by Becky Hefty | Aug 9, 2023 | Places and Projects
Global YWAM missionaries sometimes find themselves overwhelmed by needs and circumstances beyond their control despite diligent efforts. MBI provides the practical help and training they need to thrive in the face of diverse challenges.
The ministries of YWAM San Antonio Del Mar (Tijuana) and YWAM Ensenada in Mexico work hard to secure their respective campuses and ministry commitments against potential incidents, theft, and vulnerability. They understand that maintaining a strong sense of security enables their teams to focus outwardly on their crucial ministry calling to provide Homes of Hope to homeless families and consistently meet locals at their points of greatest need. For this reason, campus leadership reached out in 2021 for professional training from MBI’s Mission 91 (M91).
Over the past year, M91 members Matt Praetzel, J.T. Pharr, and Luke Smith worked with eighteen individuals between the two campuses, including staff, directors, and hired security personnel. Besides helping them develop both policies and procedures and standard operating procedures, the M91 team introduced a curriculum to take the trainees above and beyond basic security skills. The curriculum includes laying the groundwork for the prerequisite training, physical capability, and baseline knowledge that allows multiple well-trained people to respond to incidents, ensuring the burden doesn’t fall on just one or two people. The training modules also include operations planning, de-escalation, mission debriefing, and incident reporting.
Importantly, the M91 crew helped the Tijuana and Ensenada campuses form Refuge teams. These are not typical “security teams,” a label Matt says “carries unhelpful stigmas and biases. Our philosophy is that the people training in protection can help the vulnerable and present the gospel to those who wish to cause harm. 
We train these teams to see Jesus amid people’s worst days and their worst decisions.” Rather than a hardcore security focus, M91 offers Refuge teams as platforms for potential life-changing ministry.
“We had an excellent conversation with YWAM San Antonio Del Mar’s campus administrator, who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the campus itself. He specifically commended us on the fact that we consult with organizations for long-term success in managing crises instead of coming to deal with the problems at hand and then leaving. Relief work certainly has value. However, many organizations end up in the same place when the next incident hits. He was grateful that our services not only solve the immediate problem but also provide the tools and resources necessary to handle incidents themselves in the future.”
Mission 91 helps YWAM campuses face potentially dangerous situations while reflecting Jesus. As all of those MBI offers, their services enable YWAM missionaries to meet challenges, stay on track, and stay healthy in their God-given calling.
To learn more, contact us at Team@missionbuilders.org or visit our website at www.missionbuilders.org.
by Becky Hefty | Mar 8, 2023 | Connections Article
MBI helps YWAM missionaries and ministries flourish because when they do, so do the people they serve. That’s why MBI is YWAM’s go-to center for unique, professional-level, contextualized services like those offered by Leadership13 (L13).
The L13 team consists of experienced mission leaders who understand that successful leaders don’t just happen—they’re trained. Focusing on leadership teams is one of their top priorities and why L13 offers Train the Trainer seminars, helping equip and empower YWAM leaders.
MBI co-director and L13 member Dawn Masucci says: “At Train the Trainer seminars, we provide materials and
instruction for the ‘trainers’ who will return to their YWAM locations and teach their leaders. This approach helps identify and counter the difficulties of campuses experiencing a higher turnover rate.”
Pioneer team members at YWAM Lancaster in Pennsylvania said: “We grew so fast our systems were not in place for sustainability. L13 helped us work through the stages of growth and success. Their input was a turning point for us. And their Train the Trainer seminars have increased our ability to raise and equip leadership within our staff. MBI has given us solid, useful tools that created a stable foundation to fulfill our mission of reaching the unreached.”
A YWAM attendee at a Train the Trainer event in Tijuana, Mexico, wrote: “I was so encouraged after a great week with you guys. I spent a few days with a campus we pioneered in YWAM Analco in Durango, Mexico. I saw the material we learned in Tijuana come to life as I walked them through several sessions. Thanks for investing in me and indirectly in our new Durango YWAM location! You are helping people like me to thrive so we can also help others thrive.”
MBI continues to serve global YWAM missionaries and campuses at their specific points of need. As a result, those ministries can stay focused on how God has called them to “go and make disciples of all nations.”
by Becky Hefty | Jun 1, 2022 | Connections Article
Lack of knowledge can complicate missions. Missions service is about more than just preaching the gospel, feeding the hungry, or rescuing refugees. Today’s missionaries must also navigate travel, technology, and global connectedness—and the complex laws that govern them. Know-how is critical to success.
MBI offers a unique professional and contextualized service called LIFT (legal, immigration, financial, tactical) to help YWAM missionaries crush the “big rocks” that sometimes hinder ministry. LIFT workshops allow YWAM leaders and staff to work through issues with experts via training, discussion, and one-on-one consultations. LIFT’s topical training ranges broadly from corporate bylaws and worker visas to financial planning and facilities security.
In February this year, MBI offered a LIFT workshop at the YWAM San Antonio Del Mar campus in Mexico. Nearly sixty leaders and staff representing over thirty-five US YWAM campuses attended the three-
day event to hear from experienced YWAM leaders and MBI’s network of lawyers and professionals.
Husband and wife lawyer team, Allen and Julie Anjo (Office of General Counsel at YWAM’s UofN in Kona) taught on nonprofits, child protection, mandated reporting, religious worker visas, data privacy, and constitutional protections for nonprofits. “These legal considerations,” they say, “form a basis for legal protections that allow the ministries to focus on their calling to the Great Commission. As lawyers called first to missions, we use our skills, experience, and expertise to help ministries and missionaries set up strong legal foundations so they can succeed in their calling and not worry about possible compliance issues or lawsuits.”
After the LIFT workshop, YWAM participants said: “What an incredible resource! Every base should attend!” “I learned so much exceptional information, much of which I didn’t know.” “I loved having a place where we could get this information and knowing where to look in the future.”
As YWAM ministries worldwide do whatever it takes to reach the world, MBI continues to provide the tools they need to thrive through opportunities like LIFT.
by Becky Hefty | Mar 17, 2022 | Connections Article
Since 1960, YWAM missionaries have continued reaching out to this broken world spiritually and practically. They bring health and healing through hands-on mercy ministries and interrupt human trafficking via rescue and education. They strategically distribute Bibles to help end Bible poverty. And they’re training yet another generation of believers to share the good news of Jesus Christ. As YWAMers continue to make God known to the least, the last, and the lost, Mission Builders International is there to support them.
For instance, YWAM Cambodia strives to transform Cambodia’s history from one of “killing fields” to “living
fields,” believing God for One Nation in One Generation. As a result, five hundred Cambodians now attend YWAM Cambodia’s ten church plants, and a thousand youth recently joined the soccer league hosted on their campus. MBI is helping YWAM Cambodia in tangible ways to realize its vision by sending volunteers, helping with training and equipping their leaders, debriefing their staff, providing professional architectural services, and more.
MBI remains committed to providing YWAM campuses with the services and practical help they need to stay healthy and fulfill their callings long-term. Now, we’re taking our commitment to a higher level. Planning is underway to build MBI’s Mission Lodge hospitality center to engage YWAM missionaries, volunteers, students, and visitors more fully.
The vision took root when YWAM Lakeside Montana gifted its prime one-acre piece of property to MBI in 2004. In 2019, MBI expanded its ministry by adding new services like Leadership13, LIFT, Partner Architects, Debriefing, and more. Today, the time is right to make the Mission Lodge a reality.
MBI co-director Dawn Masucci says: “Part of our vision for the Mission Lodge is to create a welcoming place where YWAM missionaries can come to be refreshed, retooled, and re-sent, so they may continue to ‘know God and make Him known.’ We’ve envisioned a well-designed building dedicated to the Lord that increases our capacity for hospitality, collaboration, training, communication, and recruiting.
“We also see a place to create more awareness about MBI and YWAM as we engage students and show hospitality to their families and friends. The 1000+ visitors who pass through YWAM Lakeside and visit the Mission Lodge every year will gain a clear understanding of what MBI does and leave inspired to find their unique opportunity to reach the world by helping international YWAM locations.
“Our vision for the Mission Lodge, with its wooded location and beautiful views, also embodies a place of
restoration and replenishment for those experiencing a rough season in ministry. Frontline YWAM missionaries will come to be debriefed by professionally trained debriefing staff. Leaders who may feel tired and bruised will receive encouragement, skilled mentoring, and fellowship, returning to the field with renewed faith that they can, indeed, take on giants.”
MBI’s Ross Lackey of Partner Architects created a master plan for the one-acre site, designing the 16,000 square foot building and preparing for construction. The Lodge’s interior will include twenty guest rooms and a caretaker’s suite, a full kitchen, a large conference room, a commons area, a reception area for hospitality, and an MBI office area with desk spaces and meeting rooms to accommodate thirty staff. The exterior design features a drive-through covered entry and twenty dedicated parking spaces.
Site preparation begins this spring, with foundation completion projected for early 2023. Construction will start soon after. Our faith goal is to have the building “dried in” by the winter of 2023, then debt-free and ready for service by the end of 2024.
Winston Churchill said, “We shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us.” The Mission Lodge’s purpose, design, functionality, and beauty increase MBI’s ability to shape lives by helping YWAM missionaries—and the people they serve worldwide—to thrive.
by Becky Hefty | Aug 25, 2021 | Connections Article
Many students of YWAM’s Discipleship Training School graduate with a desire to serve full-time in the mission, and YWAM campuses worldwide need people just like them to achieve their mission goals and thrive. MBI brings these two dynamic groups together through our After DTS program.
DTS graduates can now explore opportunities and locations through volunteer placement, allowing them to experience a variety of service opportunities, places, cultures, and causes. Graduates may learn new skills, encounter new people groups, fall in love with a ministry vision, find their “tribe” of like-minded missionaries, and more! They volunteer at global locations, build lasting relationships, and find their best fit for long-term service. MBI makes easy what used to be laborious and time-consuming.
Dawn Mekunwattana from Thailand did her DTS in the spring of 2011 at YWAM Lakeside and knew she wanted to join their staff someday. She spent time mission building on campus between the secondary schools she attended after her basic training. She says:
“My mission building experience gave me a snapshot into the behind-the-scenes life of missionary members on campus and helped to solidify my desire to serve full-time in Montana. I loved the Mission Builder community!
We had our meetings and times of connection and prayer outside of the regular base meetings, and I loved connecting with all the people who would come through for those short seasons to serve and bless others. Mission building also grew my confidence—I could serve and work in many capacities! It’s been ten years since I did my DTS and six years since I last worked as a mission builder. Now, I’m finally here as a full-time missionary member!”
DTS graduates like Daniel, Fabio, Presley, and others have utilized the After DTS program to explore the exciting ways and places available to them to serve within YWAM as they’ve fulfilled God’s call on their lives.
Are you a DTS graduate with a passion for moving to the next step of service? Apply at www.missionbuilders.org to volunteer with After DTS and discover your next step!
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