DTS

6 months. 25 weeks. 175 days. 4,200 hours. 252,000 minutes.

It’s just the beginning… falling more in love with the man in white.

Wow, it’s crazy sitting down here writing this. Just less than a year ago I wrote a post as I finalized my years in school and I said what a whirlwind.

What a whirlwind perfectly sums up the past 6 months. Now there are so many details I could go into, I’m big on details :) But those details I’d rather discuss those in person.

BOX BREAKER

What's on my heart to share is how God completely wrecked my view of him, broke boxes, and brought me into a deeper place of intimacy with him. For everyone, we are on our own paths, and it takes us a certain amount of time until we get to a breakthrough. It's pretty apparent but I was adopted, I grew up in an amazing home with amazing parents, an amazing family, and an amazing community. I couldn't have asked for anything more. Raised doing the church thing, memorizing verses, and genuinely loving my church community. Lingering in the background there was something that just never clicked for me which led me to do a DTS.

Going into DTS, which is the training school I went through, I had a million questions.

I wanted to be a better person

I wanted to mend relationships

I had goals I wanted to check off

I wanted to answer those questions about God, to be honest at that point Is He real?

Spoiler alert He definitely is :)

THE UNCOMFORTABLE

Throughout these 6 months, I’ve learned that God's timing is perfect, and just as I wrote breakthroughs happen at different moments in our lives. God strategically marks them out so a certain person at a certain time in a certain place gets to experience your breakthrough. I think for me what I needed was just a little push.

A push into the uncomfortable

A push into spiritual disciplines

A push into the unknown

When it came to DTS lecture phase (the first three months) it did exactly what it needed. Boy, I was put into uncomfortable situations. I lived with nine other girls in a very small room with one bathroom. We were challenged every day to get up at 6:00 a.m. to read our Bibles, fun fact I'm not a morning person by nature. Then I went to Peru and lived on a boat for a month in a foreign culture with new people pushing me to rely on God more than ever.

LET’S REFLECT

Let me go back to the God's timing piece I mentioned. Reflecting and praying over these 6 months I really just wanted new perspectives on my time. I could get into all the stories of healings and crazy breakthroughs that people went through in Hawaii or in the Nations but what really stood out to me was God’s overarching beautiful plan for my life. Literally, every single instance is planned to perfection even those moments that in the moment are just terrible.

To understand the overarching theme, plan, or whatever you'd like to name it you need a little background. While in Kona each room had 10 girls or boys in the room and one of those was a staff member that would mentor us and guide us into DTS. I had the privilege of being blessed with an amazing room of girls with a staff so similar to me that it was scary. Living with someone so similar to myself I began to realize how I came across to others, how to work with others, my strengths, and my weaknesses in a new light. I was super blessed as she raised me higher, taught me the importance of Sabbath, and so many other valuable life lessons about serving… she led by example.

Fast forward to outreach. I had the privilege and honor to go to Peru. God knew exactly what I needed. I was so blessed with an amazing team that had no drama, and amazing leaders that also led very well. I believe it was such a God-orchestrated thing that he placed specific people on my team so I can learn from them. I got to learn from people with personalities and stories so different from mine. And it became evident to me that he wanted me to learn patience and the significance of dying to our flesh every single day.

As Christians, we should serve.

As Christians, we just want to go low.

As Christians, we want to host the Holy Spirit.

As Christians, we should submit to leadership.

As Christians, we should walk out like Jesus did.

I felt the need to share these things because it's the overarching plan that God had for my life and he has an overarching plan for every single one in this world.

He knew I needed to be humbled

He knew I needed to work on myself

He knew I needed to work with people that were different from me.

He knew I needed to learn to serve better and to submit to leadership.

God has everything planned out perfectly for our lives. God knew I needed to be stripped away from so many comforts to understand this because when you are stuck in the middle of nowhere with no service with no bed with no comforts all you got is God and you. And in the secret place and in your intimacy with God beauty can arise.

PRESENT DAY

That leads me to present day and I guess God's not done with pushing me into the uncomfortable.

As I was praying to God what do you want for the next season of my life he said 3 years Amanda 3 years of your life laid down to missions it's what you need and what I want. My life isn’t mine but His. The world may try to tell you something different but He is the only answer.

As I'm writing this I'm mourning the fact that I won't be here with my community that has loved me and surrounded me with grace and peace but I know that God's calling on my life is perfect. He is just so perfect. I will be heading back to Kona for further training this next year and I'm trusting that God has the next two years after this year planned out perfectly for his glory but my yes is all I can do at this moment. I'm going back to answer more questions, to be more equipped for discipleship, to fall more in love with our creator. I know my future will always be tied to ministry in some way or another and to pour out, we need to be poured into. There are so many unknowns to this, yes but I know that God is going to use it perfectly and He has a plan for all of this and I trust Him.

I love you all. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to read this.

P.S. I promise that the next newsletter will be shorter :)

Amanda Troyer