YWAM Missionary Goes Missing, Search Crews Devastated
Aaron Bremner, 24, is lost at sea. The Youth With a Mission (YWAM) missionary was on a boat with five other sailors that capsized off Hawaii’s Big Island.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports that the group was planning to sail to Pacific Islands to host medical and dental clinics, Bibles and water purification devices as part of their gospel-spreading mission.
“He was an amazing young man,” his aunt Chris Mason told the Star-Advertiser. He had so much energy. He couldn’t be contained.”
Mason referred to Bremner as a “guardian angel” who ministered to her through life’s trials over the past year.
Bremner was on a 75-foot sailboat off the Kona Coast on Friday because dangerous weather threatened the vessel, according to the Houston Chronicle, and large waves flipped the boat two or three times 4 miles offshore on Saturday.
Brett Curtis, the Director of the YWAM Ships Kona, told Hawaii News Now Bremner was a skilled sailor who was well liked among his crew.
“Aaron is one of our ordinary seaman, he’s trained, he’s been at sea with us all last year, he was deploying again for a second year at sea with us. He’s a 22-year-old, very fit, very likable, amiable guy from Orange County, California.”
Phil Cunningham, a spokesperson for YWAM Ships, reports four other crew members escaped to shore, but Bremner was asleep in his birth with the passageway blocked.
“It’s horrible,” Cunningham told the Chronicle “We’re staying focused on finding him and taking care of the people that were affected by this.”
