A DTS is basically considered a sort of foundational training for YWAM, and it is required for any long term participation in the organization. The training consists of around 12 weeks of lecture where you learn about who God is, what he’s like, spiritual warfare, missions training, etc. and in some case there may be local outreaches. There are also small groups and you will be assigned a staff who does a weekly one on one with you. After the 12 weeks of lecture (in some cases longer or shorter depending on the nature of the program and if God has “spoken” to the leaders to go on outreach before the end of their lecture phase), there are 8-12 weeks of outreach, often in a poor country (but not always) where you will put what you have learned during lecture to use. Activities include visiting nursing homes, orphanages, hospitals, other ministries and you would either simply visit them, or sing worship songs or play skits. Your mileage will vary depending on what the focus of your DTS is (if there is a special focus at all), and the region the base itself is called to. Vaccinations are strongly recommended if traveling to a developing country (and chances are, you will)! Inquire beforehand where you will go so you may prepare for this as if you come from Asia and doing a DTS in Europe or other Western countries, vaccinations tends to be more expensive. Also, be prepared for very hot weather with little relief if you come from colder countries and are unused to hot climates, since it just so happens that a lot of these poor, developing countries are in tropical regions.

Now to get into a DTS it is very important for you to know how YWAM defines discipleship. The reason for this is DTS is more training than discipleship! Based on my experience with YWAM, I believe they define discipleship as teaching them how to do missions. DTS does provide very good training if you are interested in becoming a career missionary (and by that I mean being supported by a church or organization, not as a tent making missionary). Keep in mind this is their selection criteria, despite what YWAM members/leaders will tell you!

As for their selection criteria, YWAM isn’t completely open about their selection criteria because they’ll tell you if God wanted you to do it, then you will be accepted. However a closer look at their DTS application (which there are no universal standards, each base makes their own application but they all contain similar questions) will reveal what exactly they’re looking for:

Ministry Experience: things like your experience in ministry such as working in church, etc.

Calling: What is your calling, and does that calling match the base’s focus.

Support: Source of funding, like church support or a group of friends/family member who has pledged to support you.

Strangely, ministry experience is actually not that important of a selection criteria for them because they’re looking for someone with a willingness to serve. So if you have no ministry experience, then be honest about this and display a willingness to learn. Doing a DTS counts as ministry experience anyways.

Calling is probably more important because they want someone who is called into missions and are willing to do whatever it takes to reach out to those in need. However it helps to make sure that your calling matches the base’s focus because sometimes they get too pent up in their own calling.

Support is the most important thing they look for, despite what they will tell you! What YWAM members will always tell you is that no one has been denied or kicked out of a DTS due to finances, but I suspect they probably use other reasons (like God said no). The truth is, God will provide for your needs no matter how great the amount, like a good father would, however YWAM leadership may not always share that belief. Therefore if you have problems with finances but you really want to do a DTS (and you believe God will bless you for it), keep your financial issues to yourself and tell them that you have the money if you believe that you will have it by the time you start the program (since the application process and any subsequent visa process takes at least 6 months, and DTS leaders isn’t known for their efficiency in processing applications!). Do know that you will not be allowed to work during the DTS (and your visa would not allow it either), but some “fund raising” may be conducted in your free time. Do know that if you run out of money, or it is clear to them that you have no money, they will not wait for God to provide. They will expel you. The most time you can expect for them to give you is right before outreach.

Finally, do not do a DTS to seek help, and if you are (and you believe that the ministry opportunities will help you), keep it to yourself. Otherwise be prepared to explain how a DTS will help you deal with your own problems and make you a better person. YWAM have a very different definition of discipleship than what an average troubled teen/needy person would expect. If it is clear to them that you are more work than they care to give, they will either not accept you, or expel you “for the good of the entire team”.

Bottom Line: Do a DTS to get training in doing missions work (and perhaps pursue a career in YWAM or other missions organization), but if you are seeking discipleship, your best friend (if he/she is a Christian) is probably much better at this than YWAM will care to give. Do expect a budget of around 4000 euros for a DTS in Europe, or about 3-5000 US dollars for a DTS in the US. A DTS in Kona may be upwards of 8000 USD or more!

In order to lower cost and improve production yield (and therefore numbers), manufacturers in the late 1800′s and the early 1900′s divided all the tasks required for the manufacturing of an item (let’s say a car) into small tasks that can be performed quickly and with a minimum of skill. As such companies would hire a large number of unskilled laborers who work in these factories for 10-12 hours a day for low pay, and conditions were so horrible that later on the government had to step in to improve things.  Today, manufacturing is a very efficient operation, and while workers today are given more respect, the bottom line is that manufacturing is all about efficiency, while quality generally takes a back seat (I will however point out that many companies in the US strive to maximize both quality and efficiency, in order to meet demands).

You might wonder why I would give a lesson on the history of manufacturing. Well, the simple truth is, having seen many missionaries work in Taiwan I see that the whole idea of missions work has turned into a manufacturing operation. A missionary would aggressively preach the gospel, and then leads a few people to Christ, and ultimately plants a church. This all seems very impressive to supporters and are often used as ammunition to get supporters back home to commit more support. Things like “10,000 people accepted Christ this year/month/week” sounds very impressive, and if done by an eloquent person, I’d be inclined to donate to the cause since I’d think I was doing my part in building the kingdom of God. While I wouldn’t doubt the numbers, since it is entirely possible to save that many people (if not more!) in a given year using the correct marketing technique, being organized, and having a very charismatic attitude. My only question is, is it possible for one man to care for the spiritual needs of 10-50 thousand people without resorting to some kind of a corporate management style? After all, Christians have been brought up with the idea that “we have got to save them all, because too many people are unsaved” which is true, but what we should do is raise up workers who will diligently tend to each and every person they minister to (and I would recommend no more than 5 people at a time) where they are involved in every step of their spiritual growth. In contrast an “assembly line mentality” would basically turn a church into a factory, where unsaved person is lured to the church by whatever means, and bombarded with all sorts of generic questions and statements which would get a decent yield. Then perhaps a congregation is formed (after enough people follows) and a generic “spiritual growth” is given that may (or may not) leave people spiritually bewildered. Those who don’t understand are often left behind, since it’s too much work for one man to look after more than 5 people at a time anyways. The end result of this is a church that grows like wildfire, but those churches ends up being lukewarm because they see no reason to be anymore than lukewarm, as being “saved” doesn’t automatically erase any past curses resulting from a fallen world!

Unsaved people are not products or commodity are to be processed in an assembly line. Remember when God made us he did not create a factory that stamped out generic people that looks exactly the same. In fact he worked like a master craftsman, paying attention to every detail and not giving up until we are exactly as God intended us to be. Leading people to Christ should be the same too, since God has specifically tasked us to “make disciples of all people, baptizing them in the name of the holy spirit”. While it will be slow and unimpressive to only save 5 or 10 people in a 10 year period, I guarantee that those Christians will much less likely to be lukewarm than Christians that came out of an assembly line! Furthermore, should we ever worry about support and finances since God promised that he will take care of all of our needs? Should we ever compromise our principles because some supporters demanded result, or that the 1-5 people that you have been working on is taking several years? A custom made guitar sells for millions of dollars, because the buyers knows that the builder has taken great care in building the instrument and therefore it’s worth the cost. People should be built up like a custom made instrument, not cheap mass-produced clones.

This obsession with the end times isn’t exactly new. If you google anything that has to do with end times, you will find that throughout history various people (mostly cults) have “predicted” the end of the world. Some Christians believed that June 6, 1666 will be the end of the world because of the 666 in the book of Revelations. There was also one instance that I know of where a comet (hale bopp, I believe, correct me if I am wrong) that came close to the earth sometime around 1997 and it inspired a cult known as the “Heavens Gate Cult” to commit mass suicide because they believed that the comet was a spaceship that came to take away the “faithful followers” and everyone else would die in some horrible disaster. The truth is, they’re the only one that died.

Then there is the 2012 Mayan prediction. Somehow in the last two years there was the idea that the Mayan calendar will end in December of 2012 and life as we know it will end. There are somehow the idea that ancient civilizations knew more than we do regarding the end times, perhaps due to aliens? The idea was that planet X or Nibiru will come around and cause all sorts of disaster. Some even suggested that the planet will collide with Earth and kill mankind, while others suggested that a comet will hit the earth, or that solar activities will plunge mankind into a dark age.

I believe we have been deceived by Satan, who owns this world. Death comes from Satan and he is obsessed with death because he knows he is going to be in hell for eternity, and therefore hates us for it. So he tempted the first man and woman to sin and therefore bring death into the world. For thousands of years, we came to accept death as a “necessity” and it’s just a fact of life. Then Jesus came and defeated death at the cross and reconciled us with God. Obviously Satan isn’t happy about this so he fills our head with the idea that everyone will die soon for whatever reason, in order to keep us away from what God truly wants us to experience, which is life.

I have met many Christians who would happily take a bullet between the eyes for the sake of the Gospel, yet would hesitate at the thought of actually living for the gospel. God’s plan for us is to live a fulfilled life, so that our lives would be a testimony of what God has done in our lives. Some Christians would go to dangerous countries, where being a Christian is a capital crime, seemingly for the chance to be martyred for the Gospel. I do not think it’s what God wants us to do.

God gave each of us gifts and talents in various areas, and he did so in order that we may work as a team, and life a happy and fulfilled life in doing so. Some are called to be doctors, others to be lawyers, scientists, construction workers, relief workers, social work, store clerks, entrepreneurs, and many more. I believe we are to live missional lives but it doesn’t necessarily have to be “missions” work or even purposely put ourselves in situations where we may have to die for the sake of the Gospel. There are other religions that preach similar things (like Islam) but every religion leads to death, because it gives false hope to have a relationship with God while denying the very thing that we crave and need.

So please, LIVE for the Gospel, because it is what God wants. Find out what you like doing, what you’re gifted in, and make every effort to make a career out of it. I assure you God will use that to accomplish great things.

Introduction

Object: To find the correlation between cannon angle and distance achieved.

Hypothesis: There are little correlation between angle fired and distance achieved, due to the randomness of the “obstacles”.

There is a game known as kitty cannon on the internet. The object of the game is to basically control the angle of the cannon with the up or down arrow key, then press space bar to fire. There is a red bar that goes in and out which indicates power. When the cannon are fired, the poor helpless kitty is shot out and will encounter the following obstacle:

Spike: The spike impales the kitty and ends the shot.

Venus fly trap: The fly trap eats the kitty, and ends the shot.

Trampoline: The trampoline will bounce the kitty up, however the bounce is exactly like a trampoline, which means the faster the kitty comes in, the faster it bounces out.

TNT: The crate of explosive causes the kitty to fly higher. Incoming angle or speed does not affect the amount of boost, but a kitty with a faster horizontal velocity gets a faster boost, whereas a slow kitty just gets shot up in the sky.

Bomb on a balloon: Has the exact same effect as the TNT, but the balloon hovers at random height. It does not matter if the kitty hits the bomb on the way up or down, the effects are the same (which defies the law of physics).

The premise is to get the highest horizontal distance possible (there are also challenges for the lowest horizontal distance possible). The natural question is, does the angle of the cannon affect the distance obtained in any way, and what angle would give the best chance of getting the 4000+ feet some have claimed to get?

Therefore the purpose of this experiment is to find out what is the best angle to shoot from, assuming maximum power is used.

Experiments

The experiment is conducted on an Acer 5920G laptop, with 2Gig of ram, Intel T7300 CPU, ATI HD 4950 video card with 512 GDDR3, and a 160G SATA hard drive. The game used is found on http://www.addictinggames.com/kittencannon.html .

Ten trials are used, with an interval of 5 degrees, from 10 degree (minimum) to 60 degree (maximum). To ensure constant power, the first result is discarded since there is no way to ensure that the power will be exactly the same for each trial. However the game allows a way of ensuring constant power, by pressing and holding space after each trial, the game will fire the kitty at 90% power. However there is no way to adjust the angle which is why the first result is always discarded.

No kitten or cats are harmed during this experiment.

Result

Conclusion

It would appear that there are little correlation between cannon angle and distance achieved, as it is just a matter of luck. However, the average distance achieved peaks out at around 35 degree, possibly due to the attribute of some of the obstacles. Moreover, it appears that very large distances are possible on any angle, given enough luck. Therefore there are little correlation between maximum distance achieved and angle of the cannon; however it appears that 35 degree gives the best chance of having a high average distance.

I have been praying and researching about a possibility of leaving Taiwan again in pursuit of opportunities to reach out to Muslims, but to experience other cultures at the same time. I have a few options however I want to commit this to prayer. I am sure that God would be delighted for me to leave Taiwan and receive opportunities to reach out to Muslims, and also to live the life that I am meant to live, and use the gift that are given to me by God for the benefit of mankind. My options now is to study for a master’s degree in either Geology or Chemistry. I hope to do this in Europe because the tuition of some countries are very low and it allows me the opportunity to get to know other students, many of whom will be Muslim, in order to fulfill the goals of reaching out to them, but also developing my God-given gifts to its fullest potential. In order for me to study in Europe, I must learn their language and take a language test (similar to TOEFL, but for German, French, Danish, etc.). My options now are to get enough money for 2 months of language study tuition, which I have, and enough for the cheapest forms of accommodation that are available for a period of time (2 months) even if it means sacrificing certain comforts. I have found a language school in Berlin which only requires around 300 euros a month for intensive language studies which is enough to get a language study visa. Some have suggested studying language in Taiwan, which I will while I am still here, if a free language class is available in German, however I will attend the Spanish class next week at the rock. I do feel however in order to be most effective in learning German, I must be in an environment where using German is mandatory, and not many people speak English in Berlin which is the perfect environment for this kind of thing. My plan is to study language for around 1 year, then take language tests and apply for a university.

Now I want to request a prayer from you guys. Please pray for God to reveal to me the proper timing for this kind of thing, because I have to make the plan at least 6 months ahead of time in order to allow for things such as visa and other administrative work, and I would prefer to go during an off season in order to save on travel costs (and alleviate any possible headache from not being able to find a flight). Also pray that if God wants me to go now (I can set things into motion now, might not be able to leave tomorrow but I should be able to in 3 months) that God will provide me financially during my time there, either through donation, goodwill, work opportunities, or even something as amazing as manna (like a YWAM base in China finding over 10,000 USD inside a loaf of bread they bought with the last money they had).

Finally I ask for your forgiveness for anything that I might have said, or done that is not within the character of Christ.

Amen.

Please view the pictures here:

http://s107.photobucket.com/albums/m320/rahimiiii/Les%20paul%20custom%20repair/

In the Bible we hear stories of many prophets, and Old Testament laws have sections dedicated to prophets. One law says that a false prophet should be put to death, and that if the things a prophet does not come to pass, then he should die. Of course there are many obsessions about the prophecy concerning Jesus, and the end of days in the book of Daniel, Isiah, and Jeremiah, and Revelations. The fact is, these doomsday prophecies, and even prophecies concerning the Messiah only makes up less than 1% of the prophecies in these books! I learned in a church sermon that the purpose of a prophet is to edify and strengthen the people of their time, that means prophets like Isiah and Jeremiah and Daniel wasn’t sent for future generations, but for their generation! I will not go into the specifics of their prophecy but it’s safe to say that most of the things in their books deals with things that are happening in their time. Some people have the gift of prophecy too, not just people with “qualifications”. For example I was prayed for by the pastor’s wife of a Philipino church in Taiwan. The thing she prayed it was almost as though she knows that I was called into missions, even though she doesn’t know me (I had only been there for the first time) and certainly she did not know of my blog nor did anyone tell her that I wanted to preach to Muslims. It was very edifying, unlike many prayers I have heard before.

What I am trying to say is, don’t be so concerned about doomsday prophecies, because the Bible clearly says not to worry about tomorrow for today has enough evils of its own. I would be more concerned about finding out what God wants you to do today, and how can I build the Kingdom of God rather than listen to Hollywood and its doomsday messages that are designed to put fear into the people’s heart in order to sell more movies. Someone said it best when he said that yesterday is gone, and tomorrow might never come.

Image is shrunk to save space (on the page) and bandwidth. If you want to view a larger version look at my facebook profile (my name is Tai Fu) or email me for the raw files if I still have it…

This is done with a point and shoot (Canon Powershot A620), ISO 100, 15 sec exposure (maximum allowed). Image is VERY noisy, brightening makes it worse, and sharpening it makes it look like clown

This is done with a DSLR, ISO 400, 15 sec exposure, the difference is huge! These images are brightened and sharpened with Lightzone

Different angle, ISO 100

Same as above