Port YWAM

This is the home of YWAM Ships Kona, a repurposed hotel in a prime location on Alii Drive in downtown Kona, Hawaii.

The YWAM Ships Kona training and logistics center, known as Port YWAM, was a former hotel nestled right in downtown Kailua-Kona. Port YWAM sits across from the pier where the first missionaries arrived in Hawaii in 1820, and where in the latter 1800s, five different missionary ships known as Morning Star I through Morning Star V were sent out from Kona to serve in Pacifica. It is a historic legacy that continues today with a new generation of seafarers committed to fulfilling the great tradition of Hawaii serving the islands of the Pacific. This campus is our primary training and field support facility. We are also just one mile from the University of the Nations Kona campus, our “twin” in ministry.

We are just one mile from the University of the Nations Kona campus, our ‘twin’ in ministry. We collaborate very closely with the UofN Kona campus as we do life together on this island.  Each year that YWAM Ships Kona has been in operation, our workers have started new works in other nations. We try to meet the needs of families living in isolation on islands without airports or villages deep up rivers with no roads joining them to the outside world. This is why YWAM Ships Kona exists. To carry our volunteer workers to places you would otherwise not be able to reach. It is the only way to reach the 900+ islands in the Pacific that have no air strip.

LOCAL MINISTRY IN AND AROUND KAILUA-KONA 

Engaging in local issues in Kailua-Kona has always been a major part of Port YWAM and is important to our staff, along with the University of the Nations staff. In addition to helping isolated islands around the world, the University and YWAM Ships campus collaborate on helping communities right here in Kailua-Kona. Together our volunteer hours accumulate to over 30,000 man hours a year.