Australian PETER WARREN tells the story of how he and his wife Linda ended up serving with Youth With A Mission in Denver, Colorado…
My name is Peter Warren and my current role is that I am the coordinator for Youth With A Mission in the western United States and Canada.
I also oversee Youth With A Mission in Denver teamed up with my wife Linda. I am originally from Sydney, Australia and Linda and I pioneered the YWAM Denver campus in 1984 and we have been doing this for 37 years.
Peter and Linda Warren. PICTURE: Supplied.
“Working in this field, the opportunity to meet several times a week for prayer and worship, along with other like-minded individuals, has shaped my walk with God.”
Linda came to faith in Christ during the Jesus movement in southern California. She grew up in San Diego and attended San Diego State University before coming into YWAM. I was raised in a Christian home and made a profession of faith when I was seven-years-old. But then I walked away from my faith in God for two years after high school.
At the suggestion of my parents I attended a one week outreach with YWAM in Canberra, Australia in 1977. I have never left. That week was so radically impacting on my life and I recommitted my life to Christ. I completed some additional studies with YWAM in California where I met Linda and we were married on 1st December, 1979.
We served with YWAM in Los Angeles and in 1984, following the Olympics there, we moved to Denver with a small team of five people. We didn’t know anyone in Colorado and we had a total of $1000, but we knew God wanted us to plant a new ministry.
Through 12 different missionary training programs YWAM Denver equips and prepares young adults for a lifetime of following Jesus and ministry. The Discipleship Training School (DTS) takes individuals on a five month program packed with powerful teaching and in-depth personal discipleship.
We are now currently transitioning the leadership of our local ministry to new leaders.
The new leaders, Jachin and Sarah Pendleton have six children, and they will be directing the local base in Denver. Linda and I will still be on staff and running our “YWAM foundations“ ministry from our office at the base. Linda and I are continuing our ministry through leadership gatherings and retreats. I also travel most weekends to speak in churches, mostly within North America.
We currently have two focuses of our foundations ministry. The first is Storm Brothers Retreats, which I have already run in California and Colorado and we have another one planned for Hawaii.
Storm Brothers Retreats happen when I gather between six and eight men who are primary leaders in local churches or ministries. Through the retreats we learn to walk and have integrity with each other as we face the storms of life.
The second focus is the couples ministry, which is called CARA and is established from Jesus’ exhortation to his disciples to come away and rest awhile: “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” (Mark 6:31)
Working in this field, the opportunity to meet several times a week for prayer and worship, along with other like-minded individuals, has shaped my walk with God.
One of the most difficult events I ever had to face was when a former student, who had become bitter at God and the church, entered our facility and opened fire, killing two of our staff.
The shootings impacted our community in a dramatic way and many of our staff and students struggled with their faith in God as a result. Neither Linda or I struggled with our trust in God’s character, but we questioned why this happened to us and why God would allow it to happen, which led to a searching of the Scriptures for answers to the question: Where is God when we suffer? I needed to wrap my mind around it, or at least come to a place where I was at peace in my own heart.
At first I only planned to write the story of what happened but as I began to write, the Holy Spirit prompted me, based on I Peter 3:15 to defend His character by addressing the many different ways suffering occurs in our world and I narrowed it down to 10 sources of suffering.
This put me on a pathway to write a book entitled When the Shooting Stopped. The book is about God’s enduring love and faithfulness amidst tragedy and suffering. My purpose in writing it was to simply share my heart and the lessons learned from the tragic events at YWAM Denver on 9th December, 2007.
Has the experience of the shooting incident changed the way we do our ministry? No, there’s been no change and no fear. Both Linda and I know our lives are in His hands.
‘When the Shooting Stopped’ is available for purchase on at www.peterwarrenministries.com.
This article has been edited for length and clarity.
