We've Said Yes! Our Next Chapter in Missions

It's hard to believe we're already nearing the end of 2026! As we've been spending time back in the States with family and friends, we've found ourselves reflecting a lot on the last couple of years. And wow, what a journey it's been!

There's actually some pretty exciting news we've been wanting to share with you, but before we get to that, we want to tell you a little about how we got here.

Because if you had asked us two years ago where we thought we'd be today, we can promise you this wasn't what we had in mind!

Where It All Began

Almost two years ago, we found ourselves back in the United States, carrying what we now recognize as hope deferred.

We had walked through some really difficult things personally, and without even realizing it, those struggles had begun to affect how we felt about ministry. Things we had once been so passionate about started to feel mundane, exhausting, and at times, even hopeless.

For the first time since stepping into missions, we found ourselves asking a question we never thought we'd ask: Is this still what God has called us to do?

We wrestled with that question so much that we almost called our leaders in Australia to tell them we needed to stay in the States longer.

On our very last Sunday at home, our church family gathered around us to pray before we returned to Australia. What they didn't know was that we were considering making a very different phone call the following day.

As they prayed, people began sharing words of encouragement about the season ahead. They spoke of a more promising season, of the difficulties we'd walked through being a time of refining and preparation, and of the promises found in John 15.

Remain in Me.

We didn't receive a detailed plan for what was next. We didn't suddenly have answers to all the questions we'd been wrestling with. But for the first time in a long time, we felt hopeful.

Hopeful for what? We had absolutely NO idea!

But we had hope that filled us to our bones. We were reminded of God's faithfulness and felt that returning to YWAM Townsville, Australia, was exactly where we needed to be.

And so, we packed our bags and took that hope back to Australia with us.

Learning to Say Yes

The next two years wouldn't necessarily prove to be any easier. In fact, in many ways, our personal lives became even harder. We experienced the loss of two family members, walked through difficult circumstances, and faced moments when we genuinely wondered if what we were going through would take us out of the race God had called us to run.

Yet time and time again, we found ourselves returning to John 15.

Remain in Me.

And something interesting kept happening. Whenever life became particularly difficult, and we found ourselves turning to God wondering how we could possibly keep going, He would invite us to give another "yes."

Sometimes that looked like staffing a Youth Adventures program. Other times, it looked like committing six months of our lives to staffing a Discipleship Training School (DTS).

If we're being completely honest, there were times when it didn't make much sense to us. We didn't always understand why God was asking us to pour out more when we already felt like we had so little left to give.

But we kept coming back to that same invitation: remain in Him, trust Him, and say yes.

And somehow, in seasons that should have left us completely depleted, we experienced an unexplainable joy and peace.

God was faithful. Not necessarily by making things easier, but by walking with us through every part of it.

And all the while, we couldn't shake the feeling that God was preparing us for something more.

We loved what we were doing, and we were grateful for the opportunities God had given us, but there was this growing sense that what we were doing wasn't the end of the story.

That He was stirring something different in our hearts.

Something bigger.

We just didn't know what.

So we prayed. We sought God. We waited.

And for a long time, we had absolutely no answers!

The Year Everything Began to Make Sense

Then January 2026 came around.

We had said yes to staffing another six-month DTS, knowing that by the time the school finished, our current Australian visa would be nearing its end. We needed to make some decisions about our future, and we genuinely didn't know what those decisions would look like.

Would we continue with YWAM? Was God calling us into something outside of the organization? Would we even be able to remain in Australia?

We began having honest conversations with our leaders about where we were at, what God had been stirring in us, and the possibility that our next season of ministry might look very different.

The only things we felt certain about were that God was growing our hearts for discipleship, for building bridges between communities, and particularly for seeing meaningful relationships develop between Pacific Islanders and Australia's First Nations people.

We didn't know what to do with those things yet, but we knew they mattered.

As part of the DTS, we had the privilege of leading five incredible students on outreach throughout Papua New Guinea and Australia. And while we were there, God continued to stir our hearts.

He wasn't necessarily revealing the next step, but He was highlighting a different kind of discipleship.

Discipleship that goes beyond a program or a season. Discipleship rooted in relationships, in walking alongside people, investing in communities, and helping others discover their own calling to serve God and the nations.

By the time we returned to Townsville, we had just three weeks left before graduation.

We had gone into that season thinking we might be preparing to say goodbye to YWAM. Instead, we found ourselves asking a whole new set of questions.

What if the very things God has been stirring in our hearts are exactly what He's calling us to do next?

What if we don't have to leave YWAM to pursue them?

And what if there's already a place where we could begin building something like this?

Those "what ifs" began turning into conversations with our leaders. And before we knew it, those conversations were becoming something much bigger than we had imagined.

What we had been praying about for two years was connected to something our leaders had been praying about for twenty.

For years, there had been a vision to see the YWAM ministry in Gladstone, Queensland, grow into something more. A place where discipleship, community engagement, and missions could take root and flourish.

And suddenly, the things God had been placing on our hearts began to make sense.

We remembered something we'd felt God speak to us almost two years earlier: when the right door opened, things would happen quickly.

We just hadn't known what that door would be.

But now, after two years of praying, waiting, wrestling, and saying yes to the things right in front of us, we were standing in front of an opportunity we hadn't even known to ask for.

And within weeks, we found ourselves being commissioned into something new.

Pioneering.

We've come to love what that word represents.

Saying yes to something that doesn't fully exist yet.

Going first. Building relationships. Laying foundations.

Carrying a vision before there's a roadmap.

Building today what others will one day walk into.

And the more we thought and prayed about it, the more we realized that this was exactly what God had been preparing our hearts for.

A chance to invest in discipleship in a different way. To become part of a community rather than simply visiting it for short periods of outreach. To build relationships, walk alongside people, and help create opportunities for young people to know God, grow in their faith, and eventually go out and serve the nations themselves.

Looking back, we can see how so much of what we've walked through has prepared us for this moment.

The refining seasons. The difficult yeses. The waiting. Even the moments when we wondered whether we were meant to continue in missions at all.

We truly believe God was using those seasons to prepare us for what He was going to ask of us next.

So, What's the Big News?!

WE'VE SAID YES TO GLADSTONE!

We're preparing to move approximately 10 hours south to Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, to help pioneer YWAM Houses Gladstone!

Our heart is to see discipleship flourish, to build meaningful relationships with Pacific Islander and First Nations communities, to serve the wider Gladstone community, and to help raise up young people who will one day carry the love of Jesus into their own communities and the nations.

We know there is so much we still have to learn. We don't have every detail figured out, and we certainly don't have a perfect roadmap.

But if the last two years have taught us anything, it's that we don't need to have all the answers to give God our yes.

We simply need to remain in Him.

So, What Happens Next?

Right now, we're in the United States enjoying some much-needed time with Abigail's family, reconnecting with friends and supporters, and having opportunities to visit churches and share what God has been doing.

We're also in the process of applying for a new Australian visa that will allow us to continue living and serving in Australia.

Our plan is to return to Townsville once our visa is approved, spend some time there preparing for this transition, and then make the move to Gladstone.

There's a lot that will need to come together between now and then, but we're trusting God to continue leading us one step at a time.

And to You, We Want to Say Thank You.

As we look back over this journey, we are reminded that we haven't walked it alone.

You've prayed for us, encouraged us, supported us financially, checked in on us, and believed in what God is doing through our lives, even during seasons when we struggled to see it ourselves.

And we hope you know just how much that means to us.

When we say that we're stepping into this new season, we genuinely believe that you're stepping into it with us.

Your faithfulness and generosity have helped make it possible for us to continue saying yes to God, even when we didn't know where those yeses would lead.

And now we get to invite you into this next chapter!

We're excited, a little nervous, and incredibly expectant about what God is going to do in Gladstone. We can't wait to share the stories that will come from the relationships built, the lives impacted, and the doors God opens.

How Can You Pray With Us?

• Our Australian visa: Please pray for a smooth application process, favor, and the right timing for our return to Australia.

• Our transition to Gladstone: Pray for wisdom, provision, housing, and all the practical things that need to come together as we prepare to relocate.

• Relationships and community: Pray that God would begin opening doors and preparing meaningful relationships with local churches, families, young people, Pacific Islander communities, and Australia's First Nations people.

• Wisdom as we pioneer: Pray that we would continue to hear God's voice clearly, remain rooted in Him, and build only what He is asking us to build.

Two years ago, we didn't know if we had another yes in us.

Today, we're preparing to give one of the biggest yeses of our lives.

And through it all, the invitation has remained the same.

Remain in Me.

Thank you for being part of our story. We love you, we appreciate you, and we're so grateful that we get to walk this journey with you.

With love and gratitude,

Abby & Lemi Bibimauri