News & Stories

• Living Water at Festival in Thailand
  Of all the festivals celebrated in Thailand, Songkran is considered the most significant. It is a time to celebrate Thai New Year with family ceremonies and “blessing” one another with water. In Chiang Mai, this tradition has turned into the country's biggest city-wide water fight, attracting visitors from around the world. This super wet shindig takes place around the city's moat and lasts for 3 days! Create International, a ministry of Youth With A Mission, joined in the fun this year.
• YWAM Team Assists Storm Recovery in Argentina
  On Wednesday the 4th of April around 8p.m., a large part of the Western suburban area of Buenos Aires and even the downtown, were affected by the passing of a storm that left considerable damage. In Ituzaingo, the area surrounding the Youth With A Mission centre in Buenos Aires, the damage caused by the wind gales, the rain and the hail, left thousands of fallen trees, 95 percent of the city without power and 70 percent of the city without telephone lines. Some 500 businesses were affected and around five thousand residences were seriously damaged.
• YWAM in Thailand takes DTS inside prison walls
  It’s been around seven years since Sophon was sent to the Ratchaburi prison in Central Thailand. He has almost completed the allotted punishment for the crime he committed so many years ago. His release is due at the end of this year. While he is excited, apprehension also clouds his outlook, as he is no longer certain what life looks like outside of his prison walls. What Sophon does know, however, is that being in prison has truly changed him. For the better. A number of years ago, soon after he entered the prison, Sophon took a decision to follow the ways of Jesus. His journey of faith in Christ has brought him hope and a new understanding of what his life should be like. Sophon has been so swept away by the love of God that he has decided to serve God even after his upcoming release. “I want to serve God and have God help me in areas in my life that are not right yet,” Sophon says.
• A story for St. Patrick's Day!
  Maewyn Succat was born to a well-to-do British Roman family in roughly 400 AD in Kilpatrick, Scotland. He enjoyed the status of middle class wealth, and the prestige of having a preacher grandfather and a deacon father in the young Christian church. Maewyn, however, while reveling in the comfortable position of his family, rejected anything to do with their faith. However, everything changed for the young Briton when he was kidnapped by Irish pirates at the age of 16, and dragged to the neighbouring country where he was forced into slavery.
• Pioneering YWAM work in the Democratic Republic of Congo
  No country in Africa captures the extremes of the continent like the Democratic Republic of Congo. A massive nation with vast natural resources, it ought be one of the wealthiest countries on earth, and yet today, it is ranked as one of the poorest. Stunningly beautiful, it has been scarred by ugly deeds — 5 million people dead as a result of the years of simmering warfare over the last two decades. The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been hit hard by the war. The region has thick, often impenetrable rainforest, with few tarred roads. Travel there is painfully slow. One Congolese family had a grueling struggle to attend a DTS at Arua in Uganda. Their 1000km journey from Isiro took an incredible 14 days. The couple travelled with their toddler by bicycle, motorbike, foot and car. On the way they got lost, were separated from each other for several days, were robbed, and suffered severe exhaustion. They survived on a meager diet of rice alone. They arrived in Arua not knowing the language, yet convinced that God wanted them there, and that they needed to do the DTS: perseverance, tenacity, and faith!