.: that they may overflow with hope :.

2011-09-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

Time for another update! I’ve been back in Kona about three weeks and its been incredible already. In early September a large group of YWAMer’s met here in Kona for the bi-annual University of the Nations workshop. I think the highlight of the workshop for me was the times of worship as a global body of YWAMers gathering together. It was so wonderful to see all of the ministries and schools we run as a global community of 20,000+ missionaries are all for the glory of God. The university operates schools in health care, biblical studies, biblical counseling, photography, dance, painting, sports, and just about anything you can think of to release people into the spheres of cultures worldwide. It was so encouraging to be in a worship time with so many leaders of YWAM from around the world humbling themselves before the cross and before Jesus. The heart to be led by Christ himself rather than by “strategic innovation” or any other buzzwords was so amazing to see on such a large global and corporate level. Below are a few pictures of those worship times and some of both my friend Kate, Dance Department director at YWAM Montana, and I dancing in worship for those corporate sessions.

After that workshop, there were some extended meetings in which about seven of us school leaders and staff of the Arts schools joined the International Committee. This was absolutely incredible. We were given a platform to share what was working, what wasn’t working, and how, as the actual staff and leaders, we could cultivate schools of professionalism and excellence in the dance students that come to us. Many of us had never met before and it was such an answer to prayer to meet, grow in friendship and professional relationship and realize that God has given us ALL the same heart. This SAME desire and burden to see excellence dancers enter the professional and academic dance worlds with a strong Biblical worldview and an understanding of their calling and mandate as a Christian artist was just incredible. It made me feel like this was a vision cultivated in God’s own heart and each of us are just given a small portion to carry to see God’s will through. Its more inspiring and more exciting to know I’m part of a community that God himself called together no matter where we are in the world. We’re working toward God’s vision and God’s goal for the arts in YWAM.

Just one other thing that I really need your prayer about is my current visa situation. Because I have now been different visas with Montana and Kona there are some red flags being raised with Customs. My entry and stays have been above board and legal all the time, but because I’ve been in and out quite a bit, there are now questions being raised. I am currently admitted to the states only provisionally for the next four weeks. I’m allowed to apply for an extension which I am doing, but I need a lot of prayer in this. If you could just continue to keep me in your prayers that would be wonderful. I really do feel like God has asked me to be here in Kona with the ministry here and I have confidence in that, but I want to ask you friends and family to pray with me! ☺ I’ll keep you updated on this.

the times (and plans) are changing

2011-08-09T13:27:00.001-07:00

Its really hard to put into words what SBS has meant to me. Nine months goes much faster than I ever anticipated. It’s funny because when God first called me to Kona, I really, really didn’t want to go. I was angry even that God would call me away from such an amazing community in Montana. But I didn’t understand what God wanted to do in my heart, how he wanted to lead me through a time to grow closer to him and how he had something new and something special that I couldn’t have experienced in Montana. I think one of the most amazing things for me in finishing SBS is seeing how God’s plans are best.

I think the few things that I could pull out of my SBS as a chronological study of the bible, is God’s sovereignty and victory over all time, all people, and all creation. But to see even from the first words of God to Eve after the fall in Genesis 3 that one (Jesus) would come through her that would crush Satan with his heel. Then tracing the idea through Abraham that through him and ultimately Christ all families of the earth would be blessed, and through David that his heir would reign forever. All the way through Kings, Prophets, Pharisees, Romans, Crusades, Victorians, Modernists, Post-modernists, Christ has been this constant thread, present in the very foundation of the world. He is the one by which we live and move and have our being. He was in the beginning, he was with God, he is God, and everything that exists was made by him and continues to be in existence because of him. So if he is at the most foundational level of all creation and by his sacrifice King over all kings, then his sacrifice makes him victorious over all things, all people, over death, life, angels, rulers, over the present, over powers, height, depth, and everything else in all creation. That’s a pretty exhaustive list! But I think this last year I’ve seen the same sovereignty and control in my life.

These last few months, even after SBS have really put that idea to the test. In preparing to go to Taiwan, several opportunities arose that began to challenge the reasons why I decided on going to Taiwan in the first place. Back in November 2009 God spoke to me about pioneering School of Dance Studies in Kona, England, Taiwan, and Australia. It seemed a pretty hefty vision but I was up to it. I immediately set to work to make this vision happen. I felt God gave me a basic strategy but I just ran with it, to the point where I wasn’t listening to God anymore. I had the vision and I was running with it. Taiwan was a huge decision. I committed a year of language study and then several years after that of prepping the school and leading the first three schools in Taiwan. I just trusted that initial word of the Lord to pioneer rather than see what God had to say about this significant move to Asia.

So as time approached to move to Taiwan, several roadblocks came up: logistical and also spiritual. It was enough for me to really interrogate why I was going. I had begun to place my identity so securely in what I was doing. Moving to Taiwan. Studying Chinese. Being a school leader. I was looking at all of these things to confirm and affirm my identity rather than the one who gives identity in the first place. Ultimately, God presented me with the choice: move to Taiwan, pursue the path I had outlined for myself or stay in Kona working with University of Nations College of the Arts and its arts schools. At first there was no contest, I refused to even engage with the idea that Taiwan might not be the absolute best for me. It was really humbling to even admit that there was a better option. But in the end, I couldn’t NOT choose to stay in Kona. I had less and less peace about moving to Taiwan and more and more desire and excitement to stay in Kona.

To tell the base in Taiwan and my friends there has been SO humbling. I have to be really honest and say I didn’t handle the situation well. My actions surprised and hurt friends but also created some serious problems for the base with the Taiwanese government. The base fought and fought for my visa and now I’m not even coming. So please, if you think of it, pray for favour with the government that there are no lasting repercussions for the base because of my decision. This is actually quite a serious matter that both I and the Taiwan Base would sincerely appreciate your prayers in!!

But even in walking all of this out, I’ve seen how unbelievably gracious God has been. In staying in Kona I’ll be able to work with an incredible school called the Biblical Foundation for the Arts School. It trains artists in several disciplines, visual art, music, dance, and theatre, and also equips them with the inductive Bible study method that I spent the last nine months learning in SBS. I’ll be able to turn around and teach the Bible as I have just finished studying it but I’ll also continue to teach and choreograph dance. We’ll be taking an outreach to the UK Olympics in 2012 and possibly able to partner with other arts schools within YWAM. I’ll be able to continue to lay the foundation and prepare for the incredible woman Sherisa Brands, who will come to Kona to pioneer the School of Dance Studies.

I just see the sovereignty of God as he exhibits in the story of the Bible in my own life. What I was trying to create myself in going to Taiwan and pioneering there first, God has gently and graciously re-arranged for me in Kona. There are SO many exciting opportunities for me to be apart of so many things in Kona that I would not have gotten to participate in if I had gone to Taiwan. It would have been a much different, but equally valuable experience for me in Taiwan. And it wasn’t that Taiwan was wrong, it was just there was a better plan that God had all along for me and I simply needed to be patient and obedient to see it through.

So while five year plans are out the window and structures are all demolished, God is still so in control. But I’ve realized lately that he doesn’t just want my blind obedience, he wants me to invite him into the plans, to create and shape vision WITH me. I may or may not stay in Kona long term, but I know that God and I are creating together, which is very exciting. ☺

The Holy One of Israel

2011-02-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

SBS has been out of control!!

I feel like I've been in a five month character study about who God is. My school, as opposed to other SBSs, is chronological. So we start at Genesis and work all the way through to the New Testament. We're reading through the story of God with his people. Obviously, I've never done SBS any other way, but I feel like it's been such a gift to study God through each individual book; but also to have this larger perspective of the story of redemption and love that's weaving itself throughout the whole Bible. For each book we study we do a short research paper called the Basic Required Information (BRI), just giving ourselves the historical, political, and spiritual climate of the book. And I feel like I'm doing a six month BRI to study the New Testament. I'm SO excited to get to the gospels and see Jesus, with so much context and history behind me, and see how incredible, how perfect, and how timely his coming and ministry was. It's going to be epic!! :)

One of the coolest book's we've studied so far is Isaiah. Now, if you haven't read it, Isaiah is a BIG book. 66 chapters of meaty goodness. Some people in my school are faster than me, but I take about an hour to work through the charts that make up the larger assignment for each book. So for Isaiah, it's all about making a schedule and sticking to it, otherwise time will just get away from you and you wont finish by the deadline. But for me, Isaiah just blew me away. Several times I couldn't sit and chart anymore. I just had to go to the prayer room and worship and spent time is His presences. I just had to respond, I couldn't not. And from studying the whole book I saw such an incredible picture of God's love and patience, but also his absolute sovereignty. And because he's sovereign , he's trustworthy. If he's trustworthy with a plan of salvation for a wayward people with a malignant, cancerous sin problem and an entire planet full of idolaters, then he's definitely trustworthy of my plans, my family, my friends, my life. I can't even express how pervasive that sense of trust is. He is the Lord, the Holy One, The Holy One of Israel, the Lord God of Hosts!! And he guides me just as he guides Israel and Judah. His infinite patience with my obstinate, tedious distrust and sin, is unreal.

But this is why I'm loving SBS. It's transforming my mind, just like he promised. God has been correcting a lot of wrong ideas I had about him, He's showing me who he is through his scripture, not because someone else taught it or told it to me, but because He himself showed me. It's been amazing and really humbling, but I wouldn't trade it for anything! Studying his word beside the beach?! That's not something I would have ever thought to give myself, but He in his goodness does!!

That's it for now! Underneath is a picture my friend Justin took of me studying and totally captures what my everyday is like. haha...

it will set you free

2010-06-25T11:58:00.000-07:00

So I’ve been thinking a lot about community. What it means, what it looks like, how to establish it, what I want out of it, how I’ve seen it done. The more thought I give to community, the more I see it in places I never would have guessed. I’ve always thought of community as a group of really tight knit individuals who grow to be family, probably a lot like the ywam base I just came from. Community, especially in ywam is generally cultivated and thriving, but still, is convenient because everyone lives together and—for the most part—loves and care for one another.

Recently I started working at a restaurant in downtown Calgary. It’s the busiest restaurant in Western Canada and the amount of people that it takes to run this place is phenomenal. It’s a culture unto itself. The restaurant has quite a few things in common with a ywam base: accountability, guidelines, set standards, consequences for not meeting the standards, and groups of friends that care for one another. But there is one significant different and this, I believe, is what I’ve come to see defines the heath of a community. If the individuals in community see every other person in that community as just as important and value the community more than their own independence then I think that community will thrive.

Everyone has such a deep, unavoidable desire to be known and I think that’s what community offers. A chance to be known, loved, and accepted without condition. But I think what’s incumbent of the individuals entering community is a reckless vulnerability. Everyone has to throw all their garbage, fear, and insecurities into the pot as say “I trust you” otherwise it will fail. If trust is absent in a community not a single person will bring themselves to the table authentically and vulnerably. Without trust a community turns into a group of people that simply live and work together. And that’s what separates my restaurant from other forms of community. Community lives and breaths as a result of the trust between the individuals involved.

About a month ago, while I was still living in Montana, I drove to Calgary for a week of training before I started at the restaurant. Since I’ve moved and been apart of ywam, Calgary has always been a hard place for me to be. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family and my friends. I have significant and old, beautiful relationships here. But the city is just a different beast that I don’t particularly like engaging with. But as I was driving back to Montana from this training time, I realized that YWAM isn’t the bubble, as I and so many others have often called it. It’s Calgary that’s the bubble and ywam is my “real world.” It’s the real world because in ywam, and in established and thriving communities anywhere, because it’s exactly how God intended we live. Supporting, encouraging, admonishing, grieving, laughing, and sharing with one another. Community is the real world and independence is the bubble that isolates and ultimately drains us. It’s a lot more rare outside of places where individuals actually live together and it takes a considerable amount of effort and intentionality to create community. But it does happen.

There are some fantastic women that I’ve started to meet with on a weekly basis. We’re about seven girls and we’ve created a community. I knew only two of the ladies, and the rest I met for the first time two weeks ago. But the coolest thing is that our desire for community was so much greater than our instinct for preserving ourselves as intact and invulnerable and because of that our first meeting was explosive! We all acknowledged that we needed one another as a group of women that cares for and challenges one another, it didn’t really matter that we didn’t know each other that well. Because we chose to trust one another, before we even know everyone involved, from the very first meeting the Holy Spirit began to move among us. It was incredible to see how freeing it can be when I put myself aside to care and be cared for by people I didn’t even really know.

I think this is the heart of God for communities. When it works its beautiful. I’ve been listening, to the point of exhaustion, a song by a band called Mumford and Sons. They have a song called Sigh No More and one of the central lyrics of this song is:

Love will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, 
It will set you free 
Be more like the man you were made to be. 
There is a design, 
An alignment to cry, 
At my heart you see, 
The beauty of love as it was made to be

I really believe this is the heart of God for community. To see love as it was made to be and that love that sparks something fundamental within all of us. And it will alter us for the better if we let it.

I pray we all get to see, live, and love in community.

101 stories

2010-06-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

Over the last few months, while I've been busy working to pioneer School of Dance Studies in a few different places, I sensed this growing feeling in me. I kept thinking about an outreach I led several years ago to a tiny little island of the coast of China. Maybe check the tags of your clothing or the bottom of your coffee mug. You'll probably see it's name in about %75 of manufactured items. Or maybe you've heard of a building with 101 floors that makes this country famous. That's right, the correct answer is "What is Taiwan?"

I kept remembering these sweet times I had wandering through night markets listening to Ryan Adams praising God for relief from the hot, sticky days. I remembered riding the train, watching palm trees whipped by the breeze coming off the ocean. I remember eating black eggs, wondering--but not asking, never ask--what it was that made them black. Horse pee. It's horse pee that makes them black. My mind would wander, to the point of distraction, to this tiny little island called Taiwan. I started imagining what it would be like to have School of Dance there. I imagined all these beautiful dancers piling on to train, noses deep in Dance History and Anatomy texts, on their way to rehearsal. The day dreams would bring tears to my eyes! And then, after about a month of idle wonderings, I thought "what if I were one of the dancers on that train? What if I moved to Taiwan?" It almost seemed absurd. But the thought just made too much sense to dismiss.

To be honest, I've never thought I have what it takes to live overseas and really give my life to sharing the gospel. I always thought the hard core missionaries like that were in a totally different category than myself. And they are, but not in the way I was thinking. I live 25 minutes from Target and can visit Taco Bell at 3am if I were so inclined! But those were just my insecurities speaking! I've just realized lately that it's my desperate passion to know that my friends and my future friends have had the chance to choose the peace of Christ. And it's that need to share that makes me missional. It has nothing to do with where I'm not. So I thought, "God, I dont care where you bring me, just make me influential in lives." That thought changed it all.

Yesterday morning the YWAM Taipei base council sent me an email officially inviting me to pioneer School of Dance Studies there. Idle day dreams become reality. The 101 stories I imagined about dancers running around Taipei come to reality.

So this is how it will look: I'll complete my School of Biblical Studies in Kona, Hawaii in June 2011. I hope to also do an additional school in Taiwan called Titus Project in July 2011. Titus trains SBS graduates to teach the same inductive method and apply it in a two month outreach in nations where solid biblical training is a serious need. I plan to stay in Taiwan preparing for the School of Dance Studies that will run in either April or July 2012. I've committed to the base there that I will lead three schools in three years. With SBS and the schools in Taiwan, five years just laid themselves out before me! But knowing how fast these last three years in Montana have flown by, five years will be nothing.

In two weeks I'll also be moving back to Calgary. I plan to write another update then when I'm a little more settled and have some stories to share about the ministry at my job in the restaurant. But there are several things you can pray for me in the mean time:

- a smooth transition from the base back to the "big city,"
- a solid church to get plugged into,
- a really restful summer with family and friends enjoying sunshine and mountains!
- great shifts at my job that will help me to save the $15,000 I'll need for SBS

thanks again for your support and your prayers!

these streets will make you feel brand new, these lights will inspire you

2010-04-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

Hey all, after the video update make sure you check out the blog beneath it "pretty much unfailing." God's be SO faithful lately I just had to share.

Good Morning April! from Crystal Shearer on Vimeo.

pretty much unfailing

2010-04-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago, probably about three or four, I started keeping track of the things that I was prayerfully asking God for: new Asics runners, a speed and distance watch that measures my heart rate as I run, money for a bridesmaids dress, a summer job, more staff for the Dance Department, conversations to happen with YWAM bases and people I didn’t know about the school of dance. The list goes on and on. Some of it is pretty frivolous, some of it is quite practical, and some of it is absolutely essential for what God has called me to do. So at the back of my journal, I write all these things along with the day I asked for it and then the day I received what I ask for.

It started with my friend volunteering to pay for my bridesmaid’s dress. Ten days after I prayed for the money, the dress was paid for. Then the new runners I was hoping for because my old ones just weren’t cutting it. And they’re not just any old tennis shoe from the clearance section at Ross. They are literally the best running shoes money can buy, sixteen days after I prayed for them. Then MASSIVE movement from people all over the world jumping on board to see School of Dance multiplied. We are SO much closer to the realization of a vision! I would have never even thought to ask for this kind of timetable!! Fifty three days of praying. After that, a summer job at a very specific restaurant. Seventeen days of praying. I think if I went on it might get obnoxious. God is consistently blowing my mind with what he can accomplish, and more importantly, what he cares to accomplish!!

And here’s why: these last few months have been some of the hardest that I’ve faced in a long time. It goes way beyond “a tough season.” There were and are events happening that challenged the very foundation on which my relationship with God is built. In fact, to be brutally honest, there were days where I literally said “God, if I could quit you today I would, but I know there is no way I can survive without you.” I kept thinking, even though I knew it wasn’t true, “God, are you even hearing me…” or “any day now, you can start being good to me.” It sounds blasphemous and really, when it comes down to it, my words were incredibly disrespectful and were spoken out of anger and immaturity. But the awesome thing about Jesus is that he’s tough enough to handle my tantrums. And here’s the thing, I was the one who asked to be mature in Christ in the first place. Really, what did I expect was going to happen? But I had to get that honest and that real to see the ocean of love and grace God has for me. I don’t even know where I got the idea, but I thought I’m going to start writing the things I ask for down. I want to see God in action.

I can’t even begin to describe his response to me. My hard times are by no means over, but I have this entirely new perspective. I have some very real garbage to sort through, some very ugly aspects of my character that I do not want to have anymore, but there is this whole world of joy and faith opened up to me when I see, amidst this real suffering that God is so much more than faithful.

Sometimes, we have seasons where the stars seem to align, the world is our oyster, and we have musicals and rainbows lining our yellow brick roads to awesomeness. Our coffee tastes better, the air smells cleaner, and the sun shines that much brighter because life is just Good (with a capital G.) Those are the times when it’s super easy to respond in worship and say “yeah, God, you’re the man.” But there is something inexpressible about being able to recognize God’s infinite love when things are just out and out crappy. God is not punishing me and God is clearly not rewarding me because I didn’t do anything to be rewarded for. His love isn’t in the things he gives me, even though it reminds me that he loves me. God’s love is present in the mornings when my coffee tastes amazing. God’s love is present when I’m screaming like a child at him. God’s love is present when I’m beside the lake reflecting the massive, clear blue, Montana sky back to me. God’s love is present when all I can say to him is “I have nothing to say.” His love is present when I run for miles in my new sneakers. It’s pretty much unfailing. No matter what.

The list at the back of my journal and on the “pray for” sticky note of my computer desktop is packed FULL of crossed off items. I can look at them and say, beyond a shadow of a doubt and in the midst of pain, “God, you are faithful. You hear me. You love me and I will endeavor to love you with my life.”

For Jolene

2010-04-15T22:57:00.000-07:00

Many disclaimers and memory lapses later, this is what we came up with for you... I hope this helps you and your students!!

Untitled from Crystal Shearer on Vimeo.

911 from the Pit

2010-03-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

This is a dance that I created in January for the students of SODS '10 here at YWAM Montana. It is the second part of a series of three dances I created in response to a story I heard about sin and how seductive it is. There are often elements of our lives that we can hide away for quite some time. We say, "I'll get to that..." or "It's not that big of a deal." But often the small things that we don't see with any consequence are the thing that will swallow us whole if we allow them. In this segment of the series, there is a battle going on. The central "character" is there, at the point of being swallowed alive. But, what she doesn't realize, doesn't see is God and his army fighting for her and all around her. We are never alone, despite our despair.
I entitled this piece 911 from the Pit, which is an allusion to the book of Jonah. The prophet was set up in his perfect life, giving words to the King of Israel, content in his cushy life when God called him to something much greater, but much more difficult. Even in running from his call, he would rather die than minister to the Assyrians. But as he is swallowed whole he realizes that God is, in fact, God and he has no where to run but toward his maker and friend. So he called for help from the middle of the whale. 911 from the Pit.

Untitled from Crystal Shearer on Vimeo.

The Victor, the World-Changer, and the Pauper.

2010-03-13T22:46:00.000-08:00

Nearly a two months ago, the night of Christmas, I had a dream. And it didn’t include sugar plum fairies. :)

Let me tell you about it: my friends, several students, and I were in this dirty underground subway system. The walls were yellowing, rust stains drawing dirty lines from the ceiling to the cement floor. The ground was grimy and you could hear water dripping from the sewer pipes echoing down the train tunnel. It was a sad, hopeless place to be. But it was our home, we lived there. Our clothes and faces were dirty. I was wearing this huge canvas bag. We were all orphaned street kids and we’re all lining the walls of the tunnel.

Suddenly, a student steps out from the wall holding up a CD saying “I think this is something God wants us to hear.” And almost as if we slip into some kind of scene from a movie, this narration begins. The voice is lamenting over our own poverty and how we need to do something: we need to take action! As I’m watching this student, he jumps in between two train cars, traveling illegally on the train as people are going to work in their huge office buildings. And we all join him. Moving in and around these cars, slipping like thieves or 007 agents around the unsuspecting people inside the trains. And all the sudden it’s like we’re on some kind of mission. The voice speaking is inspiring this kind of passion in us and the urgency of our mission is making us more bold as we jump in between these cars, running freely along the top, trying not to get caught. Finally, we come to our destination. It’s a small room set back from the main tunnel. The walls are filthy and it’s darker and atmosphere here is far worse and more hopeless than the first subway platform. In the middle of this room is a small box on a pedestal. As my friends and I crouch down to look through the glass of this small case, no bigger than a shoe box, we realize there’s something in it. Jesus is chained to the walls of this box. He’s weak and emaciated, wearing a crown of thorns and covered in this dripping liquid rust. He looks so tired and he’s pedaling against something like he’s working mud or clay for mortar with his feet. And everyone that looked in on this case was stunned. We couldn’t believe that this was really HIM.

I’ve been mulling this dream around in my brain for quite a while. The meaning seemed pretty obvious to me right away: my view of God is too small. Something I already knew. But the gravity of this problem didn’t hit me until I sat down to ask God what he wanted to show me about this dream. As I meditated on that picture of Jesus—small , bound, wasted—I was totally wrecked. I couldn’t help but fall on my face weeping. If I can’t see who God really is, if I keep him in chains then I will never understand the fullness of my destiny through Him. And the reality is that I am a world-changer. So are you!

Going back to the dream: as we hear God’s voice, something in his words, the way he speaks to us and about us, something draws us out and moves us forward. We are inspired with passion because He IS passion. Faith is built in us like a brick wall because our God is nothing short of solid. We make foolish leaps, we move subversively between and through all elements of society without fear because this voice us passion impel us forward. But the most inspiring part is that as I walk in who I am destined to be—which is different than my calling or my vision—I become MORE whole, MORE assured. I gain boldness and recognize my God-given authority and I begin to glimpse HOW big and B.A. my God actually is. If I don’t understand this, it will be SO difficult for me to step out or to take any risks because my God isn’t behind me or beside me.

He’s in a back room chained to the walls, working off my debt.

This isn’t our Gospel!! He is calling us out from our hiding places toward a destiny that is SO large and so much more than fathomable. And the best part is: THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN STOP US! There is no fear, no timidity, no power, no principality, no lie, no obstacle, no setback that will prevent me from becoming who God says I am. And God says I can change the world.

That seems like a big job. Definitely one I can't do on my own. But I’ve been reminded recently that ours is “the ministry of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. . . .” (2 Cor 5.19-20) As though God we making his appeal through us!!! We have the power to influence the atmosphere in which we reside. Schools. Offices. Ambulances. Dance Studios. YWAM bases. Homes. Pre-schools. Churches. Board Rooms. Hospitals. Coffee Shops. It doesn’t matter where we are. An appeal with love and generosity, spoken through peace and demonstrated with POWER is how this world was redeemed in the first place. How can we NOT believe that we can appeal to our friends, children, colleagues, and fellow commuters on this basis? When ONE person sees this, accepts LOVE for all that it’s worth, it CHANGES THEIR WORLD! This is everything!!

When I see myself as I am destined to be, it changes my world. When we make the appeal and see others as HE sees them and invite them to change their world, we change the very atmosphere around us.

I feel God gave me this dream as a reminder. But I also ask that you would commit to pursue God’s destiny for you. Commit to showing other people how incredible LIFE is!! Don’t leave it as a “good word” or a cool thing you read one time on facebook. It’s my prayer that this would have inspired an urgency to see God as OTHER and to see ourselves as part of his plan for redemption. And that this same reality becomes our internal cultural mindset. So please, pass this on to others, copy, paste, rip it off as yours, I don't care. Just share it!!

June, Juney, June

2009-06-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

June is actually my middle name, in case you werent aware. But... can you guess what my OTHER middle name is? haha

So... I got lots of sweet feedback from my recent blog and I’m so glad many of you had the same response I did. Haha.

Anyway, as promised I wanted to update you on the happenings around the base. Summer of Dance has been here for about two weeks and already I just love every single one of them. They are all so precious!!! I sound like such a mom, but it’s sort of how I feel. I’m just so excited for what God is going to do in them over the next few months. I know he’s going to blow their expectations right out of the water. So in addition to the summer of dance we also have the Musicians Summer of Service and Summer of Sports running at the same time. We leave on the 4th of July for Germany. And it looks like we’ll be traveling to five different cities: Hamburg, Dresden, Frankfurt, Berlin, and Stuttgart. We’ll be working with two different summer festivals performing alongside the musicians and working with the athletes running teaching/coaching clinics. It’s shaping up to be an incredible summer!

I have a few really exciting opportunities right after Summer of Dance ends that I want to share with you all. The first week of August I’ve been invited to a dance conference in Houston run by one of the major Christian dance companies in the US. This would be an incredible time for me to connect with many other Christian artists and dancers, not just from the states but many also come from Europe and Asia. It’s also an excellent opportunity for me to get some world class training. I’m talking with the company about a possible scholarship for the $400 tuition for the week long conference, however I still need to get there. Flights prices haven’t been particularly consistent so really, I’m looking from anywhere between $400-700.
And, about three weeks after the conference in Houston, I’ve been asked to accompany one of the fantastic worship bands here at base to Egypt. There is a University of the Nations—which is also apart of YWAM—conference there, and I’ve been asked to dance as part of the worship “set.” This is a little more expensive than Houston, but all in all, incredible considering it’s Egypt. Because of what has already been raised by the band, I only have to raise $900. But I need it by August 1st.

So, in the next two months I need to raise about $1600. It’s less than I’ve needed in the past but enough to make me pretty fervent in my prayers for that money! Haha… But anyway, if you would be interested in supporting me for one or both of these trips that would be fantastic! If you don’t already have the donation information write me back and I’ll let you know.

There’s also one thing that’s just on my heart to share about money. Finances is always a hard subject to broach but God doesn’t shy away from it. In Malachi 3, God specifically says to TEST him in his giving. Correct me if I’m wrong, but to my knowledge this is the only place in the bible God directs us to test him. He says if we are faithful in our tithes and offerings we will “see if [he] will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” (Mal. 3.10)
Believe me, I have tested this principle, and true to both his word and what people say, God will in fact pour out blessing as you bless others with money. Lately, I’ve been trying to not let what I think or need to live on dictate how much or what I give to others. And as I’ve been obedient to give, God has literally given my 10 times back what I’ve given away.

And for those of you who have already been supporting me, I pray each time I see your names on my cheque (or check if you’re American) that he pays the money you’re so generous with back to you ten fold. Actually, I would love to hear the ways that God returns that money to you. So let me know if you have a minute. Plus I’d love to hear from you anyway.

So hopefully that didn’t sound too preachy. That’s not how I meant it, I just wanted to share that little scriptural tid bit with you all.

Until Later!!!

The Realization of J. Alfred Prufrock

2009-06-05T17:55:00.001-07:00

... only my ending is slightly more upbeat. haha... I don't normally get my preach on but this might count. I just wanted to encourage you with a little passion. Zealot, here I come.

So, here on the base, when so many teachings and experiences with God are so readily available it’s so easy for me to become complacent. If I wanted to, I have the opportunity to hear really sound, solid biblical teaching from men and women whose lives are wholly devoted to studying the Bible. I could sit in on a DTS lecture any day of the week and hear revelation after revelation of God’s intense, emotional heart for me. I have the opportunity to worship in a community setting every single day, sometimes twice or three times a day. There is so much of GOD at my finger tips, it’s almost like I’ve become anesthetized. And over the last few months I have.

By my own fault, I became spiritually sedated. I’m not even really sure how it happened, it just did. Then, I attended an evening lecture for the current DTS. The topic isn’t even relevant to what God showed me that night. After a few songs in worship I began to get so frustrated. I was having trouble focusing and engaging and I earnestly desired to praise God but I just couldn’t and I couldn’t understand why. And then something just clicked. I had no control over my body anymore. I collapsed to the floor sobbing uncontrollably, weeping, screaming even. When I opened my eyes my nose was gushing blood, it was all over my hands and face. It must have been a scary sight! But I felt God say so strongly to me that if I allowed myself to continue to be anesthetized, swept into complacency by a general ebb and flow of life, that I would bleed to death (figuratively, of course.) I was being beaten, blinded, and bled and I didn’t even know it. I was not even aware of my own feelings. But as I look over the general turn my thoughts were taking in the last few months I realized that I had become more cynical. More prone to thinking: everything good happens to everyone else. God must be punishing me. Self-pity followed after comparison and sarcasm and cynicism just fed the flames. And here’s what happened: I lost hope. Without even being aware that I lost it, I lost hope that my God is good to me. That my God cares so deeply for me. That my God went to hell and back to make sure I knew these things. And that he would die again THIS SECOND if it meant preventing me from continuing on that path was bleeding me dry. I was suffering and I didn't have a clue.

And here’s the thing about suffering. Suffering doesn’t have to mean that Pauline, beaten and stoned, dying upside-down kind of suffering. Simple suffering (at least to us) is just as debilitating as more profound suffering. Relatively speaking, it’s not the same, especially when you’re speaking to someone who survived a genocide or something. But still, pain is pain. And I’ve realized suffering, while crappy, is actually a gift. Just because God is good doesn’t meant hat circumstance will always be as good to us. But (yet another thing I’ve been pondering) God is ALWAYS committed to bringing life in more abundance. So, as he is faithfully good, he would never make us walk through something that would not bring us life. So, while there may be elements in my life that require death, that death will always ultimately bring me more life and freedom than I could have ever imagined. Jesus didn’t have to suffer. But in order to bring freedom from the law he had to put to death all the things that were bleeding Israel dry. They too, were blinded, beaten, and bled out. His suffering and death issued so much life, a life that I am capable of living EVERY DAY! (I’m getting really passionate!!)

His death has brought me LIFE! So why do I waste it?! Why do I allow myself to be sedated, wishy-washy, here and there, comfortable with my routine? What God has offered me is so much more FUN than that! So why do I not take advantage? Why do I not ride every roller coaster in the park, milking that day pass for all it’s worth?! I’m not really sure, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I will no longer allow that to happen. I have decided that I will take advantage of every high and every low. No matter how painful or how joyous. Caution is lost in the wind and I’m ready!

January 09'

2009-01-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

It's time for something new! Really! It's a new year and a new season. I've been having such a great time with God lately. I've been glued to my bible like never before. It's so funny, I've been studying it like a textbook, which I've never done. I'm just so desperate for God's wisdom I can't stop with the word. It's been amazing. Although I've had some ups and downs. Just a lot of opportunity to practice God perfecting his power in my weakness. I've really felt that impressed on my heart lately. Am I here at YWAM, teaching and leading, for my glory or am I "serving" for my own benefit. I think unfortunately I've been operating from the principle of the later. I just get into this zone where I think I can do it all on my own. That my wisdom comes from me, that I have all the answers, that God uses me more than others (to be perfectly honest about my sicken pride). I have to remind myself of what Paul says in 2 Corinthian. What did I receive that was not a gift? The wisdom, the strength, the gifts, the leadership, the money, the position, all because of him. I haven't been submitting like my God is really worthy of. So I'm learning some humility. But the cool thing is that the more I am humbled, the more I see less of myself, the more I am able to see God in my life. What he has done, what is capable of doing. It really is true, not just a cheesy saying: less of me, more of him. Guys, God is so incredible.

But anyway, I'm back at the YWAM base for the new quarter, and it's an intense one. The students have started new classes. Dance History (the class I teach) is over and now we're on to Anatomy. The students are having a tough time with this one. There's a lot of information to learn is six weeks and they're feeling very overwhelmed.
We're also having two guest artists come to set dances on us for our upcoming outreach in February. We're hosting the woman who pioneered School of Dance in 2002 as well as a woman from an amazing company in Ohio that we've never had before. She teaches a very rare technique of modern dance so it's really exciting! haha... maybe to put it in a different, more accessible context, let' say we're having a guest speaker come who is an expert in teaching a rare language.
But anyway, we're only a short time away from outreach in Rwanda. We've been preparing like mad for our departure on February 22! We've found an incredible couple at a massive church in the capital city of Rwanda, Kigali. We'll be teaching dance in workshops to schools and churches as well as participating in many evangelistic calls. We call these open airs. We get down in dirty, dancing in the middle of the dirt, sharing testimonies and sharing the gospel after we dance. I haven't been this excited for an outreach ever. I really feel that God is going to use our dance team in mighty ways. Please pray with me that we will see SOOO much fruit this outreach. Over the last year God has really begun to break my heart for people that don't know him. So I'm pumped!!!!
So that's just a short update. I have some new pictures to put up and hopefully you saw the video of my Christmas dance that I posted on my facebook. If you havent, it's a real winner!!! haha. It will probably change your life!

Prayer Requests:
- Health in Rwanda: three of our students have VERY severe food allergies including wheat, gluten, sugar, and certain types of fat. They will have a really difficult time eating if God does not give them the grace to eat whatever they need.
- Team Unity: We are not certain right now if all the staff are coming on outreach and that has caused some issues at the planning level. We really need to hear God's voice clearly to move forward.
- Students as they learn anatomy: to understand the terms, positions, bones, and muscles without feeling overwhelmed and checking out.
- I am also quite tired. The school really takes a lot out of me and I need God's strength more and more to given the students the best they deserve. Please pray for more strength and energy for me.
- Team and Individual Finances: there are several girls on our team that still need a few thousand dollars.

Also, please continue to pray about my finances. God is so faithful to provide, so please pray about whether or not you can be apart of this with me. In the grand scheme of things $800 is nothing! $20 from 40 people and it's covered! I need my portion of my outreach fees by January 20th.
If you can't give please pray with me.

Thank you so much for reading my updates and praying with me. I can't really share with you how important your prayers and finances are to me. I really wouldn't be here without you!

Computers, Haggai, and Discipline (Fall 08)

2008-10-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hey Friends,
It’s time for an update. I apologize for the extreme length in between this update and the last. There are several reasons:

School of Dance has just started! It has been three weeks since the first day and wow, what a roller coaster. The first two weeks I was teaching dance technique in the morning and setting choreography all afternoon. It was quite tiring. There’s something about talking and demonstrating for hours at a time that is so exhausting. Then the third week, last week, I was teaching several two hour lectures about the Rise of Dance in Classical Greece and Rome. So pretty much every minute of my “free” time was occupied with preparing for these teaching times. So this week, I’m really enjoying a little time to breath when I’m not in classes.

The second reason is that my computer crashed. I was actually preparing my August update, loading pictures, and sharing about what I’ve learned the last year here in YWAM and all of a sudden my computer froze! I have a MacBook so this was brand new, this had never happened to me. So I took it in and sure enough my hard drive was dead and EVERYTHING—pictures, teaching notes, music, research—was gone. This was traumatic to say the least. It took nearly a month to get it fixed (because this is Montana) so, it’s hard to take an hour of time on someone else’s computer to write an update.
Anyway… what’s new? Well, like I said, the school has started and it’s been stressful and very busy, but so awesome! The girls are amazing. They’re SO focused and dedicated to their work, they want to absorb every once of knowledge that we can give them! It’s great because it makes me work harder as an instructor to give everything I can. They’ve really been challenging me!

We’ve got our outreach nailed down for this year. I can’t say just yet because we haven’t mentioned it to our students yet, but I’ll tell you soon. Safe to say though, that I’ll be headed back to East Africa. But because we have less students each of us staff will not be given any money toward our own outreach. And it looks like this is going to be an expensive outreach. We each need to raise 2,500$ to finance our trip, but I know God is SO faithful. So please pray with me that God will provide all that money for us as a staff team (and if you would like to support me/us that would be awesome!)

Also, I’ve been praying about staying in Africa longer than one month. So after my team leaves in March I would stay an additional two months working with ministries in Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, and Uganda. But I’ll send another update about that soon. If you have any questions about that you can ask but I’m not really sure I’ll have the answer just yet. This opportunity is just shaping up, so I’ll keep you updated.

Some other things going on… God has been walking me through the Old Testament book of Haggai. It seems like a random book, but it is packed with goods! God is interrogating my devotion, motivation, and my commitment to holiness. I’ve been living with this false idea of "spiritual safety" because of a wrong understand and application of grace. And as a result I’m learning quite a bit about discipline, both receiving and practicing discipline. No one ever talks about God rebuking them anymore. I've looked at God like some peace loving, non confrontational, passive aggressive hippie. "A God who loves doesn't rebuke." Well, that's where Haggai comes in. God has repeatedly asked his people to set themselves apart, to be holy, to take part in certain rituals and abstain from others. And they don't so God is upset. Not because he's petulant or rule-oriented but because he desires holiness. Again, love and not punishment is the name of the game. All that to say... Discipline and Fear (capital F) are changing my world right now. And this is what Haggai is teaching me.

So that’s about that. Here are some things you can pray for me:
- Finances for outreach,
- Wisdom about staying longer in Africa and also where to go,
- Learning discipline, and
- My back has been really, really painful lately and it’s really inconvenient because I can’t do my job properly.

After Outreach....

2008-08-08T06:56:00.001-07:00

Well, we got back from Taiwan yesterday. It was a very long day of travel. We flew through Korea to LA and from LA to Spokane, Washington. Four of us drove our own cars and we just parked them in Spokane because it was considerably less expensive than using a base van. So, 1am in Spokane and we're all loaded up and one of the guys cars breaks down. Radiator fluid everywhere. So, we wait an hour for AAA and our finally on our way. So we stop for food and then another hour later we're finally on our way. So a solid 30+ hours of travel and one gorgeous sunrise in the Montana rockies later, we arrived at the base about 8am.

But our time in Taiwan was incredible. We hosted two dance camps. The first was for inner city kids. At times, it was pretty challenging to get them to be interested in anything but after a few days they warmed up to them and it was really hard to say goodbye to them after a week with them. We taught them ballet, modern, African, and hip hop. Ballet was probably the funniest to teach, they tried SO hard. It was hysterical watching them work so hard at pirouettes and turning their feet out.
The second camp we hosted was for a community outreach for a local Taiwanese church. We had 60 kids ages 4-20 and we taught them them a lot of the same stuff we taugh the other camp. But a special highlight for me at this camp was praying with several kids to accept Christ. Even after several years working at camp and even a year with YWAM, I had never had the opportunity to lead anyone to Jesus. It was just so precious to see their earnest desire for God at such a young age. At this camp I was also able to pray with and encourage a young girl whose father is quite abusive. She was so excited to accept Jesus but was terrified of what her father, who was Buddhist, would do to her if she found out. That was a pretty emotional day for me and I know seeing that young girl in such pain was really hard for some of our girls. They come from very conservative and isolated families and had never really been exposed to some of the harsh realities of our world. They were so angry at the injustice of this young girl's life but were totally helpless. I think it was a challenging but fruitful encounter for them. I know they won't forget that girl either. At the end of that camp the church leadership that organized the camp said they wanted to pray for us. So our combined dance and basketball teams piled into this small room and they prayed for several of us with injuries. I asked for prayer because my ankles, which were not injured had been giving me such trouble. I had been in a lot of pain most of outreach just from dancing on concrete and poor surfaces and also ten years dancing and compounded injury. So these two ladies prayed for me and felt quite strongly that it was an attack from the enemy that I had been in such pain for weeks. Because it had really held me back from performing to the best of my ability because I was afraid that I would hurt myself more severely. But what is really cool is that while they were praying for me in chinese, God showed me a picture of him putting a large purple cloak over me and telling me that he was my protection. Then, when the ladies stoped praying the translator told me what they felt about the pain being an attack but they also told me that they felt God telling them that I am under God's protection now. So it was just a really cool confirmation and a really neat use of God's spirit through several languages and cultures. It was a neat experience for me. BUT! The coolest thing of all happened when the ladies prayed for a girl on our dance team that had been having a lot of back trouble. One of her legs was shorter than the other and been proving to be a little painful. So as they prayed in Chinese I heard this girl scream and say "oh my goodness! I felt that!" and the lady praying was totally stunned because Karla's leg had grown to match the length of her other leg! It was incredible!

The rest of our time in Taiwan was spent performing at hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and out on the street. One hospital we performed at several times so the girls were able to get pretty comfortable with their surroundings and instead of making them complacent their comfort made them bolder. It was amazing. I remember one specific time when our youngest student felt God leading her to speak before a large crowd. She didn't really know what to say but she knew that God was calling her to speak. And with a humbling boldness, this sixteen year old girl stared preaching! Because She shared the full gospel and then the people clapped politely had she walked away a little discouraged that the whole room hadn't gotten saved. But then she saw this tiny old woman staring at her. So she went up to this lady and one of they other leaders Alissa, saw them talking and stood with the two of them. And that day that tiny little 92 year old Buddhist lady got saved. It was SO transformational for our young student. She had been held back by a lot of fear in so many areas in her life and that day something in her really broke. And, to top it all off, she had had this bracelet that she had put on over a year ago and she couldn't get it off, even though she had tried several times. But when she stood up to speak the bracelet, which was solid jade cracked and fell off her wrist. It was such a powerful symbol of God freeing her.

So all in all, I had an incredible time on outreach and an incredible time with our girls. This summer program had been so healing for me. I left the last school feeling really discouraged about my leadership and how I hadn't lived up to my expectations. But I felt that this summer, I had a wonderful time and I served our girls with excellence. I feel that I did a really good job and also that I was able to build significant and long lasting relationships with each one of them. It was a really different and positive experience. So I want to leave you with my stories praising God for his love and his provision and his power and just for who he is. I pray that each of you would experience these things in the fullness of the way that I have this summer. I pray that you would see God's provision and blessing for partnering with me in this program!

the best job ever!

2008-06-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! The last few weeks have been AWESOME!!!! I wish I could use more punctuation or be more obnoxious. The last three weeks with Summer of Dance have been incredible.
We worked on six pieces of choreography by a woman named Kendall Volkman from Florida. She was so great to work with. Her pieces were definitely challenging and the girls (staff and students) worked really hard to meet her expectations. There's just something about working together as a physical unit and spending hours in a sweaty studio that really bonds a team. ;) But Kendall was only able to be with us for ten days and, to be honest, as a leader I won't schedule anyone in such a short time again. It was pretty hard near the end. Taking in so much movement and then disciplining your body and mind to grab that movement and hold on to it was pretty hard near the end. But we pulled it together. We got some very rough video and as so as soon as we get back to the States in August I'll put it up.
Summer of Dance has been so refreshing and different from School of Dance. The school has a tremendous focus on academics and technical aspects of dance. Because the aim of School of Dance is to train technically and academically within a faith setting it doesn't have the same teaching about foundational Christian principles as something like DTS (Discipleship Training School) or Summer of Dance. But with the summer program it has both the faith input and the dance training. It's such a wonderful medium.
And the lecture content has been incredibleamazing. We've had lectures about The Cost of Discipleship, Hearing the Voice of God, God's Father Heart, Postmodernism, Evangelism, Worship, Identity, and others. They were such a transformational time for both the students and me. There were a few things about the lectures that really stood out to me. One of the students we had was quite withdrawn and not as apt to step out or put herself out there as some of the others. One day after lectures we had a time where we as staff and students prayed for one another. I prayed for this young girl and something really changed in her. She looked up around the room and she went and prayed another girl on the team, and then someone on the sports team, and then someone she had never even met! And she's been different ever since! It's been SO rewarding to see all of our students really step out of their comfort zones and be obedient to what God is telling them.
On a personal note God has done SO MUCH with me in this last month. God has been speaking to me about a few things. Like I mentioned before, He has been showing in new and tangible ways just how much he loves me. It's been incredible. I feel more free than I ever have in my life. I feel as if something has just "clicked" within me. I can't really explain it, but there is something there that hasn't been before. I feel that my identity has been and is sinking into place. God is stripping away the things that hold me back from being the full expression of him in the world. I love it.

So as we head to Taiwan there are a few things you can pray for our team:
- our team finances are pretty tight. We would love for God to multiply our money like he did with the fishes and the loaves.
- protection from illness and injury,
- team unity, travel and outreach can tend to heighten differences between people and under the stress of outreach it can become a problem,
- obedience. Something that has become a theme with our team has been stepping out with when God calls us to. We want to move when God says move.

Thanks for your support and prayers. It means so much to me and my team!

a smattering of update

2008-06-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

Happy June!

It's finally sunny and beautiful here in Lakeside! It's only taken months for summer to come around. The base here looks so different when it's not snowing or raining. Everyone comes out from their rooms and houses. There's always people and kids out playing. It just feels so much more social. Then it really does start to feel like a family around here. And my extended family now contains some 150 people.

Speaking of family, I had a chance to visit many, many relatives in Victoria, British Columbia this past month. Unfortunately, it wasn't under positive circumstances. My Granddad was diagnosed in November with an extremely aggressive form of Colon Cancer. So I went in early May to visit and see him for the last time and once again in late May for his funeral. It was strange seeing a man who was always SO robust and SO energetic truly emaciated by cancer. But there were so many things I learned about him. He was such a generous man. Throughout the many businesses that he owned he was always willing to give a job to someone who needed on. And probably the best story I heard about my Granddad was one of the last times he went to church. After a disagreement with the Priest, he asked for his offering money back. It was wonderful to get a bigger picture of what kind of man he was. And he was a man I really liked.

But back at the base things are in full swing. We've just finished our first week on Summer of Dance. We have five students and they are fantastic. We had a full week of rehearsals and they poured themselves out this week! I think I should mention that they need to pace themselves. haha! Our guest choreographer, Kendall has taught us two pieces already. They're so beautiful, once we get them video taped I'll put them up here. But they're also a little tiring. She does a lot of work on the floor and as a result I have many, many bruises. I even drew blood. I'm so hardcore. haha. But she'll be teaching us four more pieces in the next week, which is a lot, if you've never learn choreography.
The trouble is that even though we leave in three weeks. We haven't been able to nail down where we're going on outreach yet. Our initial plan was Taiwan, but because of ever increasing airfare, we just don't think it's feasible to go on our budget. So we've looked at cheaper alternatives but those don't seem to be working out either. We're having such a difficult time. But I'll keep you updated. We should find out sometime this week.

Now, there's also something I've just recently learned that makes my life considerably more difficult. Since I returned from Africa in June 2007, I've been having some difficulty with my digestive system. After a few trips to the doctor and naturalpath (how do you spell that?) I've discovered what it is that is bothering me so much. I have a bacteria called Candida and hypoglycemia. Now one wouldn't be so difficult but both together are kind of problematic. But to manage Candida there are many, many ,many foods I can no longer eat. It's actually really sad. But essentially, it means that I can't eat in the cafeteria here at the base anymore. Which makes things considerably more expensive for me. I'll be sending an email in the next few days detailing how much more I need, but it would just be helpful to have a little more money to work with because everything is getting just a little more expensive these days and having to buy specific and obscure foods is not really helping the situation.

Anyway, that's about it. Thanks for taking the time to read and pray!!!

Prayer Requests:
- For my Grandma Edith who is missing her husband,
- Energy for the dancers and myself who need to learn and dance quite a bit in the coming weeks,
- Clarity about outreach for Summer of Dance,
- healing for my stomach and other bodily ailments (side step the whole money issue),
- (if the healing doesn't come around right away) more monthly support to take care of this pesky bacteria and glucose level problem.

Very Long and Overdue!

2008-05-03T12:24:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends! Once again it's been too long.

Well, where did I leave off? I believe I was in Zagreb. After the capital we took a horrific train ride down to Split, Croatia. It was an eight hour overnight train, which would have been fine had we purchased tickets for a sleeper train. But, as we were on a budget, we chose to just tough it out. After all, we were on outreach. If you've ever been on a European train then you know they're not the most comfortable things going, nor are they the most roomy. So, when you stuff six girls and eight pieces of luggage in one train cabin it tends to get a little crowded. And after eight hours I was ready to cry. But we made it, tired and grumpy, but alive.
Our time in Split was really challenging, fantastic, but challenging. In the 3rd century AD Emperor Diocletian famously persecuted Christians there, not far from where we were staying. And that feeling is still around. People are not hostile, but they are extremely guarded and superstitious in Split. It was extremely difficult for us to do anything. Many of our first attempts to dance in schools or orphanages failed spectacularly. So for about a week, we spent a lot of time walking the streets of the city in prayer. And man did it make a difference.
The second week we were there SO many opportunities came up. We were able to dance in a school, two orphanages, teach at a local dance studio, perform our entire show in a theater, and collaborate with a local music conservatory in improvisation and movement expression. But still, we encountered quite a bit of spiritual warfare, with many of our students seeing demons in their rooms, on the streets, and even in their dreams. Many of our students were woken in the middle of the night just to pray. It was intense. But God provided so much strength and peace to us, it was incredible.
One thing I have to mention before moving on! Our Rwandese student, Jackie, had been praying for her father's healing for fourteen years. Her father had been paralyzed in the genocide in Rwanda. He had been in a wheel chair ever since. One day, Jackie feels that God is calling her to pray for her dad's healing and to dance for that healing. So, she asks another student, Annie from Washington, to dance around her as she prays for her dad. After praying for a while, perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes, Jackie feels that God says, "it's okay, you can stop dancing, he's healed." So about a week later Jackie recieves an email from her family in Rwanda saying her father walked for the first time in fourteen years! He is healed! Such an amazing testimony about the power of dance and prayer!

After Split, we headed over to Italy. We were in a small university city called Padova or Padua. It's about a half hour from Venice. We were SO excited to be in Italy, so we show up to the train station and our contacts are nowhere to be found. As leaders we think thats odd, but after several calls we're able to track down our contacts and they lead us to the church we will be working with. The pastor seems likable enough, then gathers the whole team for a little orientation. In my head I think, "shouldn't we meet as leaders with him first?" But I'm not sure how they do things here, apparently, they host many, many teams, so they must have a system or something. Then the pastor starts asking questions like "have you ever given your testimony before?" and "when you talk to people on the street, be sure to give them a tract." He's actually talking to us like we're children. The thing about our school is that to do it, you have to have done DTS before. So all of our students have international missions experience. Many of them have quite a bit having staffed DTS, completing other YWAM schools, or growing up as missionary children. The week before, we figured out that as a team of 17, we had been to 75 countries. So we're clearly not new at this. So after about 20 minutes of being treated like a fourteen year old who's never been out of their home state, let alone the country, I decide to speak up. (Mostly because I'm cracked out on dayquil and other cold medication.)
"Sir, we're a fairly experienced team. Most of them have been to at least ten countries each. They know what they're doing and they're very good at it."
I wish I could say that put him in his place and from then on he realized what a stellar team we has dealing with. But unfortunately, it did not. About an hour later we were taken to the university campus and the church leadership shoves hundreds of tracts into our hands and says, "go evangelize!" Our students literally just stood there and looked at them. Totally dumbfounded. They kept looking at us as leaders with this desperate look on their faces. Like, "please, please, don't make us do this." Needless to say we did. I think I handed out six the whole two weeks we were there. But man, it was such an excerise in humility. Submitting to authority that you fundamentally disagreed with and doing everything, no matter how menial, they asked of you. I think we as leaders learned the most. It was SO challenging for us to deal with the church on a daily basis.

Things on the base here are pretty mellow. I've been working in the kitchen in the mornings and working in the afternoons on Summer of Dance, which is a two month missions program for students in high school. We start June 8 and I'm really excited. It looks like we'll be headed to Taiwan with a team of basketball players who will be on base at the same time with a program called Summer of Sports.

Personally, I've been having an incredible time learning more about just how much my Jesus loves me. Especially in the last week. I've had times where I have been literally overwhelmed by his love. I actually have to stop what I'm doing, because it's just too much. It's an amazing thing and I have welcomed it with such joy and peace. I'm just sensing that God is going to take me on a new journey, one where his love is shown to me in tangible and real ways. I know that this next season for me will be a season of fruit for me, in many ways. I just love where I'm at. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Thank you for enabling me to be here. I have gifts for you all from Italy and Croatia. But it's difficult to get some of these things mailed to Canada. But they are coming!

Some Prayer Requests:
- More students for Summer of Dance. We have two, possibly three, but we need ten to make the budget work.
- Wisdom in making decisions for the next years schools and leadership.
- My roommate Lotte, has returned to Germany to apply for several very prestigious dance and performing arts universities. Just pray that God would reveal his will for her and that she would also have a very restful time. She works very hard.

Until next time!

from Croatia, with love...

2008-02-28T05:57:00.000-08:00

I don't know if that's actually the title of that movie. I can't really remember right now. Anyway, I just wanted to post a brief update from the tiny, but beautiful country of Croatia.

Right now we're in the capital of Zagreb. We've been working with the local YWAM team here, which consists of two ladies. So, they haven't seen too much activity lately, but man, have they risen to the challenge of hosting 17 dancers. We've had some incredible opportunities to perform in local churches and share teaching about worship and intercession, using dance. Like in North America, this is still a new teaching but the people in churches here are so hungry and they're so responsive to what we have. Also, last night we had the opportunity to perform in a prison just outside the city. What an incredible experience!!! They brought in both men and women and they even allowed us to share a little of the gospel and how much Christ means to us. One of our students shared her testimony about being in an abusive relationship and how God used her forgiveness to heal both her and her ex. Then I performed a dance we have talking about how the only desire we have is Jesus. I kid you not you could actually feel the weight of the Holy Spirit around us. People were in tears and so, so still. It was out of control. It's such a shame because most of the prisoners were ushered out of the auditorium right away and we werent allowed to talk to many of them, but the ones we were able to share with were so grateful and so happy they were allowed to come.

Today, we performed in an elementary school for about 400 kids. And this story is amazing! Last week we asked our students to pray in the morning and ask God what he wanted them to do that day. Four of our students were headed out and had not even started what God had led them to do yet when one of the students freaked out. She turned to the building beside her and said "Ive seen this building before!" It turns out that the building was a school and she had had a dream in August about this school. She dreamed that she and a group of girls she didn't know were walking through a school and praying. She remembered exact details in her dream: plants in a window, the colours of the stairwell inside, the basketball court outside, a tree outside one of the larger window. So, these four girls decide to be brave and walk in this Croatian school. They were in there for a good 20 minutes before someone found them. And the school was the exact school in her dream. All the details were the same. So, the person that found them was the principal and instead of freaking out because there's four strangers walking around, she doesnt kick them out, she finds out they're from America and invited them into an english class to converse with the students! So crazy!! Then, she finds out they're dancers and part of a larger team and invite us to come perform. Our contacts say that this is VERY difficult to arrange because you need all kinds of permits and authorization, but they invited us right in. They didn't even ask what we were performing!!!

So, as you can see, its been awesome time and we're having the time of our lives. God is working through us and we're loving it! There are a few things you can pray for:

- Jackie and Sene, after getting Croatian visas in one day, we decided we wanted Italian visas in one day too. No, actually, the Italian embassy here is giving us such a hard time. They won't even talk to us. And we need the Visas by tomorrow. Friday. So, yet another opportunity for God to show off.
- A personal request: I'm so constantly tired here and there's no reason I should be.
- Team unity and submission to one another in love
- God would go before us in our long day of travel to Split on Sunday.

Thanks for being so supportive in prayers and moneys. I wouldn't be here without your help!

every red cent.

2008-02-16T18:35:00.000-08:00

Sooo... it's Saturday night. About 7.30pm.

And we have just been given the balance of all the money we needed. Which is approximately $16,000.

Told you so.

p.s.

2008-02-15T17:29:00.000-08:00

I wrote the last update about an hour and a half ago and since then, School of Dance has been given $3,300.

I do not doubt that God will provide more than we need.

just watch.

up, up, and away!

2008-02-15T15:38:00.000-08:00

Sunday draws ever nigh. And there's so much do to. I just want to leave already, I'm tired of preparing to leave. It's so much work getting 17 people to Europe!

But do I have a story for you! I've mentioned before how seriously, seriously short on cash we are. I think I said 25,000$ before. Well, that number had not really changed until yesterday. After tirelessly trying to raise support for almost five plus months, about half of our students still do not have their full fees. This is pretty unheard of at this base. They're pretty orderly when it comes to finances, in fact they had often recommended that we send students home because they had no way to pay. We prayed about it but felt quite strongly that everyone, staff and students, had a specific and strategic purpose for being here at this time.

Thursday, February 14. Still missing $23,000 and two passports that had been sent away for visa applications a week prior. We recieved a phone call from the Croatian embassy in Los Angeles. They woman on the phone said, "I don't know what you were thinking! You can't get a visa in 5 days. It takes a minimum of 30 days. We need to send it to Croatia and then they send it back. There's no way you'll get it by the time you leave." So, with no other recourse we got down on our faces and prayed and fasted for the money and for the passports.
Thursday Night. Every thursday night here at the base we have a service for the community both at the base and around us. Every time a team goes out on outreach they pray for them and if they need extra money they take an offering. So, they prayed and took an offering. What you have to understand is that the majority of the community meeting attendees are ywam students. Which means they're praying for their money too. And the people that aren't students are ywam staff. Which means they live on the financial support of others. This is not the prime pool to be drawing from. Nevertheless, our base family raised 4300$ for us. A total, as far as I'm aware, that is unmatched by a giving night. So, our spirits slightly higher we decided to just go. Without all the money. We're not taking a loan from the base either because they don't even have that much. We're going with what we've got and praying that God will provide as we go. This has NEVER ever happened in the history of the base. And they are a little nervous. I go between nervousness and excitement. It'll be an amazing time.
Friday, February 15. Two days left before we leave. Lotte, our school leader, calls the Croatian embassy to see what the situation is with the visas. The woman on the other line is hardly impressed with us.
"You don't understand, you can't send in a passport one week before you leave and expect a visa."
Lotte begs for an exception.
"What are the students names again?"
Lotte repeats the names.
"Hmm, yes, let me give you the tracking number."
Lotte is confused. English is her third language.
"Yes, the passports with visas were overnighted to you yesterday, you should have them by 10am."
Lotte is still confused. The passports were supposed to be sent to Croatia, but apparently they're on their way to us!

God is fighting for us. There is no possible way we should have been granted those visas. When we looked over the information we sent the embassy, we had given them the wrong travel and accommodation information. They should have never, ever granted us those visas let alone gotten them in less than a week. Praise the Jesus.

I very firmly believe that God has amazing things planned for this outreach and this was the first and probably the least of what he will do.

Things to Pray for:
- more money... we still need 18,700$
- team unity- with so much of our outreach relying on faith we need to be united and not let anything come between any of us
- Amazing opportunities to be and share Jesus
- Daily direction and openness to the Holy Spirit's leading.

Thank you so much for all your support, in prayer and finances. This outreach is possible for both me and my students because of you. I sound like a PBS service announcement, but I really mean it. I could not and would not be here if it weren't for you. I more than appreciate your support.

More updates from Europe to follow!!!!

Too Long....

2008-01-23T15:24:00.000-08:00

I know. For shame. It's been too long and I'm sorry. But really, I like to put thought into what I write, so even writing one update takes at least an hour. And as I mentioned before, we're a little busy around here. Enough excuses. Here's the low down:

We leave for outreach in 24 days!!! I can't believe it. All this time has just rushed past and here we are in the final weeks of lecture phase and the final months of the school. I knew time flies, but seriously. So, look out Italy and Croatia! Actually, it's under top secret discussion, but we're looking at perhaps making a side trip into Bosnia after all. Which would be amazing! I don't know why but even after deciding months ago not to go because of Visa issues, Bosnia still tugs on my little heart strings. I'm hoping that if we don't take the School of Dance there, Whitney (my fellow dance staff) will be able to take the Summer of Dance in July. I'll get to Summer of Dance later...

So, we're still preparing our dance pieces to share on outreach. Our concert is really starting to take shape and I'm so pumped to see how we'll perform in Europe. We'll be teaching some English classes as well as some creative movement classes. Some to younger students and some to high school or university aged students, so it will be quite the mix. But we have so many outgoing and amazingly adaptable girls on our team that I think whatever we do will be fruitful and fun. Our school is, however, experiencing some unity problems. It's not that the students are all getting along, but the problem is that everyone is trying to accomplish their own personal goal through the school which, like my friend Cindy from Pismo put it, leading us in all different directions. It's not a huge issue now, but these things can be magnified under the stress and intensity of outreach. So we could use some prayer for that.

Also, two of out international students are having some serious visa difficulties. One student, Jackie from Rwanda, sent her Visa to the Canadian embassy in Seattle in November to go to Canada for Christmas. As I'm sure you are aware, Christmas has come and gone and still we don't have Jackie's passport. I have harassed that embassy like no one's business but they will not tell me where her passport is or what the status is, If we don't get her passport soon we can send it in to the Italian or Croatian embassies for her to come on outreach with us. Another of our students, Senetenari from Samoa, has been with YWAM in Canada for several years, however, has been in America for about a year. Early into the school, Sene's visa was sent away for renewal because it was going to expire and it's still not back, which is extremely uncommon for it to take so long. She's allowed to be here because her Visa is pending but as soon as she leaves the states she will not be able to enter again. So, we have to send her home directly from Italy, rather than her returning to the base for an additional week of lectures before the school is over. Unless, we get her Visa asap. it's quite the ordeal.

Looking ahead a little, Whitney and I have been asked to staff the Summer of Dance which is similar to both DTS and School of Dance in that we have an intense dance focus, dancing four or so hours a day, but we will also have all the DTS topics like Father Heart of God, Hearing God's Voice, Intercession, Evangelism, etc. It's just a more concise little program. Summer of Dance starts mide June and finishes up mid August, just in time for the next School of Dance. And in between the current school and Summer of Dance, Whitney and I are going to help out the DTS department with their DTS dance track. Normally, though we are both dance, they're two separate departments and schools so we don't share a whole lot in common except dance, however, in the Spring school there isn't anyone with dance experience to set up the track for the students so Whitney and I will do it. So, there's lots going on, maybe even a little too much, but I've always worked best under pressure. :)

Prayer Requests:
- School of Dance unity
- School of Dance finances (we still owe the base $30,000)
- Visas for Jackie and Sene
- Peace and good rest leading up to outreach (it can be a little stressful getting everything organized)

SOD07 "Fix You"

2007-11-10T15:59:00.000-08:00

This one I'm actually in! Yay!

two passports

2007-10-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

In the last week. Hmmm. Well, we've had two more injuries.

One of the girls on staff here was teaching a Lyrical (ballet and jazz fusion) and sprained her ankle quite severely. It was really discouraging for her because she hadn't taught in quite a while and she was so excited to serve us and God and now she sort of feels like she shouldn't ever teach or dance again. Another one of our students was dancing in worship at Thursday Night Meeting (our weekly community worship night) and broke her toe. She has a great attitude about it though. She's really not letting it slow her down. A trooper if ever there was one.

But after seven injuries in four weeks we decided as staff and students that we needed to come together and have a time of intercession for ourselves. It was really great what came out. The girls just wanted to rid themselves of anything that might distract them from why we're here. People began to confess jealousy, seek forgiveness from people they might have hurt inadvertently, and others asked to be publicly held accountable to things that God had called them on. It was a great time and it wasn't hyper-emotional or uber-spiritual (like the staff were afraid it might become) but it was very honest expression of a fervent desire to be exactly where God wanted them to be and to not be distracted by anything or anyone. Our students are so great. I just love them.

In other positive news, we've heard from two our contacts in Italy and Croatia. So plans for outreach are coming along. I think we'll be working in the cities of Padova (Italy), Zagreb and Split in Croatia, and then in Sarajevo, Bosnia. It looks like it's going to be an amazing outreach and everyone, staff and students, are so excited to be going. I think it's going to be a phenomenal time.

There is one hiccup. I'm sure you all know about my ongoing passport issues. After moving something like six times in two years and two lost passports later the Canadian government has decided to make it supremely difficult for me to obtain a passport. Not impossible but just very difficult. It turns out that I will have to reapply every year until they decide that I'm not longer a security risk. I am 130lbs of ballerina-missionary security risk. So anyway, it's going to be a difficult process to say the least. This is exactly where one of our students is at too. She hasn't lost two, probably because she's much more responsible than me, but her passport was recently stolen. So both of us are experiencing some passport woes. This is a significant prayer request.

Things You Can Pray For:
- Plans for outreach would go smoothly, we would find cheap flights and places to stay,
- Our staff and students would not get injured anymore,
- Our team would continue to be united in love,
- favour with the mean passport people.

Until next time.

oh my...

2007-10-14T17:44:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry. I'm quite behind in my updates. Let's see. In the last few weeks School of Dance has performed in front of Senator Max Bacchus (whose name stems ironically from the Greek god of drunkenness and debauchery--I wanted to tell him but decided it wasn't an appropriate time) and had started learning new choreography.

Two dancers in the school performed the very first piece that I choregraphed. I'm not sure if you've ever had an experience where you've had to express yourself but only had rusty tools to do it with, but that's how I felt making this first piece. I used to dance around so often in our kitchen or living room. I even remember one incident in which I created a breathtaking pience of choregraphic genius to Michael W. Smith's immortal ode to friendship "Friends are Friends Forever" and performed it infront of the entire elementary school. That's something I try to not think of very often. But this was the first piece ever legitimately performed. It was strange. And really, really, really, difficult. Quite often I would show up to rehearsal already feeling defeated, like I couldn't create anything original or even thought provoking, and somehow this movement would sort of come out.

A few weeks ago one of the other dance staff members, Whitney, and I led a discussion on dance in worship. At first I was terrified. I've never danced in worship, let alone seen it done. This was the second week of class and as the students shared, sometimes incredibly personal and moving stories, about their experiences of dance in worship our team sort of bonded. We talked about intercessory dance, prophetic dance, worship dance, professional dance, everything that God might be calling them to we discussed. Then we just played some music and let them dance. And I danced too. I can't quite express what an incredible experience it was for everyone. Somehow, in worshiping through a gift I've long neglected, I found a new language to worship with. It was probably one of most profound times of worship I've ever had. I didn't open my mouth to sing a word. But I worshiped through every movement I didn't realize I was making. This is sort of how it was creating this new piece of choreography. New territory that somehow I found a new language in. Not restrained by practicing technique or belabored by the frustrations of perfectionism. It was awesome.

Things you can pray for:
- We know now that we would like to go to Italy, Bosnia, and Croatia for outreach, however, we're having trouble establishing contacts that we could partner in ministry. Please pray that this process goes smoothly.
- Still, our school seems to be witnessing a plague of mild to extremely serious injuries. From sprained ankles and toes to mysterious paralysis that only lasted a few hours (the doctors have no clue what was wrong) we are constantly experiencing physical roadblocks.
- Staff and students finances for the rest of the school and outreach.

That's all I can think of right now. I'll add more if I think of it later.

peace out.

Bigger and Better

2007-09-20T11:49:00.000-07:00

School of Dance started on Monday. It's Thursday and I'm exhausted. Our schedule is pretty intense. Monday, Wednesday and Friday we start with worship and intercession (we join the school of worship) and then the dancers go straight to lecture, alternating Dance History and topics for spiritual growth that changes topics and speakers every week. Then they dance all afternoon starting with Modern dance and finishing just before supper with rehearsal. Tuesdays and Thursdays the dancers start with Ballet (which I teach) at 8:15, learn dance composition before lunch, have conditioning (an intense hour and a half non-dance related workout) after lunch and finish with rehearsal again before supper. And what the dancers do I do. It's tough to get in the swing of something so physical when I haven't done that for so long. Hopefully, it will be a short and gentle learning curve.

But our students are amazing. They're so gifted, not only in dance but in general with the stories and spirits that God has given to them. I just listen to them talk and listen to their goals and dreams and I think "wow, what a privilege to serve you everyday!" We have one student from Rwanda. It's such an incredible story how she got here. A week before she was supposed to leave Rwanda she had not been able to raise any support. According to the rules she shouldn't even have been granted a Visa because she had no money. And in one week she was able to get her visa and then raise 1750$. She made contact with a supporter in Hong Kong that told her if she could get to Asia they would fly her to Montana and pay her school deposit. So she hopped on a plane (for the first time in her life) about six hours later. She spent two days in Hong Kong (which, needless to say, was quite a shock to her) getting dance supplies and flew over to the states. In San Francisco, however, she got confused and ended up boarding a plane to Oregon and not Montana. And no one checked her ticket, so she had to wait a day in Oregon. The airline was going to give her a hotel room, but one of the agents offered to take her to her home and walk her to the correct gate the next day. The next day, however, a last minute gate change was announced and she missed her flight again. But finally she's arrived. It's been pretty stressful for her, with such extreme culture shock and confusion. But she's handled it so well and we're so excited to have her here finally. She still has no money for her school, but already, God has been so faithful to provide for her. She's already been such an inspiration to the other girls on the school and others on the base.

We're still not really sure where we're going on outreach, although the staff is pretty convinced we're headed to Europe, possibly Italy, but we're pretty open. We've asked the students to join us in praying, which isn't really something that's done at this base, so we're all gathering together tomorrow to listen and seek God together. I'm really pulling for Italy and Northern Cyprus, which is the last divided state in Europe. Turkey has illegally occupied it for over 30 years. But again, we'll see!

Prayer Requests:
- Students' finances (some of them have little to no money for the school),
- Hear God clearly as we pray about where we can be of most service,
- Strength and energy to perform and practice with excellence,
- No injuries
- Team unity
- World peace.

I'm sort of kidding about the last one.

Another Week, Another Life

2007-09-09T11:59:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I look up from what I'm doing, lately, corresponding with students or planning dance history lectures, and I think "how am I so lucky to do this everyday?" It boggles my mind. I've been here for approximately two weeks. It seems like so much longer than that! And yet, I keep praying for more time. Our students come this week and the school starts next week. Suddenly, I'm very aware of how unqualified I am to do this. Teach ballet. A subject I myself have not done for years. Teach dance history. Something a little more recent. Books, libraries, research. Lead small groups. Lord help them all. But for all of this fear, I feel remarkably at ease. Which makes no sense. Except to me.

Our School of Dance staff just returned from a retreat. We spent a lot of time listening. It was great. Just listening to what God wanted to tell us about ourselves as teachers, as leaders, as individuals. I felt God so impress on my heart to leave all this fear behind. I'm reading a book by Thomas Merton called "Seeds." In the first chapter he says this about finding ourselves:

"If we take our vulnerable shell to be out true identity, if we think our mask is our true face, we will protect it with fabrications even at the cost of violating our own truth. This seems to be the collective endeavor of society: the more busily men dedicate themselves to it, the more certainly it become a collective illusion, until in the end we have the enormous, obsessive, uncontrollable dynamic of fabrications designed to protect mere fictitious identities--"selves," that is to say, regarded as objects."

Fear can sometimes be comforting. Fear can sometimes be motivating. But I think most often fear is paralyzing. And it seems to breed a sort of defense mechanism.

I've been thinking a lot about simplicity as it relates to fear. To protect myself, out of fear, violates the simplicity that my God asks of me. Why would he ask me to become as a child? I think in simplicity I would be forced to abandon the "mask" that demands so much maintenance. And if fear and lies were no longer my companions, then I might be more willing to seek and discover truth. The truth of perfect love. The truth of provision. The truth inherent in myself. I hope this make sense to someone other than me!

Prayer Requests:
- Strength for the coming school,
- Wisdom in dealing and talking with students,
- Continued health and freedom from injuries,
- A united staff team,
- a great time.

Inagural Blogural

2007-08-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

I'm cheating. I've used this blog title before elsewhere. I'm lacking both creativity and energy today. However, let that not be a deterant from sharing my last couple of days, which are incidentally my first here at YWAM Montana.

I arrived here on Friday night, in classic Crystal style. Late. I was supposed to be here at 3pm. I arrived at 7:30pm. Slightly later than expected. Many reasons could be cited, like an early pancake breakfast at Calgary's premier all night trucker diner, or perhaps an extended night's sleep thanks to an alarm clock that was never set, or a friend who I hadn't spoken to in months calling. But, really, none of these are important. I'm here now.

My time here couldn't have started in a better way. The staff here took some time from their busy school preparations for a staff retreat. There were some great times of teaching, fellowship, learning, and of course eating. I'll be honest it's hard trying to remember the names of all 100+ staff. I'm sure I've had the same conversation with several people. But at least they're gracious enough to smile and repeat the same information they've already told me.

There are several different schools that run at this base and most of them starts in two and a half weeks. There will be a DTS, a School of Worship, School of Biblical Studies, School of Dance, Foundations in Theatre Production, and the Titus Project (which is a continuation of the SBS). It's going to be pretty busy around here shortly. And I will be responsible for 12 dancers from accross the globe.

Well, that's about it for this time. I'll try to put regular updates here for your viewing and reading pleasure!

Crystal