History

In September of 1996, Richard and Kara Thompson and their children moved to Las Vegas. One year earlier the Lord had begun to speak to them about moving there from Amsterdam. With them was a team of four other adults, and their first task was to conduct an extensive survey of all of the Las Vegas valley pastors and churches. Having a greater understanding of the needs of the city the following ministries were established.

Lost World Rescue is a youth training and inner-city outreach for Las Vegas churches was established in 1997 and is still operating today. Over fifty local groups have been trained and mobilized to do outreach primarily in the inner city

– 1998 YWAM Las Vegas established the Street Cafe in partnership with churches around the city. By the time it closed in 2004, the Street Cafe had provided over 150,000 meals to the homeless.

–  The Mission Adventures program launched in 1999 is a one week training and outreach in Las Vegas, hosted throughout the year for youth groups from all over North America and beyond.  Over 2000 youth have been mobilized to come to Las Vegas for community outreach.

– International Mission Adventures Outreaches, established 2002-present is an overseas version of Mission Adventures.

Winds of Change (formerly LuminoCity) 1999-2005: an outreach to the estimated 15,000+ prostitutes in Las Vegas,

Discipleship Training Schools (DTS), established 2000-present: is a three month lecture phase to train and equip youth, mobilizing them into missions with an additional two-to-three month cross-cultural international outreach. Over 300 students have gone through our Discipleship Training School (the core course of a degree with the University of the Nations – the YWAM University with 30,000 students per year in campuses across 100 nations).

– X-Alt (King’s Kids), established 2001-2008: Children learned about and displayed God’s love through performing arts, sports and community service projects.

– 2001-2007 up to seven after school Bible clubs were held weekly in four middle schools and three high schools – sometimes serving up to 1500 kids per week.

– Hang Time established 2002-2005: An after-school homework club for neighborhood kids – aged from elementary through high school. Up to 120 kids came on a regular basis up to 4 times a week in three different locations in the city.

– YWAM Clothing, 2002-2004: Production of YWAM clothing for fundraising and promotional purposes.

– Rescue Net, established 2004-2018: is an international, rapid-deployment disaster response team.

Project Igal, 2003-2004: A performing arts minstry

The Point, established 2003-present: is a Filipino community church that was pioneered her in Las Vegas.

– The Beach House was purchased in April 2006. This was our first purchased property. A big house that is zoned both commercially and residentially.  We accommodated staff and students here for small schools and housed our main offices.

– Foster Connect, established 2006-present Ray and Claire Biggerstaff: Was developed to minister to the broad needs of the 3,000 Foster Children in Clark County annually. Their primary mission is connecting volunteers to opportunities, families to resources and families to families. Foster Connect has recruited 100’s and discipled dozens of families in how to foster kids in the Las Vegas valley as well as helped place over 350 foster kids into Christian homes. We have been involved with over 100 adoptions!

– We launched a new YWAM center from Las Vegas with seventeen staff at Pismo Beach/Central Coast California and are currently developing other locations around the world, including a YWAM campus in Lucknow, India.

– The Anthill Project, established in 2007: is an educational development project targeting schools in war-torn West Africa.

– School of Apostolic Pioneering (SOAP), established 2007-present: This University of the Nations course came out of YWAM Las Vegas. Its purpose is to equip students to pioneer new YWAM Ministries and Bases around the world especially to the most unreached places. There are currently 17 new ministries that have been pioneered in India, 7 in the Southern Region of Africa, 2 in North America, and one in Queenstown New Zealand in partnership with the SOAP.

– Purchase of our current YWAM building on the West Side occurred in December of 2007 with the help of a generous $482,000 grant that was supplied by the City of Las Vegas.

The Pier Community Resource Center (2008-present) continues to serve around 500 locals per month with grocery assistance and youth mentorship programs in one of the most challenging and impoverished neighborhoods in Las Vegas and the USA.

Martin Malmberg took over the leadership of YWAM Las Vegas in May of 2013 helping to stabilize and expand its ministry reach. The YWAM base morphed into a dual mission hybrid of a training campus and outreach center which houses our “family four ministries” focused on evangelism, training, combating human trafficking, orphan care, and developing the community of the historic West Side of Las Vegas.

 

highlights between May 2013 – May 2018:

  • 901 Mission Adventure students mobilized (week long evangelism focused training and outreach to Las Vegas)
  • 156 Discipleship Training graduates (5 month international missionary training with outreaches to nations such as India and Nepal)
  • 80 adoptive families with ongoing support (Foster Connect supports families practically, emotionally, and spiritually)
  • 45 full time staff developed
  • 19 full time staff (up from 7 in 2013)
  • 1 established leadership team
  • 1 succession resulting in 3 new directors: Vacheral Carter, Alexa Johnson, and Chelsea Freund
  • $280, 000 raised and $42,000 debt removed leaving YWAM Las Vegas in a healthy financial situation
  • 33,000 times people were served with grocery assistance, community banquets, support groups, after school tutoring, ESL classes etc.
  • 2 minibuses and 1 15 passenger van aquired
  • 1 external communications over haul
  • 1 personnel over haul
  • 1 roof replaced and 1 building remodel
  • 1 property saved and 1 grant agreement with the city of Las Vegas was fulfilled
  • 1 community garden started’