Youth With a Mission (YWAM)

The road from Johannesburg to Cape Town is not the most exciting road in the World.  It is similar to the terrain in Eastern Washington.  Driving the route, you get a lot of time to think.  Not to mention that almost every speed sign has a camera on it to enforce speeding.  Most of the route is two lanes and there are hundreds of trucks going 80 km / hr and I nicknamed it "The Great Truck Weave".  As you approach Cape Town, you pass through a town called De Dooms which is an absolutely beautiful mountain pass.  The startling thing is that much of the town is tin roof shacks beneath majestic peaks.  This is the great contrast of South Africa -- rich and poor; luxury and barely enough.

Coming into Cape Town, I drove the Alternate Route winding around the mountain.  I had just missed the sunset, but I could still see the stunning view of the city of Pearl beneath me.  Later on I arrived in Muizenberg, a suburb on the coast a half an hour South of Cape Town.  I arrived to meet my hosts Bryan and Thandi Whitlock.  Thandi was eight and a half months pregnant, but she still had a delicious meal ready for me. 

Bryan and Thandi are on staff with an organization called Youth With a Mission (YWAM).  I had arrived just in time for the Netherlands / Uruguay match so Bryan and I headed over to the YWAM base to watch the match.  YWAM is an organization that works in just about every country and trains young Christian leaders from around the World.  I met some guys from Kenya, Madagascar, and Brazil.  YWAM actually has many different unique programs depending on the base.  However, typically trainees come to a base to attend a Discipleship Training School (DTS) for three months and then go out to do a mission for three months in another country. 

The next day Bryan and I headed into the city to watch the Germany / Spain match.  We got a chance to talk about his passion for ministry in Africa.  He had these little wafers with verses on them; everywhere we went, he passed them out to strangers and just kind of chatted with them briefly.  He didn't preach at them, but would just kind of say "It's food.  You can eat it".  When the person started asking questions about it, he might say something like "It's Spiritual food".  He was a man at ease -- a man who was right where he should be.  We went around the market.  While I was trying to negotiate for some souvenirs, he would strike up a conversation with the vendor.  None of the vendors are from South Africa so he would ask them where they were from and get in a conversation with him.  One of the vendors was from Sudan which he has a particular passion for and a place he has ministered.  Bryan and his wife want to go to the Sudan in a few years to be full-time missionaries.  I bought some things from the guy and Bryan took some pictures with me and the vendors.

YWAM is one of those things I seem to encounter wherever I go -- I'm always meeting people who have done it.  A few days later, I was in the Drakensburg Mountains and happened to get invited to a dinner at another YWAM base.  There I chatted with a Kenyan guy who had the best English of any Kenyan I have ever met.  He had spent some time in Iowa.  It was interesting talking to him and having him tell me that he had a passion for the people of the United States.  That's the Global nature of YWAM.  The people I have known associated with YWAM are some of the most authentic Christians I know -- so there must be something to this thing.  http://ywam.org/