End of Summer

Once again I cannot believe how the time goes. I realized I haven't written or sent updates since June! So much has passed since then. The internship has graduated and we have moved into a new season. But I will share everything that happened this summer.
In July, we went on outreach to Paris for 10 days, participating in an evangelistic event named Paris Je T'aime. For two weeks, different teams came to perform on the plaza called Trocadero, looking out to the Eiffel Tower. We brought our team performance called Obsession, which includes dance, theatre, and music. As a visual artist, I was painting during the times on the plaza, different images that God gave me for the city and for the people. Each time, God brought someone to me that I was able t speak to on the topic of the painting, and it always touched their hearts. The people that would come and watch were so ready to recieve the word of God for their lives. The only time I personally was rejected was when the person only spoke German! It was a huge opportunity for the all the teams to share the love of God, through our arts and skills.
After Paris, we had a few days at home in London, then we went off to Edinburgh, Scotland for the Fringe Festival. The city is so beautiful! And the festival is amazing. So many performers and artist, just being in the atmosphere is so inspiring. But the city has a lot of demons and oppression. It was a battle the first few days to get a slot to perform on the streets, and to find what works for the audiences. We had to adapt a few things to keep the attention of the people, but God was faithful. We could see Him at work in the city, and in our lives as well.
the last two weeks of August we were working very hard towards the Notting Hill Carnival. We had over 90 people in the camp, prepping costumes and building floats, painting, cutting, gluing, and practicing music and dance. This year, God gave Chris a word that we needed to stop working each night at 12. We could stay up later if we wanted, but only to be in community and spend time together, no working. It was such a blessing! We built a ship, and a costume of a giant raven, and many colorful costumes, as well as the puppets from last year, and warriors on stilts. we had drummers, on foot and on stilts, leading the procession. At one corner of the church was the guy on extra tall stilts in the raven costume, with the evil stilts warriors, and several people costumed as slaves. The rest of us walked around the block with the boat, with music and celebration, and confronted the evil at the corner. the warriors fought, the good triumphed, and evil fled. The slaves were set free, and we had a massive celebration of color and sound and life. In the evenings, we would talk to the people in the streets, and we even did a flash mob! In the late nights, when everyone was coming off of being high or drunk, I ahd some really good conversations with people. The carnival is always really hard, because it is so sad to see all the people searching for something, but filling it with everything that is bad for them. that's why we go in, to share that there is something more.
So the internship is graduated, and we had a few weeks of holiday, and the first wedding in our base! It was a beautiful time of more celebrating everything God has done in the past year, and looking forward to the next one. In these months until January we will be planning our tracks, and working on our own personal skills. We are developing a fashion track for the next school, and seeking God for inspiration and open doors. The next school will start at the end of January and the outreach will be to Argentina! We will be going to a national YWAM Argentina retreat, and then visiting a few different areas to work and evangelize. This is going to be an expensive outreach, but God has always been faithful and we continue to walk in faith in what He has called us to. If you feel led to support me or my team here in London, please write me. After that, I will be returning to the States in May to renew my visa and work and raise up support, so I will see many of you very soon! God bless.

Arts Gathering 2013

So we are almost 3 weeks into the internship already! We had our first "outreach" last weekend, organizing and running the 3rd Arts Gathering here in London. It is a time to connect with artists around the world and partner in other people's missions and visions. We met a couple from Canada who are really into photography, fashion, and visual arts who want to start up something in their hometown of Hamilton. We had a young woman from the Rostrevor base in Northern Ireland who is looking to start a creative arts dts or something like it in her base. Another man was from YWAM Cyprus, who works with the prophetic arts and runs a prayer house with the base. We also had a guy from Holland, an old friend and discipler of Julie's, who runs a christian arts school. It is a one year program that challenges students in their artistic area, while also bringing bible teachings and discipleship into the curriculum. It was so amazing for us to see that these people have such a passion for what they do and for sharing God through the arts. We are really excited to be able to partner with them in prayer, and in possible outreaches and teaching opportunities.
The weekend was full of worshipping God, teachings on how to work in and lead a ministry, and times of fellowship. Chris gave a few teachings that I'm sure he gave last year, but did not really make sense to me. This year, they really clicked and I could connect the dots, and see how he was speaking from experience and authority. There were too many things I could take away from all of it. Rosanna as well gave a teaching about the arts and government, but not in a way I was expecting. She shared how the two should go hand in hand, but don't. The government has the spiritual role of pastoral covering, and artists move in the prophetic. But the spirit of Jezebel has corrupted this relationship, by stealing the authority from our governments and killing the voice of the prophets. It was quite a strong word, and she continued by reminding us that we are not called to make people feel comfortable, but to share the weighty message of the cross and wake people up. We ended the weekend with a barbeque and prayer together, and the guests left over the next 2 days.
Last night, we bought our outreach tickets!!! In july we will be going to Paris for an evangelistic event that the YWAM base hosts every year, with permits to perform at Trocadero. We will be prepping different dramas and dances and poi to present to the people, and messages of Jesus to speak to the crowds. In August we will go to Edinburgh to be a part of the Fringe Festival, with a show called Obsession, based on the baptism by water and fire. At the end of the month, we have my favorite part of the whole year, Bones. I cannot wait for the carnival time. There is something so powerful in the way God moves in that time. We have almost 80 people already signed up to come!
As always, thankyou so much for your love and prayers.
Oh! did I mention my family is coming this week?!?!?!?! I am so blessed and so excited to show them my place and what I do and how I live. God is amazing.
Love you guys!

New Interns!

This month has flown by, like always. A few weeks ago we had the Nation England YWAM retreat, where all of the bases came together to relax and share what each base has going on, and to fellowship and make new relationships. Each of the bases has changed so much in the last few years, it was cool to see how each has grown and pursued God. We started with an amazing time of worship, and dance and painting, followed by a symbolic lighting of torches and praying for each other.
Last weekend we had our London Urban Key staff retreat, with loads of words from our leaders and a team from another base in England. All along the same lines of foundations and how this is a time of preparation and arming us for the battle ahead. It was such a sweet time of recieving from God and growing together. And of course amazing barbeque. One day we had a very bad experience with some not-so-good curry, and the next day we ran out of toilet paper... I think a record was made of 60 rolls in 2 days, for maybe 30 people? Quite the bonding experience. But it was amazing to see the Holy Spirit move, and God minister to everyone of the staff members. Having a strong leadership team who all love and serve God is key to growing the generation following us.
Today we had our first intern arrive! Hannah from Australia came early this afternoon, and we are so excited. It is always interesting to have new people in the house, but we are beginning a new season. The rest arrive on friday. In just a few short weeks, we have the International Arts Gathering, and then outreach to Europe with the internship. As always, thankyou for your prayers and support. God bless you!

April Already.

Whoah! I can't even believe that it is already the end of April. The last few months have flown by. I think the last time I sent out an update was when my team and I came back from outreach in Europe. So, after that, we were preparing for the internship that was coming at the end of January. Now it is April, and they are in the third stage of outreach.
In December, I received a word from God that I needed to be a part of a school that our base was going to pioneer. It is called the Biblical Core Course. Basically it is a three month school that is a running study of the Bible. I really was not to keen on going, because that would mean I could not work with the internship. The school would be going on the same time as the internship, and it would be impossible to do both. So I was really struggling with what God had told me to do, but I decided that Iw anted to obey God most of all. So I started praying for a willing heart. I did not want to go into the school with a hard heart. By the time the school was starting, I was ready to do it. I wanted it for myself. So I moved into the Station Rd house and began the first Biblical Core Course at the YWAM Urban Key base.

One of the amazing things about our school was that we had 5 students, but we were all staff. Me from the arts team, and four of the members of the DTS staff. Each of us is from a different country: USA, Belgium, Chile, Denmark, and Ethiopia. I had received several words from different people before the school, and also during the school, that it would be a time for God to lay a foundation in my life, and that the school would also be a foundation for the base and ministries. Our teachers came from Uruguay to lead, a husband and wife and their two daughters. They are amazing people of God, so full of wisdom and understanding, but humble and relational at the same time. It was a long road for them to get here to London, and we were so blessed and happy when they made it.
The school was amazing. I don't really know what else to say. We studied 20 books in depth, and read the whole bible in the space of three months. We studied the old and new testament, using a method called inductive. We looked at the history of the peoples and of the cities, the styles of writing, the authors, and the culture. This helps us see what the author was originally trying to get across to the audience. From the beginning it broke everything that I had learned before. A lot of teachings that I have had have been taken out of their original context which distorts the message that was intended. It was really hard for me, because I had grown up in church. It would have been easier if I was new to it all! God wanted to show me so much through his word, through these teachers and my classmates.
Even though we learned so many things and studied the history and the different translations, the knowledge is not what our teachers wanted us to take away from the school. The most important thing was our personal time with God, and the revelations we received from Him. You could stuff so much information in your head and be able to recite it when called upon, but if God didn't speak to your heart and change things and reveal new things to you, you missed the point. I know that each one of us, me Mats Angelica Michela and Israel each received SO MUCH from God. I can really see now how God was laying foundations in us, and without a foundation in His word, we cannot effectively teach and speak into the lives of the students that come to the base.

After finishing the school, I moved back in with the arts team, who were just coming home from Amsterdam and Lyon. They had an amazing time on outreach there, and have one more part to go. Just this last friday we began a new DTS, and on tuesday we leave for Sweden. We only have 6 days there, but we have a ton of activities planned: a concert at the university, two youth meetings, a time of intercession, and hanging out with the staff at the base there in Linkoping. After that, our internship graduates on the 29th of April.
This next year we have so many events planned. Our next internship begins on May 31st. We are planning outreach to Paris for a youth summer of missions program, Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, and London for the Notting Hill Carnival. The next internship in January 2014 we are planning to go to Argentina for outreach and connect with our parent bases there. Then the summer internship we want to take an outreach team to Brasil for the World Cup. With all these outreaches coming up I have to keep trusting God to provide. I am not able to work here in England, because it is a very difficult visa to get and our schedule does not leave a lot of room for work. So please be praying for me in that area, and if you feel led to support me please let me know! Also if you guys could be praying for us as a team, for new strength and new creativity. We need themes for each internship to run on, so new ideas is a good prayer point. Thank you all for your love and support!

Stars

Saw the stars again tonight...
I was reminded once again of how big my God is,
how mighty and powerful is the God I serve.
People ask how I could believe in something so unsure, something intangible, invisible.

But here is how I know:

I know what it is to be in the pit, to be swamped in sorrow, and inescapable sadness.
And I know what it is to be pulled from that pit;
to realize that I have not been swallowed up, that I have not been lost;
That is how I know that the One who I call on answers my prayers.
Without that, I would certainly be dead.

I know what it is to doubt my future, my life, my friends, my God.
And I know what it is to be shown over and over and OVER again the truth of His word.
Without that, I would certainly be lost and aimless.

There is nowhere I can run, nowhere I can hide, nowhere I can escape His love.
But why would I want to?

But there is another kind of death: a death to myself.
God has called me to live a life of sacrifice.
What does that mean?

It means giving up the things I love, and replacing them with the things He loves.
But if I love Him, that is only the beginning of my demonstration of love.
How much more can I show I love Him except putting into His hands everything I treasure.

It means getting over myself, putting me outside of me, seeing what others see.
I am not to be a selfish, preoccupied, solitary being.
I am part of a body.

I know what it is to have to joy of the Lord;
to be in the worst and most trying circumstances,
yet still choose to praise the Lord,
to continue on in His strength,
and to know that I am walking in His path.