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What I Do (YWAM)
My family and I have been involved in some way or another with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) for almost 20 years, but it was early 2006 when we finally did a Crossroads DTS and became full-time staff immediately after its completion.
As DTS Directors, Wendy and I brought a team of DTS students on a two-month outreach to YWAM Tijuana in January 2008, and that began a series of conversations and confirmations that quickly led to us joining staff full-time here in August of the same year.
YWAM revolves around three main focus points: Mercy Ministry, Evangelism, and Training. Each YWAM location will implement these in different ways, specific to the culture, needs, and sense of God's calling.
Mercy Ministry
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YWAM Tijuana has numerous opportunities to address mercy ministry, but perhaps the best known facet is our Homes of Hope program, where teams visit for a weekend from all over Canada and the USA, and in two days, partner with our staff to build a house for a needy family in the poor areas of our city. To date, Homes of Hope has built 2500 homes for families in desperate need. All of our family members participate regularly in these building projects. |
Training | YWAM Tijuana offers a five-month Disciple Training School (DTS) twice a year. DTS is the entry point for anyone desiring to join YWAM as a missionary. It is exciting and rewarding to see young people getting a taste of missions life, and it's equally exciting to see some of them (12 out of 15 graduates last fall) join us as full-time staff after their DTS. |  |
Evangelism
 | YWAM Tijuana does many evangelistic projects, ranging from Zona Norte (street ministry in downtown Tijuana) to Circulo Andante -- "Walking Circle" (children's literacy program in the colonias where we often build houses), to weekly outreaches in the Juvenile Prison (where they allowed us to build a YWAM house inside the prison yard to facilitate our presence there), and Youth Street, a weekly outreach event into the skateboarding subculture. And Wendy is there, to document it all! |
These two videos (on YouTube) are great insights into the look and feel of our Homes of Hope and its impact on the poor in Tijuana, and also a bit of the flavour of our DTS schools.
Homes of Hope
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DTS Promotional
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