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The idea of YWAM began with a 20-year-old American college student who was spending some time in prayer. As he leaned back in his bed and looked up, he saw what he called a “mental movie.” He saw waves on a map. The waves turned into young people, going to every continent, sharing the good news about Jesus.
This radical idea, that young people could be missionaries, stayed with this young man, Loren Cunningham. Four years later, in 1960, he started an organization with that idea expressed even in its name: Youth With A Mission. The organization grew quickly, and is now one of the world’s largest Christian mission organizations, with a staff of nearly 16,000 people working in over 1,000 locations across more than 149 countries. We represent numerous denominations and speak hundreds of languages, with half of our staff from “non-western” countries, such as Brazil, Korea, Indonesia, India and Nepal. Together we train and send out more than 25,000 short term missionaries every year.
YWAM Honolulu Base History
In 1979 God’s direction was to start a Youth With A Mission training and sending Base in Honolulu. Twenty staff and students led by Kalafi Moala from the YWAM Kona’s April 1979 School of Evangelism were the first to pioneer the work in Honolulu on the island of Oahu, home of over 80% of the states population, the door of the South Pacific and Asia. Kalafi was burdened by the cry of Asia, where half of the world’s population was still beyond the reach of the Gospel. What was needed was a fresh wave of young missionaries committed to the task of evangelizing the unreached nations beyond the Pacific. Soon Pioneer Ministries, as it was known back then was born.
When they first came to the island looking for the right place, God spoke to them to settle in the Manoa Valley. (Interestingly, Manoa Valley originally housed the first missionaries and their families on Oahu). Manoa Valley is located just 3 miles from downtown Honolulu and the beaches and 15 minutes from the Honolulu International Airport. So they believed God for a 3.5-acre parcel of land located at the mouth of the valley directly behind the University of Hawaii. On the property were 5 military bungalows (transplanted years later by the owner) and eight houses. In September 1980, the owner of the property was not interested in us; therefore our first two DTS’s bounced around from garage to a front room of a house in the back of the valley. During those schools many hours of prayer went into seeing the Lord bring about His desire for us.
One year later, September 1981, the owner’s brother decided to retire from managing the property and negotiations began. A six-year lease was drawn up. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness! As the first small group of pioneers moved onto the Base, it didn’t quite look like it does today. The Tin Cathedral was a dirt floored boat shed, jungle covered much of the property, and many of the houses were totally trashed.
Gradually, they cleaned up the houses, cut down the jungle, set up an office and began making improvements. To this day, improvements continue – though it seems we often stay just one step ahead of the termites. We are grateful for the wonderful blessing God has given us in these 3 prime Manoa acres. We have approximately 45 Base, DTS, KDTS, SOME and SBSCC staff and up to 70 students.
Pioneering the Base was difficult but rewarding. Over the years the Lord has changed thousands of lives and will continue to do so as students come here and are trained and sent throughout the South Pacific, Asia and the world. YWAM Bases in the South Pacific and Asia have been pioneered through us and we are trusting God to continue to use us to impact the world for Jesus!