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

Merry Christmas

Over the loud speaker at the Minneapolis International Airport, I heard the boarding call for my flight. This was the beginning of my new adventure. 2012 got off to a very quick start. I traveled across the globe to do a Leadership Training School at YWAM Lausanne in Switzerland, where I am now living and continuing my work as a missionary with YWAM. As I've reflected on 2012, I am so thankful for what God has done in my life in the past year and am excited to see where He leads me in 2013!

A few highlights from 2012

• Successfully completing a "Leadership Training School" (click here to read about this amazing school) through the University of the Nations (YWAM's Global University)
• Preaching in my home church in Minnesota on finding our hope in Christ.
• Sharing the Gospel with over 5,000 people in June during our "Regeneration Outreach" (click here to watch the video) during the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland.
• Successfully completing a "French Intensive Seminar" (click here to see photos) through the University of the Nations. At 8 hours a day for 4 weeks straight, it sure was intense!
• Leading the campus operations at YWAM Lausanne and learning from amazing leaders.

Thank you to those of you who faithfully pray for me and partner with me financially. It is such a privilege to work with our Father to raise up hundreds of people each year to carry the Light of the Gospel to the Nations of the earth, to share His hope and love! Thank you for being a part of the adventure!

I pray this Christmas season is filled with much joy, hope and love as we celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Merry Christmas,

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

LTS Recap

My time here in Switzerland has been incredible! God has been teaching me so much and giving me amazing vision and goals for future ministry. My apologies for terrible communication since arriving in Europe. Every time I thought I could maybe write an update, something else came up. Now, I'd love to catch you up to date!

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone who helped me financially to get over here to Switzerland and for making this school a reality! The night before I flew over to Switzerland, I was still in need of $195. Before falling asleep, I asked God to provide the remainder before I boarded my flight and I felt like He said that He would provide every penny I needed. The next morning, I woke up and found out that someone had donated exactly $195.30. How cool is that?! God is so faithful! He provided me the exact amount and even .30 cents extra! So thank you for your prayers and support. I am greatly blessed.

I arrived in Switzerland without jet lag (praise God!) and was greeted by a friend who did her DTS in Pismo Beach a year ago. I had an excellent traditional Swiss meal, which obviously included cheese. The next day I arrived at YWAM Lausanne and shortly after dove right into the Leadership Training School. It has been an incredible three months (and has gone SO fast!) and God has taught me so much and I’ve met many amazing new friends! Throughout the course, we went over various different topics such as integrity as a leader, Jesus’ leadership styles, a Biblical Worldview, the character of a leader, problem solving, decision making, planning and much more. Along with classes, we worked very hard on our "final projects", which is basically a five-year ministry plan that is very intense. God has been revealing Himself to me in amazing ways and I feel like He's been speaking to me a lot about what He wants me to do next, which I'm excited to share with you soon! We finished our final lecture about 45 minutes ago and graduate on Monday evening. It's weird to think the school is already over. I know without a doubt in my mind that I was supposed to do this school and am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to learn from amazing leaders from around the world.

Thank you again for your prayers and support.

God Bless,

Tyler Dean

Amazing Footage

I am currently at a seminar in Tijuana, Mexico with Grassroots News International and I want to share with you the amazing news they are sharing from around the world, including a highlight from a rescue that was made in Japan nine days after the earthquake and tsunami. Feel free to browse around their website (I'm sure you could spend hours watching amazing videos):  http://www.grassrootsnews.tv
Enjoy....

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!

CRAZY TESTIMONY OF HEALING IN HAITI ALONG WITH VIDEO FOOTAGE!

Hey!

I just wanted to share this video with you of what God is doing in Haiti currently. Click on the link below:

http://video.christianpost.com/20100302/revival-in-haiti-a-call-to-fasting-and-prayer

Also-I wanted to share this testimony of a miracle that took place at YWAM Haiti recently! The following is a story from Keturah Snow, a full-time missionary with YWAM Haiti.

"There is a little girl here at our refugee camp here who has a broken back and has been paralyzed and staying at our clinic here at the YWAM base in Saint Marc, Haiti." said Keturah Snow, a missionary with YWAM HAITI. "Our staff have been caring and praying for her. We got the news today that she cannot have surgery and if somehow she can, it won't be for awhile. Those that were with her when she got the news began to pray for her, and I would just like to share with you how big my God is...She moved her foot, and then stood up, and then walked!!!! Who needs medical school when you have Jesus!!"

What a cool testimony! I thought this was awesome! I am extremely excited to go back to Haiti in May with Project Sixty-One, the ministry I work with here at our YWAM base in Pismo Beach.

Talk to you soon! God Bless,

Tyler Dean
YWAM PISMO BEACH & CENTRAL COAST
http://www.ywampismobeach.org/project61/