My first involvement with Youth With A Mission was when I did a YWAM Niko with YWAM Calgary back in May 1998.
A YWAM Niko is an outdoor wilderness experience designed to bring the participants to a deeper understanding of who they are, who God is and to develop potential leadership abilities in the participants. The Niko that I participated in was a 4-day program, but they can vary depending on the location you do it at.
A Niko is designed for people of all ages. On the Niko that I participated in we had people from the age of 14 up to people in their late 30s. It was a mix of people from different chuches from around the area and individual people, like myself, who wanted a personal challenge.
One great use for the Niko is to develop and prepare a ministry or church team for outreach together. Because the Niko is a physical, mental, spiritual and emotional challenge it is a chance for the team to bond, learn more about each other and figure out how to work together in their team.
We were told that Niko mean “victory”, or to overcome. At the end of my Niko I was given a hat with the words “No Problem” embosed on it. I kept that hat until it literally fell apart after I had been over in Australia for a few years.
The YWAM Niko is run as a ministry of King’s Kids, which is in tern a ministry of Youth With A Mission (YWAM). It is run in many YWAM locations around the world.
If you are interested in participating in a YWAM Niko in your area then your best bet to find one is to do a search on Google, or check out ywam.org and do a search for “Niko” there.
YWAM Salem is one location that runs the NIKO. Check out their video for it here: