Of all the festivals celebrated in Thailand, Songkran is considered the most significant. It is a time to celebrate Thai New Year with family ceremonies and “blessing” one another with water. In Chiang Mai, this tradition has turned into the country's biggest city-wide water fight, attracting visitors from around the world. This super wet shindig takes place around the city's moat and lasts for 3 days! Create International, a ministry of Youth With A Mission, joined in the fun this year.

On Wednesday the 4th of April around 8p.m., a large part of the Western suburban area of Buenos Aires and even the downtown, were affected by the passing of a storm that left considerable damage.

In Ituzaingo, the area surrounding the Youth With A Mission centre in Buenos Aires, the damage caused by the wind gales, the rain and the hail, left thousands of fallen trees, 95 percent of the city without power and 70 percent of the city without telephone lines. Some 500 businesses were affected and around five thousand residences were seriously damaged.

It’s been around seven years since Sophon was sent to the Ratchaburi prison in Central Thailand. He has almost completed the allotted punishment for the crime he committed so many years ago. His release is due at the end of this year. While he is excited, apprehension also clouds his outlook, as he is no longer certain what life looks like outside of his prison walls.

What Sophon does know, however, is that being in prison has truly changed him. For the better. A number of years ago, soon after he entered the prison, Sophon took a decision to follow the ways of Jesus. His journey of faith in Christ has brought him hope and a new understanding of what his life should be like. Sophon has been so swept away by the love of God that he has decided to serve God even after his upcoming release. “I want to serve God and have God help me in areas in my life that are not right yet,” Sophon says.

Maewyn Succat was born to a well-to-do British Roman family in roughly 400 AD in Kilpatrick, Scotland. He enjoyed the status of middle class wealth, and the prestige of having a preacher grandfather and a deacon father in the young Christian church. Maewyn, however, while reveling in the comfortable position of his family, rejected anything to do with their faith. However, everything changed for the young Briton when he was kidnapped by Irish pirates at the age of 16, and dragged to the neighbouring country where he was forced into slavery.

No country in Africa captures the extremes of the continent like the Democratic Republic of Congo. A massive nation with vast natural resources, it ought be one of the wealthiest countries on earth, and yet today, it is ranked as one of the poorest. Stunningly beautiful, it has been scarred by ugly deeds — 5 million people dead as a result of the years of simmering warfare over the last two decades.

The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been hit hard by the war. The region has thick, often impenetrable rainforest, with few tarred roads. Travel there is painfully slow. One Congolese family had a grueling struggle to attend a DTS at Arua in Uganda. Their 1000km journey from Isiro took an incredible 14 days. The couple travelled with their toddler by bicycle, motorbike, foot and car. On the way they got lost, were separated from each other for several days, were robbed, and suffered severe exhaustion. They survived on a meager diet of rice alone. They arrived in Arua not knowing the language, yet convinced that God wanted them there, and that they needed to do the DTS: perseverance, tenacity, and faith!

The vision for Youth With A Mission to operate sea going ships for ministry purposes came to Loren Cunningham (co-founder of YWAM) back in 1964 during an outreach to the Bahamas which had been devastated by Hurricane Cleo. The first, but unfortunately aborted, attempt to buy a ship was in 1974 with the m/v Maori in New Zealand. With the purchase of an 11,750 tonne ex-Italian cruise liner called m/v Victoria, renamed m/v Anastasis in 1978 and subsequent conversion to a hospital ship, YWAM Ship Equipped Ministries was born.

Since 1978, YWAM has always operated vessels of various sizes and types, older ones being ‘retired’ and newer ones taking their place. Now the vision to operate vessels of many different designs to further the spread of the message of Christ through the three main activities of YWAM: Evangelism, Training and Mercy Ministries, is accelerating with the twinning of YWAM University of the Nations (UofN) campuses with Ship Equipped Ministries

Lynn Green, previously International Chairman of YWAM and member of the global eldership, looks back 40 years to the first Olympic outreach, and wonders what God will do this time...

I have been in YWAM for over 40 years now. I have been involved with some remarkable projects, and have seen God do some amazing things in and through YWAM. The Olympic outreach in Munich in 1972 is one of those memorable events!

In early 1990, high inflation and food shortages racked what was known then as The People’s Republic of Mongolia. Despite the recent peaceful democratic revolution, little hope seemed present in the Asian country. Especially for the church. After 70 years of Communism, Mongolia was one of the few countries with no known churches or even native believers.

The first missionaries in over 60 years, a group of Native Americans, arrived in the country in 1990. And in 1991, the first YWAMers arrived. Beginning with only 14 Mongolian believers, all of them teenage girls, the YWAM team faced many hurdles in their attempts to plant an active, vibrant church in Erdenet, Mongolia. But without a doubt, God had His hands on the church of Mongolia. Today, the country not only celebrates 20 years of religious freedom, but also that Christians make up 1.7% of the population.

I am glad I was born in a slum.”

When Suchada Nantavong speaks the claim, her smile stretches from ear to ear — and those around her are shocked. She continues, “...and through that God has given me understanding to be able to work in the slums in Phnom Penh.”

Most people who are in slums are desperate get out, and Suchada was one who succeeded in doing just that. However, she chose to go back. This time with Jesus’s heart, hands, and love. She pours all these characteristics out in the biggest slum in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

Take a large number of young, creative, adventurous people of both genders and any nationality, put them together for a longer period of time, add some memorable experiences somewhere around the world (preferably in difficult life circumstances), spice the mix with the zeal to change the world, and stir well. Then watch what happens...