Hi, I’m Bethany Barker. I am 21 years old and am on staff with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Idaho, USA. At the moment I am leading six month Discipleship Training Schools (DTS) within YWAM, with a focus upon Northern India. A Discipleship Training School emphasizes heart transformation and character development, not just the accumulation of knowledge. In essence, it is an intense missions training program that focuses on developing a lifestyle of passion for Jesus and compassion for the world. It is a journey to discover the heart of God and learn His ways. This involves three months on base (lecture phase) preparing and mentoring our students on the different aspects of God and Christianity and nurturing their heart for missions; then three months travelling India (outreach phase) sharing the Gospel and love of Jesus Christ.
God has blessed me with the gift of music and I have a passion to lead others into the throne room of God through praise and worship. I also dabble in admin duties and spend countless hours on Skype to various family members across the ocean.
Some more about YWAM:
“Youth With A Mission is an international volunteer movement of Christians from many backgrounds, cultures and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. Also known as YWAM (pronounced "WHY-wham"), our purpose is simply to know God and to make Him known.
When YWAM began in 1960, our main focus was giving young people opportunities to demonstrate the love of Jesus to the whole world, according to His command in Mark 16:15. Today, we still focus on youth, but we have members (known as “YWAMers”) of almost every age and many of our short-term efforts have grown into long-term endeavours that have impacted lives and nations.
YWAM has a decentralized structure that encourages new vision and the exploration of new ways to change lives through training, convey the message of the gospel and care for those in need. We are currently operating in more than 1000 locations in over 180 countries, with a staff of over 18,000”
- Taken from the official website, which can be found at www.ywam.org
So, how on earth did I end up on the other side of the world? Well, cutting the long story short... When I was 18 I took a gap year between finishing my A Levels and starting University. I was due to start the following September to study music. I also had a place at the royal Marines School of Music, and was to make my career choice closer to end of the year. During my gap year I spent three months volunteering with YWAM with friends in Las Vegas. My time in Las Vegas was short but powerful. I came back with a completely new perspective on life and the choice that I had in which to spend it. I spent the rest of my summer working and saving towards going back to America and continuing with YWAM, starting with my own DTS.
My second trip to Las Vegas was even shorter... only four days, in which my DTS was cancelled due to the small number of students. Having flown all the way out there, going home was no option. I had set out to do God’s will, to go wherever he may send me... that apparently wasn’t Las Vegas. By the end of the week I had flown from the middle of the desert, to the middle of the snowy mountains of Idaho (to another YWAM base), where I ended up finishing my DTS, spending a three month outreach in India, which you can imagine completely changed my life!
Idaho was also where I met Sam. He is an American (from the state of Oregon), and was one of the leaders on my DTS. After dating for a year, we are now engaged and will be married at UPC in early in January 2012. We will be leading this summer’s Backpacking DTS together.
I have chosen to live my life in worship and obedience to Jesus, and I want all aspects of my life to show this- including my blog and the things that I write. I am not perfect, and I don’t always get this right; but I am willing to learn, and spend my life pursuing righteousness. I love to write, and it is a pleasure and a blessing that I get to share my life with others. My blog can be found at: www.mylifemyworship.wordpress.com.
If you would like to contact me personally, feel free to drop me an email at bebop_61@hotmail.com. I would love to hear from you!
You can also check out YWAM Idaho, our ministries and our mission, at www.ywamidaho.org.