This is Sydney. Hailing from the wonderful prairie land of Winnipeg, Manitoba, she’s 18 and a student in the Discipleship Training School I’m staffing. I sat down with her to ask her some questions about her story and DTS so far. I’m a huge fan of Sydney, you should be too!
So tell me something about what you were up to before your DTS?
I was finishing my high school diploma at Linden Christian and then I was working part time jobs.
What made you decide to do a DTS?
Basically I wanted to be a missionary and I kinda thought I’d go to some bible school but I didn’t really feel called to that but I kept looking at different ones in Canada but it just didn’t feel right. So I had a teacher that told me about YWAM – she did hers in Kona. So I was like searching them on the internet and found three I was debating on. And basically it came down to price. So I ended up choosing YWAM Honolulu! Best decision I’ve ever made 🙂
In what ways has being here stretched you or challenged you?
Oh boy! I think it’s stretched me and challenged me in every single way possible. It’s showing me who I’m meant to be in God and I guess I’ve been stretched in ways I never thought possible, for example I never thought I could go out and do evangelism and talk to people about God who are my age going to university. It’s kind of that idea of at home I never would have, but here I feel like it’s easier because there’s nothing to lose. You can only gain and if people don’t like me, I don’t care cause it’s not me they don’t like, it’s the idea of God they don’t like. I think it’s challenging me to like seek after God’s heart and His plans for me cause I’m such a planner and I like to have every detail figured out. With God, I don’t need to – he already has that figured out. Surrendering everything to Him and letting Him use me has been huge!
How has your relationship with Jesus changed since being here?
I would say it’s a lot more personal now. It’s not like, I don’t know how to say it, but before I’d be praying to somebody in the sky but now it’s like I’m praying to somebody who’s beside me, who’s with me.
Where are you going on Outreach and what are you looking forward to the most?
I’m going to NEPAL! I’m really excited to just like embrace God’s people and show them all the love He has for them. And grow with my team as not just a team but as a family and as the body of Christ.
What’s something you wish people knew about you?
Haha! I don’t know! People always ask me why I want to be a missionary, and I guess it’s because I want people who feel like they have no one or feel un-empowered or lonely to have someone and know that people care and they’re not alone and want to be able to share my life story with people. I get the question a lot “are you scared” but no, I’m not scared at all because I know God will provide.
Getting to walk with Sydney through her DTS had been an incredible honour. I’m excited to see where God takes her and how he uses her both here, on outreach, and back in Winnipeg.
If you want to hear more about her experience at YWAM Honolulu, you can check out her blog.