Austria
- History -
YWAM has been serving in Austria for many years already and we are now able to look back to a eventful past, with many ups and downs. Even before the official registration as association in Austria in 1979 YWAMers engaged in Austria and the surrounding countries to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.
The following milestones provide a brief overview over more than 40 years of YWAM in Austria.
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Milestones of YWAM in Austria
1975
Bruce Clewett and a small team from YWAM Germany ran a week-long evangelistic program in the Seckau monastary for young people in the area.
1978
Bruce Clewett, Annette Kirkby and Werner März moved to the Waldschlössl for the official start of YWAM Austria.
1980
YWAM Austria ran its second DTC , this time in Bozen, Northern Italy.
1982
Staff from YWAM Austria helped lead a large YWAM outreach in Spain during the World Cup. Directly afterwards YWAM/Austria's Jo Hoffmann and Annemarie Lechner (later to become Annemarie Hoffmann) started a small base in Valencia.
1984
YWAM Austria mobilized 80 Austrians to participate in an evangelistic outreach in Los Angeles during the Summer Olympics. One of the participants was a young man named Franz Lackner, now the Archbishop of Salzburg.
1986
A team from YWAM Austria move to Ireland to start a YWAM base in Dublin. Another one started a DTS in Germany with an emphasis on evangelisation in the Catholic world.
1988
YWAM Austria moved from its base in Reichenau/Rax to the Herklotzgasse in Vienna's 15th district and the Dingelstedtgasse.
The first "Jüngerschafts-aufbauseminar" (later called "Nachfolge Konkret) was launched in Vorarlberg. These were held later in Mödling, Vienna, Wiener Neustadt, Bavaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Croatia.
1990
YWAM Austria was one of the main organizers of "Equipping the Saints", a 4-day congress in Oberlaa, Vienna with 1300 full-time and 500 part-time delegates.
YWAM Austria, together with YWAM Ireland help found the "Emmaus Centre" in Uganda.
1992
YWAM Austria was one of the main organizers of the first "March for Jesus" in Austria.
1994
RELaY (a European network of Catholic leaders) and Kerygma Teams (later simply called "Kerygma") is launched as a co-production of YWAM Austria and YWAM Ireland.
1997
YWAM Vienna moved its main office from the Herklotzgasse to the Dürergasse.
The Austrian "Round Table", a meeting of leaders from different Christian denominations, was formed with YWAM as one of the founding members.
2000
YWAM Austria moved the national office to Mödling and ran numerous training programs there.
2008
YWAM Austria helped ran a citywide evangelistic campaign in Vienna during the European Cup.
2010
Per Eirik and Kristina Undheim from Norway moved for two years to Guntramsdorf to receive YWAM outreach teams from all around the world and to lead evangelistic outreaches.
2014
The pioneering team under the leadership of Harald and Ani Höllermann moved from Norway to Vienna and picked up the YWAM ministry in Vienna again, this time right in the center of the city.
2017
YWAM Vienna is one of the main organizers of the youth evangelism week "JesusHouse".
2019
YWAM Vienna ran it's first DTS with two tracks - the "Hope for Europe DTS", with the tracks "Love the City" and "Creative".
2019
Our "life group" in Vienna forms, to provide a place for young adults to meet weekly and grow in their faith and character.
2020
YWAM Austria moves from the center of Vienna into the 14th district in Vienna.
2021
YWAM Austria develops and runs the new online Bible study course "Roots", in partnership with the Austrian scripture union.
1977
Bruce Clewett and a small team from YWAM Germany ran a week-long evangelistic program in the Seckau monastary for young people in the area.
1979
Registration of the association "Jugend mit einer Mission".
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YWAM Austria ran its first "Discipleship Training Camp" in Feldkirchen, Carinthia. 100 young people, mainly from Upper Austria, Styria and Carinthia attended the week-long event.
1981
YWAM Austria's first "Discipleship Training School" was run in the Waldschlössl.
1983
YWAM Austria ran a third DTC in Schwaz, near Insbruck. Over 300 participants from Austria, Malta, Spain, Germany and Italy attended.
1985
YWAM Austria spearheaded an effort to train Maltese Catholics to run discipleship training programs. The Maltese later secured a recommendation for their programs from Pope John Paul II.
1987
YWAM Austria ran a "Jüngerschafts-Kurz Seminar" (JKS) in Vienna with 400 participants from 12 countries. The highlight was a large celebration on a stage provided by the city in front of city hall with about 2000 people in attendance.
1989
YWAM Austria organized a "Torch run for Jesus" through Austria. A secular survey run by the Fessel/GFK institute recorded a 13% awareness of the project nationwide - in Tirol and Vorarlberg it was 38%.
1991
Gavin Farley and a YWAM team from Vienna launched the "Sportwochen". These were later taken over by Athletes in Action.
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YWAM Austria hosted a 2-week "Seminar für Kleingruppen Leiter" (SKGL) seminar for 100 leaders and their families in Pinkafeld, Burgenland.
1993
The first Viennese DTS was launched.
1995
YWAM Austria split into 4 teams with different ministry focusses. The DTS team moved to Gloggnitz to run schools.
1998
Bruce Clewett handed over the leadership of YWAM Austria to Craig Anderson.
2007
YWAM Austria moved the national office to Guntramsdorf, 12 km south of Vienna.
2009
YWAM Norway took up responsibility to give the struggling ministry of YWAM Austria a hand and to help reestablish a self-sustaining YWAM ministry in Austria.
2012-2014
A team of five young adults formed at the YWAM Rogaland base in Norway to get trained and equipped for the re-pioneering of YWAM VIenna.
2016
YWAM Vienna ran the first DTS in Vienna after the re-pioneering - with the slogan "Hope fo Europe".
YWAM Vienna is part of the organizing commitee of the biggest "March for Jesus" event in Vienna - with 15.000 participants.
2018
YWAM Vienna ran it's first Creative DTS.
2019
Our team in Vienna senses after this year's DTS in prayer, that they should pause the DTS for some time. They take the tough decision, to cancel the upcoming DTS (in hindsight this was a huge blessing, due to the Covid Lockdowns in the following years) and to focus on other ministries.
2020
The very first PraiseCamp in Austria happened, with YWAM Austria being part of organizing the event.
2020
YWAM Austria starts to partner with the ministry "Neues Leben Österreich" and is now also officially co-leading the yearly youth camp ("Teenielager") in Salzburg.
2022
YWAM Austria releases the first episodes of their podcast "So geht Leben?!" (engl: "This is life?!"). It's our first public online ministry, with the goal of making Christian values accessible to the broader public.
... more to come :)