We began our journey into World missions began in 2008 as we thought we would only spend 3 months in Germany and 3 months abroad as part of a 6 month entry level missions schools called ‘Discipleship Training School'(DTS). Sometimes our plans are not the ones that God has, 3 months has turned into more than 13 years!

At the end of our initial 6 months of missions and the ‘DTS’, God brought us back to Germany… and we haven’t looked back since. We came back as full-time volunteer staff with YWAM and began serving as full-time volunteers as Discipleship Training School ‘staff’. Though we ended up in Germany, but our passion was(still is) to go on outreaches and do missions work in the 10/40 window.

The 10/40 Window is a geographic region which houses nearly half of the worlds population, the most needy peoples, and the fewest missionaries. Almost 75% of our first few years in YWAM was spent leading DTS outreach teams within these regions. From Asia, Ethiopia, Egypt, to Afghanistan.

In 2009, Kristen led a DTS outreach team to the Southern Tribes in Ethiopia. Upon learning of age old tribal superstitions where children born out of wedlock or if their teeth grew from the top first were seen as ‘cursed’ and then needs to be removed from tribal lands often times by being thrown into the river to be eaten by crocodiles. With permissions of tribal elders, their team started an orphanage where the children could leave tribal lands and live instead of being killed. A handful of years later, many of the tribes have since changed their ways and no longer practice the custom of killing the ‘cursed’ children(You can watch the documentary about that project here). Later in the same year, Josiah led a DTS team of musicians and initiated a project in Ethiopia helping impoverished young people living and working on the Garbage dumps in Addis Ababa.

As we were first hand witnesses to the stories of how God can use the arts and creative people in world missions, in 2010 we pioneered an entirely new Missions training School focused on equipping and sending artists missionaries to the 10/40 window. We called the school ‘Marriage of the Arts’ Discipleship training school. within the the first few years running the program it became the largest missions training programs to ever run in Europe and amongst the largest to run globally.

We have led, ran, and organized Discipleship Training Schools since 2010. Seeing over 1,200 short term missionaries sent to the 10/40 window who gave more than 400,000 hours of their time in active outreach, sharing the love of God to those who have not yet heard the good news. In addition to running these schools, Kristen took on the role as ‘Training Director’ for the YWAM center that Josiah had joined leadership of. Our YWAM center ran 6-9 training schools every year with over 300 students, and consisted of a staff team of 140+ full-time volunteer staff. In addition to training and sending short term missionaries, the YWAM center was home to YWAM ministries working locally and across the world! From ministries reaching out to the sexually exploited to the poorest of the poor.

After years of training missionaries and sending them to the 10/40 window… we felt there was more. We have felt strongly that God wants to use the creatives, the innovators, and the artists do help share the Good News to those who have yet to hear. A dream was born to add something new to what we do. In addition to the training of short term missionaries, we dreamed of a ministry center that would be a place of innovation and discovering new ways to share the love of God with those who have yet to hear. A place for young people, for creatives, and artists to develop their skills, their character, to start projects and become effective locally in Germany so that we can become increasingly effective in the nations.

We made the step of faith, put our stuff into boxes and were started YWAM center here in Nuremberg, Germany. Since 2014 we have been running training programs and have sent hundreds of missionaries out of our new YWAM center in Nuremberg.  The ministry center in Nuremberg is a Hub to try out new things, to create, to pioneer, and to respond to God’s leading.

Sometimes it looks like responding to a need that comes our way as we did when the Refugee crisis hit Europe and Germany in 2015, YWAM Nuremberg was even asked to run a social project for the city. For 10 months, we ran a group home for Refugees who arrived in Germany as unaccompanied minors. Over the course of 10 months YWAM housed, cared, and looked after more than 70 young Refugees who arrived in Germany without family. In 2022, as Russia invaded Ukraine and sent a wave of refugees into Germany… we once again stopped everything and met as many needs as we possibly could! The YWAM center become a home to more than 50 Ukrainian refugees for more than 6 months and sent 12 shipment of aid directly to those impacted by the war in Ukraine.

Other times it looks like groups of young people coming together with a heart and vision to start a new project in Nuremberg or abroad. A group from our YWAM team formed a project here in the city reaching out to women being sexually exploited in the prostitution industry(Learn about that team here). Others have gone out and pioneered new YWAM ministry centers in other countries and cities, like our former student who went and started YWAM in Greece after his DTS.

Though our schedule is constantly changing and we are often starting new projects, programs and initiatives, our goal never changes. The goal to help bring hope, healing, and restoration to a world in need of some Good News.