YWAM

August 04, 2020

After the missionary work in the Cook Islands, my father was languishing in a “normal” domestic life. He felt like his life was wasting away. But it was during that time that my mom attended the event that was going to send our family on a global adventure.

One day she went to hear a famous missionary named Brother Andrew but another missionary also briefly spoke at the event. His name was Loren Cunningham and he was the leader of an international Christian missionary organization called Youth With A Mission (YWAM). That day he talked about how YWAM wanted to buy a ship to do missionary work - right up my dad’s alley, melding his ship experience with his desire for missions!

A few weeks later, my father got a call from someone in YWAM to say the ship they were trying to purchase was actually in New Zealand about 400 miles south of us in the capital city of Wellington. My father decided to go join them to help get the ship ready and the rest of us went down some months later during school break

Unfortunately, things were not going well for purchasing the ship. Despite putting up a large down payment, the rest of the money was not coming in. Everyone had to get off the ship and we lived in a university dormitory for the time being. That was where I first learned to ride a bike. It was also there that I met a girl who was later to become one of my very best friends. Her name was Jan Applegate and she was the daughter of Ben Applegate, the man who was to be the captain of the ship.

The rest of the money did not come in and YWAM lost the ship, along with the down payment. God revealed to the YWAM leaders that they had been so focused on the excitement of the ship that it had diverted their attention away from putting Him first. He allowed the ship to pass to get them to put Him back in the center where He belonged.

My father was severely disappointed going back to normal life again but one of the families from the ship named the Mansfields (from the United States) came to stay with us. Bill started talking to my dad about his vision for a small boat ministry where smaller boats could go on larger ships and when the ships reached an island chain they could take the smaller boats off the ship to reach the smaller islands.

My father became very excited because he had thought about the very same idea. Some months later, Loren Cunningham, the leader of YWAM heard about the small boat ministry idea and invited the Mansfields and our family to start it. YWAM had begun a new location in Hawaii to reach more effectively into Asia and the Pacific and that’s where he wanted us to go.

There were many unknowns as my father weighed the decision, particularly how we could afford it. But as he prayed, he felt like God told him that if he stayed in New Zealand, God would bless him and make him fruitful. But if he took this leap, he would have an exponentially broader ministry. He decided to go.

I didn’t have any misgivings. I was excited about the possibility of moving to the United States, especially to a place like Hawaii. I just took life as it came anyway. So in 1975, at eight years old, I began the journey from my seemingly small, limited existence on the edge of nowhere, to a new life of ever expanding experience in new countries and cultures.