Our Story
The story of YWAM Azua begins in Haiti 2008, when the Gephart family became fulltime missionaries to Haiti. After living in Haiti for two years, the Gepharts then moved locations to the Dominican Republic in 2011. Initially intending to open a mission’s house, God had other plans and opened the doors wide for a missions base to begin.
The heart of the base is reconciliation; Haitians and Dominicans have a hateful history that continues deeply to this day. We intentionally brought Christian Haitians to minister in the Dominican communities and Dominicans into Haiti. This became a major cultural shift in the churches here in Azua. Through the years our base has become a pillar of middle ground between the two cultures as well as the different local church denominations.
Through the last decade God has allowed us to participate in much healing between the individuals of these two countries. We have been blessed to meet and work with hundreds of individuals from around the world. And have been able to actively disciple many of the souls who have come through our gate seeking a deeper relationship with Christ.
The journey has never been easy and likely never will be, but God is good. We here at YWAM Azua will forever be seeking to know God better and make him known to the world around us.
Since the making of this video, we were able to purchase the property and begin bringing vision to reality. Now our base location is under construction and renovations; facilitating as many ministry opportunities as the Lord brings to our gates. if you would like to learn more of the new developments or would like to get involved, please contact us.
What We Do
God has created wide open doors for us here in Azua. Both Haitians and Dominicans welcome those who come with goodwill. Over the years we have found ourselves doing a huge variety of ministry; many of which are not regular and therefore are not listed here. If you have Haitians, Dominicans, or our location on your heart but do not see the corresponding ministry, contact us; chances are we have done it before and are just waiting for you to come so we can do it again or for the first time.
Children's Ministry
We minister the word of God to the little children of various neighborhoods and communities around Azua. We do this in various ways; namely going to parks, schools, and churches to play games, do arts and crafts, do music and dancing, and performing skits. It is such a blessing to partner with the Lord in sowing the Word into His little ones.
Sports and Arts Ministries
Our staff takes every opportunity to minister the Word and disciple youth through their talents, skills and abilities be it through inviting youth to our center to play basketball and soccer or creating dance choreography to praise the Lord. With teams we go out to the local baseball fields to interact with the youth, or invite them to our location for a larger event.
English & Mentoring Ministries
We are in the business of reconciliation between God and us, between churches, between Haitians and Dominicans, and we use every tool available to us. One of those tools is teaching English and mentoring programs in the high schools of Azua. Taking the opportunity to display and express Gods love in the atmosphere of learning.
Short Term TeamsDominican Republic
We host teams from churches and other YWAM groups for deep, meaningful experiences with the Lord at our location through serving with construction projects, VBS, sports camps, Bible distribution and much more. We bring groups to the various areas of Azua to fulfill the ministries that God has placed on their hearts.
Short Term TeamsHaiti
(Temporarily suspended as the upsets in Haiti make it to dangerous to bring groups of people into and through the country.)
We have the ability to host short-term teams in Haiti, as our ministry is also to the Haitians. We partner with ministries in Haiti to bring the Gospel all over the country by working with and bringing resources to local churches.
Prayer Ministry
We are very honored to be able to pray at various important locations in our city. Not only does each day start with prayer at our base, but we pray weekly at our local traffic police office, baseball fields and on the streets of our town. The people of the island are always happy to receive prayer for themselves and for their families.
Wedding Ministry
We partner with the churches of Azua to celebrate the weddings of many of their members. We are privileged to plan and be part of this joyous occasion of our brother and sisters in Christ who otherwise cannot afford to have one. A wedding of 4 couples can be sponsored in full for 2-4 thousand USD.