Welcome to our page celebrating reaching a major milestone in the life of YMI and also looking forward to where God is leading us in the future! This page was specifically designed because of us having to cancel our annual fundraising banquets and see many of you in person. We are still very sad about the fact we are not with you and know this website is not the same. However, our desire is to still share what God is doing in YMI and how we are looking forward. God is doing some amazing things in the Church around the world and we are fortunate to be a part of that. Thank you for joining us on this journey and we look forward to being together in person soon.

Drew Hester

Executive Director

Part 1 - Celebrating training 20,000 leaders by 2020

Where did the vision for reaching 20,000 leaders by 2020 come from?

Youth Missions International started in 2007. The co-founders had seen that the church needed more young people leading in ministry, and they wanted to empower young people around the globe to lead in their local churches.

To meet this goal, the founders set out with a solid mission that continues to shape the way we serve the church today. YMI exists to empower young people to continually live and share their faith in the global communities they serve. In 2015, the president of YMI – Brian Hughes – cast a vision to develop 20,000 leaders by 2020. We recently asked Brian to share the opening of this story. Here is what he said about YMI leading up to this time and where God led him on this journey to reach 20,000 leaders by 2020.

Who was involved in this happening?

In order for this goal to be reached God not only had to draw many pieces together, He also had to bring the right people together to make it happen. From generous donors who desired to see God develop 20,000 young leaders to the volunteer trainers running camps. From the participants to the individuals making sure those participants were safe and cared for. One of those people was Joseph Keith. As one of YMI’s first interns, Joseph is now the longest standing member on staff and he remembers many people who made these things happen.

What were some of the outcomes of reaching 20,000 leaders?

20,000 is a large number. It’s an amazing number we believe God made happen. It’s amazing to follow Him! However, it’s easy to talk numbers and miss who some of these people are. There are 20,000 stories represented, and as much as we wish we could share each story, that would take a really long time. We have identified two stories which we believe represent many of the stories that happened during the time God led us to develop 20,000 leaders. Here is Juan Peralta who is ministering in Mexico and seeing churches changed through training. Next is Max Dalrymple who went on a college internship with YMI. Max is now a pastor at Christ Church in Federal Way, WA. These are only two of the stories that we have been able to witness as God has moved during this time from beginning of YMI to 2020!

When did we reach our goal?

These are just a few of the people we met along the way. Through people like this we have sports ministry started on four continents through training and equipping local leaders. Missions trips to over 20 countries to serve local churches! These are just part of how God has used YMI to empower young people to live and share their faith.

As we tracked the number of leaders developed we knew it was not going to be done by us alone, we were going to need people who could develop leaders to join us. As we realized this God brought opportunities to live this out! We partnered with ministries around the globe to train them to pass along the work. Next we started seeing churches desiring to do the same! As we dove into this new avenue we saw a sharp incline in how God was developing 20,000 leaders. Gene Hunt has been a part of seeing this transition. Originally on staff with YMI to lead the individual focused programs, Gene’s passion for the local church has continued to impact YMI. Here is Gene talking about how God “ramped things up” in the way we were developing leaders.

Why do we think we were able to reach 20,000?

So, it was this last summer (2019), as we looked at how sports camps were going that we noticed we were passing the 20,000 leaders mark! What an amazing thing God has done! Not only did he meet the vision set out by Brian Hughes in 2015, he met it in abundance! Here is our current Executive Director Drew Hester talking about how important it is to recognize this is from God!

Part 2 - Looking forward to where God is leading YMI.

Where is the next focus of YMI?

So now what?! When we look around we see the need has continued to grow and the mission is as relevant as ever. Empowering young people to continually live and share their faith in the global communities they serve is extremely important. As God has shown us how important it is to partner with other people in the kingdom of God to accomplish this mission, he has continued to show us the importance of the local church. The Church is who God has asked to disciple others. We want to be a truly para church organization, that focuses on partnering with the local church rather than trying to do the work of the church!

We want to find churches that have a similar passion. We want to partner with churches that are focused on empowering young people and discipling people through authentic ministry experiences. Partnering with these churches allows for us to continue moving towards this mission biblically and focused on His church! Here is Drew Hester, our Executive Director, talking about the passion of working alongside the local church.

Where are the church partnerships?

This focus on local churches came from our current programming that so many people have been blessed by. From the week long sports camp to the international mission trips. However, God is also leading us to look at how we can accomplish effective church partnerships in new ways. This has already been seen in how God has guided us to increase our capability for local training in the US and around the world. Here Joseph Keith looks at where we are already working and where we are prepared to partner with churches in the United States and across the globe.

What does a good partnership look like?

As we follow God towards these partnership opportunities we want to make sure these partnership opportunities are focused on the local church and the gospel it proclaims. Louie Schmitz is in charge of caring for our partnerships at YMI and wants to share the passion of working alongside the local church in empowering young people to continually live and share their faith in the global communities they serve.

Moving Forward!

Praise God for what He has done and what He is doing! We look forward to sharing more and more as we dive into this next challenge God has placed before us. In the next couple of months this site will be updated with specific goals and targets so you can understand even more about how we are focused on fulfilling our mission through partnership with local churches around the world! If you want to know more about how YOU can be involved in this mission there are three specific ways.

Join our prayer team - We have a team of people that regularly pray for YMI and we see this as vital to moving forward!
Join our support team - We have a number of generous financial partners that help us practically move the mission forward. Thank you!
Join our team - Whether as a volunteer or as a full time staff member we would love to discuss with you about your passion of empowering young people to share their faith!

We look forward to being with you again soon and appreciate your understanding as we continue in our mission amid a changing world!