YWAM celebrated its’ 50th anniversary of training ministry in Lauzanne
By Steve Dong-Uk Kang/ Planning Dept.
Around 6 pm on August 30, 2019, a beautiful Swiss horn sounded the start of the 50th anniversary of YWAM training. Just as echoes sound in the beautiful mountains of Switzerland, stories of faith and obedience have been shared and echoed by millions of people in the 50-years history of YWAM training. In each other’s stories came a confession of gratitude and thrill of God’s faithfulness that guided us and became a passionate worship towards God. Remembering and being grateful for the guidance that came from God and hoping to have a clearer understanding of the direction we should go moving forward, over 500 YWAMers from all over the world participated. From the University of the Nations Jeju, 10 representatives, Lee Chang- hoon and his wife and others from Korea and China attended.
“I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.” Psalm 77: 11-12
In Lausanne, Switzerland, where YWAM training first began, it was a special experience to hear “The Story of Obedience” directly from Loren and Darlene, who started the School of Evangelism by obeying God’s word. In 1969, a young American couple who had no acquaintance in Switzerland, no place to stay, and couldnʼt speak French at all, obeyed God’s word and began the School of Evangelism in Lausanne. They couldnʼt communicate well, people were talking bad about them behind their backs, and there were many difficulties, but they walked the path silently, holding on to what God had said with faith. They listened, followed, and didnʼt give up on God’s word.
The story of listening to God’s word, obeying it, and not giving up did not stop with Loren and Darlene. These stories of YWAM training started and multiplied in Europe, Asia, Africa, and around the world are all stories of seniors of faith who listened to God’s word, obeyed it, and did not give up under any circumstances. There are a lot of beautiful stories. There may be stories that were not shared, perhaps unknown, that no one knows, but no one can deny that the fruit and results of all these stories are what makes us who we are today. As a result of 50 years of incredible obedience, now there are over 600 training schools that are happening in more than 180 countries in more than 98 languages.
The sharing of David Hamilton’s “4 Legacy Words” has deepened the importance of understanding our past. The Israelites met and experienced the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and the God whom their ancestors met and experienced through their understanding of the story of the past and history. As a YWAMer, when I understand the past stories; that story becomes mine. I can experience God in those stories from the past as the God in my story now. Just as the Israelites became true Israelites by making past stories into their own stories, it can also be true to YWAMers when YWAMer makes the past stories of other senior YWAMers into their own stories. And when we begin to truly understand the past and history, when we begin to understand where we are from, we can clearly understand the direction in which to go forward.
Because of this, we spent much of our time talking about past stories, past obedience, past successes and failures, from meetings to mealtimes, to personal fellowship. While sharing, the confession of thanks and respect to God who always worked faithfully, and never ceased. The story and anointing of the founding generation was able to be transferred to the next generation. It was a time where various generations were in front of one God, uniting in front of one vision, and became a true family.
Especially, on September 2nd, during the evening time, there was a 50th anniversary celebration at the Lausanne Cathedral. Not only were YWAMers there, but churches and people from around the area also attended, celebrated, and were happy. Although it is very hard to rent the Cathedral and throw such a celebration, due to all the good/spiritual deeds that they have done to the community, they were able to rent the Cathedral, and due to this, a lot of churches around the area were able to attend and celebrate with us. It wasnʼt just a celebration for us, but it was more of a proof that YWAM was giving out good/spiritual deeds to the community around them. The flutist ‘Solnamoo Songʼ, who met God deeply in YWAM Lausanne and lived a transformed life, also participated in the event with a beautiful melody and performance.
On September 3rd, “UofN Vision Day”, we shared about the praying and fasting that took place for 21 days between August 8th to 28th. Next is a summary of what people were praying about around the world during this time of pray and fasting.
- We need to understand basics and base deeper.
- Every training is based on the love of God towards everyone.
- To be united deeper with humbleness and love. – Multigenerational, multicultural
- Ship and UofN need to go together. -Twins
- Listen, follow, and not giving up.
- Need of practical application and practice.
The sharing of the prayers affirmed and confirmed what we talked about during the anniversary events. Following the sharing of prayers, we talked about what paths to take in the future and what paths to follow. Everything we talked about confirmed once again the things that we talked about during our prayer and sharing time.
Although there were a lot of things that were discussed during the anniversary, the thing that should be emphasized is “unity”. While talking about UofN 3.0, we were all able to confirm that it is time for more diverse cultures and generations to unite. In order to achieve this unity, we need to respect one another, value one another and love one another. The respect, value, love, and humanity that was shared between the founding generation gave a huge challenge to the next generation. Also, we were able to learn that not only do we have to support the youth and next generation but also we must treat them with respect like the founding generation did to each other.
Although it was not written in this article, there were other events. Through different events such as graduation, appreciation ceremony, 4k guidance, and Lausanne base expansion, different generations and people were able to become one family under God. And we found that becoming one family is achieved through the “sharing of clear vision”.
To summarize the 50th anniversary.
“God is always faithful. God is still speaking to us. Our role is to listen to God’s word, obey, and never give up!”
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