Thousands Gather in Manila Affirming YWAM’s Legacy as a Guide for The Future

On September 3-6, the first post-Covid global Youth With A Mission (YWAM) gathering brought together people from more than 110 nationalities serving in 600 locations in more than 120 nations. This being the most diverse gathering in the movement’s history, YWAM Together (YT2024) challenged 4,500 people in Manila, The Philippines, to remember key principles and to respond to new initiatives.

Published on: September 25, 2024

This also being the first YWAM gathering after its founder Loren Cunningham passed almost a year ago, his legacy was celebrated throughout the gathering.

“I was nine when I was called to missions and 24 when I started going full time with YWAM. Partnering with Loren was always lots of fun. I represent the first generation of YWAM. It’s your job now: Go to the nations in the name of the Lord!” co-founder Darlene Cunningham charged.

“This is our grand finale of celebrating Loren’s life,” said wife and co-founder Darlene Cunningham. “We loved being a team together. He had the vision and I saw the steps how to get things done. It was lots of fun. And I always knew I was the love of his life.”

Several stories of God’s guidance were shared during the event. After each one, the person said, “This is my story.” And the audience responded, “This is our story.” After YWAM’s 64 years of collective obedience the movement is now clearly in transition.

“Loren was often asked,” Darlene revealed, “Who will lead this mission after you are gone. Each time he answered, ‘The one who has always led this mission: Jesus’.”

The organizers sensed God leading them to focus on the book of Joshua, which also captures a season of generational transition. “We believe God is calling this generation in YWAM to be like a Joshua generation that arises to take the promises that God has given us as a YWAM family,” said Garth Gustafson from the convening team.

“For YWAM the promised land is every unreached tribe to be reached, every language to have a Bible, the poor to be loved, and for us to go where we are not,” Garth reminded.

A Bible passage was translated into a Dalican language for the first time ever as part of the End Bible Poverty oral translation project. “What is the transformational power of the Bible. It’s not the idea. It’s a person. It’s the word inside the word,” Paul Childers (right) stated.

YWAM’s Legacy Affirmed

The last time YWAM converged in Manila, Philippines, was 36 years ago, in August 1988. The 1,500 leaders and staff workers present signed and confirmed a document called The Manila Covenant with twenty affirmations to release young people, women, and Non-Westerners into missions leadership.

This time, after going through the so called Tripod Message which promotes freedom in the Spirit, relationship orientation, and leadership structure favoring influence over authority, David Hamilton from YWAM’s University of the Nations led the 4,500 YWAMers to affirm A Legacy Covenant Renewal Document. (Please visit YWAM documents for more information.)

The focus was on YWAM’s Four Legacy Words, which have given foundational direction to the mission. The first legacy word was The Covenantal Vision of the Waves, which Loren received in June of 1956 in the Bahamas shortly before his 21st birthday.

The second legacy word was The Call to Disciple Nations through the Spheres of Influence.

The third one was The Christian Magna Carta. It was written from the perspective of what the world can expect from us: hear and understand the Good News, have the Bible in their heart language, be able to fellowship with other believers, provide Christian education for their children, and have basics of life like food and health care so that people can lead productive lives.

The fourth legacy word was The Commitment to End Bible Poverty Now (1967 & 2014).

During the conference a powerful demonstration of Oral Bible Translation was given from the stage. The first Bible text ever (Luke 9:18-20) was translated and recorded into the Dalican language in a couple of minutes right in front of everyone.

The Philippines got its name from Philip from the Bible, who was a servant of the Lord. Now this Catholic nation has opened its doors to the evangelicals to every school and university and YWAM has been invited to serve this initiative.

The First Initiative: The Philippines

YT2024 presented three practical initiatives for YWAMers to get involved in. The first one is to participate in what God is doing in the Philippines. Remarkably in the strongly Catholic nation, the government has opened doors to the evangelical churches into schools.

Over the years, YWAM has built a strong partnership with The Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, representing 55,000 member churches. Consequently, the council has invited YWAMers to join their mission to engage and reach Generation Z in the Philippines.

According to Mark Anderson of Call2All, there are 40 million young people in the Philippines. The evangelical churches have adopted schools across all levels, from elementary to universities, and tens of thousands of students have already responded to the gospel.

“When we show up at any school,” Mark said, “the officials welcome us. I believe there is an open window of about three years for this.”

During YT2024, a pre-rally for the upcoming mission gathering, The Send, saw 1,200 enthusiastic participants. Hundreds already committed to future missions, with the main event scheduled for March 2025 in Manila.

“We have one million potential workers,” a local leader stated. “We invite you to participate in mobilizing them. We do not encourage them to stay in the Philippines. We really want to send people to Africa and all the world.”

As a response to the Arusha incident, the largest single loss of life in YWAM history, the YWAMers from the Pacific Islands performed the haka as a spiritual declaration that “we will not back down”

The Second Initiative: Africa

Africa was strongly present at YT2024. First there was a solemn time of remembering the largest single loss of life in 64 years of YWAM history, when twelve YWAM leaders died in a traffic accident in Arusha, Tanzania, in February this year.

As YWAM mourned the loss of several of its African leaders, the incident also highlighted the need to have a fresh focus on Africa. An enthusiastic challenge was presented to invest in the youngest continent of the world.

Africa’s population is predicted to nearly double in the next 25 years. According to the United Nations, nearly 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africa is under the age of 30. If their Gen Z is touched by God’s love, there is a huge potential for missions.

By 2050, there will be an estimated 1.1 billion Christians in sub-Saharan Africa. Already, one out of four Christians live in sub-Saharan Africa.

“I read a political science article,” Gabriel Strydom from South Africa shared, “which projected that the population growth in the next 30 years in Africa will change the course of human history. Governments and businesses take note of this already. Do we see the potential?”

“Africa is not only a mission field, but a sending field,” said Edwin Fillies of South Africa. “We want to be a blessing to the nations but we also need the help of others to do so.

“God loves Africa and every nation. The way He shows His love is for you and me to respond to the call of God; to follow in the footsteps of the ones that gave their lives [in Arusha]. Say ‘yes’ to go anywhere Jesus would have you!”

A new online prayer initiative will be launched in October 2024 to strengthen the release of the apostolic. At the YT2024 there was powerful intercession for Myanmar and Bangladesh, as well as the conflicts between Ukraine and Russia and Israel and Gaza.

The Third Initiative: Prayer

Jim Stier who with his wife Pam pioneered YWAM Brazil in the 1970s highlighted that Loren’s vision of the waves of young people crashing over every continent isn’t Loren’s but God’s.

“Surely God knew that it couldn’t be finished in Loren’s lifetime. God was actually giving the waves to all of us in advance,” Jim reminded. “I was six when I got the waves!”

When the Stiers started in Brazil, they were told Brazilians can’t be missionaries, no one will send them. Now, the country is one of the top missionary sending nations in the world. Like Brazil, many nations are waiting to be transformed from missions fields to sending fields.

If YWAM is to continue as an apostolic missions movement, we have to first and foremost be a radical prayer movement, many speakers stressed.

“The foundation of YWAM is prayer,” Darlene emphasized and challenged YWAMers to strengthen the prayer base that is needed to release the apostolic, a new wave of young people to the nations. “Prayer is the essence of who YWAM is. Loren got the vision of the waves when he was praying.”

“We as YWAM family have to be presence-based people. Everything we do must flow out of this intimacy with God,” reminded Josh Cole, a prayer leader in YWAM.

The most urgent prayer initiative will take place already in October 2024. An online global YWAM night-and-day prayer movement calls for teams from YWAM campuses worldwide to commit to one-to-two-hour weekly shifts of prayer and worship. This will be streamed for anyone to participate. You can sign up for this at YWAMpray.com

“GenZ wants to encounter God. Let’s make space for that to happen!” Josh encouraged all.