Thanks for having the courage and strength to share your experience with others to relate with, and for others to consider a valid, constructive points to consider if they have not done YWAM. There is a lot that I wish I knew about YWAM before joining. I made the mistake to not doing my research, and believing that I thought I knew what it was like or about by what others had said. I had one friend I had been receiving positive YWAM support letters from for twenty years, only to realize upon joining YWAM later on that the Bases they were at (Perth, Newcastle) have a horrible reputation for abuse, control, manipulation. So, yes word of mouth isn't exactly a reliable method for figuring out if YWAM is for you to do! I am a unfortunate example of taking my long-time friends words for it, that YWAM would be a great growing experience for me, and it was very much NOT a healthy time of my life. Thanks for sharing Abby!
Many prominent psychologists and sociologists have identified the common characteristics of cults. One common characteristics is the “repression of ALL dissent.” Your wise evaluation and observations are so on the mark. Courage and Truth are perishable virtues if ignored, but you continue to demonstrate them! Illegitimi non carborundum.
Idk if I’ve reached out before but I too went to Newcastle. I was there for October 2017 dts.. very similar experiences/feelings and I am so grateful I didn’t confess anything either.. thank you thank you for sharing and opening up
Abby Townsend First of all, thank you for posting the videos you have about abuse. I came across your post on TH-cam by accident and after listening to all 3 parts, reading comments and looking at other videos, I see the dark work of our Enemy sadly continues strongly within that organization. And I also see the work of our Redeemer in your life! And for that I give Him praise and glory! Briefly, I was at a base (stateside) where a lot of abuse took place. I left after 5 years. I saw wise, godly people, dear loved ones who seemed to be blinded to what was going on, but as it turns out, I was wrong about them, and within 2 years over 200 staff and many students also left. That "base" was eventually "booted" from YWAM and continues on as an unaffiliated Bible College now. I think our staff was fortunate as there was some counseling offered to us after the fact. I've never heard of anyone having sleep deprivation issues afterwards, so perhaps we were more fortunate in other ways, too. Many people who left have continued on in other ministries of various sorts. I say that to say there is HOPE and a FUTURE! Having said all that, I can identify with the accusations and criticisms you have faced. I was a very outspoken voice in the 2 years following the time I was there, and I heard it all from 'wamrs all over this world. I hope you can find God's grace to accept whatever He brings your way as you will recognize by His Spirit, grace to reject the lies and false accusations, and grace to be comfortable in your own skin.. not needing to defend yourself, especially against false accusations of causing division, heresy, or even blasphemy if it comes your way. I see it has been at least 3 years since your original post and I would guess you've had some time to begin the slow healing process which will ultimately set you entirely free from any residual pain. I would encourage you to stay in God's Word, and try to find a loving body of believers to fellowship with. It's not easy. It has taken many years for me to get there myself. In a recent message I was reminded of Jesus' existence before His Incarnation. I heard that before the beginning of time, before Creation, Jesus existed in relationship with His Father in a very special way: He pleased Him. He did the Father's bidding and in everything He did, He pleased the Father. Jesus' life before the manger is greatly significant to His 33 years here. He was in a place of submission, of obedience, of service and it was His joy. That is special to me because I realize Jesus had to forsake all the Divine circumstances, His Divine privilege, the intimacy with His Father and the Spirit, the pleasures of the Kingdom, the place of ultimate Holiness, the Throne of God, the Angels who served Him and all the Glory that was His to come down here and HUMBLE Himself, giving up so much to walk with men, to teach the ways of the Father, and ultimately to die on a cross for such a low-life as I. Our lives are about the message of Jesus. Our duty and privilege is obedience and worship. There is nothing besides these things. Wayne Bateman
Thanks for your videos! This message is very needed! I would kindly ask you to improve the sound quality though. That would be very helpful! Thanks! :)
@@abbytownsend7739 It is likely your viewership will be suppressed because you speak out about these things. There is a reason why they are so resistant to change: they are operating exactly as ordered. Never be disheartened; they want you to feel alone and they want you to be defending yourself all the time instead of exposing them. What you have released here today is extremely important. This testimony matched with your intelligence and ability to disseminate each point is invaluable and therefore dangerous to their operation. I have a small channel that covers a lot of topics that hit on spiritual abuse and mind control. If you'd like, we could do an interview on livestream or something to talk about YWAM. Is this something you would be interested in? It seems like we could have some really great conversation about it. Not trying to shill my channel or whatever; just seeing a great opportunity to expose this evil. Let me know what you think! If you'd prefer to just chat here, i'll start compiling some questions for here instead. because your testimony throughout this series of videos is very concise and well thought out.
I am sorry to hear this Abby. I am a ywamer myself and I agree that not all bases are the same. Every base has own style of running it. I have a lot of things that I don't agree in some bases and sometimes can be offensive but I always accept them as just how leaders in every base wants everything to be organized. Also, they are humans. We can always be offended, there will always be a spirit of offense but we can also choose not to be offended in any way shape or form. One solution is when we're offended, we bring it to the Lord and talk to the people who offended us. It is the right way to face conflicts in a community setting. We are always learning and so are they.
I’m curious why you used the word “offense” here? Did anything I said in my video imply I was offended by my experience? My psychiatrist diagnosed me with PTSD from my time in YWAM, not being offended. I take medication for my PTSD, not because I am offended. I hope you grow and recognize your word choice here is incredibly insulting and dismissive by essentially reducing mine and others’ abuse to hurt feelings. I have said this countless times elsewhere, but me and my teammates did take our concerns (respectfully) to staff, higher ups etc. We detailed our issues with our experience to the highest ranking person we could. Our concerns were completely dismissed and we were blamed for our experiences using the same rhetoric you have just retorted here. I made this video and all the others I’ve uploaded as a last resort because I felt a very strong moral obligation and ethical duty to warn others for their own protection.
My dear Abby, I am very greatful that you made the effort to describe all these experiences you made with ywam. Many young believers were crushed in their faith in GOD. There are many more victims out there making similar experiences in other christian organisations. May I ask you, whether you still believe in Jesus Christ? How is your life going now? What did you do after ywam?
I wonder what would have happened if a new YWAMer stood up and said, "I have nothing to confess! I have never sinned!"? According to Moral Government Theology that would be possible. When I was in YWAM we were taught that sin is a choice you do not have to make. Elijah and Enoch were two examples of people in the Bible who supposedly never sinned. After all, Jesus said, "Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect." He wouldn't demand something of you that you could not fulfill, now would He?! That was the reasoning. The result was that we were supposed to live sinless lives. It was expected. It was supposed to be possible. Problem is, no one ever did it. Especially the abusive YWAM leaders we hear so much about and who were placing all the demands on the rest of us!
I'm pretty sure this video is sped up. In the edit at 10:45 the video is briefly normal speed so there's definitely been some kind of editing mistake? I found that listening to this at 0.75x made the speed seem normal.
5:48 please explain this kitten's magnificent fur. 6:04 semantics are at the heart of mind control. Also noticed that all these NAR cu1ts seem to have all these abbreviations, but YWAM is really really bad for it. DTS gives off a scientology vibe.
I don’t know I think God wanted me to find your video I struggle with self isolation and if they put into my head that no one in my life truly knows me or something along those lines to process I would become depressed and isolate I’ve worked at summer camps before and I know this vibe I reallyyyy wanted to do something like this but the fact that your paying out of pocket and litterally sharing a room with 5-7 other adults I didn’t grow up in church so I always wanted to do something like this but maybe I’ll just stick with summer camps
@@mattmercer7607 yeah after watching endless videos and constant phone calls from them the Holy Spirit was saying NO you don’t need to pay for discipleship when you have local churches all around Found great church been volunteering etc way better then paying ALOT
I wish I could get some feedback from you. My daughter did a DTS in 2017, I’m Oregon. She went to Thailand for her outreach. She loved her time there and when she came home she told us she was moving to Oregon to become Ywam staff. She was on staff 5 years but left Ywam last fall. From the time she left to live there our relationship has suffered greatly. She just isn’t interested in keeping in touch and that’s been the same for 5 years. At one point she was upset with me and didn’t talk to me for a year. She has a right to be upset , however I didn’t realize what she meant when she said she needed a “ break “. she blocked my number and deleted me on Facebook. It took me a while to realize this , as my counselor told me to keep texting her simple messages. So I did. When she told me she was ready to talk again I was elated and thought it was over but it wasn’t. She get very mad if I wanted a phone call Then she started to say the way she was raised wasn’t healthy , and it’s impacted her life . I was shocked. Then she’d say all he’d life she had to take care of me , and she didn’t get it be kid. She didn’t stop there. She even told me I base my whole life off of my Moms death , she died 3 months prior to her moving away. That one blew me away. She would never something so mean to me before , specially about my mom who she adored. There been more but that was the worst. She deleted her Facebook and very rarely texts. I don’t know what she’s doing. We do talk , but I have to ask her and she never will initiate any conversation on her own. It’ breaks my heart daily. We were so close .. I miss my beautiful girl more and more. It’s hopeless from my perspective.
8:37 "Apostates" will always be the most hated by spiritual "authorities" in a cult. Apostates like yourself see through the lies and can threaten to show the same to others and therefore they must be proactive in discrediting such people. See the diatribe written to you in your first video about this and tell me if you now see what I see. Imagine what they're saying about you on the inside lol. It's not good. In truth, they're scared to death of people with your potential speaking out about them. I hope you know that. 14:47 - Mystical Manipulation - worth pausing and reading. Another major hallmark of a cult. "Something more". Adding to the Gospel that all who believe on Jesus' sacrifice for us will be saved. "something more". Gal 1 warns of this
YWAM alum here from back in 1999/2000 Elm Springs, AR USA base (no longer in existence, turned into a creepy Christian college and an aside note, Oren Paris-- of the Twila Paris family-- if you have any idea about her from contemporary Christian music-- was the leader of that YWAM base and went to federal prison for 3 years for fraud, so ya. anyway...) I was curious as to who this Shirley Brownhill person was and seriously, what is this video? th-cam.com/video/rB8ZCL37S7o/w-d-xo.html
I hope you get over these issues with Ywam. I agree with some of your complaints, but at some point you have to let it go. Not all bases are the same. Some of my very best friends were leaders in Ywam. 😊😑 I also went through some bad times there and it’s unfortunate. Is there any community that runs without similar issues? If so do tell.
I hope you realize how much your comment only proves my point. It’s a classic cult tactic to say “forget and forgive” to a victim. Not all bases are the same, I said that about a dozen times in my video. But the whole point of the video is to demonstrate how all YWAM bases are the same in the ways that actually matter. I don’t ever have to “move on”. In fact, I can’t. That is the very nature of trauma. There is no cure. There are ways to cope, but trauma never goes away. Some of my very best friends are in YWAM also, and I don’t associate them with any of the negative aspects of this organization because they are victims too. Yes, actually there are plenty of communities that don’t operate on control and manipulation. It’s heart breaking to me that you haven’t experienced them and therefore think this is normal or acceptable behavior. It’s not an excuse. There is no excuse.
lol. Gaslight more Kenneth, you didn't address a single point in the video, and she already inb4'd your comment in it and responded to you there. Her reply says it all. Congratulations, you just played yourself.
Thanks for having the courage and strength to share your experience with others to relate with, and for others to consider a valid, constructive points to consider if they have not done YWAM. There is a lot that I wish I knew about YWAM before joining. I made the mistake to not doing my research, and believing that I thought I knew what it was like or about by what others had said. I had one friend I had been receiving positive YWAM support letters from for twenty years, only to realize upon joining YWAM later on that the Bases they were at (Perth, Newcastle) have a horrible reputation for abuse, control, manipulation. So, yes word of mouth isn't exactly a reliable method for figuring out if YWAM is for you to do! I am a unfortunate example of taking my long-time friends words for it, that YWAM would be a great growing experience for me, and it was very much NOT a healthy time of my life. Thanks for sharing Abby!
Many prominent psychologists and sociologists have identified the common characteristics of cults. One common characteristics is the “repression of ALL dissent.” Your wise evaluation and observations are so on the mark. Courage and Truth are perishable virtues if ignored, but you continue to demonstrate them! Illegitimi non carborundum.
it's seriously impressive how well she was able to pick out these points. a precocious ability to discern and orate with precision.
Idk if I’ve reached out before but I too went to Newcastle. I was there for October 2017 dts.. very similar experiences/feelings and I am so grateful I didn’t confess anything either.. thank you thank you for sharing and opening up
Abby Townsend
First of all, thank you for posting the videos you have about abuse. I came across your post on TH-cam by accident and after listening to all 3 parts, reading comments and looking at other videos, I see the dark work of our Enemy sadly continues strongly within that organization. And I also see the work of our Redeemer in your life! And for that I give Him praise and glory!
Briefly, I was at a base (stateside) where a lot of abuse took place. I left after 5 years. I saw wise, godly people, dear loved ones who seemed to be blinded to what was going on, but as it turns out, I was wrong about them, and within 2 years over 200 staff and many students also left. That "base" was eventually "booted" from YWAM and continues on as an unaffiliated Bible College now.
I think our staff was fortunate as there was some counseling offered to us after the fact. I've never heard of anyone having sleep deprivation issues afterwards, so perhaps we were more fortunate in other ways, too. Many people who left have continued on in other ministries of various sorts. I say that to say there is HOPE and a FUTURE!
Having said all that, I can identify with the accusations and criticisms you have faced. I was a very outspoken voice in the 2 years following the time I was there, and I heard it all from 'wamrs all over this world.
I hope you can find God's grace to accept whatever He brings your way as you will recognize by His Spirit, grace to reject the lies and false accusations, and grace to be comfortable in your own skin.. not needing to defend yourself, especially against false accusations of causing division, heresy, or even blasphemy if it comes your way. I see it has been at least 3 years since your original post and I would guess you've had some time to begin the slow healing process which will ultimately set you entirely free from any residual pain.
I would encourage you to stay in God's Word, and try to find a loving body of believers to fellowship with. It's not easy. It has taken many years for me to get there myself.
In a recent message I was reminded of Jesus' existence before His Incarnation. I heard that before the beginning of time, before Creation, Jesus existed in relationship with His Father in a very special way: He pleased Him. He did the Father's bidding and in everything He did, He pleased the Father. Jesus' life before the manger is greatly significant to His 33 years here. He was in a place of submission, of obedience, of service and it was His joy.
That is special to me because I realize Jesus had to forsake all the Divine circumstances, His Divine privilege, the intimacy with His Father and the Spirit, the pleasures of the Kingdom, the place of ultimate Holiness, the Throne of God, the Angels who served Him and all the Glory that was His to come down here and HUMBLE Himself, giving up so much to walk with men, to teach the ways of the Father, and ultimately to die on a cross for such a low-life as I.
Our lives are about the message of Jesus. Our duty and privilege is obedience and worship. There is nothing besides these things.
Wayne Bateman
Thanks for your videos! This message is very needed!
I would kindly ask you to improve the sound quality though. That would be very helpful! Thanks! :)
whole thing great work. didnt wanna leave to many comments but you are wreckin it. thank you very much once more.
Thank you for all your comments. I read them all carefully and appreciate and enjoyed your insight.
@@abbytownsend7739 It is likely your viewership will be suppressed because you speak out about these things. There is a reason why they are so resistant to change: they are operating exactly as ordered.
Never be disheartened; they want you to feel alone and they want you to be defending yourself all the time instead of exposing them.
What you have released here today is extremely important. This testimony matched with your intelligence and ability to disseminate each point is invaluable and therefore dangerous to their operation.
I have a small channel that covers a lot of topics that hit on spiritual abuse and mind control. If you'd like, we could do an interview on livestream or something to talk about YWAM. Is this something you would be interested in? It seems like we could have some really great conversation about it. Not trying to shill my channel or whatever; just seeing a great opportunity to expose this evil. Let me know what you think! If you'd prefer to just chat here, i'll start compiling some questions for here instead. because your testimony throughout this series of videos is very concise and well thought out.
@@AvidanTheExpositor yeah, I’d be happy to do that. You can email me at pibcer101@gmail.com and we can try to arrange something.
@@abbytownsend7739 shooting you an email now should be there in a moment
@@abbytownsend7739 k was a bit late my bad haha. figured id get some info in first
I am sorry to hear this Abby. I am a ywamer myself and I agree that not all bases are the same. Every base has own style of running it. I have a lot of things that I don't agree in some bases and sometimes can be offensive but I always accept them as just how leaders in every base wants everything to be organized. Also, they are humans. We can always be offended, there will always be a spirit of offense but we can also choose not to be offended in any way shape or form. One solution is when we're offended, we bring it to the Lord and talk to the people who offended us. It is the right way to face conflicts in a community setting. We are always learning and so are they.
I’m curious why you used the word “offense” here? Did anything I said in my video imply I was offended by my experience? My psychiatrist diagnosed me with PTSD from my time in YWAM, not being offended. I take medication for my PTSD, not because I am offended. I hope you grow and recognize your word choice here is incredibly insulting and dismissive by essentially reducing mine and others’ abuse to hurt feelings. I have said this countless times elsewhere, but me and my teammates did take our concerns (respectfully) to staff, higher ups etc. We detailed our issues with our experience to the highest ranking person we could. Our concerns were completely dismissed and we were blamed for our experiences using the same rhetoric you have just retorted here. I made this video and all the others I’ve uploaded as a last resort because I felt a very strong moral obligation and ethical duty to warn others for their own protection.
My dear Abby, I am very greatful that you made the effort to describe all these experiences you made with ywam. Many young believers were crushed in their faith in GOD. There are many more victims out there making similar experiences in other christian organisations. May I ask you, whether you still believe in Jesus Christ? How is your life going now? What did you do after ywam?
I wonder what would have happened if a new YWAMer stood up and said, "I have nothing to confess! I have never sinned!"?
According to Moral Government Theology that would be possible. When I was in YWAM we were taught that sin is a choice you do not have to make. Elijah and Enoch were two examples of people in the Bible who supposedly never sinned. After all, Jesus said, "Be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect." He wouldn't demand something of you that you could not fulfill, now would He?! That was the reasoning. The result was that we were supposed to live sinless lives. It was expected. It was supposed to be possible. Problem is, no one ever did it. Especially the abusive YWAM leaders we hear so much about and who were placing all the demands on the rest of us!
This is absolutely heretical.
I'm pretty sure this video is sped up. In the edit at 10:45 the video is briefly normal speed so there's definitely been some kind of editing mistake?
I found that listening to this at 0.75x made the speed seem normal.
5:48 please explain this kitten's magnificent fur.
6:04 semantics are at the heart of mind control. Also noticed that all these NAR cu1ts seem to have all these abbreviations, but YWAM is really really bad for it. DTS gives off a scientology vibe.
ooooh so right about DTS
I don’t know I think God wanted me to find your video I struggle with self isolation and if they put into my head that no one in my life truly knows me or something along those lines to process I would become depressed and isolate I’ve worked at summer camps before and I know this vibe I reallyyyy wanted to do something like this but the fact that your paying out of pocket and litterally sharing a room with 5-7 other adults I didn’t grow up in church so I always wanted to do something like this but maybe I’ll just stick with summer camps
I did YWAM and I would definitely encourage you to just stick with the summer camps ;) YWAM was awful.
@@mattmercer7607 yeah after watching endless videos and constant phone calls from them the Holy Spirit was saying NO you don’t need to pay for discipleship when you have local churches all around
Found great church been volunteering etc way better then paying ALOT
Talk slower next time for my Grandmother ears. I am so proud of you for coming forward. You are very brave and honest.
I wish I could get some feedback from you.
My daughter did a DTS in 2017, I’m Oregon. She went to Thailand for her outreach. She loved her time there and when she came home she told us she was moving to Oregon to become Ywam staff.
She was on staff 5 years but left Ywam last fall. From the time she left to live there our relationship has suffered greatly. She just isn’t interested in keeping in touch and that’s been the same for 5 years. At one point she was upset with me and didn’t talk to me for a year. She has a right to be upset , however I didn’t realize what she meant when she said she needed a “ break “. she blocked my number and deleted me on Facebook. It took me a while to realize this , as my counselor told me to keep texting her simple messages. So I did. When she told me she was ready to talk again I was elated and thought it was over but it wasn’t. She get very mad if I wanted a phone call Then she started to say the way she was raised wasn’t healthy , and it’s impacted her life . I was shocked. Then she’d say all he’d life she had to take care of me , and she didn’t get it be kid. She didn’t stop there. She even told me I base my whole life off of my Moms death , she died 3 months prior to her moving away. That one blew me away. She would never something so mean to me before , specially about my mom who she adored. There been more but that was the worst.
She deleted her Facebook and very rarely texts. I don’t know what she’s doing. We do talk , but I have to ask her and she never will initiate any conversation on her own. It’ breaks my heart daily. We were so close .. I miss my beautiful girl more and more. It’s hopeless from my perspective.
I wonder how many falsely accused disrespected silent parents are out there like you
Hi are you still a misionary I am curious so if ywam did not work well what would be the rigth way of making missions?
8:37 "Apostates" will always be the most hated by spiritual "authorities" in a cult. Apostates like yourself see through the lies and can threaten to show the same to others and therefore they must be proactive in discrediting such people. See the diatribe written to you in your first video about this and tell me if you now see what I see. Imagine what they're saying about you on the inside lol. It's not good. In truth, they're scared to death of people with your potential speaking out about them. I hope you know that.
14:47 - Mystical Manipulation - worth pausing and reading. Another major hallmark of a cult. "Something more". Adding to the Gospel that all who believe on Jesus' sacrifice for us will be saved. "something more". Gal 1 warns of this
This sounds like a Cult to me....what to do?
Any DTS Huntington Beach cult experiences in the past 10 years?
YWAM and IHOPKC
YWAM alum here from back in 1999/2000 Elm Springs, AR USA base (no longer in existence, turned into a creepy Christian college and an aside note, Oren Paris-- of the Twila Paris family-- if you have any idea about her from contemporary Christian music-- was the leader of that YWAM base and went to federal prison for 3 years for fraud, so ya. anyway...) I was curious as to who this Shirley Brownhill person was and seriously, what is this video? th-cam.com/video/rB8ZCL37S7o/w-d-xo.html
I had this experience with a sex/drug trafficking ring.
Through YWAM? 😨
I hope you get over these issues with Ywam. I agree with some of your complaints, but at some point you have to let it go. Not all bases are the same. Some of my very best friends were leaders in Ywam. 😊😑
I also went through some bad times there and it’s unfortunate. Is there any community that runs without similar issues? If so do tell.
I hope you realize how much your comment only proves my point. It’s a classic cult tactic to say “forget and forgive” to a victim. Not all bases are the same, I said that about a dozen times in my video. But the whole point of the video is to demonstrate how all YWAM bases are the same in the ways that actually matter. I don’t ever have to “move on”. In fact, I can’t. That is the very nature of trauma. There is no cure. There are ways to cope, but trauma never goes away. Some of my very best friends are in YWAM also, and I don’t associate them with any of the negative aspects of this organization because they are victims too. Yes, actually there are plenty of communities that don’t operate on control and manipulation. It’s heart breaking to me that you haven’t experienced them and therefore think this is normal or acceptable behavior. It’s not an excuse. There is no excuse.
@@abbytownsend7739 okay. Im sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have commented..
@@abbytownsend7739 I haven’t been in Ywam since the early 00’s so I suppose it’s best I don’t say anything ya know.
lol. Gaslight more Kenneth, you didn't address a single point in the video, and she already inb4'd your comment in it and responded to you there. Her reply says it all. Congratulations, you just played yourself.
@@AvidanTheExpositor you are absolutely right
So much brainwashing at ywam!