say DTS changed my life. When I arrived in Scotland, I was full of fear and doubt and misunderstanding, but I knew that I had six months of loneliness to get through, so I may as well press on as hard as I could (Phil 3:14). Over the course of lecture phase day after day God had me lay myself down at the cross and just come into a deeper place of intimacy and trust with him. From not being able to trust God, He led me to a place where I found that I could lay my worldly life at the cross and I was reborn into the living relationship with God that I was desiring with all my heart.

During the course of DTS I had a choice, and the choice was to either want the more of God, or stay lukewarm the way I was. I chose to go after God with everything I had, and I saw the miraculous, I dreamed dreams, I saw spiritual things and that was only because I stayed so close to God and refused to let go. He spoke something very clear to me when I was on outreach and it was the word "beloved" but He told me that I needed to let myself "be-loved" by Him and since that day I have been learning to rest in my Father knowing that He loves me and He is closer than I can imagine.

During DTS I was picked up and all the worldly desires were shaken out of me, and now at the other side I can see the glory of God working through my life and how now I want to be serving Him for the rest of my life.

DTS for me was the place and time in my life where I REALLY met God for the first time. It was the place where I got to know Him as someone not something. He grew me and I'm better for it. It was the place where I made my first real friends. The place where I quit looking around at what others were doing and focused on me and God. It was the place where I fell in love with the Father. It was the best 6 months of my life and I would not trade it for anything.

-Jeff McNelly, age 18, USA

Growing up, I had a negative view of alcohol and people who abused alcohol. My heart was calloused to the brokenness that was found inside of these bars and I felt my lack of sympathy was justified. They were a lost cause and they knew what they were doing; deliberately drinking their life away. This past New Years Eve, my heart was radically challenged. I went with our team of 18 into Saltcoats (a nearby party city) to do pub ministry with the expectation that God was going to do something totally amazing in the streets. Fear was following me around as I watched people stumbling around on the dark streets. Lord, how will you use me tonight? I don’t know anything about this sort of lifestyle. I’m terrified of what could happen and I don’t know what I could possible bring to these people who can’t even think straight. Shortly after that prayer left my heart, a drunken couple was kicked out of the club a few of us were standing in front of. The boyfriend was roughly pushing his girlfriend back and forth in this small circle of people that formed. Stumbling she would fall and get up fall and get pushed into people when we entered the circle. Immediately, she was thrust into our arms and embraced. Weeping, this young girl was receiving the Fathers over whelming love. In that moment my heart was being transformed. Instead of disapproving thoughts being sown into this child of God, my best prayers were being poured into her as I held her. During those few seconds, a lifetime of judgment was being wiped away. I no longer see these young people as foolish, but children made in the image of God. I no longer judge their lifestyle, but pray for them to encounter Jesus. My prayer from that evening was to see God do something amazing in the streets. My prayer was answered, but in more ways than I expected. God did something amazing in my heart that night, as well as used me to show his love to one of his daughters.

Mandy Hinkle
California USA
18 years

I grew up as an only child in a Christian family that is very involved with our church. After graduating high school in 2010, I knew God had more for me than just community college. I had a desire to be discipled and to go into the world and make Jesus know. It turns out that YWAM and I were a perfect match! I hope to bring the kingdom to the business world someday by changing the way that business works and I believe that God has some pretty amazing ideas that He wants to see happen in the near future!

A selection of photos from the YWAM Seamill Oct 2010 DTS. A wonderful bunch of people who let God do amazing things in and through them because He loves them!