Grease Lightning...

On Saturday night I had SO much fun. They have outdoor movie nights in the summer in a nearby town. They have painted a big screen on the side of a building and open up the car park for people to bring, blankets, chairs, and even couches! to sit on to watch the nights film. This Saturday was 'Grease sing-a-long' night.

I am sure you have figured out that they showed Grease, but they also had the word up throughout the movie a=so we all could sing our hearts out. Beforehand they had people teach the hand jive too so we join in the dancing.

There were people of all ages gathered in a small car park, singing, drinking pop, snuggling under blankets, laughing, and not minding the short rain showers to enjoy this movie together!

I had a blast!!!!

Passion in Action

I had an amazing morning. It is the final week of our Mission Adventures program, and also our biggest with nearly 60 people!! I am doing a full week with them at the church. I was feeling a little overwhelmed as I imagined the office work piling up for me when I start back on Monday morning. My bad attitude soon ended as when I met the teams and also when I realized that my good friends Wade and Joanna Pallister were coming to speak. Wade and Jo work with YWAM Vancouver and come to speak each summer as well as on each DTS we hold here so they are a part of the furniture really, we love to have them here.

I have been so blessed by the things God has spoken to me through their teaching and especially in my friendship with Joanna. The first time we met was 4 years ago during my DTS when my school went to Vancouver, Canada for a conference. There was a session which ended with the speaker challenging all of us to dance, I forget the context now but I remember the feeling. I wanted to dance SO badly, I felt God encouraging me to step out, to give up my pride and dance for Him, but I was frozen to the floor. I was so inhibited and embarrassed by how I would look. Joanna saw my face and walked across the room to me, she encouraged me to dance, telling me that I could do it. She took both my hands and began jumping, slowly and gently, but she jumped with me, she helped me overcome my fear. By the end of the conference I loved dancing and jumping before God. It is one of my most favorite memories and a time that I felt such a connection with God.

This week Wade and Jo have been speaking on the four P's of mission Adventures, (see Mission Adventures blog for details) This morning they spoke on 'Passion'. We had been talking about children trapped in bonded labor and as Christians what does our faith say our part can/should/could be in finding a solution. I agree with Wade and Jo that as part of taking about passion their needs to be an opportunity to take action! They explained to the group that to take action and make a difference we have to make a choice that takes us to somewhere uncomfortable. We must chose to give our all and be passionate about what we do.

They put on some music and read some scriptures which talk about dancing before God, they challenged all the students to dance passionately. They were challenged to dance for the people being held in slavery, dance for Jesus and how he died for us and dance to show us choosing to do something uncomfortable. Invited to shut their eyes and not worry about what everyone else was doing.

The teams this week are from 2 churches and their are lots of parents and leaders, so I wasn't sure how this would go over. I had also been frustrated by one of the boys here this week, he has had a bad attitude about lots of things and after being cross with him, I became sad that he was missing all the things God was speaking. I admit I was waiting for his bad attitude to surface again in this situation. So I prayed for him, and the group as the music started, and I knew God was going to do something.

Then I danced.

I jumped and shouted.

It was amazing!!!!

...and when I looked up at one point, I saw the room moving, alive with passion!! The leaders and parents jumping and dancing with the best of them. Then he caught my eye, the kid who had been driving me crazy, he was headbanging, eyes shut, passionately dancing for the Lord.

Then I lost it, and I was jumping and dancing and crying as I felt God transformations happening around me. And in me too, as I felt him take the pride from my heart, and again surrender my fear of the future to His plan. Tonight as I sit here and write this, I realize the freedom and lightness in my heart, and I know that I am blessed to be falling more and more in love with our Lord.

Greenlake and friends

I live in Seattle. I have been here for a while now but just when I think I know this city I discover something new that I love. This is what happened last summer when I moved just a few minutes up the road from where I had been living. I had new and fun places to walk to and I found that it was only a 10 minute walk to Greenlake. Greenlake is a beautiful park with, yes you guessed it, a lake!

Over the past year I have spent many hours at Greenlake. It is nice to walk around the lake, if I am hanging out with any kids the playground is fun, and it is wonderful to people watch!

Last week I went there with my friends Amanda and Ashley. We walked past the basket ball courts which were alive and sweaty with the enthusiastic ball game. We avoided walking over any of the field that the baseball game was on, and we marveled at the circus tricks being taught and practiced on the other side of the grass. It was the place to be and everyone was!!! The sunny weather encouraged the whole city outside.

We sat on the steps which go down into the shallow swimming area, and looked out into the lake. Some swimmers were deep in the water, people were throwing themselves off of the diving boards on the floating platform. Beyond that there lake was scattered with yellow and blue peddle-o's, a few canoes and even a windsurfer! We sat and watched the kids playing and laughing in the water. We didn't say much to each other but we were all smiling.

Then we moved on and sat on the grass around the outside of the lake, and found a spot to sit and catch some sun. We watched as people young and old whizzed by on their bikes, mums ran with babies in jogging strollers, people rollerbladed (some good, others who seemed to have taken their lives in their hands when they put the skates on!) We saw many people walking dogs, and a few even pushing their dogs in dog strollers - no, I'm not kidding. So many people. So many lives.

I confess that sometimes I get overwhelmed by numbers. The number of people in this city who don't know who Jesus is. The number of people who have rejected Him. The number of people who are actively following other religions, or who are living the new age lifestyle. Most of all I get overwhelmed by the number of people living in this city and have no interest in a relationship with God, people that just don't care.

How do we even begin to reach them? I believe that God has a plan for this city, just like every other and I pray that he continues to develop our passion for Seattle and the people here. That he continues to gives us creative ideas for reaching people and sharing who He really is.

The thing about Seattle is that so many people are hurting, I guess it is like that everywhere, but I know it is true for Seattle. I pray each day for more of God's heart for this city.

Mission Adventures

Another summer is here, and our mission Adventures program is well under way. This year I am not working full time with it because of all the work to do this time of year for DTS, instead I am working there just 2 or 3 days a week.

The mission Adventures program is designed to equip teenagers for their missions trip. They come to Seattle for 4 days of training and then go onto either into the city here, or to San Francisco, Costa Rica, or Mexico for a week. It is an opportunity for the kids to get their hearts right with God before going overseas to minister to others.

During the 4 day training there are times of worship - singing and also other creative worship such as painting and writing. We also have times of teaching, based on the four P's, something that the Mission Adventures team was given when praying about the program many years ago (taken from Psalm 51). God spoke about teaching on PASSION, PURPOSE, PASSION AND PROCLAMATION. Since MA began over 60,000 young people have been trained using this pattern.



As a part of the training in Seattle we also cover issues of injustice in the world and try to make the young people more aware of the world around them and help them to find God's heart for the people involved. We cover topics such as bonded labor, prostitution and sex trafficking. It has been great to see the response that these times have had.

Last summer we introduced a prayer room to our program, having the kids sign up for hour slots throughout the day and night for the whole time they are in Seattle. We have a prayer room again this year, with a few different elements, but again we have seen the kids be excited about getting up and out of bed at 3am to spend an hour with God. I hope and pray that their experiences in that room will transform not only the cities and people they are praying for but also that it will transform their relationships with God as they learn to make time to sit in his presence and listen. This is one of the most exciting parts of the summer for me.

I have been involved in a lot of cooking so far this summer! Making meals for 50+ just isn't a daunting prospect anymore. We have a joke list of ways to know you are in YWAM - One of them is that when you are asked to cook a meal for 80 you don't flinch, but you don't know how to cook for just 3 or 4!!! Another thing on our list which I am also reminded of this summer as I wait our on the street to be picked up is...You know you are a YWAMer when you travel around in a 15 passenger van, and you don't think it is odd if there are only 2 of you in it!!!

We have a great summer staff this year and they are doing a great job, but it can be really tiring so please pray for strength for them as they invest in the kids who come through Mission Adventures this summer. Please also pray that the kids who come through will not forget the things they learn and the things God is speaking to them, that their lives will be transformed. The theme of the summer this year is 'Detox', and my prayer is that their lives will be totally rid of the junk that keeps distance between us and God, an that they will be transormed and ready to go and to be the people they were created to be.

Cherries

I am not sure if cherry season officially began this week but in grocery stores and produes markets in seattle it did! They were everywhere, and very inexpensive, so in my house we stocked up. I want to say that between us we finished off 8lbs of bing cherries in less than a week. (We had 3 visitors and made a pie, so it wasn't like we gourged ourselves, well, much!)

I have never enjoyed cherries as much as i have this year. They looks so pretty sitting in a bowl, they make the kitchen smell so nice, and they taste amazing, so sweet and juicy. Each time i walked through the kitchen today i took a cherry to munch on, and it got me thinking "what did i eat before this week?"

This cherry season is really short. Juicy cherries for a second and then gone again.

A sweet, sweet season. But it is only a season.

That's why we appreciate the cherries SO much when they are here. We make the most of them. We enjoy them while they are here. There is no point trying to keep them around for longer, they just get nasty, sour or squishy.

It reminds me again that life is full of seasons. Some are enjoyable and wonderful (like cherries!) and others may be hard, painful and sad. But we can rest knowing that are lives will be filled with every season and each one only lasts a certain amount of time. Our only constant is God and he is faithful to give us all we need in every season.