Our Story
It all started with a need
In 2007, Base Ministry (originally known as Youth Missions International) was started out of a need for seeing young people empowered to share their faith in an active and challenging environment. The co-founders, Brian Hughes and Rick and Raeann Velasquez, had been long-time leaders in Awana’s Missionary-In-Training program and wanted to ensure that young people would continue to receive evangelism training coupled with a mission experience. So in the summer of 2007, our first mission team headed to Ukraine.
THE NEED CONTINUED TO GROW
As more young people got involved in different ways, we saw the need to add various programs beyond the initial program of training and sending high school students on mission trips. A mission internship program for college-age students and young adults was finalized in 2010. This program saw college students participate in authentic ministry in over 12 countries. We have always believed that what happens after a mission trip is as important as what happens on the trip. So in 2011, we added an option for churches to go on mission together to allow for an improved follow-up! At the same time, we saw a need to engage youth right in their own local church. Out of this came a sports program in 2013 that is used in local churches around the world to help kids understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and train young people for leadership in ministry. Even though the ways we did ministry expanded, the mission has always stayed the same: empower young people to continually live and share their faith in the global communities they serve.
20,000 leaders trained
In 2014, God gave Brian Hughes a vision for YMI to develop 20,000 leaders by 2020. If we had maintained what we were doing, we would have only developed 12,000 leaders. But with God leading the way, Brian directed the ministry in many different ways. International leaders wanted to use the tools and training we shared in their own context. This developed into sister organizations in Peru and Brazil which allowed for similar ministry, but specifically focused to their local context. Other international trainings in Africa, Europe, and Asia led to more and more young Christian leaders who were ready to share Jesus!
God continued to shape how the ministry worked, even shifting away from the individual programs we were initially known for. By the end of 2019, God fulfilled the vision he had given to Brian Hughes! This was a major milestone, but is a great beginning, not an end!
BUILDING A LEGACY
In 2016, YMI transitioned to a legacy ministry when Brian Hughes stepped down and Drew Hester took the role of Executive Director. With this transition also came the decision to engage the ministry outside of the Northwest in a new way. Having employees in four states and volunteers around the nation allowed us to better serve our partners all over the United States. During the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, we continued serving churches while looking at how to best communicate the mission of empowering young people to live and share their faith within a virtual setting.
In 2021, Youth Missions International changed its name to Base Ministry. This name better reflected our desire to instill a foundation of Christian leadership in the next generation of Christian leaders by partnering with the local church to empower young people to continually live and share their faith in the global communities they serve.