What we do
Our day-to-day job is working in the classroom setting with the School of Biblical Studies, which runs nine months of the year. In that setting, we are teaching through the books of the Bible one at a time, challenging students to be looking inductively at the text and letting it speak for itself.
What we love about this is two things. Firstly, we are giving our students a passion for the Word. We have an amazing chance to get them excited about unlocking the text and encountering God through the Bible that very few Christians ever get. Secondly, we are influencing influencers.
While we spend the majority of our time working in-class, our efforts do not end there. As our students depart at the end of the year, they bring with them a passion for the Word and a passion for handing it out to the people around them. Our motto in our work is “Blessed to be a blessing,” a value that we heavily instill in all aspects of what we do. Our students are fully aware from the first day of class that all they are receiving is for them to give out.
Who are and how we got here
Brian
I was born and raised in Kent, Washington. With a background in photography and design, I am a very visual person, i love capturing the world as it is and telling the story of the people who inhabit it.
Another passion of mine is the study of the bible and the pursuit of a closer and better understanding of God’s word.
Ashley
I was born in Southern California but grew up in Central Washington. I love coffee, baking, anthropology and making works of art that never leave the home. I do not have the capability to clap and sing at the same time but I have high hopes for musically talented children.
How we met
Brian
I was attending Central Washington University, and was involved in an on-campus ministry put together by Ashley’s church in Yakima along with my best friend. Our paster invited us to their winter camp, and so we went. Not long after arriving at Sunriver, Oregon, I was almost tackled by a beautiful young lady who had confused me with another of her friends (who apparently looked just like me from behind). We became very good friends over the next few years, and the rest is history.
Ashley
Brian and I met during an adventure at sea off of the coast of Somalia. While under his alias, Captain Blood, he rescued my shipmates and I from certain death when a group of revengeful elephants swam more then two miles to steal all of our Rolos after we refused to share with them more then ten years prior. However, he doesn’t remember any of this due to a sword fight with pirates. He thinks we met at a church camp or something.
What got us into missions
Brian
As an art student at Central, there was a Sunday night service that changed my life. I walked in feeling completely confident that I would be continuing my degree and going into professional photography, and walked out knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that I needed to leave school and pursue full-time ministry. That was three years ago, and in the time since, I have gone down several roads in the pursuit of God’s will, and have happily come to YWAM.
Ashley
I didn’t come to know the Lord until I was in high school, but very early on in my Christian walk I felt a calling into ministry. I had no idea what that meant or if it was an actual calling. It wasn’t until my DTS with YWAM that I realized missions was the direction that God had for me. I am confident that the future holds many adventures, and that God is going to use me mightily in them.
Our long term plans
We feel called long term to South Africa, and fell like Muizenberg is really the perfect location for the work that we are doing. We have come to see the great need for clear Bible teaching in places without the resources or the teachers, and have committed to serving with the School of Biblical Studies because we feel that it meets that goal. God is good!