Who we are

YWAM Ships Kona exists to serve isolated island communities through healthcare, education, development, and translation services for languages with no Bible in their mother tongue. Using ships to serve these isolated villages is not just a good idea, it is the ONLY option. There are 936 isolated islands without an airport, a dock, any roads or bridges joining them.

It can take weeks to sail to remote islands across the vast Pacific Ocean. The Big Island of Hawaii is ideally situated in the heart of this great expanse of the Pacific Ocean, we call the liquid continent.

The YWAM Ships Kona training and field support center, known as Port YWAM, was a former hotel nestled right in downtown on the water of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. It was purchased in 2022 and sits across from the pier where the first missionaries arrived in Hawaii in 1820. During the 1800s, five different missionary ships known as Morning Star I through Morning Star V were sent out from this very location, to serve in Pacifica. It is an historic legacy that continues today with a new generation of YWAM seafarers committed to continuing the great tradition of Hawaii.