YWAM - Youth With A Mission - was founded in 1960. Today it has more than 20 000 voluntary workers /staff, on over 900 locations in over 140 countries and more than 100 000 short time volunteers going out each year. That makes YWAM one of the world's biggest missionary organisations.

"Our" branch of YWAM, Marine Reach, was started in 1990 with the purpose of showing - in practical mercy ministry - that God cares and that it's possible to know Him in a personal way. That's what YWAM is all about; to know Him and make Him known. We're not forcing Christian beliefs on anybody and we're not placing conditions before giving medical care. It's about offering more, seeing people's physical and spiritual needs. The ones that are not interested in knowing God are given care and medical treatment the same way as the ones that want to know more about our Father. The big difference is though that anyone who wants is given somebody to pray with and we get the privilege of working side by side with the Great Physician!

Marine Reach, Fiji is a ship/truck mission that brings medical care and the gospel of Jesus Christ to remote islands and the people that lives there. This is part of YWAM and in many ways pioneering work. Our Lautoka-base has existed for 3 years. Originally short term medical teams were brought in, doing 1-2 weeks of outreach, working from the ship Pacific Link.
Since last year though, we also have a permanent Mobile Medical Team. We got a 4X4 wheel truck donated to us from an Australian couple and started running 1-2 days Outreaches into the interior and villages surrounding Lautoka. Since this is pioneering work, it will take time before we can fully see our vision fulfilled - to give full medical and spiritual support to the people of Fiji.

Fredrik works as Team Coordinator on the Base, an area that is growing. We have DTS-teams coming for their outreach, Church-teams and Youth group-teams from all over the world coming to evangelise and do practical mercy ministry. Fredrik’s work is to assist the teams, helping them to set up their Outreaches, plan building projects and evangelistic operations, counting costs etc. To a large extent this means coordinating with local Churches, Pastors, schools and Official Authorities. He often goes with the teams, introducing them when needed. He’s also coordinating some of the Mobile Medical Team’s clinics and when there is time he participates as truck driver, registrar or whatever is needed...

Sofia works as doctor in the Mobile Medical Team. We work mostly on the largest island of Fiji (Viti Levu) but also occasionally on the smaller, more remote islands of Fiji. The team is doing primary healthcare and dental care and consists at the moment of 2 doctors, 2 nurses, 1 dentist, 1 dental assistant, 2 Registrars and 1-2 Translators. We go to schools, jails, villages, settlements, churches etc and together with the local people that has invited us, we set up a clinic for 1-3 days. During this time we treat 80-120 patients per day and we see a lot of infections, skin problems, diabetes, high blood pressure and parasite diseases such as scabies, intestinal worms and fungus infections. We give out medicines free of charge, but are always dependant on what has been donated to us.

Many times people are suffering from life-related problems, such as muscle/joint pain because of hard work in the sugarcane fields or headache because of domestic problems. There is no “cure” for such things but we know and have seen over and over again that our Father is the Greatest Physician and to Him everything is possible! So often we get to pray with our patients and as a result of the clinics, we have seen many people come to the Lord and house groups being started. In the future there will be Churches planted but, as we are working together with the local churches, it is them that do the follow up and sees when the time is right. We have a lot of patients with Hindu and Muslim faith and we see it as a privilege and a confidence that they come to us with their problems. It happens that they want us to pray for them and we pray together in Jesus’ name.

We are also planning to give education in basic health care and dental care to parents and others that are interested. This coming year, because the Pacific Link will be based in NZ, the M. M. Team is going to work together with incoming medical teams in land based operations. Hopefully, this might be our Lords way to recruit more people long term to this ministry!

Fiji has State provided, free of charge, hospitals and healthcare clinics but they often lack equipment, medicines and trained staff (nurses and doctors). There are very good intentions and plans on how to improve the local health system and peoples general health. To a large extent, Fiji is dependant on donations from Australia and New Zealand. One example of this is that several of the country’s 30 ambulances and one out of two CT-scans (special X-ray machine) are out of use because there is no money to buy spare parts. We work in cooperation with the local Ministry of Health in giving reports and statistics to them, adding to their information about the health situation amongst the people. We are also referring to the local hospital when a person needs further examination/ X-ray and we have a good friend – and prayer partner - in Dr Tukana, the Medical supervisor of the area we are working in!

Everybody within YWAM works voluntarily without salary and pays for their food and housing. This also goes for the leadership and the founder and president of the organisation. Many raise support from local churches, friends, individuals, strangers...etc. Through all these people God is doing His work and we're all dependant on Him and each other. There are lots of opportunities for Him to perform economical wonders..! Money that is given to the organisation and individuals makes it possible to buy medicine, material for operations and other medical equipment. It pays for diesel for our Truck, which we really need to be able to transport the team on roads that are not the best…

Over all the Earth there are opportunities to contribute and participate in different kinds of ministry. You can join YWAM for a longer or shorter time and do evangelical work in areas like construction, media, linguistics, music, dance, drama, sports, healthcare and many more!

Another part of YWAM is University Of The Nations. On different locations in the world you can study and become even more skilled and educated in i.e. the areas described above. These courses have curriculum's that are scientifically correct but also knowledge seen through the perspective of His Word. If you are interested, check out YWAM International.