When the YWAM Louisville team first formed, Andy sent everyone an email articulating the dream that was on his heart. That dream continues to shape us. Here’s a part of it:
“The dream is about more than a new YWAM base; the dream is about a missionary community – a place where we not only work together, but where we pursue the face of God together. The dream is of being a ‘family army’ where we deeply love one another and furiously fight our battles together, and where God speaks to us and leads us in victories together.
“The dream is about thousands of people who come here to learn the ways of God and then find that they meet Him face to face in a new and real way. The dream is about teenagers whose lives will never be the same. Here they will hear the call to live the life of surrender and adventure and they will say to Jesus, ‘Yes, take my life and spend it for Your pleasure.’ The dream is about our staff and students being friends with sinners and being ‘priests’ to our community. The dream is about spinning off many new ministries from our missionary community, raising up young leaders and thrusting them ahead into their own dreams.
“Of course, the dream is about the Great Commission. The Lord Jesus, King and Creator of the universe, has given us a wonderful task to complete – a task that He's already shed His blood to make possible. The result of our faithfulness to the task will be men, women, and children from every tribe and tongue and people and nation worshiping around the throne of God.
“Now the terrifying part: it’s a huge dream. It’s way too big for us. Pioneering is hard work. We’ve never done it before. It may take a couple of years just to get things off the ground. There are lots of unknowns and lots of opportunities to screw things up. We’ll be leaving the security of an already established YWAM base. Are we spiritual enough? What if we let somebody down or miss God somehow? Is this really You, God?
We believe it is; let’s go!”