Embedded Files
We work with Youth With A Mission Brisbane (YWAM), and have done for since the late 90s. YWAM internationally is one of the largest missions movements in the world. Here in Brisbane, Australia we are all about:
Equipping Christian youth people to be influences in their society
Sharing Biblical truths and the gospel to young people and families within our local community
Blessing and resourcing rural, outback communities
Pioneering new ministries
We do this through:
Running training schools: Discipleship Training School; Basic Leadership School; School of Digital Filmmaking; School of Acting for the Screen and Bible Core Course
A community Cafe ministry for our local area, specifically for the high-schoolers and church youth groups
Cooperation with local schools to participate in lunch programs, religious education, discussion groups, 'Shine' and 'Strength' programs, art projects and other interaction programs to build relationship with the kids
Serving and resourcing local and rural churches, specifically in the area of youth ministries
Short film productions, facilitating interaction with other artists in the community
Supporting local and rural community projects through participation in festivals and other community focused projects
All of this is for the purposes of strengthening, discipling and enabling Christians, and sharing the gospel to those that don’t yet know God.
Our personal roles within YWAM are what we often call “Backbone” ministries. These are departments that support all other ministries through various operations and logistics so they have what they need to do what they do.
What Does Gary Do?
Officially Gary’s role is the IT Manager and Vehicle Coordinator, and does a bit of kids ministry. However, he also has other random errands he does, as he has a general working knowledge of many areas of the Base.
CHILDREN’S MINISTRY – SUPPORTING FAMILIES
He has enjoyed serving at a children’s program at a local church which brings mums and their preschool kids in for a bit of music and play, and fellowship with other mums in the area.
Gary also teaches our outreach teams how to do balloon shaping for use in children's ministry on their mission trips.
IT MANAGER – ENABLING YWAMers to WORK and COMMUNICATE
As IT Manager, he takes care of the networking, wi-fi, security, software, hardware, etc of any computer needs. We have 85 staff here, plus up to 60 trainees at any given time on the centre. He often troubleshoots people’s personal computer/laptop issues as well. Of course the IT department really keeps a place functioning for without it, we wouldn’t be able to do much of our ministry.
VEHICLE COORDINATOR – TRANSPORTING THE GOSPEL MESSAGE
It would be amazing if we were all like Philip whom God transported from one location to another (Acts 8). It would definitely save us a lot of time and money! But without this teleportation miracle we need a Vehicle Coordinator. Gary manages the use, maintenance and stewardship of the 9 vehicles that YWAM Brisbane owns. This involves:
taking them in for inspections (in QLD this has to be done every 6 months)
training and approving drivers for the vehicles
administrating insurance and registrations
arranging maintenance and repairs
administrating the vehicle use for our various ministries and outreaches
Our YWAM vehicles are what get us around to the ministry opportunities we are involved in. YWAM Brisbane vehicles travel tens of thousands of kilometres each year, taking our teams to dozens of outback towns and ministry opportunities. Without Gary managing these things I think we’d be running around like chickens with our heads cut off (or, at least more than what we already do!)
What Does Darcie Do?
TRAINING AND TEACHING – EQUIPPING GOD’S WORKERS
I run a 2 week long staff training course for those that are involved in training our DTS. This happens at least three times a year. I work with the new leaders in teaching them to effectively train and evaluate the disciples they're working with.
On occasion I run a week teaching (12 hours over 5 days) on the subject of RELATIONSHIPS to our DTS. I also do some of the training of our outreach leaders as they prepare for leading short term missions teams. I like to teach about YWAM to the DTS. And its not uncommon that I address the YWAM community on often practical training matters in our weekly meetings together.
TRAINING COORDINATOR – MAKING DISCIPLES
As training administrator I oversee the 5 courses we run here at YWAM Brisbane, with varying levels of input into them. This involves things like:
assisting course leaders with setting up the Courses and course administration
registration of Courses and enrollment of students
understanding of and ensuring that we're following the curriculum, outcomes, policies and procedures
BASE MANAGER – FACILITATING THE MINISTRY AND WORKERS
This generally is just looking after the smooth (or at least somewhat smooth) running of the centre. I look after some of the personnel management with the allocation of roles and responsibilities and sometimes this includes training in those areas, as well as rosters and orientation.
I also take care of visa services for our volunteers. About 80% of our volunteers are from overseas so I assist them in getting through their various visa procedures.
NATIONAL ROLES – SERVING YWAM MINISTRIES IN AUSTRALIA
A national role is one which assists the other YWAM Bases around Australia (there are 18 in total).
Compliance Officer and Regional Representative - In Australia, YWAM registers our courses to be accredited with the government. To do this we have lots of legislation to comply with so I try to understand these, and create policies and procedures that work for us within YWAM. I also specifically assist the Bases within our region (6 of them) with any training questions (and visa questions) they have.
Our Hope
These roles are not typically what one would first think of when they hear the term “missionary” but this is where we feel God is able to best use us for the time being. We hope that through our various strengths and giftings we can contribute to lives being changed and communities impacted on a bigger scale. We believe that God wants to impact people’s lives in a very definite and changing way. YWAM Brisbane is doing that in a very real way, and we know that through our service we at YWAM Brisbane can do this even more strategically.
Gary and Darcie de la Porte
Youth With A Mission Brisbane
YWAM Tyler
Attn: Gary and Darcie de la Porte
Youth With A Mission Brisbane
671 Samford Road
Mitchelton QLD 4053
Australia
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