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Since receiving the gift of ‘La Maison’, home of YWAM Burtigny from 1979, we have had hundreds of staff and students serve with us. We currently have 40 full time staff plus 13 children.
Our values could be expressed simply as: – Worship: we want to give our hearts, minds and strength to knowing and loving God, both through knowing his word and walking in his ways; – World: we want the world to know the God who loves them and gives Himself, who cares for the poor and needy, the dispossessed and vulnerable; – Work: we want God’s character and purposes to be expressed and elevated wherever we work, whether that is with YWAM or in any other sphere of society e.g. business, health care, the arts, home making, etc. We value God’s word and world, and seek to honour him through our worship and work. Our values and vision at YWAM Burtigny are linked! When we think about the future, we think about discipling the nations: bringing biblical principles into all areas of life, and releasing God’s purposes for that community, city or nation. We dream about Geneva, the French speaking world, Africa and the poor and needy. Join us, pay the price to make a difference!
Welcome to Jeunesse en Mission or Youth With A Mission (YWAM). YWAM, an international organisation, was founded in 1960 by a twenty-four year old American named Loren Cunningham. God gave him a vision of young people going out into missions, “…covering the continents…talking to people on the street corners and outside bars…going house to house…preaching…” (Loren Cunningham, Is That Really You God?). Beginning with only a handful of people, YWAM now has approximately 16,000 staff all over the world. In addition, the University of the Nations, which was conceived in 1978, now offers over 800 courses in campuses in more than 100 countries. Our campus here in Burtigny, Switzerland is just one of those many campuses that YWAM has around the world.
How did YWAM and Burtigny meet? Loren Cunningham came to Switzerland in 1969 and by the end of 1970 had established the first permanent base in Lausanne. There they held their first official school, the School of Evangelism. Several years passed and then a little farming village named Burtigny came into the picture and here’s the story behind that: Once upon a time Loren was in Lausanne in a prayer meeting, receiving what seemed like an unusual word from God: to pray for a farm. Unusual, because farms in Switzerland were virtually impossible to come by; they were almost always family owned, passed down through the generations and very rarely ever sold. Without any possibilities in sight, Loren nevertheless held fast to what he believed God had told him. He attended an auction that was selling off farm equipment and, taking a step of faith, bought a milk can, a roll of barbed-wire, and an old, run-down farm wagon. With much prayer these three items would prove to be more than simply symbolic. Years later, in 1979, La Maison was given to YWAM, at no cost and YWAM Burtigny was born. The property was debt-free with the freezers full of food and money in the bank. And, last but not least, Loren had his farm, complete with three barns and lo and behold, 18 cows, adorned, of course, with their famous Swiss cow-bells. And, now, almost thirty years later, we still have fresh milk on our doorstep every day from our very own cows!
YWAM Burtigny exists to make an in depth impact on our world. Our aim is to disciple specific communities in different nations to tangible change. We are a group of people from around the world, sitting on the doorstep of Geneva, with a call to engage the brain and heart of Christians to be informed, relevant and active in changing thinking and action, policy and practice in our city and the world. We want to have the Solomon-Sheba effect. Where the Queen says to Solomon -”your place is amazing – what a God you serve!” Food on the table, beauty in the nation, justice in government, the nitty gritty of what a discipled nation looks like. (1 Kings 10) In a world that is poor and hungry, where nations rich and poor struggle to know what justice must look like, which economic principles must be in place, how you handle the dilemma of immigration, what a response to the HIV/Aids epidemic and the orphans of the world is, we want to equip Christians in the Ezra way. Ezra studied the Word, practiced it, did the stuff and taught the nation. We seek to study His word, do the stuff locally and internationally and then teach the nations. That’s what we are working at doing. Come and join us!
