Steve and Bronwen Niles both grew up in Christian families, but the turbulence of the late 1960s and early 1970s drew them away from their roots to the hippie movement. Steve sought adventure and a cause by traveling throughout North America and Europe, while Bronwen’s search for meaning led to drug use. A turning point came for both of them in 1971. Steve surrendered his life to Jesus in Holland, and Bronwen cried out to God in a Los Angles hospital. Their paths crossed when God led both of them to attend a Discipleship Training School (DTS) at YWAM Hammonton, New Jersey. They married in 1973.

The call of God came to Steve and Bronwen to disciple drug addicts through an YWAM ministry called Hope House. While directing Hope House in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, Steve and Bronwen witnessed God’s ability to transform the lives of young men and women addicted to years of drug addiction. Many graduates of Hope House are now pastors, evangelists, missionaries, businesspersons, responsible husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. In 1996, Steve received the Hall of Frame Award from his high school in upstate New York for his missions work and rehabilitation work with drug addicts.

In 1987, God called Steve and Bronwen, their two children, and four Hope House staff to join YWAM New Orleans to establish a Hope House that would be multiplied in other places. This has happened and in 1997, Steve became the director of the overall ministry of YWAM New Orleans. Algiers, the neighborhood where YWAM is located, has changed greatly since their work began there in 1982. The broken-down houses and crime-filled streets have been rebuilt into a historic neighborhood that has become a safe and desirable place to live. One neighbor said, “You know that this neighborhood has changed because of you. You have been willing to live here and fix these houses up.” Steve and Bronwen know this neighborhood has changed because of the presence of God.

YWAM New Orleans is a diverse outreach center for evangelism and mercy ministries. Many diverse outreach teams of young people from all over America come to New Orleans and receive God’s heart for the plight of the people living in the inner city. In 2006, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina under Steve and Bronwen’s leadership 70 outreach teams participated in YWAM New Orleans’s disaster relief efforts in the Gulf Coast of Louisiana.