History of Youth With A Mission in Liverpool
Rita and I moved to Liverpool in 1985 with a team of five and were initially involved in evangelism (often in William Square) on a regular basis, with teams coming through from overseas. Karen Phillips, now Metcalfe started Kings Kids in Liverpool and outreaches were held both in churches, the city centre and even in the Town Hall.
I well remember the first joint Celebration meeting at St Georges Hall that we were involved in, with people being turned away because the hall was full and the prayer meeting after lunch led by Kings Kids. We ran a coffee bar in Old Swan for a period and had a schools team. We also from time to time ran teaching seminars like the one Paul Hawkins held on Intersession.
In 1987 we ran our first DTS at St Helens with 33 students coming from 12 nations. That was the start of a ten year period of training with Holy Trinity Parr Mount generously providing the building. We also ran a school of Church planting with Bob and Mary Hopkins and a pioneer Community Counselling School that has now be run in various countries around the world.
In 1990 we established a ministry in Manchester to those suffering with HIV/aid and later ran a ministry to street girls that included a home for women in crisis. Both the works in Manchester and St Helen ran for a season and then ministry was handed over to local churches.
In Liverpool in the late nineties we were involved with running a year long team with Frontline Church called Omega over seven years and pioneered a missions conference called Global Passion which this year is continuing on a nationwide basis with Loren Cunningham as the main speaker.
Recent Times:
Picking up from Dave Leage with the story of YWAM Liverpool, we started 2006 with no office or central location to call YWAM Liverpool and only 4 members of the team. We were even asking God if it was right for YWAM Liverpool to continue!
At the very first meeting of the year Dave & Rita moved on from YWAM Liverpool and the four of us took the work on. Afterwards Dave & Susan Hanratty visited the Liverpool Boiler Room when, with no prompting, they were offered an office for YWAM Liverpool at the Boiler Room. This was fantastic confirmation from God that the team in Liverpool was to continue, we then met again to pray some more about things this scripture came to mind:-
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Jn 15:16
We sensed this was God encouraging us again and before long we were preparing for a team from YWAM Derby who came for two weeks over the summer. Since then we have hosted two YWAM evangelists for a week, hosted a meeting of 400 with YWAM’s founder Loren Cunningham & the band onehundredhours, and had a BBQ for YWAMers in Liverpool – these were just the team events. We are also involved in a number of initiatives individually such as: partnering with the Anglican Church to pioneer new expressions of church in Liverpool city centre; working with the Salvation Army at the Liverpool Boiler Room; offering pastoral care, counselling & psychotherapy; and running courses to re-envision and assist churches and individuals for world outreach.
There is more we could tell you about, but I am sure that gives you a flavour of what we are involved in. As we look to the future there are two promises we cling to: Firstly that we are chosen and appointed by God and secondly that we will bear fruit which will last.
