In the establishment of the new Youth With A Mission ministry centre the Australians used local, natural and easily available resources to build the new ministry building. It was built very quickly, over a matter of days, and blends in with the local landscape.

The ministry objectives and plans for the Australian YWAMers is still being established by the local staff. The YWAMers are saying that they are there for the long haul, but there are concerns though from the locals in Canada. One of them was overheard saying:

I know that they say they are here for the long term, but the way they built it looks to me like their ministry center will be gone by the time spring rolls around!

Apparently some of the locals are concerned about the YWAMers choice of building material; snow.

When approached about it the Australian YWAMer was surprised, responding, “What are you talking about? It’s everywhere, and I really can’t see it going away, this centre will be around for decades!”.

There was also concern expressed by the local Canadians about some of the Australian YWAMers choice of footwear…

Again the Australian YWAMers were indignant in their answer stating, “We wear these things year round everywhere in Australia, including weddings! I’m not going to change just because of local tradition, I’m an Australian!”.

While the longevity of the building materials used for the new Youth With A Mission Ministry Centre in Canada is in doubt, the long-term future of the YWAMers in Canada is also still to be determined. In the mean time though they are plugging away at whatever it is God’s told them to do there…

Lounging on the roof top of the new YWAM Australia Ministry Centre in Canada

The post Australian YWAMers Establish New YWAM Ministry Centre in Canada appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

The revelry usually goes for about 18-days starting on November 19. Tens of thousands of graduates participate in the annual celebration for school leavers. Gold Coast has about 60,000 young people participating, and Byron Bay, the second most popular destination, has about 10,000 people attend.

While most people’s experience at Schoolies is positive and fun, there is often also the misuse of drugs, alcohol and excessive partying. Unfortunately girls and guys are often taken advantage of by their peers and sometime by older predators as well during the event.

Youth With A Mission has had a presence at Schoolies for many decades, providing activities, support, safe places and people to patrol the areas where the youth are partying. I did an outreach with YWAM Sunshine Coast back in 1998 where we spent a lot of time talking with the school leavers, helping them where needed, and pointing them in the right direction if they needed further help.

I’ve contacted numerous YWAM Centres in Australia to see what  schoolies outreach opportunities are available and will be updating this article with that information and talking about it on the next YWAM Podcast when I hear back from the different centres.

Update:

YWAM Byron Bay runs a schoolies outreach every year. Both YWAM Brisbane, YWAM Newcastle and YWAM Sunshine Coast do their outreaches by joining with YWAM Byron Bay. Some of the outreach activities that they engage in are:

• Hotel Chaplains
• Organised Sports
• Free BBQ
• Street Concerts
• Drama
• One on One Evangelism

YWAM Reef to Outback, YWAM Newcastle and YWAM Brisbane usually include the schoolies outreach as a part of their Discipleship Training School (YWAM DTS).

YWAM Sunshine Coast has stopped doing their schoolies outreach to Maroochydore and Mooloolaba, where I did my schoolies outreach, since the Maroochy Shire Council stopped supporting and funding the activities in 2007.

Links:

• YWAM Australia Schoolies Outreach 2009
• Tweed Daily News – Byron prepares for schoolies surge

The post 2010 Schoolies Outreach in Australia appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

Youth With A Mission has been active around the world over it’s 50-year history in bringing clean potable water to the nations it’s worked in.

Some of the things that Youth With A Mission is currently doing to help provide clean water are:

• Repairing damaged wells and pumps in Haiti after the earth quake
• Proving clean water along with education and health care to the Aluwawe People of the Zambezi Delta in Mozambique (here)
• Building concrete rain water collection tanks in Vanuatu where they have already built nine water tanks in the Northern villages of Efate, where I did my YWAM DTS outreach(here).
• Building and improving wells in southern Sudan (see video below)
• Running a Community Water Technology Seminar through the University of the Nations (U of N) in at least two locations in the world (here),
• Water for Life & Platypus Go-Teams out of YWAM Tasmania to help provide access to safe water through seminars, training and short term missions trips (here).
• Water for Life ministry in Kona, Hawaii as part of the University of the Nations (U of N) which currently has projects to help people develop safe and sustainable water sources in  Kiribati, Indonesia, Brazil, Kosovo and Rwanda. (here)

YWAM work continues to help provide clean water for the estimated 2 billion people around the world who are lacking adequate water supplies and sanitation.

The post YWAM Working to Provide Clean Water appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

• Adelaide June 29 and 30
• Melbourne from July 1 – 3
• Townsville July 4 – 6
• Brisbane July 7 – 9
• Canberra July 9 – 11
• Wollongong July 12 – 13
• Perth July 14 – 16
• Newcastle July 17
• Sydney July 18 – 19

The tour  aims to bring together people from education, law enforcement, faith communities, corporations, consumers and justice seeks to help bring an end to modern day slavery.

At many of the locations the people from the Not for Sale Campaign will be partnering with the location Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Centre for the events. I know that in Townsville the event will be held at the YWAM Centre there, and that appears to be the case in many other centres around Australia.

Faces of Slavery from David Hepburn on Vimeo.

You can read more about what the tour is about, and where it will be visiting after Australia, on their web-site at www.notforsalecampaign.org.

The post Stop Paying for Slavery Tour in Australia appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

In addition to Lynn Green speaking on the live online video broadcast Shirley Brownhill will also be speaking. Shirley Brownhill is the director of YWAM Perth and will be sharing stories and video from Mexico City. YWAM Perth is currently engaged in a “Mega Cities” outreach in Mexico City and they have seen many people come to the Lord during their time there.

You can join into the live video address by clicking here at the time of the event.

To find out what time the event is in your time zone click here and then select your location.

The post Lynn Green to Address YWAM Live On-Line appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

Upon arriving in Portland they went straight into a youth camp with some of the local youth.

Tours of the ship will begin on Wednesday and continue through to Sunday. They will be open for public tours from 9 – 4 Wednesday to Saturday, and 1 – 5 on Sunday. For individual visitors there is no appointment needed, but for larger groups it would work out better if an appointment was made before hand.

Other planned special events during the visit to Portland are:

• A special reception for medical professionals on Thursday the 8th at 7:30pm on the ship.
• Free Concert on Friday the 9th of April at 7:00 pm with “Five Star Street” and “Saving Sparrows” at the Civic Hall
• Free Concert on Saturday the 10th of April at 7:00 pm again at the Civic Hall with Proper Way Productions, and island dance act

You can contact the YWAM Ship tour on their web-site here to confirm these events and book tours for any large groups.

The post The YWAM Ship MV Pacific Link has Arrived in Portland, Victoria appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

The storm brought with it hail, rains, flooding, landslides and gusts of wind more than 120km/hour! One of the staff with Youth With A Mission Perth reported that:

However, we rejoice because the rain has broken the drought. We had all of March’s average rainfall in 7 minutes.

Thankfully no one was injured at the YWAM Perth training centre, but the centre did receive a significant amount of damage. Ceilings were ripped off of the kitchen and classrooms. There was also flooding through the classrooms and through the auditorium. Some of the students also had to be relocated when one of the properties used for accommodation was badly damaged.

There is no new news yet from YWAM Perth about the cleanup, but you can find out more about their ministry, and hopefully read some updated news from them here.

The post YWAM Perth Battered by Freak Storm appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

While the ship is in Adelaide they will be berthed at the McLaren Wharf in Port Adelaide from March 25 – April 4 at Birth 4. While in Adelaide the YWAM staff and students will be visiting schools, churches and youth groups sharing about the ship and about the “I Want to Live” campaign.

There are three public events planned during the time that the ship is in Adelaide:

• March 25 – YWAM Ships Dinner at the British Hotel in Port Adelaide. Cost is $20 per head and includes dinner, music, live entertainment and tours of the ship. Read more.
• March 26 – YWAM Ships Youth Event at The Marketplace Church. This is a free event and includes an international hip-hop crew and a music fest. Read more.
• March 27 – YWAM Ship Family Event at the Lighthouse Square end of Commercial Road in Port Adelaide. The event will include tours of the ship, live music, speakers and family fun activities. Read more.

During the rest of the time that the ship is in Adelaide they will be continuing to collect glasses for distributing in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and running school tours of the ship.

After the fantastic response that the YWAM ship has received in their previous ports on their tour of Australia it is looking like their time in Adelaide should go pretty well. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some of our friends and family who are in Adelaide to stop by and check it out.

The post YWAM Ship Tour – Next Stop in Adelaide, South Australia appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

In addition to the 820 people who toured the ship the YWAM team has had the opportunity to share with over 1200 people about the upcoming ship tour and about Youth With A Mission and the needs of the people in Papua New Guinea (where the ship will go at the end of the Australia Tour).

Some of the YWAM staff and students had the unique opportunity to share first and second year medical students at the University in Geelong. Since the YWAM the Pacific Link is outfitted with two small operating theatres the participation of doctors and nurses if crucial during the ships upcoming trip to Papua New Guinea. While in PNG the ship will be distributing donated glasses to people who currently can’t see and also performing life changing operations to correct vision and dental problems.

The next stop for the YWAM Ship will be in Adelaide, South Australia.

You can find out how you can volunteer and make a difference with the YWAM Ship here.

The post YWAM Australia Ship Pacific Link in Geelong, Victoria appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

Fortunately for the crew the trip from Darling Harbour in Sydney was a much smoother sail than the trip from Newcastle into Sydney. Unfortunately though it was not an uneventful trip as the anchor chain motor stopped working while they were trying to replace the anchor chain. I do not have an update yet about if they have got the motor running again.

The ship will be in Ulladulla until March 15 and while they are there they will be visiting the local Lions group and various church groups in the city. They will also be taking people on guided tours of the ship daily between 9am and 4pm.

The Lions group will be putting on a barbeque at Lions Park in Ulladulla on March 13 at 6:30pm where people can meet the crew and find out more about what the ship is doing. The Lions group is also working on collecting used glasses that will be taken to Papua New Guinea to help people there regain their sight.

You can read more about the YWAM Ship Pacific Link’s visit to Ulladulla here.

The post YWAM Ship Pacific Link has Arrived in Ulladulla appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.