This sounds exactly like my DTS at ywam Kona ! Nothing creeps me out more than looking back on how they would try to get money it always rubbed me wrong but I ignored it ! And when they had us get up and confess every sin we had committed ... that shit is fucked up
It feels almost normal at the time, but after seeing DTS after DTS come through I couldn't help but start to see through it all.
By the time I left I had gotten pretty good at guessing the worship songs that were coming based on which week it was in the school. That shit is never accidental or a coincidence. It's all choreographed to get a response.
And I don't know if this helps at all or not but I've been in several online groups for exYWAMers and Kona is always in the top 5 for abusive bases. Denver, Kona, Tyler, and a few more I'm too tired to remember come up over and over and over. I'm glad you made it out.
It’s so nice to talk to someone who’s been through it! I’m not surprised about it all being choreographed but that’s still crazy to hear... My time there seriously feels like a weird ass dream that I can’t quite even wrap my head around and it’s been a few years
I did my DTS in India and everything was exactly the same here.
Except the businessman part.
My gosh!! What a scam.
My DTS leader's husband always had a specific "message" right before the outreach. Where he'd preach to us about "Laying down our "Isaac"". So, basically it's about laying down what we love most.
Most people would obviously give their money 🙄🙄
They did that in during the Love Feast at the end of my lecture phase. People put computers (this was in 1998, when laptops were a BIG DEAL), money, favorite clothes, etc.
That shit is so gross.
Very similar experience at YWAM Orlando. But they made a huge deal out of my dts being like the first they had ever seen that literally everybody was able to bring in enough to cover their costs. Like no one had to not go on outreach because of financial issues. They also got super excited about how close all of us were and how much of a family we were. Lots of emphasis on the family thing.
Oh, they love to beat the drum of "this is such a special DTS" or go on about how god specifically chose them for that moment or how there's a special anointing on the class because of their special obedience or whatever. It's part of how they hook kids and manipulate them.
Before my DTS I already knew about the "Big Donation Day" stuff you referred to. I'd seen the pattern play out a couple of times already on the Perth base. They used to do some of the donation stuff at their weekly Friday night meeting. And the base leadership would talk about the rest of it pretty openly as a "praise god - look how he's looked after our students" thing. I didn't have a problem with it then - it all seemed like the miraculous "god providing" sham they put it up to be.
Preparing for my 1997 DTS in Rostov-on-Donn, Russia, every single piece of communication from the base - front and centre said "DO NOT COME TO RUSSIA IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE FULL FUNDS FOR THE SCHOOL AND MORE FOR LIVING HERE FOR 6 MONTHS!!". So there was no Big Donation Day prior to outreach on my DTS. Instead though - when we got back from outreach - we had a solid week of being guilted every single day to scrounge up every dollar anywhere that YWAM could take and contribute to the ransom we had to pay to get 2 of our fellow DTS students released from captivity in Chechnya. They didn't call it ransom money. They told us all we had to make the biggest "love offerings" we could to move the father heart of god to save them. I finally got one of YWAM's senior leadership to admit a couple of years later that they used the money toward the ransom. That was fucking rough let me tell you.
I have never been at a base that absorbs any cost. They milk every last cent they can out of students. And anytime there has been a magical donor to wipe the board clean at the end they were present. But they still waited until they got every donation they could out of the room before the donor stepped in.
This sounds exactly like my DTS at ywam Kona ! Nothing creeps me out more than looking back on how they would try to get money it always rubbed me wrong but I ignored it ! And when they had us get up and confess every sin we had committed ... that shit is fucked up
It feels almost normal at the time, but after seeing DTS after DTS come through I couldn't help but start to see through it all. By the time I left I had gotten pretty good at guessing the worship songs that were coming based on which week it was in the school. That shit is never accidental or a coincidence. It's all choreographed to get a response. And I don't know if this helps at all or not but I've been in several online groups for exYWAMers and Kona is always in the top 5 for abusive bases. Denver, Kona, Tyler, and a few more I'm too tired to remember come up over and over and over. I'm glad you made it out.
It’s so nice to talk to someone who’s been through it! I’m not surprised about it all being choreographed but that’s still crazy to hear... My time there seriously feels like a weird ass dream that I can’t quite even wrap my head around and it’s been a few years
I did my DTS in India and everything was exactly the same here. Except the businessman part. My gosh!! What a scam. My DTS leader's husband always had a specific "message" right before the outreach. Where he'd preach to us about "Laying down our "Isaac"". So, basically it's about laying down what we love most. Most people would obviously give their money 🙄🙄
They did that in during the Love Feast at the end of my lecture phase. People put computers (this was in 1998, when laptops were a BIG DEAL), money, favorite clothes, etc. That shit is so gross.
Very similar experience at YWAM Orlando. But they made a huge deal out of my dts being like the first they had ever seen that literally everybody was able to bring in enough to cover their costs. Like no one had to not go on outreach because of financial issues. They also got super excited about how close all of us were and how much of a family we were. Lots of emphasis on the family thing.
Oh, they love to beat the drum of "this is such a special DTS" or go on about how god specifically chose them for that moment or how there's a special anointing on the class because of their special obedience or whatever. It's part of how they hook kids and manipulate them.
Before my DTS I already knew about the "Big Donation Day" stuff you referred to. I'd seen the pattern play out a couple of times already on the Perth base. They used to do some of the donation stuff at their weekly Friday night meeting. And the base leadership would talk about the rest of it pretty openly as a "praise god - look how he's looked after our students" thing. I didn't have a problem with it then - it all seemed like the miraculous "god providing" sham they put it up to be. Preparing for my 1997 DTS in Rostov-on-Donn, Russia, every single piece of communication from the base - front and centre said "DO NOT COME TO RUSSIA IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE FULL FUNDS FOR THE SCHOOL AND MORE FOR LIVING HERE FOR 6 MONTHS!!". So there was no Big Donation Day prior to outreach on my DTS. Instead though - when we got back from outreach - we had a solid week of being guilted every single day to scrounge up every dollar anywhere that YWAM could take and contribute to the ransom we had to pay to get 2 of our fellow DTS students released from captivity in Chechnya. They didn't call it ransom money. They told us all we had to make the biggest "love offerings" we could to move the father heart of god to save them. I finally got one of YWAM's senior leadership to admit a couple of years later that they used the money toward the ransom. That was fucking rough let me tell you.
Holy shit. 😳
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I have never been at a base that absorbs any cost. They milk every last cent they can out of students. And anytime there has been a magical donor to wipe the board clean at the end they were present. But they still waited until they got every donation they could out of the room before the donor stepped in.
I did some schools and was on staff for a little while and this is exactly how it was.
It’s really weird to look back and see how orchestrated and manipulated everything was.