For more than sixty years, Leland and Fran Paris gave their life to a single, unwavering purpose: that people of every nation would come to know Jesus. Leland was one of the founding fathers of Youth With A Mission, the pioneer of its flagship training, and the co-founder of YWAM Tyler at Twin Oaks Ranch — a man whose quiet “yes” to God set countless others in motion.
All the while, Frances right by his side, pioneering countless ministries, discipling and launching young leaders out into the harvest field. She stood by him throughout their entire 65 years of marriage.
They poured out everything they had to see the Great Commission carried forward in their generation. They mentored leaders, championed the least-reached corners of the earth, and never stopped believing that ordinary young people, sent in faith, could change the world. Those who knew them remember not only the vision, but the tenderness — a father and a mother in the faith to thousands.
They have finished the race, and heard the words: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
How the mission began
1938 & 1939 Lives born into a great mission
Leland and Fran (Bergstrom) Paris are born — the beginning of two lives that would carry the gospel farther than they could have imagined.
1960 Youth With A Mission is born
Loren and Darlene Cunningham founded YWAM in Lausanne, Switzerland, with a radical idea: send young people out, short-term and unsalaried, to make God known. Leland and Fran would become one of the movement’s founding parents.
1961 Leland and Fran's Marriage
A beautiful covenant relationship was made - A marriage that was formed to further the works of the Kingdom
1974 The Discipleship Training School
Leland pioneers the DTS — a school built on biblical foundations, character, and mission. It becomes the heartbeat of YWAM worldwide. More than a million people would one day pass through it.
1980 Twin Oaks Ranch — YWAM Tyler
Leland and Fran, with some two hundred staff, moved from California to East Texas and purchased the Twin Oaks Ranch — land once held by David Wilkerson of The Cross and the Switchblade — to pioneer what is now YWAM Tyler.
Decades To the ends of the earth
As president of YWAM Tyler, Leland turned the mission toward the world’s poorest and least-reached places — most of all across Asia — and launched the ministries that carried his heart: Global Bridges and Hope for the Children.
2026 Home
After 87 years, Leland and Fran Paris go to be with the Lord they loved — remembered as missionaries, pioneers, and parents in the faith.
The Fruit of Obedience
Because they said yes
Two lives, laid down — and a harvest no one can count.
1,000,000+
SENT THROUGH A DTS
180+
NATIONS REACHED BY YWAM
65
YEARS BESIDE ONE ANOTHER
His vision and her action gave the world the Discipleship Training School, Global Bridges, and Hope for the Children — and gave thousands of young missionaries a place to be equipped and sent.
