A Different Viewpoint

Dear Parents in YWAM,

People often ask me what it was like to grow up in YWAM. Two years ago, I would’ve shrugged my shoulders and mumbled, “it was fine.” I hated the question because how on earth do you explain what it’s like to grow up in a ministry that is so fast-paced and so completely different from the ordinary?

Now that I’m nineteen and on staff with—believe it or not—YWAM, I still get asked the question, by parents currently in YWAM or about to join. I just have a better answer now, though.

So, here’s to all the parents who are worried about their kids growing up in this crazy, youth-run organization. Here’s to all the married couples who want to have a family but are hesitant about raising them in such a different lifestyle. Here’s to all the families that are worried about their children being on the mission field in third-world countries:

Your kids will be just fine.

I spent the first seven years of my life in New Zealand and Australia and the following eleven-plus years Mexico. My friends all had darker skin and big, brown eyes, and they never got tired of braiding and unbraiding my red hair. I was eight years old and running around, chatting happily in Spanish, translating for people much older than me. School was put on hold some weeks in order to stay out until two in the morning, evangelizing on the streets and praying for the sick. Our family meetings consisted of praying in a new car, a house, plane tickets to fly around the world to visit relatives. Hearing God’s voice was never a topic to learn in a lecture room, rather a lifestyle that was lived out daily.

And in between all those moments, normal life happened.

Schoolwork still got done—sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. I walked around the corner to my dance studio everyday, I biked down the street and bought tortillas, we found baskets of abandoned kittens and nursed them back to health. Family dinners continued and often we were joined by staff members, new DTS students, people visiting from far away countries.

YWAM became, and continues to be, my normal. Holy Spirit encounters don’t freak me out and watching people get healed is still just as exciting as it was the first time. I have journals upon journals of prophetic words that staff members, visiting speakers, and random strangers have given to me since I was ten years old. I know how to relate with people from different cultures, and conversing with people twice my age isn’t a struggle. I can’t even imagine a week going by without Monday morning worship and times of intercession scattered throughout. It’s just normal.

But, parents, here’s where my advice comes in: never stop trying to make it exciting.

Take your kids to new countries on airplanes and trains. Let them be jet-lagged. Let them eat weird food and laugh about it. When Dad goes away on a speaking trip, let one of them tag along. Bring them into worship and let them sing. Take them out onto the streets and let them lay their hands on the sick and watch them squeal with delight when the person gets healed. Teach them to intercede for the nations and don’t be surprised when they’re fourteen and dreaming up all of the countries they want to visit.

Because if you don’t do these things, if you don’t let them experience the messiness and the beauty of YWAM firsthand, then this ministry will very quickly become mommy and daddy’s work. And that’s where the problems come in.

I’ve come to realize is: there will always be something to fix. There will always be a DTS student having an emotional breakdown, there will always be a staff crisis, something will always be broken on the base, there will always be another issue to pray about. Crap happens, and you have to deal with it whether you want to or not.

But just remember that your kids won’t always be there.

One day they’ll grow up and be out of the house—either having loved their childhood or resenting it. And I truly believe that the difference between the two comes from the parents making YWAM their lifestyle or simply their work. God calls families into YWAM, not just parents.

So never ever let your fear of them not living a ‘typical’ life hold them back. Instead, release them into this ministry, into the call that God has placed on their life. Stand back and let the Holy Spirit drench them during worship, let their hearts break from the poverty they witness, let them meet and mingle with people from many different cultures. When they’re seventeen and wanting to visit Uganda with an outreach team, let them go.

We are Youth with A Mission—fast-paced, Holy Spirit led, often disorganized, and desperately in love with Jesus. There are thousands of amazing people working in our organization, but, if I’m completely honest, it’s the kids that grew up in YWAM that are changing the world quicker than anyone I know.

YWAM kids are inbred with this fierceness and deep intimacy with the Father. They know who they are and they aren’t ashamed of the inheritance their parents have left them to claim. They don’t have to learn how to pray or hear God’s voice, they don’t have to be taught these DTS lectures—it’s simply their daily lifestyle.

So, to all the parents out there in YWAM: your kids will be just fine. In fact, they’ll do better than you could ever imagine.

And, if you’re wondering, I hope to raise my children in YWAM, too.

Love,
Micah Stravels

*Taken from http://micahstravels.tumblr.com/post/112154960097/dear-parents-in-ywam