the eyes of Ken Lowe

Blog 2nd -7th November YWAM DNA Conference The King’s Lodge Nuneaton UK
This was an extraordinary week. Instead of our usual programme of lectures, small groups, intercession and work duties in Carlisle we all climbed aboard a minibus, driven by Richard the Base Leader, and headed 200 miles south to Nuneaton near Birmingham. It is here that YWAM have one of its largest UK Bases called the King’s Lodge. The whole team travelled down in order to attend one of YWAM’s week long DNA Conferences. The Carlisle DTS were assigned a church hall to sleep in which was interesting! Sleeping on mats on a wooden floor is possibly good preparation for outreach. The standard of catering was excellent all week and we only had one work duty for the entire conference which was washing up after lunch on the Monday. A diminution of work duties was appreciated by all!

So what was the DNA conference about? Who better to explain than Youth With A Mission’s founder members themselves - Loren and Darlene Cunningham. They wrote of the conference: "We have a growing anticipation in our hearts regarding the dreams in God's heart for this time! Our sense is that this is to be like a family reunion, with all the extended family members coming together to meet with the spiritual fathers. What a wonderful, faith-filled gathering we're going to have! During this time, we will focus on Jesus and His call to us as a Mission and as individuals. As you are probably aware, we as a Mission (especially Loren!) are not known for focusing on the past. YWAM is a visionary, forward-looking movement! But the New Zealand Maoris have a wise saying: "you walk backward into the future." By that, they mean that you must understand and embrace your past in order to be productive into the future.
In our case, that means we must rehearse the Words of the Lord, identify and understand the values and principles that embody our unique call as a Mission, and make sure that they stand as the firm foundation for what we build into the future. That's why we're calling this a DNA Conference: "DNA" refers to the essential genetics of our missions tribe that we believe God wants to multiply into successive generations of YWAMers for health and fruitfulness.
During this time, we're expecting God to ignite new passion in our hearts for the things on His heart. And we're expecting that together He will speak new things to us for the future. We are looking forward to a wonderful time together of fellowship, networking and hearing from God."

Another key person associated with the conference was a man called Maged (I was sure his name was Maggot until I saw it written down…. Oops! No offence!) He wrote of the conference: "I remember a year ago Darlene asked me "what is on your heart?" I said "for the family in the UK to get together to hear about the vision, values and the journey so far, in this wonderful tribe called YW AM." It's a time where we are going to refresh old friendships and hopefully build new ones. It's a time to listen to the stories of our history so far and glean from the lessons that have been learned along the way. We are looking to build for the future – bringing pleasure to God’s heart, in the dream for YWAM in the years ahead. I hope we are going to have great fun laughing and worshipping together, eating and catching up with one another. We want to hear the Lord and dream into the future to see his will be done and his kingdom come through our obedience. So let’s enjoy His presence and remember His goodness, provision, protection and anointing over the years."

I think in all areas the conference was a great success and for the 250 or so who attended it was very challenging and worthwhile. It was great to see and hear Loren though Darleen had to remain in the States to look after her mother and her teaching was via Genesis which is YWAMs video conferencing system. It was also good to be able to hear the many amazing stories associated with the foundation and development of YWAM from the people who where there from the start and who have pioneered so many different kinds of work over the years.


So after 18 teaching sessions, great worship times many meals and a 25th anniversary celebration for the King’s Lodge we quickly demolished a packed lunch on the Friday and set off back to Carlisle arriving back around 5pm.

Spirit&Soul&Body

Spirit, Soul, Body.
This week’s speaker was Mariette Louw an awesome woman of God, originally from South Africa, who now lives in Seamill in Scotland.

Mariette introduced herself as more of a coach than a teacher and that she wanted to start off with prophesying over each of the DTS students. It was really encouraging to hear the prophesies and to get words or pictures for other people. Mariette was really helpful in guiding us through it saying to stay in tune with the Holy Spirit to see what it had to say to each person.

Another thing we looked at was 1 Corinthians 2, as a guide on how to use and be connected to the Holy Spirit. We also looked at how the soul is made up (Mind, Emotions, Will) and what part that plays on our personality. Then we looked at 3 parts that the spirit is partly made up of Conscience, Intuition and Communion. I can identify that my emotions is the stronger part of my soul and that although Communion is the strongest part of my Spirit there is still some work to be done in all three parts.

We also talked about Spiritual Authority. One of the main things that struck me on this topic passivity causes us to co-habit with evil, therefore we should have a passive attitude when dealing with Spiritual Authority and should act where we see the need to.

Something that I hope to be really helpful in the future is a technique for looking at the Scriptures. Instead of just reading through it, take a bible verse and write it out. Then look at which words speak out to you and why they speak out to you and right that down too. If questions have arose from what you have written, take time to listen to God to see what answers he has to give and allow a dialogue to build up with him.

The final day was on the fear of the Lord (Hating Sin & reverence/respect of God) and how we should fear him over man. We also looked at the blessings that we receive through fear of the Lord. The ministry night gave everyone a chance to choose to fear the Lord and to confess any fear of man that might be standing in the way. It was a powerful time hearing everyone being honest and a great finish to a really good week.
Craig Swainson.