 and vision. What I've written does apply to the majority of YWAM and definitely to YWAM Orlando.
We most definitely are NOT a cult 🙂 Although many YWAM locations tend to live and work as a community, like the early church in Acts 2, we are not shut off to society, nor adhere to any cultish practices. As I mentioned before, we're an interdenominational organization that welcomes diversity. This allows us to focus on what really matters, and also helps mobilize more people into missions.
YWAM staff rely on relationship-based financial support. What this means is that friends, family, and churches commit to giving a certain amount monthly as a part of our "salary" and as a part of their role in seeing the Great Commission carried out.
For some reason, this dynamic has led many to assume that we must have a very light and easy workweek. The reality is that we need financial support from the body of Christ because we are in this full-time.
The average YWAM staffer works between 45-55 hours a week and often more than that when overseas on outreach. We've chosen to do this because we believe the Gospel is the best news anyone can hear and we are fully committed to sharing it all over the world.
YWAM actually does not have a headquarters. The leadership of YWAM is spread all around the world (on purpose) and convenes regularly to pray and seek God. YWAM bases are autonomous but operate in accountability with each other. Though some YWAM locations are larger than others, they still are not headquarters. Having no headquarters is what helps YWAM stay global and growing without bottlenecking.
4) "YWAM is probably just volunteerism."
Though we offer a wide range of missions and outreach opportunities to engage people in all walks of life and at all maturity levels, we don't do what we do simply so we can be tourists.
YWAM has been around for over 55 years now and has many long-term, focused efforts all around the world that are making sustainable impact. Along with that, our short-term opportunities always try to engage with ministries in that country so that we can add strength to them and see fruit that lasts beyond our stay.
On the average two month Discipleship Training School (DTS) outreach, only about three of those days are organized sightseeing. Even then, our sightseeing days have proven to hold some of the best ministry as we remain open to sharing the Gospel with everyone we meet.
 There's an emphasis on seeing young people get into missions for sure, but we don't limit it to that. We welcome all the "young at heart," as well.
Though most DTS students are between 18 and 25, we've had people who are in their 70’s do a DTS and join our mission. We love the beauty and strength that comes through the generations working together.
Whether you are considering joining YWAM yourself or are a family member of someone who is with YWAM, I hope this article helps. Though our path may be outside of the usual, we can assure you that we are just ordinary people who said yes to the call of God on our lives to see Jesus' love spread to the nations.
Leave us your contact info to learn more about YWAM and Discipleship Training School!
Valerie did her DTS in 2009 and serves on staff with her husband in the area of communications and missions mobilization./cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69872055/1335676266.0.jpg)
When the Milwaukee Brewers signed Jackie Bradley Jr. as a free agent, it was because they coveted his glove. Lorenzo Cain opted out of the 2020 season, dealt with injuries in 2019, and was entering his age-35 season. Uncertain of how often Cain would be able to take the field, the Brewers needed someone to plug in at center field with little to no drop-off defensively. There was no better candidate for such a role than Bradley, who has a sterling reputation as one of the best defensive outfielders in the sport.
The team has gotten exactly what they paid for when it comes to Bradley’s glove. He has racked up 13 Defensive Runs Saved and 5 Outs Above Average between the three outfield positions, including 10 DRS and 3 OAA in center field. By FanGraphs’ Defensive Runs Above Average—which weighs defensive contributions based on position—Bradley has been the ninth-most valuable non-catcher in the field (10 runs).
There is just one problem. While Bradley has saved plenty of runs with his glove, he has damaged his team’s chances of scoring runs with his bat. For much of the year, he was the worst hitter in baseball by wRC+. Thanks to reduced playing time in recent weeks, he no longer has enough plate appearances to qualify for that dubious distinction. However, his 39 wRC+ is by far the worst among hitters with at least 400 plate appearances this season. The next closest is Kevin Newman at 56.
The veteran outfielder’s hitting has been so brutal that despite being one of the best defenders in baseball, his -0.6 fWAR is second-worst on the roster behind only Keston Hiura. There are plenty of glove-first players in the game who are rarely threats to do much damage at the plate. However, those players typically hit just enough to be of positive value overall.
Bradley’s Jekyll-and-Hyde act (one of the best defensively, and one of the worst offensively) motivated me to conduct some research. How many players in baseball history have been this good on defense but so awful at hitting that they were this detrimental to their team overall?
After asking FanGraphs to spit out every individual player season in Major League Baseball history, I ended up with 94,047 entries. The next step was to see how many of these seasons were a “Bradley”—at least 10 Defensive Runs Above Average and -0.6 fWAR or worse.
The results were as expected: very few. In the entire history of the sport, there have been just 16 other seasons that met the conditions listed above. Two of them were by pitchers Kevin Brown and Gaylord Perry.
- Skeeter Newsome (1936)
- Mario Mendoza (1979)
- Germany Smith (1897)
- Eli Marrero (1999)
- Cesar Izturis (2002)
- Matt Walbeck (1994)
- Kevin Brown (1999)
- Jack Wilson (2001)
- Clint Barmes (2006)
- Rocky Bridges (1953)
- Mickey Doolin (1913)
- Gaylord Perry (1970)
- John Flaherty (1998)
- Danny Thompson (1970)
- Bob Boone (1984)
These 16 performances plus Bradley’s account for 0.02% of all individual seasons in MLB history. It’s no stretch to say that his 2021 season is in the most exclusive of company. If he manages to string plenty of hits together over the final weeks of the season, he could improve upon his WAR and remove himself from this list. However, Bradley has just one hit in 24 September at-bats, and it is difficult to envision him getting into a groove with inconsistent playing time.
For the most part, the 2021 Brewers have been unique for the right reasons. They are chasing the best regular-season record in franchise history. Within the past two weeks, fans were treated to the team’s first complete game shutout since 2014, an unlikely win via a walk-off grand slam, and their first no-hitter since Juan Nieves’ effort in 1987. Jackie Bradley Jr. will go down as another interesting quirk from this team, albeit not a fun or positive one.
Statistics courtesy of FanGraphs, Baseball Savant, and Baseball-ReferenceThe Royal Navy is set to receive three world-class autonomous minesweepers to work on mine disposal operations and reduce the risk to sailors on these dangerous missions.
The crewless system is the first of its kind in the navy and will allow personnel to neutralise mines at range while on operations around the globe.
Thanks to its cutting-edge technology, the system, known as a Combined Influence Sweep (Sweep), can defeat modern digital sea mines which can pose risks by detecting and targeting passing ships and submarines.
A new autonomous vessel is at the heart of each of the three systems. It can neutralise many types of seas mines using equipment towed behind the boat that can generate a variety of simulated magnetic, acoustic and electric ship signatures to initiate the mine.
The whole system can be controlled remotely, either based at sea or on land, and can be deployed quickly when needed.
A contract of around £25m has been awarded to Atlas Elektronik UK to deliver the Sweep system and will support more than 25 jobs at the Dorset-based company. Additional jobs will also be supported in the supply chain.
These autonomous systems will restore the Royal Navy's sweep capability, enabling it to tackle modern digital mines that may not otherwise be located in challenging minehunting conditions.
Commander Mark Atkinson, part of the project team for the Royal Navy, said: 'Combined Influence Minesweeping is a critical component of the Mine Countermeasures capability.
The latest investment in the Royal Navy’s minehunting operations comes just weeks after the navy announced it would be investing in three autonomous maritime mine countermeasures (MMCM) systems.
Both Sweep and the MMCM can work together to defeat the threat