What I do and why you wanna be a part of it!

It took ten minutes for me to figure out that God was real. It took ten years to figure out that He is good.

I “converted” when I heard a worship song that touched my heart at the tender age of 12. After my conversion, I tried to figure out “Christianity” on my own. I didn’t know much about God, and all that I seemed to be able to gather about Him was that He was sort of distant (if not absent), hot tempered, and more or less indifferent toward me. Naturally, I had a hard time sticking with it and instead of doing the walk of faith, I rode the rollercoaster. I’d try to follow Him and be good for a while, but would always wind up chasing after any and every other love I could.

My relationship with God was radically changed last year when I attended a Discipleship Training School (DTS) through Youth With a Mission (YWAM) in Perth. I finally figured out once and for all who He really is. In the third week of DTS we had teaching on “The Character of God.” The thesis was that He is a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, rich in love. The teaching was incredible and I had completely new and profound revelation about His character. But I needed more. I was still grieving the loss of my best friend the year earlier and I needed more than just good teaching to get me to trust that He was really good despite what had happened. On the last day of “character of God” week I received some prayer and I released the accusation I had been carrying since her death. When I went back to my dorm, I crawled into my top bunk and put on some worship music. All of a sudden I was overwhelmed with an incredible sensation: comfort. It was as if all the comfort I had needed for the last year and a half, but had not been able to receive because anger had kept it out, came pouring into my heart all at once. I felt, saw, and heard Him more clearly than I ever had before. It wasn’t just comfort that came in for the first time; I also fully received His love for the first time in my life. I had always tried to believe and wanted to believe that He loved me, but it had never reached my heart. I didn’t trust Him. I didn’t think He was good. But as I received His comfort that day in that top bunk and as the tears poured down my face and into His hand I knew He was good. And knowing that He really is good allowed me to believe that He really could love me, too.

Once I had that incredible encounter with Him I wanted others to taste and see His goodness, too. It was like all of a sudden one day I looked up and saw the other 34 people in my DTS. I desperately wanted to see them impacted, healed and changed in powerful, permanent ways. And they did change. And by His grace He included me in the process! Towards the middle of lecture phase I found myself up frequently past midnight talking to and praying for the girls in my dorm, helping them through struggles with condemnation, insecurity, rejection, and frustration with God. I loved being used by Him in this way and getting to be in the front row to witness breakthrough in their lives. It made me want to see and be a part of His transforming love even more. I felt God putting a desire in my heart to staff DTSs in the future.

I, and the rest of the students in my DTS, had gotten lost somewhere between salvation and abundant life. We had gotten caught up in different things: ongoing sin, shame from the past, relationship problems, misconceptions about God, offence, fear… and they kept us from walking in the abundant life that He promised us. We were kind of like Lazarus just after he was raised from the dead, alive but tangled. Jesus had given me new life when I was 12, but I kept stumbling around in my grave clothes for ten years! Just as Jesus had his disciples untangle Lazarus, He also used discipleship to free me.

DTS is discipleship intensified. It provides great teaching from speakers around the world, one-on-one discipleship, tons of worship and prayer time, as well as just the space to get away from the distractions and temptations of everyday life. Because of this, the 6 month program is considered the equivalent of ten years of church. The students that attend DTS are usually 18-35 and are often at a place in their lives where they are desperate for God. For these reasons, so many come back from their time in YWAM permanently changed and forever closer to God. I don’t know where I would be if God had not led me to do a DTS, and I know 34 others who say the same thing. This is why I am so excited that God is calling me to return to YWAM as DTS staff!

I can’t wait to return to Perth in June of this year to be a part of helping others have an amazing experience with God and be brought from grave clothes to abundant life. In the next two years as staff I know I will see God do amazing things with, in, and through so many people’s lives. I wish everyone could witness the way He transforms, frees, and heals people through DTS. Not everyone can go, but there is a way that anyone can become a part of DTS. I am looking for people who will partner with me in this incredible ministry by praying and/or giving financial support. By partnering with me you will get to hear the amazing stories of what God does and know that your prayers and your resources played a part in making it happen. You, in effect, will be enabling transformation in hundreds of people’s lives.

If you have a vision and a heart to see more people living abundant lives in Christ, I invite you to sow into this ministry joyfully and expectantly! You’ll be amazed at all that He does!

How to get involved:
prayer partnership - email me at Claireelizabethgriffin@gmail.com
financial support - send check to PO Box 8501, Perth Business Centre, Western Australia 6849
or make an "online payment" at www.ywamperth.org.au