All Change...

10/23/2023

One thing i frequently say about YWAM is "the only constant is change" After 12 years of leading the campus here in Ensenada, we've decided its time to hand the mantle over to the next leader and to serve the mission in another way. As you can imagine this is a big change for us, and a decision we have taken over a year to get to.

You may remember us first coming to Mexico back in 2006. Initially coming to be the "Computer Guy" but then we took over leading the training department for 5 years and then leading the Ensenada Campus for the past 12 years. Its been an incredible journey for us as we've grown in our leadership and seen 1000's of lives transformed through the YWAM Ensenada campus, through building homes, training schools and our local ministries in the communities.

The role i'm taking on is Director of Mobilisation for YWAM San Diego /Baja. This is a new role that we've created and will be serving alongside our founder and the director of development to serve the ministry in the areas of communications, marketing, student recruitment and fund raising. All with a goal to build and grow the ministry to enable us to be able to serve more people and see more lives transformed.

Ive already had a number of questions about my new role, so here are the answers to some of the most popular ones.

When do you start the new role?
We wanted to make the transition as smooth and healthy as possible, so we had a long run of the first 6 months of the year with me leading but deferring to the new leader on most things. Then in June we did the hand over. Its been a very healthy transition, and Stephanie is doing an amazing job of leading the base, as i move into my new role.

Will you still live in Ensenada?
100% YES - Ensenada is our home, and is an amazing city that we've grown to LOVE over the years. The kids are still in school and university here. Most of my work is done remotely with lots of Zoom meetings. We will still be part of the YWAM Ensenada community as we have been for almost 18 years.

Will you still be building homes?
Oh Yes - Most of my work for the last 18 years has been in the background, serving others to enable them to be the feet on the ground in the communities that we serve. Not much has changed there. We will still be working with teams and going out to build at the same frequency.

This year Homes of Hope has had its busiest year in history. In baja we will have built 370 homes, and many more worldwide.

This year we are also celebrating 8000 Homes of Hope WorldWide. Part of the role we will be doing is to help resource the ministry, to enable us to grow our capacity, so in the future we can build more homes and serve more people.

Were you Fired?
I know some of you were wanting to ask this, so thought id answer your thoughts... No we were not fired. The Ensenada campus is thriving. We have more staff and more activity than any time in our history. Part of leadership is learning to replicate yourself and do yourself out of a job. Ive spent the last number of years training and developing someone for this time, so the transition has been smooth, easy and natural. The change of role is a sideways move to help the whole ministry expand, and we feel now is the time to hand off the day to day logistics of the campus to help bring leadership in a different way.

Will you be traveling much?
If this year is anything to go by, then yes. Already this year i've been serving or attending events in Dominican Republic, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Denver, Thailand, Juarez and ill be close to Mexico City in December.