Tribute - Jeff Cardwell, Founder, The People Helping People Network

The Great Commission calls for us to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to deliver the message of God's love and our path to salvation to every person on this Earth. My friend Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth With A Mission, worked as hard to fulfill the Great Commission as anyone I've ever known.

Loren died on Friday at the age of 88.

In the 1960s, Loren transformed and energized the concept of missionary work with what seemed like a radical idea at the time — sending youth to spread the Gospel throughout the world, something that had mainly been reserved for adults until then.

It put a fresh face on missionary work and became Youth With A Mission, which now has more than 2,000 locations in nearly 200 countries. It is one of the largest and most significant mission movements — if not the largest.

Loren, though, was ever humble and never claimed credit for the movement, always giving the praise to Jesus Christ and expressing gratitude for the countless individual Christians who delivered the Gospel into the world. And though he was very serious about the Great Commission and YWAM, he was warm and kind with a generous sense of humor.

Lest anyone think left the youth of the world do the hard work of spreading the Gospel around the world on their own, Loren's travels in the movement are nothing short of remarkable. His own efforts to fulfill the Great Commission took him to every sovereign nation on Earth, every dependent country, and more than 100 territories and islands.

He was a true Christian servant until the very end, and now he has eternal life with Jesus Christ.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his beloved wife, Darlene Joy Scratch-Cunningham; his daughter, Karen Joy Cunningham; his son, David Loren Cunningham (Judith Fitts-Cunningham); and three grandchildren, Madison Grace, Kenna Faith and Liam Reed.

For those of us who were fortunate enough to call Loren a friend and for those whose lives and spirits were lifted by Loren's work — literally millions of people around the world — we are eternally grateful.