About YWAM International

Youth With A Mission is a global movement of Christians from many cultures, age groups and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world.

Also known as YWAM (pronounced “WHY-wham”), we unite in a common purpose to know God and to make Him known.

Back when we began in 1960, our main focus was to help youth get involved in missions.

Today, we still focus on youth and we also include people of all ages. We currently have tens of thousands of staff (called “YWAMers”) from nearly every country, including places like Indonesia, Nepal, Mozambique, and Colombia.

We have been making waves here in Japan since 1975, starting in Osaka. We have since expanded all over Japan.

God is calling people from many countries to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Japanese people and to raise up the Japanese people for His glory and honour and give them His gifts to spread the gospel in various ways.

A Family of Ministries

We reach out in 180+ countries through three main areas — Evangelism, Training and Mercy Ministry.

Our ministries cover every sphere of society, including ship-based medical care, performing arts teams, Bible training programs, business coaching, sports ministries, anti-trafficking work, and many more.

YWAM functions as a family of ministries rather than a centralized agency.

Wave Makers: Our Founders & Elders

YWAM was founded by Loren Cunningham in 1960 after God gave him a vision of waves of young people crashing onto the shores of all nations of the world with the Gospel. Loren also co-founded the University of the Nations in 1978 in order to better train and equip people for missions. As YWAM is a decentralised mission with no global headquarters, Loren and his wife Darlene make up part of YWAM’s Founders’ Circle overseeing the mission and pointing YWAMers across the world back to Jesus.