FINAL

ENDING BIBLE
POVERTY NOW
ANNUAL
REPORT
2016

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ANNUAL REPORT 2016 YWAM KONA
CONTENTS
OVERVIEW
BIBLE DISTRIBUTION
TESTIMONIES
FINANCE REPORT
VISION FOR 2017
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6
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12
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CREDITS
Designed by Esther Park
All Photos Courtesy of Abby Beard
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MESSAGE FROM LOREN CUNNINGHAM
Loren Cunningham is the Founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM), an ever-expanding global "family
of ministries" born in 1960 which has reached into every nation on earth. As a missions movement,
YWAM encompasses evangelism, training, and mercy ministries. It is manned by more than 20,000
full-time staff from 200+ countries and a wide variety of denominations and Christian traditions who
serve at more than 2,000 YWAM locations in 191 nations. Some five million participants have served
in YWAM programs as students, short-term volunteers and full-time staff since its inception.
Loren is also the Co-Founder and International Chancellor of the University of the Nations (UofN), a
global ministry of YWAM (www.uofn.edu). Since the university was established in 1978, the UofN has
grown to offer more than 500 different kinds of courses and hundreds of seminars (some of which
are offered in 97 languages), held at more than 600 locations/campuses in 160 countries. Hundreds
of thousands of students have registered within the global UofN system and have taken at least a
Discipleship Training School (DTS), the entry course and prerequisite for all other UofN courses, for
pursuing UofN associates, bachelors or masters degrees, and/or for becoming YWAM staff. UofN is
also initiating certificate courses and online e-courses.
Together with his wife, Darlene, Loren’s ministry partner from the beginning of YWAM and UofN, he
currently leads the University of the Nations campus in Kona, Hawaii (www.uofnkona.edu).
By 1999, Loren had personally gone to every sovereign nation on earth, all dependent countries, and
more than 100 territories and islands for the sake of Christ and the Great Commission. This has given
him valuable insights into global trends and uniquely prepares him to share God's strategies for
world evangelism. His wisdom, experience, leadership, understanding and call to build bridges of
unity within the body of Christ have given him opportunity to speak publicly to live audiences from a
few to more than a million people gathered in one location. He usually ministers on all six continents
each year.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2016 YWAM KONA
Since 1960 Loren, joining with many other global leaders, has carried a burden to make the Bible
accessible to every person on earth in their mother tongue by 2033, thereby ending Bible poverty
worldwide. Wherever the Bible goes, the Spirit of God brings transformation! In recent years, he has
met with hundreds of influential leaders in evangelical, charismatic, and Pentecostal denominations,
as well as those leading the oldest Christian traditions, to invite their partnership in this cause.
Loren’s personal goal is to make at least an oral translation of Scripture available to the 1,869 totally
Bible-less languages by 2020. He is actively recruiting more than one million Christians that will sign
a pledge to help eradicate Bible poverty by praying and serving as the Holy Spirit leads them (www.endbiblepovertynow.com).
Born in Taft, California, Loren’s family heritage is rich with generations of Christian ministers. His educational
background includes three Bachelor degrees, a Master of Science in Administration of Education,
and three Honorary Doctorates. Loren is the author of five books: Is That Really You, God?
(translated into more than 130 languages), Making Jesus Lord, Daring to Live on the Edge, Why Not
Women? and The Book that Transforms Nations—the Power of the Bible to Change any Country.
Loren Cunningham
Founder of YWAM
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GER
FRANC
2016 BIBLE DISTRIBUTION
CUBA
HAITI
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
PANAMA
C
COLOMBIA
21,571
BRAZIL
AUDIO BIBLES
WERE HANDED OUT
13,000
HANDED OUT IN AN ADOPTED, UNREACHED
DISTRICT OF THE HIMALAYAS IN NEPAL
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ANNUAL REPORT 2016 YWAM KONA
MANY
E
TURKEY
GREECE
LEBANON IRAQ
JORDAN
EGYPT
UGANDA
AMEROON SOUTH SUDAN
RWANDA
MONGOLIA
CHINA
NEPAL MYANMAR
LAOS
INDIA
THAILAND
TAIWAN
VIETNAM
CAMBODIA
PHILIPPINES
MALAYSIA
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
FIJI
8,571
TO OTHER NATIONS
84 63
TEAMS SENT
LOCATIONS
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NEPAL
Ywam Kona has adopted 3
districts in the Himalayas
Monsoon season in the Himalayas is infamous for transforming steep mountain passes into
treacherous trails. Definitely not the ideal time for a trek. Squinting through yet another downpour,
two exhausted, very wet missionaries and their translator picked their way over the slippery paths.
They were scouting out trails for future YWAM outreaches.
The translator trudged on ahead to secure them all a refuge for the night in a shepherds hut. When
the missionaries reached the door of the little hut, they poked their heads inside. The pungent
stench of sheep dung and smoke engulfed them as they stooped, dripping, through the entrance.
As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they overheard their translator and the shepherd already
engrossed in thoughtful conversation.
“How can I become a follower of Jesus?” the shepherd was asking. A story unfolded that amazed
all three of them. Apparently, this shepherd had already come to possess a treasure: a Bible in his
own language, which he had been reading with great interest. When the translator had identified
himself as a Christian, the shepherd immediately began asking questions about Jesus. After some
explanation, the shepherd prayed to give his life to Jesus. Then the team, still exhausted but overjoyed,
crawled onto their wooden platform beds. They thanked God for bringing this new son into
the Kingdom.
The team left but returned through that same mountain pass on their way home. As they neared
the shepherd’s hut, they realized that they were being followed by a boy, who was about 15 years
old. The shepherd once again invited them inside, along with the boy, and initiated another conversation
about Jesus. Suddenly the boy could barely contain his excitement.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2016 YWAM KONA
HIMALAYAS
“Some other Westerners came to my village. They also spoke to us about Jesus. There was a man
there who was completely blind. When the Westerners prayed for him in Jesus name, the man
received his sight! I saw it with my own eyes!” He said, incredulously.
This miracle had deeply affected the boy. Seeing these three Westerners pass by his hut had ignited
the hope that maybe they could tell him more about Jesus, and so he had followed them. Sitting
there, he explained that ever since the miracle, he had wanted to become a Christian. Then he
asked, “Could I also follow Jesus?”. The team was elated and led the boy in a prayer to receive
Jesus. Both of these new Believers were presented with an audio Bible on a MicroSD card, which
they could listen to on their cellphones.
“
the fame of Jesus is rapidly spreading
throughout the Himalayas and
the country has one of the world’s
fastest growing
Christian populations.”
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TESTIMONIES
UGANDA
We were in Wakiso Uganda working with Show Mercy International. One day,
we were in the market and met a woman named Mariam and we prayed for
her and her knees got healed. We asked if she had ever read the Bible and
she said no. We took her phone and put the micro SD Bible into her phone
and showed her how it worked. The look on her face was priceless. We visited
her the next week and asked her what she had listened to and she was
telling us about a prayer she heard Jesus teaching his disciples. She said as
she was listening, she felt compelled to pray. Through this, her son was
healed of ulcers in his stomach because Mariam was learning how to pray.
Fire & Fragrance DTS
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
A Kona team traveling through the PNG islands disembarked from their ship on
Karkar island. They were able to pull together a program and shared the Gospel
with about 10,000 people that day. When the team outreach leader was asked if
she found a use for the SD cards, she replied, “I wish we had brought more!” The
team had taken 200 SD cards loaded with the audio Bible in English and Tok
Pisin. They were able to share all of these cards and show the islanders how they
could transfer the audio Bible files to friends’ phones via Bluetooth. Still, the
outreach leader wished they had taken closer to 1,000 SD cards.
In Medang, PNG, they met a blind girl who had never before owned a Bible. The
team suddenly felt a sense of awe that even though the girl couldn’t read or even
see the word of God, she could be touched by the Word of God ministering to her
out loud in her language! When the girl heard the words of the Bible coming from
a cellphone, she and her family were moved to tears. The Kona team called this
an “Ah ha! Moment” when they realized the impact of these tiny SD cards that
carried the audio Bible in the local language and how God had used the to reach
people on the island of Papua New Guinea.
Ships DTS
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ANNUAL REPORT 2016 YWAM KONA
THAILAND
In Thailand, we got the opportunity to visit an old woman living in a Chinese
village near the Thailand Myanmar border. Our ministry host has been visiting
her for several years and told us a little bit about her story. She has been a
believer for around 15 years and came to know Jesus after her late husband
passed away. Her and her husband immigrated to Thailand many years ago and
settled in the Chinese village where she now lives with her children and grandchildren.
There is no church in her village. Our ministry host shared with us that
it is very likely that this woman is one of the only believers in this area. Since
she cannot read and does not have a church nearby to attend, she was
extremely grateful for the audio Bible we gave her!
Restorers DTS
NEPAL
Another team trudged through the winter weather carrying loads of Bibles to a
different Himalayan village. When they arrived they set up a solar-powered
projector and showed the Jesus Film. An audience of about 200 formed to
watch this film in their own language. The next day the team went throughout
the village to the people they had met the previous night and distributed the
Bible, both written and audio. As the young missionaries wove their way
through the village they met a woman who appeared to be having an asthma
attack and they wanted to pray for her. The translator took a moment to share
her own story of how she had once been a follower of another religion but had
met Jesus. Even as the woman fought to breathe, she barraged them with
questions. The woman began to cry, “How can I have a relationship with Jesus?”
In response, the team prayed with her to receive Jesus into her life and as soon
as they finished the woman gasped and air filled her lungs. She could suddenly
breathe freely and the asthma was completely gone! The woman's entire countenance
changed as she was filled with joy and peace. The team gave her a
Bible and told her about how she could get to know Jesus through His Word.
Fire & Fragrance DTS
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2016 finance report
s
$156,300
raised
by the Kona base to fund all of
End Bible Poverty Now
125000
s$105,000
EXPENSES
100000
75000
50000
25000
0
SD Card &
Audio Bible
s$3,800 s$6,800
Administrative
SD Duplication
Machine
s$40,700
Remaining
2017 Budget
Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, and Nepal $80,000
*Other YWAM Outreach Projects and Expenses $40,000
Total 2017 Budget $120,000
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*No individual salaries are paid out of any project funds

ANNUAL REPORT 2016 YWAM KONA
VISION FOR 2017
We were so encouraged and thankful to see how many people received the Word of God
in audio and hard copy during 2016! We ask that you pray with us for 2017 and that we
are able to meet the demand of the growing ministry of Ending Bible Poverty Now. Our
team at YWAM Kona would like to thank those of you who prayed for and gave to this
initiative in 2016.
Looking in to 2017, our plan is for YWAM to continue to distribute Bibles in Nepal and to
add Papa New Guinea and Cambodia as new Bible Distribution projects. SD cards that
fit into feature cell phones and that play audio versions of the Gospel in their native languages
have been very effective among illiterate people groups. During 2016 we distributed
over 20,000 SD cards. We anticipate that the number will go up exponentially
as projects continue to develop in 2017. Our estimated cost of Audio Bibles and hardcopy
Bibles distributed through our office in 2017 for Papua New Guinea and Cambodia
is roughly $80,000.
These are two of multiple projects that we are projecting for 2017. We are working with
partners and YWAMers all around the world to see how we can most effectively get the
Word of God to everyone on the planet. We anticipate that additional new, yet to be
determined projects will cost approximately $40,000. We ask that you pray about joining
us this year in financially supporting these exciting efforts to see transformation
through the Word of God all around the World.
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ENDBIBLEPOVERTYNOW.COM
YWAMKONA.ORG
75-5851 Kuakini Hwy Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
808-326-4400
Youth With A Mission