Hey there!
My name is Sarah Barousse and I have been with the missions organization Youth With A Mission (YWAM) for 8 years!
I am a missionary kid and was born in Russia while my family was living there for 10 years. My parents are still missionaries stateside with a focus on member care and frontier missions in Thailand.
I joined YWAM in the summer of 2018, right after graduating high school, with the intention of only doing a 6 month long Discipleship Training School (DTS) and then going to college. A DTS is split into 2 parts, the first focused on personal discipleship through weekly teaching and the second half on putting all you have learned into practice on outreach to other countries. I went to a base in Perth, Australia to do my DTS with a focus on anti-human trafficking and prostitution ministry. Through my DTS, I grew exponentially in my relationship with God and fell in love with missions. On outreach, I did ministry in Austria, Germany, Romania, and Nepal. In 2019, I returned to YWAM Perth, and did an 11 month long Birth Attendant School (BAS). The BAS is a program that trains students in antenatal/postnatal care, labour/delivery, and newborn care up to the age of two years. We spent a total of 4 months in Perth for our lectures and 6 months on outreach in Zambia, Malawi, and India. Because of COVID-19, we had to leave India 2 months early and I returned home with the expectation that I would return to Australia a few months later to continue working with the BAS.
With borders remaining closed longer than I had expected, in July 2020 I went to the Denver, CO base to volunteer & serve for 4 months while I waited. In January 2021, I returned to Denver to do a 3 month Bible Core Course (BCC). Through this course I fell in love with the Bible for the first time and gained a real understanding of its context and a desire to teach. At the end of my BCC, I was invited to join an outreach to Mexico for 2 months to teach the Bible and do children’s ministry. While on this outreach, we worked with a base in Ensenada, Mexico and while there I felt the pull to join the base as staff and work with the local prostitution ministry called Take Heart. The woman leading had no help and I knew the Lord was calling me to help her re-pioneer it post-Covid.
A few months later, in August 2021, I drove cross-country from Jacksonville, Florida to Ensenada, Mexico. Shortly after joining staff, the leader of Take Heart moved back to her home country and asked me to take over as the leader. For the next two years, I worked alongside a friend named Savannah to build Take Heart into a consistent ministry focused on interceding for and building personal relationship with the people who work in the sex industry of downtown Ensenada. Unintentionally, we began feeding the homeless in the area and reaching far more widely than we ever expected. Simultaneously, I also staffed 2 Discipleship Training Schools and led or co-led 2 outreach teams to Mexico & Aruba and to Thailand respectively.
In June 2023, I tearfully said goodbye to my community in Ensenada and to Take Heart. Savannah has taken over and continues to lead Take Heart without me. It has tripled in size and is reaching out to those who work in the industry, to the homeless, and now a group also focuses on reaching the tourists! I loved my time in Mexico but the Lord was leading me back to Perth to fulfill the word He had given me in 2020 about staffing the BAS. So in October 2023, I moved back to Australia to prepare for the BAS that started January 2024. As a team, we went to Zambia to work in the government hospitals for 2 months. I was able to be a part of many beautiful deliveries and train the students in caring for the women and children practically & spiritually.
In July 2024, I went to YWAM Lausanne in Switzerland to do a three month long Foundations in Counseling Ministry School (FCM) for more training in how to counsel and meet the mental health needs of those I am ministering too. I fell in love with the school in how it is truly applicable in every day life and in the difficult unexpected circumstances of ministry!
In October 2024, after a full year away from the USA, I returned to take a sabbatical and work on fundraising for 5 months. It was a beautiful and healing time to debrief the previous 7 years in missions and to gain new focus and passion for what the Lord is calling me too.
From April-September 2025, I returned to Perth to staff the Foundations for Counseling Ministry School (FCM). I co-led the team of 11 to the Philippines and to the Kimberley region in North-western Australia for two months where the students were able to use their counseling training in communities and prisons.
In March 2026, I returned once again to Perth to work with the FCM, this time leading the school with Anna who I led the team to the Philippines in 2025. We had 8 students who grew in incredible ways and will continue to use what they learned in their ministries longterm.
Currently, I am a part of the pioneering team to bring the FCM training to the YWAM Beirut Impact base in Lebanon! I am overjoyed to be bringing this incredibly valuable school here. This first school is mainly for those working in this region of the world with a goal to equip them with what they need to be in long term missions and to be able to care for the traumatized, grieving, and lost. I will be a part of the leadership discipling the students, teaching skills, and running the school. I will also be learning a lot! I have never been to Lebanon and I am so eager to learn about the region, get to know the people, and in the pioneering process figure out what “translates” from the FCM in how we run it in other nations and what needs to be molded to meet the needs here.
Now you are all caught up! Thank you for taking the time to read a condensed history on my life in missions. It has been incredibly fulfilling, challenging, and growing! I am so grateful to all who have supported and continue to partner with me while I obey the call of the Lord on my life. I am fully reliant on the Lord, first and foremost, but also on YOU and your generosity as I do not get paid for my missions work. I would deeply appreciate your monthly/one time support!
Thank you!
With love, Sarah <3