Youth with a Mission
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| Founded | 1960 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Loren Cunningham and Darlene Cunningham |
| Type | Christian Interdenominational Missions Agency |
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Area served
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180 Countries |
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Volunteers
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18,350 |
| Slogan | To know God and to make Him known |
| Website | ywam.org |
Youth With A Mission (YWAM, generally pronounced /ˈwaɪwæm/) is an evangelical inter-denominational, non-profit Christian, missionary organization. Founded by Loren Cunningham and his wife Darlene Cunningham in 1960, YWAM's stated purpose is to "know God and to make Him known".
YWAM includes people from over 180 countries and a large number of Christian denominations, with over half of the organization's staff from non-Western countries. YWAM has over 15,000 full-time volunteers in more than 1,100 ministry locations in over 180 countries. They train upwards of 25,000 short-term missions volunteers annually.
Youth With A Mission was conceived by Loren Cunningham in 1956, as a 20-year-old student in an Assemblies of God College, he was traveling in the Bahamas when he had a vision of waves breaking over the Earth. When he looked closer the waves appeared to become young people taking the news of Jesus into all the nations of the world. He envisioned a movement that would send young people out into various nations to share the message of Jesus, and which would involve Christians of all non-catholic denominations.
In late 1960, the name Youth with a Mission (YWAM) was chosen and the group embarked on their first project, a vocational mission trip. The result was that YWAM sent two men in their early twenties to Liberia to build a road through the jungle to a leper colony. This was the organization's first official mission trip.
Loren Cunningham married Darlene Scratch in 1963. By this time, the new mission had 20 volunteers stationed in various nations, and the Cunninghams were planning the mission's first "Summer of Service". Later in the year, YWAM teams were being sent to West Indies, Samoa, Hawaii, Mexico, and Central America. By 1966, there were 10 full-time YWAM staff including the Cunninghams and hundreds of summer short-term volunteers. That year YWAM ministries also began in New Zealand and Tonga.
In 1967, Cunningham began to work on his vision for the first school. It was to be the School of Evangelism, which was held at Chateau-d'Oex, Switzerland in 1969 with 21 students. A second school which was twice as long, ran from the summer of 1969 through the summer of 1970 just outside Lausanne, Switzerland (in Chalet-A-Gobet). The students' lodging and classes took place in a newly renovated and leased hotel. By the end of the year, YWAM purchased the hotel and made Lausanne its first permanent location.
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