Jesus March on Miami Beach! – OUTREACH UPDATE

At YWAM, Worship is not a HOBBY, it’s a WAY OF LIFE!

In the 3 months of my lecture phase at Discipleship Training School, our class has been learning just how practical and applicable the love of Jesus truly is. Our minds have been renewed through Biblical instruction about God’s character, His heart for the nations, life with Jesus, and more; but the heart of our learning and training lies in the mission… the action… the Great Commission! The highest goal for all efforts at YWAM, including our DTS, is “to know God and make Him known.”

At home on the YWAM Orlando base, our group learned that Hearts of Worship are grown through hard work, diligence, and simple walks and talks with our Creator. Even though God is sacred and holy, communion with Him can be found anywhere– and He teaches through our limited points of view!

Jesus March on Miami Beach

Because of a burning heart to share the Good News not only overseas but also right here at home, God gave our team the opportunity for a stateside outreach before Christmas Break. For me, our outreach location was even closer to home — Miami Beach! We partnered with 3 churches in Miami-Dade County, including my home church of Calvary Chapel Miami Beach. 

Homeless ministry: hygiene bag and food giveaway for Christmas

During prayer times for our outreach, God highlighted a strategy for our group to release His power and love over the city of Miami: public worship! Over 10 days, our team encountered over 450 people in Miami Beach, Downtown Miami, and Miami Gardens during times of street evangelism and Operation Christmas Cheer (distributing candies and chocolates). We saw 12 people radically healed and 16 people saved by Jesus! We also collaborated with local ministries distributing hygiene bags and food to the homeless and Saturate Miami. Our last day ended with a Jesus March, a longtime YWAM tradition of worshipping publicly while sharing messages of the radical salvation and love we have found in Jesus. We carried signs and worshipped while walking a 13-block course along Miami Beach, ending with a beach baptism.

WORDS OF LIFE!

THANK YOU to everyone who supported me financially for DTS! You share in the fruit of our ministry, and lives have been changed because of it– and we’re not even finished! 

It’s not over yet! In January 2021, our Discipleship Training School will be embarking on an overseas mission trip to TANZANIA, AFRICA! There we will be partnering with a YWAM base in Arusha, continuing the mission: “to know God and make Him known”. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Practical Updates (Local Outreach and SOW)

Good evening family! I hope everyone reading this had an excellent Thanksgiving and start to the Christmas season. 🙂

Miami Outreach … 5 days away!

Our team of 46 will be driving down to Miami in 5 days to start a local outreach for almost 2 weeks. Because of the unique vision for our Discipleship Training School, we have had a shortened lecture period (2 months instead of 3 months) with the additional month split 50-50 between a stateside outreach and our Christmas break. This outreach is close to my heart because I have lived my whole life in Miami — I am so excited to once again share the love of Jesus and the hope of the Good News to as many people as we can during this short time period.

Our outreach will consist mainly of street evangelism and other spontaneous mission opportunities. We will also be blessing the churches that are hosting us by cleaning and completing other projects. One of the forms of street evangelism will be “Operation Christmas Cheer”, where we hand out small physical Christmas-y gifts like clothes, food, and water (it’s still sunny in Miami, y’all!).

All of the students on our outreach will be financially contributing from our own personal funds to buy these gifts from local stores. If you would like to financially partner with me on this outreach, you can send me any amount of money, as the Lord guides! Every little bit helps.

If you would like to support me, you can give to this ministry in any of the following ways:

  • Venmo: @annactuttle
  • Paypal: paypal.me/annactuttle
  • Cashapp: @annaywamorlando
  • Online: ywamorlando.com/pay/ under Anna Tuttle and SOW (this is an indirect form of supporting me– see below)

School of Worship (SOW) … 5 months away!

While our DTS is shifting gears from receiving information and revelation to an outpouring of local and global mission work, my personal planning has also taken a shift. After a season of prayerful consideration, I have hit the ground running to prepare for my next school at YWAM Orlando… School of Worship! (click link to learn more)

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;...
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” (Isaiah 61:1-3 NKJV)

As mentioned in my first DTS blog, I read this passage in my daily devotional the day before I arrived at YWAM Orlando. During my first 2 months here in school, God has repeatedly gifted me with these verses: in lectures from our teachers, in the Gospels, in other books I’m reading, etc. It has become a life passage for me and one of my main inspirations for pursuing worship to a higher degree.

Since the process of applying to School of Worship has begun, the first step is the financial payments. The lecture fees for School of Worship are $3,895.00, not including possible outreach fees. The first day of school is April 6, about a month after my DTS graduation now.

After seeing God provide miraculously for my Discipleship Training School, I am fully trusting in His provision for this next season of my life. Please pray about whether He may be inviting you to invest in my mission.

If you would like to support me, you can give to this ministry in any of the following ways:

  • Venmo: @annactuttle
  • Paypal: paypal.me/annactuttle
  • Cashapp: @annaywamorlando
  • Online: ywamorlando.com/pay/ under Anna Tuttle and SOW (this is an indirect form of supporting me– see below)

Thank you as always for reading! More updates from outreach to come before Christmas.

God of my Present, God of my Future

You write my story, You hold it all together

You Hold It All Together, Maverick City Music

P.S. I like to make playlists of Spotify from specific seasons of my life. Check out my most recent DTS LECTURE PHASE playlist. It’s a little all over the place, which mirrors my life the past few months. 😛

Miami, Music, and More!

Family, I have 3 very important updates for you. We are approaching the end of our campus phase and our school is buzzing with excitement!

  1. Exciting news for my Miami Beach church family — our entire outreach (previously split between New York and Miami) is now headed to Miami in the second week of December. I am still not sure how our schedule is mapped out but I will be in the city 2 weeks earlier than originally planned. 🙂 I am excited to return to my city and do ministry with our team. And I am so looking forward to seeing all of you!
  2. After much prayer and consideration, I feel the Lord calling me to return to YWAM Orlando in the Spring for one of their secondary schools– School of Worship. The dates for the school are April 6 – August 27. My application is being processed but I do not have any financial information yet — I will have a fairly significant need to cover another school and potential outreach. I will send an update with more specifics soon.
  3. With Thanksgiving at the end of this week, we have been processing all that the Lord has done since the start of our school. This week was our last meeting for worship elective, and we looked back on the ways that we have grown as worship leaders and songwriters. About a week ago, we hosted an event where our group shared original songs that we have written as individuals and groups since the beginning of campus phase. I am so excited to share one of the songs with you all — see the YouTube link below for one of the songs that I wrote with my co-writing group.

More Pictures

My entire Discipleship Training School, including staff members
Sunrise
Surprising my roommate Ana with a birthday cake

Thank you for reading!

Important Outreach Updates!

In this update, it is my privilege to announce that my DTS international outreach location has been decided — our group of roughly 50 students and staff members will be going to Tanzania!

Flag of Tanzania

Although we don’t know much about our physical work in the country yet, our general mission is to spread the radical message of the Gospel and do our best to communicate the love of Jesus in a truly tangible way. Over the past few weeks, God has brought so much revelation to our DTS about how much He loves us and how we were made to be in relationship with Him. Our Triune God is RELATIONAL and created us to share His presence and delight! I pray that God will use our team to bring this revelation to His people in Tanzania as well.

Our team has been interceding for Tanzania and our prayers are becoming more targeted as we research more about their history, customs, and environment. This past week, our DTS split into groups to research different areas of Tanzanian society to better understand their world there.

Tanzania’s position on the African continent

One of the most fascinating things I learned was related to music, dance, and arts in the country. Hearing another group’s presentation has inspired me to research more about their worship traditions!

In worship elective, since we have finished our two songwriting assignments, our next challenge is to write a 15-minute teaching on something worship related. I have chosen to research worship traditions in Africa and am hoping to find more information about worship in Tanzania, specifically. However, I also know that I won’t have a full view until I am there in person. With every passing day, I am even more excited to go!

PRAYER/CONNECTION POINTS FOR TANZANIA:

  • Pray for the people of Tanzania and the unity of their country, especially because they are currently going through a season of political turmoil after their recent presidential election.
  • Pray for the gender norms of their country, and for an increase in the value that they place on women and children specifically. Although they highly value families, the culture in Tanzania often only values women for their child-bearing ability, and in turn defines children by the success or mistakes of their parents.
  • Pray for religious confusion in Tanzania. The two main religions (data from 2010) are Christianity (61%) and Islam (35%). However, even in the percentage of Christianity, many false teachings are still popularized, teaching Tanzanians that they are only loved by God based of works/performance or intertwining witchcraft/spiritism with Christian customs.
  • Pray for our team to truly adopt the heart of God and have wisdom for the messages HE wants to communicate to these people that He loves so so much.

Stateside Outreach in New York City

Our DTS will also be going on local outreach before Christmas. In the first 2 weeks of December, half of our school (including me) will be going to New York City! My team will be aiding a local ministry as they hand out winter garments and hot drinks to people on the streets of New York. The other half of my DTS will be going to Miami and staying in my home church of Calvary Miami Beach. If you see them, say hi and ask if they know Anna Tuttle LOL!

Please pray for unity for our school, since we will be splitting into two separate teams for our first outreach. We still receive the same love supply from God and the same mission even though we will be separated, but it will be difficult to be separated since we have been spending so much time in close community together.

Hear my cry, O God;
    listen to my prayer.
From the ends of the earth I call to you,
    I call as my heart grows faint;
    lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
Psalm 61

Today our DTS also spent time interceding for our own country — and for God’s nature and goodness to be revealed to those who still don’t know him. Our teacher this week said, “If everyone on earth really knew who Jesus is, they would all want to be close to him.” I thank God that He is listening as we pray to Him and that His desire is always to lavish more and more of His love on us. While we may be preoccupied with our security on this earth, He is seated in the highest place and wants to commune with us. The safest place for us to be is always in obedience to His will — wherever that takes us.

Amen?? AMEN!


As always, thanks for reading! Thank you Jesus that all of my outreach fees have already been provided for my DTS. However, I am currently praying about continuing here at YWAM to do a secondary school. If God wills for me to continue, I will have another significant financial need– stay posted for updates in the next month or so. Thank you for all of your prayers! I pray for my Miami community very often here as well and you have all been on my mind.

My roommates: Ana, Brittany, Alicia, and Sadie (left to right). We took a class picture about a week ago with our entire DTS so I will share that once the final picture is edited!! 🙂

His Character, His Nature, His Ways

As the end of our third week at YWAM comes to a close, our DTS have continued to pursue a deeper knowledge of the personal God by studying His Character (defined as His moral attributes), His Nature (defined as His natural attributes), and His Ways (defined as His personality). YWAM has a modular teaching philosophy, which means that each week we focus on one topic with one (usually visiting) teacher. Our professor this week was Peter Warren, a YWAM veteran and leader who has both a profound knowledge and a powerful personal testimony of who God is, especially as revealed in the Bible.

Throughout our weekday class sessions, Peter presented the character of God to us in a very systematic and organized way, with so many quotes and Bible passages to provide a solid foundation. Honestly, my brain is still reeling from all the information! He used a lot of his own personal stories and life experiences as a testimony as well– many of which he shares in His book, When The Shooting Stopped, which is one of the required readings for our class.

Even though Peter has a deep knowledge of Scripture and is a talented orator, what impressed me the most about him was his humility and approachability. Instead of being intimidated by hard questions, he was willing to admit when he didn’t know something. He also was very clear about dividing facts from opinions, encouraging a fellowship mentality by inviting us to discover truth alongside him.

My dorm building at dusk

How to sum up all the other happenings? In our Discipleship Training School, every student has been wrestling with their own personal baggage and presuppositions about God. We are constantly soaking in so much head and heart knowledge. Through it all, my lifeline is worship– both personal and corporate.

Every weekday morning, we start our mornings with an hour of corporate worship (with the entire base). I am also in the Worship Elective, which meets for 2 hours every Monday and Thursday. AND there is also a prayer room (with a piano) where I can run at any time of day to process. LOL! I am also so thankful for my student body, who share such a love of worship — even those who are not pursuing leadership in worship. Take a listen:

One of our informal worship circles in our dorms

Many of you know that before I left Miami, one of my prayers/desires for YWAM was that I would find fellow worship leaders and Jesus lovers who shared my love for songwriting. I am so happy to report that this prayer has been answered! Our Worship Elective is centered on worship leadership AND songwriting, with all students being challenged to write songs, even if they have no prior experience. Before the end of our lecture phase (ending this December), we will have written one individual song focused on High Praise (worshipping God and declaring His character) and one collaborative song focused on Intimacy with God (more personal and heart-focused).

It’s not difficult to admire God’s creativity and artistic touch on this campus. Our 198 acres include sandy walking paths, secret forest trails, a large lake, and rolling fields. Every evening at dinner, we eat in the golden glow of the setting sun and often walk down to the lake for the full view.

I am enjoying the journey. We only have about 6 weeks remaining on the Orlando base before our outreaches begin. Our DTS leaders felt a unique call for our school to not only pursue overseas outreach, but also participate in ministries locally and within the United States. Because of this call, we will be finishing our lecture phase about 2 weeks early to team up for national outreaches before Christmas break. Then in the new year, Lord willing, we will continue on to our overseas outreach.

Sunset at the lake

As always, your support and prayers continue to comfort me. Stay tuned for more updates. Thank you for reading!