Welcome...

Welcome to our lives!

Many of you may not know us both very well, we thought we would like to introduce ourselves and share about our lives in YWAM. In advance, thank you for taking the time to read our stories and for your investment into our lives.
It was through YWAM that God brought our lives together. Jonah had already been on staff for 6 years before Merel came to YWAM Denver for a five month DTS program. We shared many of the same interests, including skiing, and it was during the weekend trips to the slopes that we really met and fell in love. Fortunately for Jonah, God was also speaking into Merel’s life about going into missions, and after her outreach to Costa Rica and Nicaragua she made the commitment to come back to Denver and join staff in YWAM.

Why did we join YWAM?

Merel: 
During my Discipleship Training School I got the desire to give my life for the work of the Lord. God changed my perspective in life and what I wanted to do for the future. YWAM is a great organization where you get to see the lives of people change in the course of five months. It is great to be a part of it!

Jonah:
After I did a Discipleship Training School aboard the Anastasias Mercy Ship, I knew that I wanted to be in missions full-time. YWAM was a great fit for me because I like the idea of it being worldwide, multi-cultural and the focus on Training, Mercy Ministries and Evangelism; three key parts of what I believe to be vital in bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth. I love training young people for missions, I love doing mercy ministries all over the world, and most of all, I love to see people come to Christ through the many teams we send out each year from YWAM Denver.
 

What is our vision?

Merel:
To disciple young people to have a solid foundation in Christ, from where they can then go out into the world and share the gospel. Also I want to go out with groups over the world to share the gospel, and to win their hearts for Jesus and love on them. I love seeing the lives of young people being radically changed by the love of Christ, so that they can live a life of freedom and purpose; a life to the fullest (John 10.10).

Jonah:
The thing that I really feel called to is to bring people into the work of the Kingdom. This can look like a number of different things; One of which, is to use the power of video to communicate what God is doing in the world, to help bring an understanding that He is truly at work and He continues to do miracles even today. There is a big task yet to be done in the world and God has a plan for us to be involved in it. The other big thing I feel called to that ties directly into the same thing is to plant a YWAM base in New Hampshire to train and equip young people for the advancement of God’s Kingdom all over the world.  

Future plans

For at least the next two years, while we are on staff at YWAM Denver, we plan on leading outreach teams, developing our leadership, staffing DTS and transitioning new leaders for the Video Impact School. During this time we also are planning to start putting feet to our future goal of planting a YWAM base in New Hampshire. We will keep you posted as to how this will look.