Outreach News!
Last week was arrival week! Twenty families made it to Kona for the start of our DTS (Discipleship Training School) season. It’s so evident that they are hungry for God’s touch and want to grow as much as possible through lectures, team building, small groups, one on one time, intercessory prayer, worship and outreach training. It will be a full eleven weeks before going on outreach. I can tell that this will be an amazing group! With kids, we have nearly 150 people in Family DTS.
A few of our students
As promised, I want to share with you the places our students will be going. The locations are Burundi, Mexico, Philippines (two different locations) and Uruguay! Jeff and I are so excited that God has led us to take a team of four to five families (plus ours) to URUGUAY for two months in April and May!
Last June, Jeff went to surf early one morning, and a guy with a heavy accent asked Jeff if he had an extra board and would be willing to take him surfing. One of Jeff’s greatest joys is being able to take people out to experience God’s beauty in the ocean, watch the sunrise and have deep conversations while waiting for a set of waves. He and this blue-eyed Chilean ended up going every morning for four days, and they recognized that they shared a heart for the same Jesus and the same type of ministry: helping families and children. Despite the fact that Jeff and I had planned to go to Honduras to scout out another location for FDTS (Family DTS), we shifted gears when Cristian invited us to La Paloma, Uruguay. Once there, our hearts were woven together with Cristian and his wife Kathe. Watching them interact with the children and the families they had spent eight years building relationships with moved us deeply. Not only did we feel like we could bring families to their base, we felt like we could help them and learn a lot from them.
Fast-forward to a week ago when we had dinner with a new FDTS staff couple, Johnny and Britain. These two twenty-year-olds have been married less than a year and have been looking for a place to land where they can learn through mentorship how to be married well. As we were talking with them, Britain shared about how she got connected with YWAM. When she was fourteen, she went on a mission trip to Costa Rica and met a group from YWAM who was doing their outreach. She got really close with this outreach group, and they inspired her to do a DTS when she was older. She showed us a picture with one of the missionaries she met, and we got so excited! It just happened to be Anita, a student of Kathe and Crisitan’s we met at their base in La Paloma! She did her DTS in Uruguay when they were in the beginning stages of pioneering the base in Uruguay and their outreach was in Costa Rica. That’s how she met Britain. Kathe and Cristian spent a lot of meaningful time with Britain as well! We know this connection is just another way God is confirming to us to partner with them!
Britain and Anita in 2017
The small but lovely base in Uruguay
Cristian (Chilean) and Kathe (Colombian) moved to Uruguay in 2015. Since moving, they have been establishing relationships with the community, especially families and their children. They have started a free surf school and lead a youth group – both are ministries that function alongside their DTS that runs throughout the year. The families they serve come to the base quite often for meals and learning about God, but mostly they come to be loved. We feel so privileged that they have invited us to join them.
Some of the kids who come to the base regularly
Their hopes for us when we bring a team is that we could support their current ministries, help them with some practical ground work and be able to build a home for a family that they have been serving these last eight years. You may remember the kids from a previous newsletter.
The family we hope to help build a home for. Please pray for everything needed in order for this to happen!
It’s hard to convey how special the Beltran family, their students and their ministry are, but we know that God has connected us so that his heart can be communicated to those He has been loving for so long through the YWAM base in Uruguay. One verse that stands out to us in this partnership with them is:
Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. Hebrews 10:24
Sofia (the oldest Beltran child), Kathe, Hermencia (Kathe’s mom who also is part of the ministry) and two DTS students (Anita! y Renata)
The Beltran family: Kathe, Cristian, Sofia, Tomas and Hannah
We are ready to head to Uruguay as a family, and as I’m sure you may imagine, we need help! I shared at the beginning of our YWAM journey the following:
“God has been faithful to lead us gently and has been breaking down our pride that says to not ask for help. God is stretching us in EVERY way. We have learned that mission work is the job of the entire body of Christ, and we need to invite people to journey with us. We’ve been invited to physically go, and some may feel called to send us with financial help. We hope many will pray with us and for us.
We are looking for partners who are like-minded and want to see the good news shared. We are looking for people to help us bring freedom in Christ to those with whom we come into contact.”
Many of you have been helping us monthly through financial donations, and we know that everywhere we go, it’s as if you were also doing the work we do. It’s a labor of love through beautiful relationships that connect all of us to one another and ultimately to Christ.
If any of you would like to give a special gift to send our family, we are looking to raise $25,000 for this outreach. It will cover airfare, housing, food and ministry expenses for our family. We are still on the journey of trust and trying to be obedient when He asks us to invite others to come alongside us. God reminds us often that this is not just our story, but it is his story.
We commit to faithfully steward this calling of sharing God’s love with others. If you feel led to be part of it, the best place to give is through our YWAM account:
https://ywamkona.my.site.com/staff/s/donate?id=6938
It’s also okay to send gifts (not tax-deductible) to our PayPal (Use family and friends) or Venmo.
https://www.paypal.me/toriswan
Or use the PayPal QR Code:
We have been challenged to love the dying, lost and hurting with our whole lives. Thank you so much for the ways you have loved, prayed for and supported us until now. Thank you for prayerfully considering helping us get to Uruguay as a family so we can train and mentor other families.
Sending love to you all!
The Swans
Photo credit goes to Jonathan Coates, Zech’s friend.