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.