Training · Summer 2026

Voices from LTS — What God Has Done Among Us

During the final week of LTS, we had three special opportunities to pause and listen to what God had done in the lives of our students and staff.

The first came during a Zoom gathering with YWAM co-founder Darlene Cunningham, when students and staff shared how they had experienced God at work throughout LTS.

Then, on the day before graduation, the entire LTS family gathered for a Love Feast. As we ate together, shared fellowship, and looked back on our journey, we listened to stories of how God had restored individuals, taught them, and revealed something new through the community around them.

Finally, during Commission Night—our commissioning service and graduation—we heard testimonies from students preparing to return to their nations and places of calling. Their stories carried faith, renewed vision, and fresh decisions about how they wanted to move forward with what God had given them through LTS.

We came to Jeju from different nations, languages, cultures, and backgrounds. Yet through these testimonies, we saw how one God had been working in deeply personal and beautifully diverse ways in each person’s life.

“We saw how one God had been working in deeply personal and beautifully diverse ways in each person’s life.”

Some rediscovered their calling. Others found healing and renewed passion after seasons of exhaustion. Some experienced a transformation in how they understood leadership, while others discovered a new way of seeing people from different cultures and communities. Woven through all these stories was a shared journey of learning together, being transformed together, becoming family, and being sent again to the nations.

We would like to share with you the testimonies of LTS students and staff that were given during these three special gatherings.

1. Sokgon Park

I am so grateful for the opportunity to see Darlene again, and I send our love and greetings on behalf of Korea.

Hosting Mission True LTS 2026 here in Jeju was such a joyful and inspiring experience.

This summer, the leadership of our Jeju Campus made an intentional decision to focus fully on LTS rather than running other training schools. It was truly special to share a deep passion for YWAM’s missions movement with leaders from so many different nations.

One of my greatest joys was watching our young Jeju staff spend time with the LTS family and build deep relationships with them. Learning to navigate different nations, cultures, and languages together also helped our Jeju Campus grow stronger.

As I look toward future LTSs, I am excited to imagine more young Korean leaders rising up through LTS and going out to the nations.

2. Elza Widjaja

To be honest, I did not have many expectations when I first came to Jeju for LTS. But once I arrived and began living in this community, my response was simply,
“Wow, I really like this place!”

I began to wonder if this might be a glimpse of what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like. People were kind to one another, prayed for each other, supported one another, and even shared their gimbap and noodles. The friendships built here have been so genuine. God knew exactly what I needed in this season, and I am grateful that I followed the good “Imam” in our family—my husband—and came here.

Just as Darlene mentioned at the beginning, doing LTS in this season, “for such a time as this,” has been a key for me and my family. Reading Darlene’s book while hearing her teach at the same time was like watching the book come alive before my eyes.

I also shared with the LTS students and staff about some difficult experiences I had with Koreans during my time in Jeju. Those experiences had left a wound in my heart.

During our final week of LTS, we had a time of intercession, praying for breakthrough so that Koreans could build fruitful relationships with people from other nations. During that prayer time, God reminded me of a kind bus driver I had met earlier that week. He greeted me with a smile and spoke to me politely.

Through that small encounter, I felt God saying to me, “I care for you, and I want to bring healing to your heart before you leave Korea.” I am grateful for the way God has worked in me through my encounters with local people and through our community on campus.

In Indonesia, when teaching is rich, practical, and full of substance, we sometimes say, “Wow, this is pure meat!” It means the teaching is educational, straight to the point, useful, and applicable—like receiving the best cut from the finest beef.

Throughout LTS, my eyes were opened, and my mind could not stop thinking about how I could apply everything when I returned home. I was ready to eat all of that “delicious beef.”

Then Liz came to teach during our final week, and her teaching felt like a conversation taking place inside my head:
“Okay, you are ready to eat all this meat—but have you prayed before you eat?”

Her teaching became a gentle reminder to remain humble before God. We cannot bear fruit or multiply unless we abide in Him.

We must always return to the Word of God, because His Word never fails, and it is what sustains us.

3. Yoonmin Kang

I have served in Korea for 23 years, and a year ago, I began a sabbatical in response to God’s invitation.

God told me that this would be a wilderness season—a call to purity and reverence, and a time to allow nothing to stand between Him and me.

In that wilderness, my own will, self-righteousness, and sense of self were broken apart. It was an incredibly lonely and difficult season of isolation, but it was also a season I knew I could not walk away from.

At the end of that wilderness, God used faithful people to invite me to LTS. By then, there were less than two weeks before the school began. I was not prepared, and I did not feel confident about returning to community.

I found myself repeatedly confessing,
“I have no strength.”

But God told me that what would carry me through this season was not strength or courage, but humility and lowliness. I held on to that word and came to LTS.

There is so much I am taking away from this school, but I want to share one moment that affected me most deeply.

One day during worship, a confession suddenly rose from deep within my heart:
“God, my passion has died.
My vision has died.
I have died.”

I never expected to make such a confession after coming here.
“Is it time for me to leave?”
I even wondered.

Yet surprisingly, in the very place where it felt as though everything had disappeared, I discovered one desire that still remained:
“God, You alone are all I need.”

Looking back, LTS was not so much a season of learning new strategies or skills for me. It was a season of surrendering myself again before the God who will accomplish extraordinary things.

And now, I want to begin again.

I believe God asked me to lay down the things I had been holding onto in the wilderness not because He wanted me to do nothing, but because He wanted me to begin again—not with what is mine, but with what is His. It was a season in which He exposed and cleansed the things that had accumulated through years of experience and had quietly become part of me without my realizing it.

LTS became part of that new beginning.
The words, “YWAM dies if it does not pioneer,” challenge me again.

I love YWAM. I love this community and the people within it. I want to see this movement continue rather than fade away.

In the past, I was often someone who prepared and supported the way so that others could come and others could go. Now, I want to become one who goes.
Rather than looking for a road that has already been made, I want to take a step even when I cannot yet see the road ahead.

It is okay if what I begin looks like only a tiny dot or a single grain of sand, because God is the One who connects those small dots.
Our projects may fail. But God does not fail.

We can begin again not because we know everything, nor because we are confident that we can do it.
We can begin again because the One who calls us is greater than the calling itself.

We heard God, and we obeyed. Now I believe what remains is simply not to give up.

Finally, there is one picture that remains in my heart.
We are waves.
But it is the wind that raises the waves.

I pray that the wind of the Holy Spirit will continue to raise us up. Just as one wave leads into another, I hope that through one another we will continue to rise.

God is the reason we gathered here, and God is also the reason we are now being scattered.

And if we meet again somewhere in the world, I believe it will be in a place where we are lifting up God and celebrating together what He has done.

To have gained all of you—people with whom I will one day witness the amazing works of God—
that is the greatest gift LTS has given me.

4. Carole McClelland

I want to share two sentences from Darlene’s book, from the chapter on servant leadership.

The first says:
“The word of the Lord to us was to take the banquet table of leadership training to the people.”

Darlene, the banquet table of the Leadership Training School has now been brought to Deaf people, and they have been forever changed.

The Deaf community will never be the same. These leaders are excited to go out and change the world—not only among Deaf people, but among hearing people as well.

There is another line in Values Matter:
“Servant leadership requires that we make an extra effort to be inclusive, to go where people are, and to open doors for others.”

During this LTS, I have seen servant leadership that does exactly that. I have seen it in our three school leaders, in the staff team, and in each of the students.

Thank you for taking the banquet table of leadership training to the nations. Thank you for trusting young people with the words God has given our mission.

I want to be honest. You know how deeply I love the Deaf community, and because I love them so much, I came here feeling a little nervous. But I am leaving with great excitement about what can happen when hearing people in YWAM partner with Deaf people.

I am leaving able to say, “I can trust these young Deaf leaders with the vision and heart God has given YWAM.”
They are YWAM.
And I believe I can trust everyone in this room to do the same.

Darlene, thank you for setting this example for us and for me.

I leave this place reminded that I can trust God—and I can trust YWAMers—with His heart.

1. Sophie Lee

Last Thursday, I was sitting next to Peter during lunch when he invited me to share my testimony. He told me that while he was praying, God had highlighted my name.

Honestly, I did not really want to share. I am shy, and I did not want to speak in broken English in front of so many people. More than anything, I felt that I had nothing particularly special to say.

But I decided to pray about it. That afternoon, I went for a walk and talked with God. He comforted me and said,
“I want you to go.”

Later that evening, during Community Night, God spoke to me again through the message from Isaiah:
“I have called you by name, Sophie.”

Then I knew I needed to say yes.

That experience reminded me of the way God had led me to LTS in the first place.

This year is my sabbatical year, and at first I struggled with whether I should join LTS during my sabbatical. So I gave God what I thought was a very difficult condition:
“I will only join if my entire school fee is fully funded.”
I thought it would be impossible.

But God did a miracle. Someone I did not even know gave enough money to cover my entire school fee.
God is amazing!

While I was resting in the UK, another concern came to mind. At LTS, I would have to complete a project and two book reports.
I wondered, “Do I really want to do this?”

But once I arrived, I never regretted my decision to come.

Every class was rich and exciting. I learned so much, and I look forward to applying what I have learned when I return home.

But more than the knowledge, what touched me most deeply was the people.

Each person’s story became a living lesson for me. Through our life together as a community—working on projects, encouraging one another, worshiping, praying, and sharing—I learned so much.

I also want to thank our staff and our three school leaders. You served us with humility and dedication, and through your lives I learned what it means to be a servant leader.

This LTS was unique.
Only in 2026, in Jeju, with this exact group of people, could we have experienced this beautiful season of learning and these memories together. If even one person had been missing, it would not have been the same.

Finally, I want to say this:
God is inviting everyone. He calls each one of us by name to be leaders.

Let us walk with Him and work with Him together.

2. Hantteut Kim

During the first week of LTS, I introduced myself by saying,
“My name is Jeremy. I am from Korea, and I serve in India. My expectation for this school is to see the calling of our family come into alignment.”

Now, as LTS comes to an end, I want to share how God fulfilled that expectation.

First, I learned how to trust God within my family.

I used to think that God would speak to me and that I needed to carry the responsibility of knowing and leading the direction for everyone in my family.

But God speaks to my wife. He speaks to my children. He speaks to the people around me.
So my responsibility is also to listen to them.

I am grateful to Debbie for sharing her wisdom with me, and I am also thankful for everyone in Group 5 who helped me learn this.

Second, I learned that a leader does not have to carry everything alone.

As I learned and taught about leadership, I had come to believe that a leader must always be prepared, fully equipped, work harder than everyone else, and solve every problem personally.
But I discovered that leadership is not like that.

I need to depend on God, and I can also depend on my family.
My wife is a strong person. She is someone I can lean on. She has faithfully held our family together and continued to work for missions.
I can lean on her.

I can also lean on my team and on my LTS family.
We are walking together.

Third, I came here believing that because I had failed, I could no longer be a good leader.
But God gave me a second chance.

He gave me another opportunity to care for His people and to lead and serve them with responsibility.
I am grateful that God has taught me responsibility and helped me understand spiritual authority.
I do not want to make the same mistake again of allowing the people God has entrusted to me to walk away because of my own excuses.

This LTS was the first school I have attended since my DTS.
Through it, I encountered the YWAM family more deeply than ever before.

I am grateful for every teaching, every time of worship, and every moment of sharing.
To my friends and staff—with whom I talked, spent time, and prayed together—
you are my family.

3. Kenroy Longrin

Starting Leadership Training School was something many people had looked forward to, and studying in Korea seemed like an amazing opportunity.
But for me, it was the opposite.

Shortly before I left for Korea, something devastating happened in Jamaica, and it affected me deeply.
By the time I arrived in Jeju, I realized that I was exhausted and burned out.

I even regretted signing up for the school, even though I knew God had told me to do it.

So much had happened with our team in Jamaica, and there had been so much chaos that all I wanted was to step away from ministry for a while.

I thought that taking a one-year break would allow me to rest and regain the passion for ministry that I once had.
I kept telling myself,
“LTS is only three months. Surviving three months won’t be so bad.”

I felt like an empty cup.
I had nothing to pour into anyone because I felt that I had nothing left to give.

During the first week of LTS, when Steve and Arnold talked about homework, I remember feeling deeply frustrated.
I wrestled with God and thought,
“I don’t remember signing up for this. I’m too tired even to think about homework.”

But week by week, every topic began to feel like God was slowly pouring water back into my empty cup.

The week on Strategic Leadership led by Ron and Dawn, the family sessions shared by Arnold and Debbie, and Peter’s teaching on burnout
all became part of God’s healing process in my life.

With every topic, I gained new understanding. As I began applying what I was learning, my cup slowly filled again.
The small fire inside me began to ignite—
and eventually it began to blaze again.

My passion returned.
I became ready to go again,
with a desire to see change in my country and in the nations.

The greatest lesson I will carry from LTS is that we are one family.
When life becomes difficult, we have one another to lean on.
We are no longer walking alone.
We now have family in nations around the world whom we can call on for support.

I will always be grateful to YWAM Jeju for making space for LTS to happen, for loving us like family, and for making Jeju feel like home—a place where all of us belong.

1. Veldiese Soza

Before I came to Jeju, I carried one question in my heart:
“Is there a place for me in YWAM?”

As a Deaf person, I know what it feels like to live in a world where people do not always understand your language, your culture, or why you protect the things that are important to you.

Sometimes I wondered:
“Will YWAM accept me?
Will YWAM believe in me?
Or will I be left alone again?”

Then I came to South Korea.
Honestly, I wondered,
“Why Korea?
Why YWAM Jeju?”

As I began learning more about Korea, I learned about a country
with a history of fighting to protect its land, its culture, its language, and its family.
Something inside me responded:
“I understand the desire to protect.”

Our histories are not the same. Our struggles are not the same.
But somehow, I heard an echo.

I watched Korean YWAMers here choose courage.
I watched them open their doors to people from different nations, languages, and cultures.
I watched them make room for us.

Making room for someone does not mean you have to lose yourself.
You can be Korean and welcome the world.
I can be Deaf and still belong to this family.

Unity does not mean losing your identity.
Sometimes unity means having enough courage to bring who you are and still make room for someone different to sit beside you.

YWAM Korea and YWAM Jeju made room for me and for our YWAM Deaf World family.
Because you opened your doors, I experienced something beginning to shift inside me.

Your courage became my courage.
Your willingness became my willingness.
Your “yes” to God became my “yes” to God.

And I began to realize:
“I am part of this family too.”

You taught me that we can protect our identity and still open our doors.

God is teaching us something:
You do not have to lose who you are in order to become family.

God brought us here—
at the right time,
to the right place,
with the right people.

Thank you, YWAM Korea. Thank you, YWAM Jeju.

2. Laura Castro

Today, there are simply not enough words to describe what I have experienced in this school.
I have so much to be thankful for.

When I first arrived, I did not really understand what this school was all about.
But today, I leave feeling as though I have discovered a thousand treasures.

For me, this school was about rediscovering the DNA of YWAM, listening again to our history, and embracing God’s gift to YWAM—the University of the Nations.

I learned about leadership models, leadership tools, why leaders fail, and principles for pioneering.

The classroom taught me many things I needed to know.
But outside the classroom, God taught me many of the things I needed to become.

So today, more than knowledge, I am taking with me friends and brothers and sisters from the nations.

Through their lives and service, they taught me what it means to be a leader.

To be a leader, you have to be a friend.
You have to be a father, a mother, and a companion.
To be a leader, you have to trust others.
You have to empower others.
You have to let go of control.

To be a leader is to become the least of all.
It is to lay down your rights, your privileges, and any special treatment in order to lift others up.

For this, I am deeply thankful to my classmates, to the school staff, and to the school leaders who modeled these principles with their lives.

Above all, I am thankful to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ—the One we serve, the One for whom we live, and the One in whom we live and move and have our being.
Jesus, without You, we would not be here.

I am also thankful for the nations.
I learned so much from my brothers and sisters from Africa, the Americas, Deaf World, and Asia.
But above all, I leave deeply blessed by what God taught me through getting to know the Korean people.
You truly are a blessing to the nations.

Jeju first welcomed me in 2019, when I arrived with no idea of God’s dream for my life.

I did not know then that years later, one of my greatest passions would be to see all the peoples of Asia have access to God’s Word in their mother tongues.

Jeju, this is not goodbye.
It is simply, “See you again soon.”

3. Hyewon Lee

Hello, my name is Hyewon Lee, and I would like to share some of the gifts of grace God has given me during these three months of LTS.

The first gift was that God broadened my perspective.
Through the different lectures and table discussions, I learned not only about leadership, but also about the cultures and values of many different nations.
I came to realize that my own thoughts and experiences were not the whole picture.
Being able to see people and the world from a wider perspective has been a precious gift to me.

The second gift was the friends God gave me.
I am someone who usually needs time before approaching people and building relationships.
But so many people came to me first.
They called me, “My friend,” “친구,” “Beautiful,” and “동생.” They greeted me in sign language, gave me high-fives, asked how I was doing, encouraged me, and most importantly, called me by my name—“Hyewon.”

Through these friends, I experienced how fellowship and relationships in God can become a source of strength and support for one another.
I also learned that God can make His love tangible to us through people.

The third gift was that God restored and strengthened my vision.
He reminded me of my original design and of the calling toward children that He had planted in my heart long ago.
He patiently waited for my obedience and continued to confirm that calling.

One Thursday Gathering, I was watching the LTX children joyfully dancing on stage.
At that moment, God spoke something simple to my heart:
“To play with children and worship with them—that is enough.”

So my LTS project is to pioneer a children’s ministry at University of the Nations Jeju.
My vision is to play and worship together with children, helping them grow as children of God who enjoy His love and share that love with others.

I trust that the God who planted seeds of vision in my life and in the lives of all my friends through LTS will cause those seeds to bear abundant fruit.
Whenever God desires to use me, I want to respond immediately, joyfully, and wholeheartedly.
I also want to live out what I have learned in LTS so that I can become a leader who responds first to the heart of God.

Finally, I want to thank all the LTS staff who, through servant leadership, helped raise up 84 leaders.

All glory belongs to God.
Thank you.

4. Kezia Hendy

I am very grateful for the opportunity to share a little of what God has been doing in me and in our Indonesia team during LTS.

When I first came here, I honestly did not have many expectations.
I simply came with a heart that wanted to learn and receive whatever God wanted to teach me.
But I soon realized that God had much more in store for me—and for us as a team—than I had expected.

One of the biggest things God reminded us of was the DNA of YWAM.
Our calling is not only to go into missions, but also to reach generations.

As a young leader, this spoke deeply to me.
God reminded me that I am called not only to reach my own generation, but also to invest in the generation that comes after me.

During this time, God has also refreshed and restored me personally,
especially in my identity as a young leader and as a woman in leadership.
He reminded me that my identity is not based on my position, my achievements, or how much I can accomplish.
My identity comes from Him.

God also began restoring the way I see Korean people.
I realized that I had certain perceptions that were affecting the way I related to Koreans.

But through the Korean friends I met during LTS, God gave me a very different experience.
Through friendship, conversations, serving together, and simply doing life together, they became God’s extended hands in bringing healing and restoration to that part of my heart.

I am also deeply thankful for the Deaf World team.
Through them, God gave me a new perspective and a deeper understanding of Deaf people and the Deaf community.
They taught me how to embrace and love the Deaf community in a deeper way.

Looking back, I do not think it was a coincidence that Kihyun placed me on a Work Duty team with David Kim and Shane.
To me, David seemed to represent Korean people, while Shane represented Deaf World.
What appeared to be a simple Work Duty assignment became a place where God taught me so many things—about people, relationships, culture, and even about myself.

It reminded me that God can use even the simplest things—friendship, Work Duty, conversations, and serving together—to transform us.

And I believe this is not only my story.
As an Indonesia team, we have all experienced God in different ways.
He has been processing us, refreshing us, and reminding us again of our calling.

We came here wanting to learn, but we are going home with more than knowledge.
We are going home carrying something God has done in us.

We want to take this DNA back to Indonesia—to reach our generation, invest in the next generation, and raise up leaders who know God and make Him known.

I am deeply grateful for this season and for the new family from the nations that God has given me through LTS.
All glory belongs to Him.