First Discipleship Training School in Rotterdam

Students Learning to Observe Biblical Text

At the beginning of this month, October 2025, I had the privilege of teaching in a pioneering DTS in the Netherlands. Officially, they are recognized as YWAM Rotterdam, but since they are pioneering, they needed a suitable location for their school, and the place where they are running is in an outer village near Rotterdam called Ouddorp. Their track is an adventure DTS, so the students will have weekly opportunities to learn from the outdoors. Hopefully, this will prepare them for hard times during their outreach.

A Straight Line from Amsterdam to Ouddorp

I had the privilege to teach their first week in the first school ever run. I taught them the "God Story," looking at the redemptive plan of God from the book of Genesis to Revelation. I remember the last time I taught this subject was in the DTS of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and it was online because of COVID.

I am not known to teach in DTSs; I've always focused on teaching in Bible Schools, but this time they invited me, and I had so much fun with them. It's good for me to revisit the BIG Picture of the God Story. Many times, I focus so much on the details of every book but miss out a lot on the grand scheme of things in biblical history, where we see God's unwavering pursuit of humanity to be reconciled back to Him, and for His presence to dwell among His people.

Significant Biblical Events

There are quite a lot of events in Biblical history where God shows up to His people and reveals Himself. During the DTS, I highlighted a few of those events, namely (Creation, The Fall, The Promise of Redemption, The Call of Abraham, The Law, The Promise of the Eternal Kingdom, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, and the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ). All of these events are guideposts of God's plan to redeem humanity, culminating in the coming of His son, Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, He came to establish the "here and not yet Kingdom of Heaven," and we look ahead to His second coming, which is the fullness of the Kingdom of God here on earth, as described in Revelation as the "New Heaven and the New Earth."

Times of Refreshing

It was a great time for me to refresh and know God's character again, that He has always been faithful to His Word, and not one of His promises was ever broken, but has come to pass and been fulfilled, which is the majority of Scripture. There is only a tiny percentage left of prophecy that we who believe are expectantly waiting for. That is the Day of the Lord when Jesus fully redeems those who put their faith in Him in His return.

Teaching these topics and truths to young followers of Jesus always gives me fulfillment, to impart these truths to them, and I believe, when they get to engage with their Bibles book by book, they can now have a general understanding of God's pursuit of humanity in the Bible.

Bible Study Approach

On the last day of my teaching, I ended with a small exercise on how to study the Bible inductively through the Letter to Philemon by the Apostle Paul. The letter, in general, was a letter of recommendation for Onesimus, a runaway slave of Philemon, where Paul writes to a slave owner, Philemon, reconciling both differing social statuses from being useless to being useful, who is Onesimus, the runaway slave, and from a slave to more than a slave, a fellow brother in Christ.

A book of 25 verses, but it gives a solid punch, which rings a lot of truth, not only then when the letter was written, but even today, we can glean and apply it to our own lives in the 21st century.

Gratefulness

I am grateful to the DTS in Rotterdam for allowing me to teach, as well as for allowing me to be refreshed by going there, and to God, who reminds me from time to time that He is there and He is in control of our human history. The challenge then for us is to find our story in the grand scheme of "His Story."

Christopher Hipona

School Lunch every after lecture