At the recent YWAM Global Leadership Team Prayer and Strategy meetings in Kona, Hawaii, over $200,000 was raised for the support of YWAM's newest ship, The Next Wave. Below is a new report on the ship and its ministry as posted on the Assist News Service website.

LIVERPOOL, England -- Lehman Franklin has always had a love affair with the sea and sailing ships. Franklin, who hails from Georgia in the United States, is the captain and director of the Next Wave, a 42-meter sailing ship used primarily for character and leadership development, sail training, evangelism, short term mission trips and outreaches.

The Next Wave is operated by Marine Reach Ministries, an international Christian organization of trained professionals and dedicated volunteers using ships, trucks, containers and mobile clinics to demonstrate Christ’s heart of hope and compassion to those in need around the world. Marine Reach is part of the YWAM International family of ministries.
"But the whole time I was there I wanted to do discipleship schools on boats or sailboats. So I got in contact with Captain Brian Sloan with Marine Reach, because he heads up the marine end of Youth With A Mission, and I came over here when we bought this ship at the beginning of 2007 and I’ve been with them ever since -- and on this ship here ever since then."
Franklin mentioned that the entry level into YWAM is the Disciple Training School (DTS), but the one he runs on board the Next Wave is unique -- people actually travel as they’re on the DTS. Wooding asked Franklin to explain how that works.
"We’ve done a lot of that. It changes with every season, but for example right now in Liverpool we just finished working with the local police here in town -- they’ve targeted some at risk youth in the neighborhoods that have the potential to engage in crimes. Some of them have already been in trouble with the police, but they’ll come aboard the boat and we’ll just be with them, be like a big brother to them, mentor them in a way and give them some encouragement -- just love on them basically. The hope is that they will see something in us that they would want. We want to be a positive role model so they wouldn’t engage in the negative examples they have a lot of times in their communities."
"Well the vision for the next year and a half is that we’re going to sail back into the Mediterranean from Liverpool. We’re going to host an outreach team from YWAM Harpenden base and then after that we’re going to do the Bible school and then sail into the Black Sea and do some medical missions there in Bulgaria and the Ukraine. After that bit we’re going to sail back westward and pick up our own Bluewater DTS team pos sibly in Istanbul and do another Discipleship Training School starting from Istanbul and go all the way to Algeria where they will leave the ship and another team will come onboard to do outreach or ministry in Algeria, and then we’ll head back to the UK after that."
To find out more about The Next Wave and how you can become involved, please visit the following website: www.marinereach.info