YWAMNelson(NewZealand)onDTSoutreach

A Discipleship Training School team from YWAM Nelson, New Zealand, chose Zambia for their outreach phase and entered a wide cross-section of ministry around Lusaka. Their days moved between the community, the school, the clinic, the football field and the base. In each place they put their DTS lecture phase into practice by listening, serving, sharing their faith and learning from the people already carrying these ministries.

Meeting people in the community

Community outreach gave the team opportunities to meet people in the places where everyday life happens. They evangelised, prayed personally with people and joined practical ministry rather than remaining at a distance. Conversations opened naturally as the team listened to people's stories, offered prayer and shared the hope of Jesus.

This kind of outreach is rarely one programme or one moment. It is built through presence: returning to people, working alongside local leaders and allowing prayer, friendship and practical service to support one another. The Nelson team joined many ministries during their time in Zambia, responding wherever there was an opportunity to help.

Teaching and serving at Lighthouse

At The Lighthouse Community Centre, team members taught children and joined the life of the school. A classroom can be a place of discipleship as much as education: children are seen, encouraged and given space to learn. The team supported teachers, interacted with pupils and experienced how YWAM Lusaka's community ministry brings learning and faith together.

Care through the clinic

The outreach also included clinic ministry. Serving in a health-care setting allowed the team to see another side of holistic mission: caring for bodies, making time for people and supporting those who provide care every day. The clinic work sat naturally beside evangelism and prayer because the concern was for the whole person, not one isolated need.

Discipleship through football

One of the most relational parts of the outreach was time with the boys of Inspired Football Academy. The team met the players, shared food with them and spent time building trust away from a formal programme. Football created the meeting point, but discipleship gave the time its deeper purpose.

The Nelson team held teaching and lecture sessions for the Inspired Football team and the boys, creating room to speak about faith, character, discipline and life. These sessions complemented the work already being led by Taonga Nyirenda and supported by Godrich Miller. The visitors did not replace the local ministry; they came alongside it, encouraged the players and added their voices to an ongoing discipleship relationship.

Many ministries, one outreach

Worship, prayer and shared life at the base held the different assignments together. The team interacted with staff and students, reflected on what they were experiencing and returned to ministry from a place of community. They operated in many other areas as needs and opportunities emerged, showing the flexibility that short-term outreach requires.

It is a joy to see young missionaries travel from across the world to make God known here in Lusaka. The Nelson team left having given themselves to people in classrooms, clinic rooms, neighbourhoods and on the football field — and they returned home stretched, encouraged and carrying stories of what God is doing in Zambia.