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This month we will talk about missions advocacy, get some year end updates from a few of our locations, find out some different ways that YWAM serves people and locations when on outreach, check out a couple of ministry books, get some life advice from YWAM Tahlee, and more …
Thank you for watching or listening to the Youth With A Mission News Show Podcast, this is the 165 episode. I am your hosts, Bill Hutchison.
You can contact us, subscribe to future episodes, leave comments, and find links to all the stories we talk about on the show notes for this podcast at ywampodcast.com/165 …
Last week Lidia and I recorded this episode together. Unfortunately, I messed up the recording and streaming, and Lidia’s voice was not recorded. Unfortunately, you all missed out as Lidia contributed some great stories and content, but I will still share the news with you now …
Lidia has returned to Rogaland from Brazil and is now leading their media team. One of the projects that she is continuing is their Fruit Breaks …
Lidia is going to be continuing to produce fruitbreaks every week, and we will be watching them as well and enjoying their content moving forward.
YWAM Rogaland also had a video made by one of their DTS students, Anoah, who is currently on outreach in South Africa and made a stop in Lesotho. Lesotho is a very small country inside South Africa. Its completely landlocked, with a population of roughly 2.3 million. The team was working with YWAM Lesotho, helping a lot with practical needs and at preschools.
If you liked the video, you can find more made by Anoah on the YWAM Rogaland Instagram page.
The video was actually made as part of the All Nations Initiative, which Mika will explain to us now …
If you would like to know more or to take part in the All Nations Initiative, you can find out more on ywam.no,
Acts 1:8 – Missions Advocacy
Next I wanted us to watch a video put out by Bevin from Global Cast Resources about Acts 1:8 …
In the originally recorded episode Lidia and I had a good discussion about the importance of serving locally, and serving overseas, and how God has a roll for all of us somewhere. Even though that discussion was lost, I think that it’s important for us to remember how all of us have a roll in the Body of Christ.
We will talk more about Global Cast Resources and the work that they are doing later in the show …
Davos Outreach
This month saw the meeting of hundreds of world leaders in Davos, Switzerland. YWAM was also there, praying, worshiping, outreaching and hosting Christian politicians, businessmen, and entrepreneurs who are making an impact in those spheres of society.
Ezekiel shares with us a bit about what happened there …
You can visit ywamdavos.org to find out more about the ministry that location is engaging in.
YWAM Las Vegas March Against Human Trafficking
January 12th was the National Day Against Human Trafficking, and YWAM Las Vegas was out on a prayer march to raise awareness in a city that has the nick name, Sin City.
National Day Against Human Trafficking is a day to shine a light on human trafficking and celebrate the resilience of survivors. While awareness is key, we also need to focus on taking action.
What can you do to be part of the solution?
Learn the signs, support anti-trafficking organizations, and advocate for policies that empower vulnerable populations. Every action has the power to drive positive change.
YWAM Las Vegas is working to change the city. Instead of calling it Sin City they call it Grace City and they are working with victims of human trafficking, foster children, inner city youth, EMT workers, and more …
Visit ywamlasvegas.org to find out more about their ministry, and how you can get involved.
Thailand / Cambodia Conflict Outreach
Last month I shared about the border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, and how there were nearly 3/4 of a million displaced civilians because of it. Shortly after we published that episode a ceasefire was agreed to on December 27, and fighting ceased.
There are still hundreds of thousands of people displaced, and YWAM is sending teams to help with the recovery and the next steps, including this team from YWAM Maui …
We should keep praying during the recovery and relocation time for the people affected by this conflict, and that the long running conflict would not reignite.
You can find out more about the team from YWAM Maui, and the ministry that YWAM Maui engages in, on their web-site, ywammaui.com.
YWAM Queenstown Outreach to Fiji
There are many ways that YWAM teams serve in the nations that they outreach to. While on outreach in Fiji, a team from Queenstown in New Zealand conducted a Clean-up campaign at a local park in Lautoka.
You can head on over to ywamqueenstown.com to find out more about what their teams did on outreach.
2025 Ministry Location Updates
This month we have some year end updates from 2025, shared by two of our ministry locations.
YWAM Wylie 2025 Update
We start with YWAM Wylie, in Texas.
You can find out more about their ministry at ywamwylie.org.
YWAM Lausanne 2025 Wrap Up
Now, we have a wrap up from YWAM Lausanne in Switzerland.
You can find out more about their ministry at ywamlausanne.com.
The Day Bagabag Island Heard the Bible in Their Own Language
This is an outreach update that we received from a YWAM Ships Kona team that visited Bagabag Island …
When we arrived on Bagabag Island for our recent medical outreach, within minutes of talking with people, I learned something important. Everyone speaks Takia as their heart language, yet all of their Bibles and teaching resources are in English or Tok Pisin. They do their best with it, but it is hard for them to truly understand. You could tell they wanted something that felt like theirs, something they could genuinely connect with.
That night back on the ship, we researched online, and to our surprise, the entire New Testament had already been translated into Takia. It was done for a neighboring island call Karkar, but had not yet made it to their island. There were audio recordings, apps, online tools, and even the full Jesus Film. It looked like the resources had been sitting there, ready to be used, but no one had ever brought them to this island. Everything was already available; it just needed to be shared.
The next day we loaded everything onto a LightStream sharing device and returned to the village. As soon as people began receiving it on their phones, the reaction was immediate. People gathered around, faces shifted from curiosity to shock as they realized what they were hearing. They listened quietly at first, then began asking how they could get the recordings for themselves. For them, it was the first time they had ever heard the Bible in the language they grew up with.
Our Bagabag Island outreach was a powerful reminder of just how impactful it is for someone to hear the Bible in their mother tongue. These resources had been sitting online for years, waiting. No one on the island knew they existed. We did not plan for any of this. We came for a medical outreach and it turned in to something so much more. God went before us!
It showed me something about His faithfulness. Sometimes the biggest impact comes from surprises. We simply walked into the village, had a few conversations, and followed a small curiosity. God handled the rest. He already had the New Testament translated. He already had the Jesus Film recorded. He already had every tool prepared. All we had to do was give Jesus our YES and show up!
If you head over to ywam.org you can read that story, as well as additional testimonies from people who were there, and also find links to YWAM Ships Kona, where you can find out more about their ministry.
YWAM Serving in Kyiv, Ukraine
In the midst of the turmoil and attacks on Kyiv, YWAM is continuing to serve the locals.
In the cold and darkness of attacks and blackouts, our staff stepped into the streets with hot meals and hot drinks, choosing love when it wasn’t easy.
YWAM Kyiv will be continuing their Waves of hope ministry, with upcoming events in June and August, later this year.
Visit ywamkyiv.org to find out more.
YWAM Dunham
YWAM Dunham has been operating in Dunham, Quebec, Canada since 1976 since the location was purchased to send missionaries to the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games …
YWAM Dunham Book
In 2024 YWAM Dunham, in Quebec, Canada, published a book about their story, from the birth of the vision in 1974 in Amsterdam, to the launch of the ministry location in 1976 …
The book tells the faith journey that they took to pioneer and establish the YWAM Dunham campus. You can not only learn about the historical events, but also discover lessons of faith and perseverance learned along the way. The desire is to leave an inheritance for future generations and to inspire readers to remember and build upon the faith experiences and lessons shared in the book.
Head on over to ywamdunham.com/en/book to get your own copy.
YWAM Lilongwe
YWAM Lilongwe in Malawi has a heart to empower vulnerable girls to reach their full potential …
You can contact them to find out more about their ministry on the YWAM Malawi web-site, malawi.ywam.ws.
YWAM Grimerud – Impact
Now we’re gonna look at a testimony from YWAM Grimerud.
This is just one video from the YWAM Grimerud IMPACT series that they have, where they share testimonies of God’s impact on people and the nations. You can find the rest of the series videos on YWAM Grimerud on Youtube.
The Invitation
Last month as part of our global prayer initiative called The Invitation we prayed for Muslim Background Believers.
For more than thirty years, the YWAM-birthed prayer movement called 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World has sought to educate, enable and encourage Christians worldwide to pray for Muslim peoples as an act of love.
The focus of the 2026 guide is on Muslim people, from whom there are now radiant believers, sharing the gospel with their own or nearby Muslim people groups. We can celebrate that bringing the good news to Muslims is not just something done by foreigners from faraway countries; it is now the believers from Muslim backgrounds themselves who are key to transformation in their countries.
In the full letter at ywam.org you can find ways that you can pray and take action with the 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World. We will also embed the full video letter in the show notes.
The Gentle Answer to the Muslim Accusation of Biblical Falsification
In addition to the 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World guide, another useful resource for reaching out to, and sharing about Christ with people of the Muslim faith is a book called The Gentle Answer to the Muslim Accusation of Biblical Falsification written by Gordon D. Nickel.
The description of the book from Amazon reads …
The Gentle Answer is a scholarly response to a claim that many Muslims have made in relation to non-Muslims for more than 1200 years: that the text of the Bible is corrupt and/or falsified. Since critical writing on the Bible is more abundant and has a longer history, Muslim polemicists have selectively used Western biblical criticism in an attempt to support the traditional Muslim accusation of biblical falsification. Only quite recently have the techniques used in biblical criticism been applied to the Qur’an. The Gentle Answer responds to the Muslim claims by placing the Bible and the Qur’an on a level scholarly playing field to show that questions about the Qur’an are at least as challenging as questions about the Bible.
The Gentle Answer invites Muslims into a conversation about the contents of the scriptures themselves. Respect for the conversation partner means taking issues of truth seriously. It means doing one’s best to thoroughly understand accusations. It also means commending one’s own faith in terms of the partner’s worldview. Differences in faith between Muslims and non-Muslims show no sign of going away in the years to come. But in a world of considerable political tension and violence, Muslims and non-Muslims must seize the freedom to openly discuss their differences together while nurturing mutual respect and committing to peaceful coexistence.
Gordon D. Nickel (PhD, University of Calgary) is a retired missionary and professor of Islamic studies, who has taught in Canada, USA, Pakistan, Malaysia, and India.
I’ve talked a bit with Gordon lately, and he mentioned that the book has been translated into Bangali, Telugu, Korean, and Mandarin. There have been moves to have it also translated into Arabic and Urdu (a language spoken mostly in India), but Gordon has asked that we pray those translations would progress, and that partners would be found to make those important translations available.
You can find digital and paperback copies of The Gentle Answer to the Muslim Accusation of Biblical Falsification on Amazon.
We will also link to Gordon’s Substack, where he is regularly writing fantastic articles about Islam and the Quran.
School of Missions Advocacy
So, earlier we heard from Bevin from Global Cast Resources about Acts 1:8. What he shared was part of the School of Missions Advocacy (SOMA), and he is going to share more about the vision of the school here …
You can go to globalcastresources.com/training to find out when the next school is. Registration for the current course is currently closed, but you can register there to find out when the next school will happen.
YWAM Asuncion, Paraguay
We have heard and seen updates and news from Europe, Africa, North America, the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific Islands, so I figure it’s time to hear from one of our locations in South America, YWAM Asuncion, in Paraguay …
I love being reminded about how global YWAM really is, with over 1200 locations around the world, on every continent except Antarctica.
You can find out more about YWAM Asuncion on their web-site, ywamasuncion.com.
Addictive Behaviour Counseling School
There is a new school opportunity with YWAM Windhoek in Namibia – the Addictive Behaviour Counseling School (ABC). Come to learn how to break the cycle of addiction through effective counseling.
This course, offered by the Faculty of Whole Person Care & Development at the University of the Nations, will offer holistic training that equips students to understand the human being in their entirety – body, soul, and spirit – and to walk alongside those seeking restoration after experiences marked by pain, compulsions, and inner brokenness.
The lecture phase will be from the June 29th – September 20th, with an outreach phase from Sep 21th – Nov 15th.
You can find more information on their website at ywamwindhoek.org.
5 Steps to Study the Bible – Bible for Life
Do you want to study the Bible, and have no idea where to start? Ywam Grimerud’s here to help!
Maybe add a step 6 – apply for Bible for life at YWAM Grimerud! Their next school starts on March 18th and runs until June the 12th. You can check it out on their web-site, grimerud.no/bible-for-life.
School of Sustainable Developement
YWAM Homestead in Alessandria, Italy will be running the School of Sustainable Developement in March …
The school is designed for people that had a passion for sustainability, gardening, animals, cultures, travelling, and Jesus. It consists of 12 weeks of lectures and workshops, followed by 10 – 12 weeks of outreach.
Some of the topics covered are:
- Biblical Foundations of Creation Care
- Stewardship & Sustainable Development
- Sustainable Agriculture
- Animal Husbandry
- Appropriate Technologies
- Water Technologies
- Basics of Building in Missions
- And More!
You can find out more about the school on their web-site, ywamhomestead.com.
Life Advice from YWAM Tahlee
I thought we could finish this episode with some advice from YWAM Tahlee in Australia …
I love that, Jesus is your Jackhammer.
When I was chatting to Lidia we talked about how God can often work as our jackhammer, and often when we are working to obey God, we need Him to act as a Jackhammer to push through to what He asked us to do.
Let us know in the comments how Jesus has been your Jackhammer.
If you want to follow along the work that Lidia is doing with her team you can find us on instagram, facebook and youtube at Ywamrogaland.
You can follow along with what I’m up to on my personal site, billhutchison.org.
Leave feedback at ywampodcast.com/165.
Subscribe to future episodes at ywampodcast.com/subscribe.
If you liked the program, tell a friend. If you didn’t like it, tell a friend anyway …
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