On registration day, everyone was given a book, Is That Really You, God? It turned out a lot different than I thought it would and what it sounds like. It’s basically Loren Cunningham’s – the founder of YWAM – life story up until the founding of University of the Nations. It was pretty interesting to learn the story of how this all came to be and how everyone involved really had to lean on God and listen and obey His voice.
Loren’s story begins even before he was born, with his family. Loren’s grandfather listened to God’s calling to go into ministry preaching shortly after his wife died of smallpox. This hurt his daughters and caused a lot of hurt between the girls and the rest of the family. Loren’s father was also called into ministry, and eventually so was Loren himself. The whole family was very in tune with God’s voice, from small things like where they put the milk money to huge things like whether or not their Dad was going to die.
Loren was first called to preach at the young age of thirteen and preached his first sermon that same year. He received a vision that would eventually lead to the formation of YWAM and University of the Nations on a trip to the Bahamas when he was 20. It was a vision of waves of young people going into every country in the world. He and his wife, Darlene, followed God’s direction throughout their life in its many trials and waiting periods. Slowly, YWAM began to form, with young people going into various countries. Loren and Darlene felt like God was leading them to more than just that though. They felt God calling them to start a school to train young people to be missionaries and then later buy a ship to use to minister to countries in need of help. These two things eventually ended up being started around the same time after many years of hard work and learning valuable lessons from God, such as giving credit to Him for His provision, not worshipping the item He has given to you.
It was interesting to read this book and learn all the beginnings of YWAM and everything they all went through to make this all possible for all of us. There were a few things that I don’t necessarily agree with and a lot of things that are going to take a while for me to be comfortable with, but I’m glad I know more about the beginnings of this school.
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