YWAM DC was first pioneered in 1979 by Ron Boehme with a team of YWAMers that moved to D.C. living in house boats at the Bladensburg Marina. A year in advance of a 1980 mass prayer gathering for America called “Washington for Jesus”, this group was sent by God to mobilize and serve. This prayer gathering drew an estimated 700,000 people for a full day of prayer on the National Mall, the majority from the D.C. Region. This was the abundant fruit of their mobilization.

After the gathering, Ron and the team stayed and planted the YWAM D.C. base where they ran training schools, held many prayer meetings, and did inner city outreaches. The primary property that YWAM owned as the flagship base was 133 C Street SE on Capitol Hill just blocks from the Capital. That property was sold to another Christian Ministry in the late 80’s. However, YWAM D.C. still operated out of rental houses and had partnerships with other ministries for several more years. Eventually, by the mid-90s, the YWAM base closed up shop for a while as staff numbers dwindled down to very few.