I'm not moving back to Switzerland...

Jüjü Juillard

Jun 26

6 min read

...maybe forever.

Over the past 10 months, I have often thought about what is next for me after July 2026. In the process, I looked at various schools and universities and also applied for an apprenticeship in Switzerland. However, the more I prayed and thought about it, the more I realized that this is not going to be my path.

Already during my DTS, God reminded me of my dedication verse, Isaiah 52:7,

showed me that His plan for me has always been missions.

During my first DTS as staff, God challenged me to commit to missions for life—which, of course, I did. But I held both of these things very loosely, knowing that every Christian is called to live a life of missions and that I could be called to be a missionary at home as well.

At the YWAM Oceania Conference in November 2024, God asked me to commit to the Pacific, without knowing exactly when, for how long, in which country, or in what way. I then did that in front of 850 people haha. But again, I left that very open, because I didn't really know what exactly God meant with all that. Besides, hopefully, the majority of my life is still ahead of me, and nobody knows how long it takes for a promise from God to be fulfilled.

I still don't know much more than I did back then. What I do believe to know, however, is this: For the next few years, however long that may be, I am supposed to stay here in Northland and serve here on our campus. What exactly that means and what comes after, I am again holding it very loose and open. But to be honest, I already have a suspicion that I might never live in Switzerland again. But we will see. For now, I am a full-time and long-term missionary here in New Zealand.

But what about University/further study?

As many probably know, learning and personal growth are very important to me and I enjoy them very much, so I definitely won't neglect that. Right now, I am learning a lot from hands-on practice and through ever-growing responsibilities. I am also completing a part-time leadership course (Associate of Arts Degree in Christian Leadership) at the University of the Nations (UofN) and I intend to attend further courses and schools at the UofN in the future. One of these will definitely be one of the 3- or 9-month YWAM Bible schools.

After that, there are a few other courses that interest me, such as a film making school, an School of Acting for the Screen, a School of Frontier Missions, a Principles of Redeeming Cultures School, and many other interesting courses both within and outside of YWAM. We will see which ones I will actually end up doing, but these are the ones I'm currently interested in.

Okay cool, but what do you actually do now?

I have extended my contract with YWAM Northland to an open ended committment. I will continue to lead Discipleship Training Schools here and walk alongside students both in groups and one-on-one settigs during their time here and therefore training other missionaries that will go into the nations. In addition, I will be even more involved than before in staff training and, starting soon, even in training new school leaders. And, of course, I will continue to lead outreaches abroad, starting with two trips to India later this year. Leading outreaches is my absolute highlight—both for me personally in my work and also for the learning process and practically lived discipleship with the students. Apparently, I do a good job at it too. That’s why I was recently given the opportunity, to step into the role of Outreach Coordinator alongside Barry, our ministry leader. Together, we are responsible campus-wide for the organization, strategic planning, and training of outreach leaders—as well as most other outreach related things.

You can probably imagine that I already have many more ideas, dreams, and vision, both for Whangārei and our entire Northland region, as well as for the Pacific. So, I will keep you updated.

This year

Together with Letitia, our ministry leader, I will be leading the DTS in September. In addition, I will also be involved in a few other things:

Hui

In November, YWAM Northland will be hosting the national YWAM Hui (Te Reo Māori for: gathering/assembly). This is where all eight campuses come together to fellowship, share updates from the different locations, learn new things in workshops, and seek and worship God together. Often, these are the gatherings where God speaks to us as YWAM New Zealand and gives us new vision.

During the Hui, five Discipleship Training Schools will join together for combined lectures in the mornings. For the rest of the program, we’ll be with everyone else. This week is probably going to be very busy for me since I’m both a school leader and part of the hosting base. But I’m really excited!

India

As a campus, we have long had a heart for unreached people groups, and especially India. However, since India is a challenging country for Christians—politically, culturally, and spiritually—we wanted to ensure that if we send teams of teenagers and young adults there, they are led by experienced leaders who know what they are getting into. Until now, the opportunity never came up, until this year, 2026. Jenna, my co-leader from the last Fiji outreach, has had a heart for India for a long time, and the nation and its people have become very close to my heart as well, ever since I visited my family there two years ago. This August, we now have the great privilege of taking a staff team to India together as an already well-established duo to serve, learn, network, gain experience, and preach the Good News to the people of India. In addition, the outreach serves as training for future outreach leaders to India—especially for Jenna, but perhaps also for the other guys who are coming along. This will hopefully allow me to focus on the Pacific again afterwards. 😁

However, that will have to wait until at least next year, because in December, Jenna and I will be leading our base's first DTS outreach to India in 10 years!

Below, I have also included some interesting facts about India and unreached people groups.

Global Leadership Gathering

In September, a global YWAM leadership gathering (GLG) will take place in Asia. Leaders and future leaders of YWAM from all over the world will meet there to connect, seek God, pray, vision, and network for a week. I would absolutely love to go and maybe even take some of the other staff with me. I believe this would really help us as a team, and me personally, to be even more connected to the vision and direction of our organization and to stay on the cutting edge of our mission.

If you would like to support me for this, you are welcome to do so here with the subject line "Thailand". I need about 750 USD for return flights.

📷 At the very end, I have added some photos from my first mission trip to Samoa. That was during my parents' DTS outreach back in 2008, when I was 6 years old 😊

Facts and Definitions

Unreached People Groups:

Source: joshuaproject.net

Definition: A people group with less than or equal to 5% Christian Adherent AND less than or equal to 2% Evangelical.

An unreached people group is a people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group without outside assistance.

Of course, this is ultimately a spectrum. However, the term "unreached" is widely recognized and used throughout the global missions community.

While these percentage figures are somewhat arbitrary,

"We should not underestimate the significance of the small group of people who have a vision of a just and gentle world. The quality of a whole culture may be changed when two percent of its people have a new vision." - Robert Bellah, Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University

10/40 Window:

The 10/40 Window is the rectangular area of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia approximately between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude. The revised 10/40 Window includes several additional countries that are close to 10 or 40 degrees north latitude and have high concentrations of unreached peoples. The 10/40 Window is often called "The Resistant Belt" and includes the majority of the world's Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists.

Read more...

Unreached in India:

2,033 of the 2,263 (89.8%) people groups in India are considered unreached. This encompasses nearly 1.4 billion people, which is 95.9% of the total population. Furthermore, 75% belong to "Frontier" people groups—an even stricter definition for peoples that have virtually no Christians. The Joshua Project estimates that it would take about 29,000 pioneer missionaries planting churches there to "free" the country from this statistic.

Joshua Project India

(part of) YWAM's contibution:

Through OMT (Oral Mother Tongue), YWAM is making a massive contribution to ensuring that the Bible is translated into every language in the world. It is estimated that within our lifetime, every language in the world will have a Bible in its own tongue (aside from the fact that languages eventually require a renewal of its translations). This will significantly ease the evangelization of unreached people groups because it makes it so much more personal.