Warrick Baty is a 50-year-old man from Auckland, New Zealand in the South Pacific. He is the father of three amazing, adult kids, and has been in ministry for more than 27 years, serving as the children’s pastor at his home church.
DTS – Discipleship Training School
Many people who do their DTS’s are either right out of high school or in their 20s. A lot of people who decide to do a DTS are usually in a period of transition, whether it be moving from high school to college, graduating college and trying to figure out what to do with their lives, or something similar to those scenarios. And then you have people like Warrick who are completing a DTS as part of their long-term goal.
Warrick began visiting Romania on short-term mission trips about five years ago and quickly fell in love with the country. Considering he had never been out of New Zealand prior to this trip, it seemed like a crazy idea. But as we all know, God’s ideas can seem crazy to us! It wasn’t part of his plan to come back to Romania after his initial visit, but God laid this country on his heart, and he couldn’t help but to return.
After serving on and off with YWAM Constanta on short-term trips, Warrick felt the Lord saying that He was going to make Romania his new home. He planned to attend the DTS that was going to run in 2020, but because of Covid, Warrick had to go back to New Zealand for a season. During that time, he felt the Lord working through the pandemic to teach him some personal lessons and to grow his faith, so it ended up being a good thing for him.
Fast forward to now, and Warrick is one of the students of the YWAM Constanta DTS. He is in an interesting position considering he has been a pastor for 27+ years, but we never stop learning. The most memorable week during lecture phase leading up to now was Evangelism. Coming to the realization that we are trying to see the people we are reaching as the person God created them to be, as opposed to seeing the testimony they could be, was very impactful and shifted his thinking coming into mid-term outreach.
The Constanta DTS came to Užice to do their mid-term outreach. They are a base that has five staff and are pioneering ministries around the city. Warrick found it challenging to not come into existing ministries that they could just come in and help with. He was also aware of his age and how it could come across to the locals with him hanging out with two younger girls on the team. On the contrary, it pushed him out of his comfort zone and allowed the Holy Spirit to lead. There have been many times of prayer over the city and prayer walking, and he can see how prayer is the foundation we build upon and its importance.
One of the biggest lessons that has been learned on this mid-term outreach is that it takes time to build ministries and to see the fruit of other people’s labor, but it is still important to be obedient to what God is asking of us. It is in our nature, as humans, to want to see the results of what we have done, but the way we measure results and the way God measures results is much different, and we still have to trust Him in that.
Something else that was beneficial from this mid-term was that it was a taste of what they will face during the longer outreach phase. They were able to see each other’s strengths and weaknesses more clearly, how they will function as a team, things they will want to continue doing, and things they will want to improve on.
One Warrick does to keep himself motivated and on the right track is remembering the things that the Lord has spoken to him and going back to His Word to remind himself of the truth. The word that came to Warrick that he has been holding onto is, “Trust the process,” and the verse he has been holding onto is from Genesis 28: 15, “What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised.”
I believe we can all learn from Warrick and his experience with his DTS so far. God works through people in many ways and can call us away from what we are doing at any time. Are we willing to listen to Him? Are we willing to obey Him, even if it doesn’t make sense? I pray that we will all take these questions and reflect on whether or not we are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to obey God.
You got to know Warrick Baty from Auckland, New Zealand in our latest interview by Taylor Smith
Taylor is a passionate writer living and serving in Užice, Serbia. Her desire in writing is to share stories and testimonies with others to encourage and inspire growth in all aspects of life and ministry. Her vision is to reach women, particularly through anti-human trafficking and counseling ministries https://www.taylorslifeoverseas.com