Greetings from Seoul, South Korea

Greetings from Seoul, South Korea!

As my fever was raging wild and my head feeling like it was going to explode, I laid in bed extremely sick with the flu last Friday. I got a message from my Base Director asking me how I was feeling and also asking me to pray about something. That something was going to South Korea…in less than one week!

Loren Cunningham who founded Youth With A Mission (YWAM) back in 1960 is going on a speaking tour around South Korea. He will be speaking about missions and sharing the vision of YWAM. Loren called our Base Director a few weeks ago and asked if YWAM Lausanne would like to send a small team to Korea to join him on the tour. That’s the long story short on why I’m here.

Our Team

Our team of four landed in Seoul, South Korea about 5 hours ago after a lonnnngggg flight (that I didn’t sleep on – going on 30 hours of being awake..!) God blessed me with a free flight and all of the in-country costs are taken care of! It’s an incredible blessing! I believe God has me here in Korea for a purpose. That purpose is to share my story with other young Korean’s on how God has transformed my life and how He’s using an ordinary guy like me to reach people who have never heard the Gospel before. I’m excited to see how God works in these next two weeks! You can click here to read a little more about the trip!

Please Pray

Please keep our team of four in your prayers these next two weeks while we travel to different cities and churches everyday to speak. Each one of us on the team has been sick leading up to this trip, so pray for protection over sickness, for travel mercies and for God to reveal Himself greatly to the youth of Korea!

God Bless,

Tyler Dean

A New Season

From Learning French to Leading Operations

In my last update, I shared how I was participating in a "French Intensive Seminar" here at YWAM Lausanne. Well, I sucessfully completed the course - whew!  It was intense to say the least. I'm glad I took on the challenge to do the seminar to get a basic foundation in French. This photo on the left is the students/staff who were involved with the French Seminar.

Just a few days after the French Seminar ended, I took on the role of leading the operations here at YWAM Lausanne. It's been going really well so far and I have been learning a lot. I feel like this is very equipping for the future as I continue in ministry. It's fun to be able to work with so many different people and to see how God is always working in peoples' lives.

Prayer Day

We recently had a "Prayer Day" (click here to read more about it) here at YWAM Lausanne on the 26th of October.  Four times per year the staff, students, guest speakers and visitors here at YWAM Lausanne all gather for a full day of prayer, worship and fasting.  We pray for various things that are happening around the world, our outreach teams that are in multiple countries, our city we live in and whatever else God puts on our hearts to pray for. It's amazing to focus an entire day to prayer. This photo above is from a prayer day. We have a gigantic world map that we walk over and pray for nations that God puts on our hearts.

One thing that I know is true:  Prayer changes things!!

~ THANK YOU ~

I'm very grateful for those of you who have partnered with me prayerfully and financially in ministry. It's amazing to see people being ignited with the Gospel, being equipped to share the Word of God and seeing young men and women who are passionately taking the Gospel to the Nations. You help to make this possible. Thank you!

God Bless,

Tyler Dean

HELP ME WIN A FREE FLIGHT!

Hey Friends!

This week is "National Volunteer Week" and my traveler insurance company called International Volunteer Card is running a contest for volunteers to have a chance to win a free flight! A friend of mine wrote a short essay explaining why I deserve to be nominated to win this free flight and I was recently notified from Int'l Volunteer Card that I was nominated as one of their "Top Ten Volunteers" to enter into the voting phase of the contest!

Here is where you come into play:

The voting opened this morning (Monday, April 16th). I have until Thursday, April 19th to collect as many votes as possible. Would you please take a 30 seconds to vote for me and spread the word to your friends to vote for me, too? This would be such a huge blessing to me as I travel quite often.

To vote, CLICK HERE!

Thank You and God Bless,

Tyler Dean

What Is A "DTS"?

Since some of you may not know what a "DTS" is, I wanted to explain it to you!

A DTS is also known as a Discipleship Training School, which is Youth With A Mission's (YWAM's) main training school they offer. A DTS is a requirement for applying as YWAM staff, and serves as a prerequisite to all other training programs within YWAM. The DTS is offered at YWAM locations ALL over the world. Some schools have a special focus on particular areas of ministry or nations.

Similar to the DTS is the Crossroads Discipleship Training School (CDTS) that focuses on the needs and concerns of students over age 30, such as second-career people and families with children.

The Discipleship Training School (DTS) is designed to help you understand God more deeply, live more like Jesus and identify your unique gifts and purpose to use in missions. DTS is an intensive, residential training course which begins with an 11 or 12 week classroom/lecture phase, followed by an 8-12 week outreach phase. DTS emphasizes cross-cultural exposure and global awareness, preparing students to answer the call to "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations" Matthew 28:19.

You may be asking, "Where can I do a DTS?"

There are 300+ locations around the world (in over 150 countries) where you could potentially do your DTS. That does not include the bases that don't run training schools. YWAM has over 1,600 bases around the world with over 22,000 full-time missionaries (I think those numbers are correct...?).

I suggest that if you are interested in doing a Discipleship Training School (DTS), that you check out YWAM's main website at: http://www.ywam.org. Here you can search by regions or specific countries in the world as well as the time of year you'd like to do yours at.

My DTS Experience

In January of 2008, I took a leap of faith and did my DTS here at YWAM Pismo Beach, where I am now a full-time missionary with YWAM.

I arrived in California on January 4, 2008, not knowing what the Lord had in store for me. I went to college for one semester in Minnesota but did not like it and didn't know what I wanted to do and I knew that there was something better for me to do. The first week of my DTS, I knew that I was in the right place!

Throughout my DTS, I got grounded in the Word and my relationship with Jesus absolutely exploded. I went to southeast Asia for my two month outreach, which was absolutely incredible.

I recommend a DTS to anyone who isn't sure what he/she wants to do or is called to do. My DTS helped me figure out what I was passionate about, what my strengths were and helped me get rooted in the Word of God.

Once again..."Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations" Matthew 28:19.

A Man Of God

Last week, I felt like the Lord was nudging me to write a few blog posts this week. My first thought was, "a few posts in ONE week?!" I thought that was crazy. It's hard enough for me to write a few posts in a months time. So this morning, I still had no idea what to write about but then the Lord put something on my heart to share. I want to tell you about a man of God, how he's shaped my life and how you can pray for him!

Tim Ramey is the father of one of my best friends. In October of 1998, he received a call as a first responder and volunteer firefighter to a house fire. Just as the crew was finishing up and getting ready to leave, the chimney of the house collapsed. It fell on Tim. He should have died that night, and multiple times in the following weeks.

I remember waking up from the sound of an ambulance late that night, or should I say, early that morning. This was weird for me because I rarely woke up during the night and I am still like that to this day. I remember laying in my bed that night, at 10 years old, praying for whoever was in that ambulance. I later fell back asleep and woke up later that morning around 8:00. I walked downstairs to see my father sitting on the couch. I knew something wasn't right. My dad told me what had happened. Tim was the person in that ambulance who I was praying for. I was devastated. I couldn't imagine what my best friend, Jonathan, and his family was going through.

Tim was in the hospital for roughly the next two years.

Ti has had to battle a lot since the accident but the Lord has used him to impact so many peoples lives. He has most definitely impacted mine.

I'm sure Tim began to impact my life before I can even remember. All I know is that it started at a young age, whether it was him paying Nerf Basketball with Jonathan and I in the living room at age seven or teaching us how to be kind to others. As I got older, I could see more and more of a person striving to be Christ-like.

During Tim's recovery from his horrific accident, I could even see it then. That is amazing!

When Tim was finally able to leave the hospital after about two years, his brother-in-law (also known as Uncle Joe to Jonathan and I) drove him from Minneapolis to our hometown of Grand Marais, Minnesota, in an ambulance with Nancy (Tim's amazing wife) in the back with Tim. When they arrived to Grand Marais, hundreds of people were lining the street, clapping, cheering and holding signs, welcoming Tim, Nancy and the rest of the Ramey family home. How cool! Do you think Tim is an inspirational man of God? I think so!

I remember the first time Tim went to Sierra Leone, Africa. All I can say is wow! Tim, a paraplegic, going to one of the poorest, if not the poorest countries in the entire world! He didn't just go to Sierra Leone once either. He went multiple times. That truly inspired me. Even though I was young, I really wanted to go. I wanted to be like that...sold out for Heavenly Father!

Tim has and continues to play a big role in my life. When I was younger, I believe Tim was one of the people who planted that seed in me to be a missionary, even if I didn't realize it at that time. I thank you, Tim, for planing that seed then later watering it and encouraging me to be a full-time missionary. I wouldn't trade what I do for anything!

Currently, Tim is in the hospital. He had to go in for a few surgeries to try to take out an infection that is basically trying to take over his body. There have been a few complications with blood clots, which isn't good but overall, I think it's going alright. He's hoping to be home in a weeks time.

Here is where you and I come into play. Here is our role in this situation. We pray! We can pray for a quick and safe recover and that all of the infection would be gone. We can be praying that Tim would be encouraged and to find joy in this difficult situation. We can also be praying for Nancy and the rest of the family. The power of prayer is incredible - I have seen it first hand in my own life. Let's partner in prayer together and pray for this man of God and our brother in Christ.

Thank you, Tim, for planting those seeds in me and watering them. Thank you!

Do you like coffee & dessert?

Hey Friends!

How are you? It’s been busy over here on the west coast but things are going quite well. I just wanted to write you a quick update of what’s been going on with me.

I’m excited that I am able to go to my hometown in northern Minnesota for the holidays to spend time with my family and friends. While I’m home, I will be hosting a Coffee & Dessert Night on January 9^th at 6:30 PM. I would love for you to come! During the evening, I will be sharing about what I’ve done in the past year with YWAM, what next year holds, as well as what the Lord has been teaching me. We will finish off the evening with good ole’ fashion fellowship, having coffee or tea and a yummy dessert together! Look for information on the evening below.

In my last update, I briefly explained about the disaster relief training school I did called RescueNet. I’ve received my certificate of achievement, meaning I’ve passed the course, which I am thrilled about! I am now in the process of applying to be on the RescueNet team. I will be sure to update you after the application process is complete.

Currently, I am in the process of setting up a few outreaches for next spring. We are taking a youth group to San Francisco to do homeless and human trafficking ministry. I’m excited because this is the same youth group that we took to San Francisco last year so it’ll be fun to see how they’ve grown in the past year. I recently had the opportunity to go and visit the youth group a few weeks ago and the students seem excited for the upcoming outreach. I will also be leading a team back to Haiti with a church in our local area. I’m really excited for this outreach because we’re going to be doing a house build for a few families and also because I felt like I learned so much the last time I went to Haiti and how to lead a team better. It will also be so much fun to see my friends from Haiti again!

COFFEE & DESSERT NIGHT INFORMATION:

WHO’S INVITED: You! Feel free to invite anyone!

WHAT WILL HAPPEN: An evening of fellowship & yummy desserts.

WHEN IS IT: Sunday, January 9, 2011 at 6:30 PM

WHERE IS IT: Grand Marais Evangelical Free Church (120 East 5^th Street, Grand Marais, MN 55604)


I hope to see you there!
Blessings,


Tyler Dean

A Simple Hello....

Last Friday after dinner around 7:00, I was running late on my way over to a young adult church service. I knew if I didn't stop and get coffee, I would have definitely fallen asleep.

As I was at Starbucks waiting for my latte, I saw a young man about my age, who was wearing a black fleece North Face jacket, who was on crutches also waiting for his coffee. I noticed that his right leg had very recently been amputated right above the knee. He looked tired, worn out and just plain down....

Immediately, God put it on my heart to talk to him...to say a simple hello. As I was wrestling with the fear of man to go speak with him, the lady who was making coffee yelled out, "Tyler, your latte is ready-thank you!"

I went up to the counter and grabbed my coffee. I walked out the door, got into my car, turned the key and drove off....

...Why...?

Why didn't I take a few minutes to talk to this young man...to say a simple hello. Why?

I don't know if the Lord would have lead me to just say hello, to encourage him or if He would have lead me to pray for him. I don't know what I would have prayed...maybe for God to meet him where he was at in that moment...Possibly for God to heal his right leg...for it to grow back completely..? I don't know. Maybe he wouldn't have even replied back to my simple hello. I do not know....

I guess I will never know....

This has stuck in my head since that Friday evening around 7:00. I've thought about it a lot. I pray that God puts that young man back into my path once again so I can say that simple hello...so I could possibly even pray for him!

Some of you may have experienced something similar. My prayer for you, too, is that we could both be bold, obey God and get rid of that fear of man...to say that simple hello...and possibly even pray for him....