YWAM Explained

Youth With A Mission (YWAM) encompasses thousands of people and hundreds of ministries in almost every country of the world. In every case, our passion is to know God and to make Him known.

We are a mixture of people from all over the world, from 149 countries in fact. In many of our locations, people from a wide variety of nations serve side by side. We come from numerous different Christian denominations and speak hundreds of languages. Nearly half of our staff come from “non-western” countries, such as Brazil, Korea, Indonesia, India and Nepal.

In addition to our full-time staff, many YWAM locations host short-term outreach teams made up of individuals, youth groups, families and churches who participate first-hand in “making God known” through both words and actions. We send out over 25,000 short-term missionaries each year.

There are three strands of ministry weaving throughout all that YWAM does:

Evangelism: Some creative tools used to present the gospel include drama, music, performing arts and sports camps. YWAMers want to share their faith effectively in ways that the audience–whether teenagers, elderly refugees, or an unreached people group–will understand. YWAM also engages in church planting among unreached people groups.

Mercy Ministry: is the “hands and feet” of making God known. YWAM helps meet some of the practical and physical needs of about 400,000 people annually. Caring for street children in South America; aiding in the recovery of drug addicts in North America and Western Europe; feeding and housing refugees and women in need in Africa and Asia; operating ships that declare the good news practically and verbally – some of the ways in which helping hands are extended.

Training and Discipleship Schools: aim to better equip Christians to serve others in everything from agriculture and health care, to drug rehabilitation and biblical counselling. Through YWAM’s University of the Nations (U of N), missionaries can study in specialized areas such as science and technology, linguistics, the humanities, and Christian ministry. Most YWAM schools combine classroom teaching with relationship-centered discipleship and practical service.  The Discipleship Training School (DTS) is a requirement for applying to be YWAM staff, and serves as a prerequisite to all other training programs.  Each year some 10,000 students attend a U of N school at one of the 250 different locations.