By Randy Thomas

TRANSFORMATIONS EDITOR'S NOTE: We had a warm response from readers to our retrospective on King’s Mansion in the last issue of Transformations. Below is one more story about King’s that we hope will touch your heart. It’s by Randy Thomas, who directed the Discipleship Training School (DTS) there for nearly ten years. He is now a YWAM base director in Trinidad, Colorado.

On the first day of every King’s Mansion DTS everyone would meet on the lanai for breakfast. The students’ emotions ran high. Some were nervous about what they had gotten themselves into, others were excited for the same reasons – fear and courage running at the same time.

The cultural diversity was always striking – our first Chinese student sitting next to a surfer girl from Southern California; a handsome Samoan guy sitting next to a beautiful young woman from Iceland. Motives were also wide ranging: a young person who had worked and saved and sold all he had to fulfill his dream of being a missionary sitting next to a guy who was there because a judge had said “You can either go to jail or join the military or Youth With A Mission” All on the same lanai.

Old and young, male and female, married and single, rich and poor, from good families and dysfunctional ones. All eyes peeled on us as staff. I would stand in the middle of all of them – no confidence in myself but every confidence in the one who called us together.

Knowing He was father to the fatherless, water to the thirsty, vision to the visionary, shepherd to the sheep (promises from Ezekiel 34), husband to the widow, and compass for the lost. He was Emanuel God with us.

The first challenge of the school was to leave the expectations of the school right next to their dirty breakfast dishes. I told them to take their Bible, pen and paper and find some place on the lawn and ask the Lord “Why did YOU bring me here?” Quietly they would go off, many not knowing if they ever had heard the voice of the Lord. Seeing that five acres filled with young people sitting, laying, standing and worshiping will forever be imprinted on my heart.

The staff would clean up the dishes and pray for the students. A prayer meeting at the kitchen sink. YWAM’s anointing to hear God’s voice would begin for those students on that first day.

Looking over the lawn I’d begin to notice tears, shoulders quaking, arms being lifted to the sky. Then we’d come together and listen to what the Lord had said. Precious, gentle, words filled with hope and destiny.

Thus the DTS could begin with Jesus as our director. Washing those dishes and then cleaning up all the tissues from the lecture hall was always a joy.

Available at: http://www.uofnkona.edu/Transformations/pdfs/Fall03.pdf

Conforme o mandamento da grande comissão, missões começam perto de nós e vão até os confins da Terra. É neste contexto que, nossa base recebeu direto do coração de Deus, o chamado de alcançar as nações através de projetos internacionais. Dois desses projetos são o Angola e o China. Clique à baixo e conheça um pouco mais sobre os nossos projetos.

According the commandment of the great commission, missions start from near to us and go till the ends of Earth. It is based on that context, that our base has received directly from God’s heart the call to reach the nations through international projects. Two of them are Angola and China Projects. Click on the links below and know more about our projects.

Available at: http://www.uofnkona.edu/Transformations/pdfs/Fall03.pdf