I wrote this blog back in early 2021. To tell my lifelong YWAM story. There is no room for all of the stories and places where my life and YWAM have intersected over the past 35 years. But I had the need to share an overview of what happened, why we are here, and how much it means to me. I am posting it over a year from when it was written as it was not the right time then. It was too fresh, too recent, too raw. But today in July of 2022. I think it is okay to share how we got here, at least part of the story. There is so much more we have done, so many more places we have been, and so much has happened in this past year living in over 20 places in 8 countries. But for now, I will just post this unposted blog from 2021 if for anything, to share this fantastic picture Juan took of me in Dallas, Texas, USA when I was 15 years old and we were dating ;)
Way back in 1988 when I was 15 years old, a good friend gave me a Youth With A Mission "GO Manuel" and said, "You should pray about joining YWAM." This book was basically a "website" for Youth With A Mission before there was the internet. Each page was a promo for a YWAM missions base somewhere in the world. In one black and white page, a missions campus would need to put enough convincing slogans, pictures, and information to inspire a young person like me to hop on an airplane, arrive in their country, to serve in missions with their team. Usually with a skateboarder or surfer having a blast in the picture or some young woman backpacking in Nepal. It was glorious!
I remember holding an earlier version of this book close to my chest as a very precious source of information. It was my dream to be a missionary in Africa, and I thought this may be my ticket to get there. I poured over the pages of this book over and over again in my bed at night. Many times falling asleep with it open in my hand, multiple pages dog eared. Amsterdam. England. Hawaii. South Africa. Australia. New Zealand. Switzerland. Each page prayed over with little stars or checkmarks in the corner to remember which ones seemed like the right place for me.
When I presented this dream to my parents they looked at me incredulously. Go to some other country where I know NO ONE to study the bible and missions with an organization they knew nothing about? It was a firm NO. I had to go to college. I sighed a disappointing sigh and picked a Bible College in Santa Cruz, California to attend that was Assemblies of God. It was called Bethany Bible College. I wanted to study Bible and World Missions there.
After visiting I was sure that is where I wanted to go. I loved everything about it. California and these people were "my people" - Alas, my parents were disappointed that it had the words "Bible College" in the title and that would be "limiting the options for my future" so no, I couldn't go there either. My mom thought it would be better for me to go to Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida. It was a Christian School, but an employer couldn't tell by the name. A win-win in my parent's mind. I did not want to go there, but we came to an agreement that I would go if they allowed me to major in Theology and minor in Counseling.
After one year there, actually, after a few weeks... I knew it was not the right place for me. My dorm room in the above picture overlooked the Palm Beach Yacht Club & Intercoastal Waterway... yet the beauty was empty. The Bible classes were so basic that it was not challenging for me intellectually or spiritually. I felt like the Christians at this school were not like me at all, barely Christian if at all for the most part. I had to do extra things on my own time to make being there worth my time. I became the first Resident Assistant RA that was a Freshman in the history of the school. In this job (usually reserved for Juniors and Seniors) I was responsible for ministering to and caring for girls of all ages, many nights praying with them or offering kind correction and kindness in their rooms. I also worked as a youth pastor at a local church which I was later told was intimidating to the other guys who were my fellow Theology majors - hoping to get a youth pastor job like mine after 4 years of education. Ooops. I didn't know I wasn't "supposed" to do this. Too late. In my spare time, I helped at a church for the homeless on the wrong side of the tracks, volunteered with the Pro-Life Club, and served every week at a home for children born addicted to crack and cocaine. During spring break, while others drank and partied, I took my roommates on a mission trip to the West Indies; did street evangelism in the slums and helped build a community center. Returning to fancy Palm Beach, I would try to reach the rich as well as the poor. I would drive the dark hedge lined streets at1am at night putting bibles and cartoon messages about Jesus in the mailboxes of multi-million-dollar rows of mansions. Voted in as the representative for the freshman class in the Campus Ministries Department, I enjoyed helping to plan outreaches and ministry events for the whole campus. All this is to say, I was not the "normal" female freshman college student.
I couldn't stay and study things I already knew when I wanted to GO & DO the gospel. I believed I could study as I went to serve Jesus, as that is what I had been doing my whole life, reading hundreds of books and taking courses throughout the years that applied specifically to what I needed to know to accomplish God's call on my life. So I left.
Back to the YWAM GO Manuel. After leaving University at the conclusion of my Freshman year, I joined a ministry to the homeless in NYC, co-youth pastored at a church with my fiancee and married. I still wanted to join Youth With A Mission, but instead, we ended up in California doing youth ministry, missions, evangelism, and having babies.
We took the teenagers we were pastoring at an Assemblies of God Church in Redwood City, California to YWAM summer camps in Chico, California. Each summer a YWAM mission trip to Mexico, Columbia, Ireland, and England with the students we pastored was on the agenda. We would perform YWAM dramas in San Francisco at all of the tourist stops while doing relationship street evangelism... not just on the West Coast, but all over the world. In my heart, and in ministry, my way of doing everything was always very very very "YWAMISH."
We continued our YWAMy way of doing ministry for many years, youth pastoring outside of NYC and continuing with YWAM missions trips each summer staying at YWAM bases for many years always performing YWAM dramas in the streets & schools of the world sending teens from our maxed out at 300 teenager youth group we led to YWAM worldwide after high school and followed their stories and experiences closely as I followed the growth of YWAM closely from a distance checking their world map and news almost monthly most of my life.
Before 9-11, we were planning on finally joining YWAM by starting a ministry base in Europe, Ireland to be exact, but my husband's parents asked us to help them with their ministry in NYC once those planes hit the twin towers and NYC Relief needed us. We didn't want to, but God asked us to, so we said yes, of course. We will follow the Lord anywhere He leads, even when it is something that we would not choose for ourselves. My husband was able to grow the ministry to quadruple the size, budget, and volunteers hosting YWAM teams from around the world at our missions base that was very much like a YWAM base. We were Urban Missionaries leading up to 12 outreaches a week at one time and reaching possibly up to 1000 people a day in the busy season. But alas it was not YWAM, though it operated very much the same.
My husband became the Chairman of the Board for the NYC Rescue Alliance making sure the big outreaches in the city like The Salvation Army, The oldest Mission in America, and our organization at the time worked together to help move towards ending the homelessness epidemic in NYC. I suggested many times for my husband to donate our missions base to YWAM as if we ran it as a YWAM base we would have no overhead, no salaries, no medical insurance to pay, etc., etc. as all YWAMERS raise their own missionary support. We would be able to help SO MANY more people and have a steady stream of students coming through for 2-3 month cycles to run the outreaches. Alas, it never materialized as we would have to do a DTS to do that and we had 4 small kids and a large ministry to run. Plus we were too old by then in our 30's.
Two of our 4 kids attended Youth With A Mission Discipleship Training Schools in Orlando and in Paris, France. Another attended Heidi Baker's School of Missions in Mozambique, Africa. We still kept our YWAM ties, sent many people to YWAM schools and hosted teams from around the world on our 8-12 outreaches a week.
Then Covid Hit NYC - being a mobile outdoor ministry to the homeless, it was one of the few options for the homeless in the whole city as it shut down. Lines were blocks long. It was all hands on deck. Yet not many hands could as our 6 thousand volunteers a year were in quarantine. After a horrific and exhausting year in NYC during Covid with triple the need, and a few heroic volunteers and staff who kept things going we all saw so much death, almost my own even as I had near death experience while having Covid as my husband was on the streets doing ministry that day. As a first responder organization, my husband and I needed a Sabbatical. We had been in full-time ministry for 30 years and we had earned a 3-month break in 2021 even before Covid hit. Our family's Non-Profit was doing better than ever, so it was a good time to take a breather. Our ministry non-profit mission allowed for sabbatical according to the bylaws as we had been faithful at NYC Relief for 18 years, 14 of which we fully funded our own income. After 7 years a sabbatical is awarded to all of our employees, but we had never taken one. It was time.
My first idea was to call a YWAM base where we could rest and recover. This is when I was encouraged to consider a Crossroads Discipleship Training School. A YWAM school for over 30-year-olds. I knew we only had 3 months for our sabbatical, not the 6 months required to do this, so I did not think it was possible even though it sounded like a dream come true to me. Join YWAM for a season? My 17-year-old self was giddy with the long-awaited dream being presented to me.
By December 12, 2020, we found out we would no longer be working with the ministry our parents had started and we had served and grown so faithfully for 18 years of our lives from post 9-11 through Covid. On December 13th we interviewed for YWAM Crossroads. December 14th we were talking with a realtor to put our family's dream home on the market. By December 15th we began to sell almost everything we owned on Facebook Marketplace, up to a hundred items a day to afford our airfare to get on a plane flying out to one of the largest YWAM campuses in the world. On Christmas Day we were taking down the tree and packing up the family heirloom ornaments by lunch. On December 31st at 10:30pm, our plane landed on the most isolated island in the world in the center of the pacific ocean on the side of a volcano. Just before Midnight 2021, we were standing on the balcony of our Airbnb with 3 suitcases containing our entire lives for the coming years, praying in the New Year and giving each other a sweet kiss as we held each other tight leaning into the unknown.
As we walk this new road it feels like a rebuilding of the ancient ruins of all of the things we have done in ministry over the past 30 years coming together in a cumulation of experiences and giftings to finally do what we do best. Our sweet spot, missions, youth, mentoring healthy ministers, creative ministry with acting, music, evangelism, mercy ministry, it's all here. It's YWAM.
Still, I wonder as I step onto the campus and the life I longed for when I was 15 years old, 16 years old, 17 years old, hugging that old dog eared "Go Manuel" and every year from then until now as a YWAM affiliate 47-year-old... why could I have not been in YWAM all along? Maybe He wanted us to gain wisdom and understanding in different venues, different arenas, different denominations and ministries as I have worked with well over 20 for sure, so we could bring that wisdom back home. Back home to YWAM where my heart has always been.
They asked us if we wanted to commit to 2 years with YWAM. My first thought was 2 years? How about 20? They had me at hello.
Formerly Rev. Tracy Galloway
Now Mombo Galloway - University of the Nations, Youth With A Mission
www.gallowaysonmission.com
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