Vacation or Transformation?

Where to begin.
          A month and a half into my Youth With A Mission Disciple Training Session, most commonly known as YWAM DTS, my life has been completely "wrecked" by God. I am going to be honest here, one of the only reasons I decided to join a DTS was because I knew one was in Honolulu, Hawaii. All I wanted was a vacation in the world's most beautiful spot and I would not have to work for six months. I had the money saved up from working all year so I figured it was as good as time as any. Little did I know what was going to be in store for me when I waved goodbye to my family as I walked towards the airport terminal.
          When I told people I was going to Hawaii for training I heard the sarcastic remarks about how I would "suffer" over there. Beaches, waves, sun, sounds like the life. But what people do not realize is that we are living in community with 42 people; twenty-five grown adult men in one room, three toilets, three showers, bunk beds close enough to jump across one to the other. Two cubby holes for all your personal clothes, books, notebooks and supplies for three months. Cockroaches, geckos, cane spiders, centipedes, rats, mice, toads and bloodsucking bugs invade our home on a regular basis. Rice is a staple food here. Personalities clash. Smells of twenty-five men in one room assault your nostrils.
But the presence of God is here, and the Holy Spirit runs rampant through the base. Never had I met total strangers from all across the world and found such incredibly strong friendships then here. Every story imaginable has been told among us. Stories of people who were drug dealers, or into drugs themselves, alcohol, sexually molested as children. From broken homes of divorce, parent abandonment. People who never graduated high school, others who have been to universities studying to be lawyers. Most people here have nothing in common. Except for one thing:
We want to know God on a personal level.
          Each day here is different. We have a variation of lectures, worship, intercession (praying over a specific topic), work duties, and outreaches. Outreaches are ministries we are involved in once a week. I go to the University of Hawaii and tell students there who Jesus is and pray for students. The other two outreaches go down to Waikiki beach and inner city and talk to the homeless. Each week we have a different speaker who comes and speaks to us on a topic. We have learned about Servant Leadership, Spiritual Warfare, How to hear the voice of God, Kingdom Sexuality, Discipleship, The Holy Trinity and Justice Waters. Each week is packed with knowledge and information meant to teach us more about who Jesus is and how to walk as He did in the world we live in today.
I can not forget to mention the weekends. We have Saturday/Sunday free, so being college age students in Honolulu, Hawaii we take advantage of that to the fullest. Weekends are full of bus rides to the beaches of Hawaii, boogie boarding, body boarding, hot tub hopping, spear fishing, longboarding, snorkeling, shopping, eating out, hiking, volleyball and Frisbee.
          But just as often we sit around the base and talk about what God is teaching us. To be honest, I enjoy that just as much, if not more than all the things listed above. There is something about discussing what God is doing in someones life that sends a thrill of excitement through my body. God is a Living and Unchangeable God who loves us where we are at in life. We do not need to change our life and then go to God to be in a relationship with Him. He wants us to say, Father, I am broken and imperfect but you love me and want me to accept you as my Lord and Savior. From there God will meet you where you are at and your life will forever be changed.
          I have not even touched on what God has done in my life personally but I will get to that. I will leave you with this, God is more than I have ever experienced and my life has been radically transformed.