Who We Are
Our Story
From a small base on the Australian coast, a community of world-changers was born.
YWAM Wollongong is a local expression of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) — a global, interdenominational Christian missionary organisation founded in 1960 by Loren Cunningham. With over 18,000 full-time volunteers in more than 180 countries, YWAM exists to know God and to make Him known.
Our base is located in Port Kembla — a suburb of Wollongong, right on the coast and only a couple of hours from Sydney. It is here, on the land of the Wadi Wadi people of the Dharawal Nation, that we have built a home for training and launching people into cross-cultural mission.
We are a community dedicated to knowing God and making Him known in the least reached parts of the earth. We focus on the 10/40 Window — the stretch from North Africa to East Asia where, for the most part, the name of Jesus is not known.
Over the years, hundreds of students have come through our Discipleship Training Schools and specialised training programs. They have gone on to serve in Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and beyond — carrying compassion and purpose to the ends of the earth.
We are not a program. We are a family. A community of people who believe that ordinary lives can be radically redirected when they encounter an extraordinary God. Our story is still being written — and we believe the next chapter includes you.
We acknowledge the Wadi Wadi people of the Dharawal Nation as the traditional owners and custodians of this land upon which we live, learn and work. We pay our respects to Elders, past, present and emerging.