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.

The girl, Monica, is now living at a children’s home in Pune. At the same time as Monica was rescued from the brothel a 3-year old boy also left the brothel with the team to live in the children’s home.

Usually if a child is left alone at a brothel they are sold for the day or for the rest of their lives. For these two children to be rescued from the brothel is a real miracle and will give the children a much better chance at life.

You can read the full story here.

The post Girl Rescued from Brothel by YWAM Team in India appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

It sounds like the YWAM DTS team is having an amazing time on their outreach to Guyana. The team started out in Jamaica, where it looks like did the lecture phase of their school.

You can read more about their YWAM DTS outreach, and the amazing things that they are experiencing in Guyana, here.

The post YWAM DTS Outreach Team Builds Bridge in Guyana appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

It’s my first ever Blog Carnival that I’m running, so it’s a bit exciting to see what happens. Could be a total bust if no one submits any stories, or it could be a fantastic source of stories from people who have done a YWAM DTS with Youth With A Mission.

If you want to participate in the YWAM DTS Blog Carnival, or want to see what stories get submited, then check out the post, YWAM DTS Blog Carnival – Bill Hutchison.

The post YWAM DTS Blog Carnival Launched appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

A new documentary, “Jeasusfreaks”, has been produced based on the YWAM DTS (Discipleship Training School) that happened at YWAM Colorado shortly after the shooting. The school had 45 students, all snowboarders between the ages of 17 – 25. The school leader, John Murphy, documented the school and all that happened on it.

All sorts of issues and topics are tackled during the school by the staff and students. You can check out the free trailer for the documentary here.

The post Documentary Launched for YWAM DTS after Colorado Shooting appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

I wonder which two weeks of teaching this was after.

You can read more about the Creative YWAM DTS in Aalesund Norway here.

The post YWAM Creative DTS Video from Aalesund Norway appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

Although the effectiveness of short term missions work has been debated, and will continue to be debated, probably until Christ’s return, I believe that it is an important part of God’s plan for the Church. Short Term Missions not only reach out to people in the outreach locations, it also opens the eyes and hearts of the people taking part in the short term outreach.

Jesus commanded us to go into all the world and make disciples of nations. The more people that get doing this, long term or short term, the closer we are getting to doing what God has called us to do.

You can read about one man’s plan for his Gap Year after university here.

The post YWAM is a Popular Gap Year Option for Christians appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

• Mission Adventures
• Discipleship Training Schools
• Business as Missions
• School of Frontier Missions
• Joining Staff in YWAM

You can read more about these five different ways to do missionary work with YWAM here.

The post Five Ways to Become a YWAM Missionary appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

YWAM Hockey will be running a Hockey YWAM DTS starting in September of this year in Vancouver, Canada.

You can find out more about the YWAM Hockey clinics that just happened here.

The post YWAM Hockey Outreach to Northern British Columbia,BC, Canada appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.

You can find out more about this unique YWAM DTS experience here.

The post A Unique YWAM DTS Running Over Two Summers Targets College and University Students appeared first on YWAM News that Bill finds Interesting.