'What Jesus did in their lives was just amazing': Discipleship school celebrates their grads

A Christian post-secondary mission school is thrilled to celebrate students moving on in their faith and lives after graduating this past week. 

Bryan Neisteter is the Director of Gospel Mission Discipleship School in Winkler, Manitoba. 

"It's been a wild ride, an absolute blast," says Neisteter. "A little crazy with COVID coming in and out at different times but so much fun watching students go deep with the Lord and build relationships as a family, being involved in outreach together, we've had an amazing year."

The discipleship school runs for one year, following college or university months from September to the end of April. 

"We've been able to do a variety of things for outreach this year. That's included some trips to Brandon where we've ministered at a school there with the youth group. Also some really fun stuff in Winnipeg, like street evangelism at Central Park, we've partnered with Charis Centre and Living Bible Explorers. It's been fun."

The school did not offer a program for students in 2020-2021. They started up again in the fall of 2021 with their five students graduating from the program recently. 

"We had our graduation last week. It was awesome. We had an opportunity for each student to share a little bit about what God did in their life throughout the year. A time for family and friends to come around and pray, really commissioning each of our students."

Neisteter says the most rewarding part for him was hearing not what the school did the past year, but how the students encountered Jesus. 

"What He [Jesus] did in their lives was just amazing. I got to see students go deeper in loving Jesus, growing their prayer life, watching leadership gifts come out of students, and watching the Lord set people free from the lies in their lives. We just had such a courageous group and I was bursting with pride during the whole graduation."

Neisteter shares that as Director he also does about 60 per cent of the teaching during the year, as well as joining them during the outreach times. 

"I want to be in the middle of it. To be honest, I find them provoking me so much, it's like, I better get out there because they're going to outdo me in terms of their boldness for Jesus. I can't let the next generation outdo me, they just so provoke me. It's been fun being right there in the middle of them."

People in the Pembina Valley area of Manitoba between 18 and 25 years old are invited to find out more about Gospel Mission Discipleship School. The mission school provides a gap year for students who are looking for some experience with missions before the next phase of life while growing their Christian faith.