It’s the World We Live In and the Price Paid

“On early Sunday morning (US time), a lone gunman entered a Youth With A Mission (YWAM) training centre in Arvada, a suburb in the city of Denver, and shot four members of the staff who were then taken to the hospital where two later died from their injuries…”

To read the full articles click on the links below:
http://www.ywam.org/articles/article.asp?AID=502

Related articles:
http://au.christiantoday.com/article/ywam-forgiveness-for-murderer/3533.htm
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQm8JdqoFSdQ6BqX4qhyMs-Mv8JAD8TE8N1G0
http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=30096&cat=15

Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM said in a speech preceding the shootings at the YWAM base and church in Colorado, that less then a dozen YWAMers have been killed since its beginnings. That is a HUGE amount of protection considering all of the dangerous places that many YWAMers go and all of the bold and risky things that they do just to get God’s love across to a dark world. In fact the whole history of YWAM is interwoven with such miraculous feats that only God could be credited for doing. Yet Loren said that in this next year, the protection will be waning. It will be a time of martyrdom and persecution for Christians all over the world. But we are not afraid. We’re glued together for something worth more than ourselves and we know what we’re living for because we’re willing to even die for it. All that has happened after these terrible events has made me re-think my first passion and why I even decided to go into missions in the first place. That all my selfish dreams mean nothing compared to living for God and spreading His love and Word. It makes me re-think what I am living for and what I am willing to die for.

“To live is Christ. To die is gain.”

The gunman was shot himself, later as he attempted to do more damage in a church and in a mall. He could have been anyone. Anywhere. He was someone’s son. He was also God’s son. And God was crying for him just like God cries for everyone who is lost like he was. If we could even imagine crying and caring for what God cries and cares for, it would be an insuppressible sorrow that would break our souls into too many pieces to count. And that I believe is a gross understatement.

Yet I can feel in my bones that this is the beginning of a new era and a new age for God. The arts is being redeemed back to Him. Prayer is going to be blown out of its dimensions. Evangelism will spread like wildfire and nothing will be able to stop it. It will not only be the young but even the old will find a passion for God that nothing can contain. Satan will attack but with every step He takes, it sets him three more steps back. Because God is light. God is good. God is powerful. God is Truth. God will win. God’s people are seeping in the crack, filling the earth like a flood, like a storm, like light where darkness knows no identity, against disease and against poverty. These people have nothing and yet they are richer than any man ever was. This will all overflow and humanity will burst at the seams with the power and spirit of God brought by those who have no fear; no fear of evil, of violence, or of pain, and yet they embrace suffering like God embraces the sinner, the drunkard, the drug addict, the murderer and the whore. Because Jesus Christ died for everyone. That’s the whole point. The more danger the more these warriors will press on despite threat, in the midst of blindness – because faith are their very eyes – even under gunfire and blood. They are sweeping the earth with a vision birthed like a revelation that WILL come to pass. Their music will reach the soul’s of evil. Their dance will shake the foundations of the earth, of humanity and of the spirits. Their words will pierce like epiphanies and swords of Truth. Their prayers will move the heavens and God’s hand will go where no one has gone or ever will go. People will dream dreams, and see and do miracles.

What happened in Colorado is only the beginning. Because God’s poeple are moving full speed ahead and the darkness shudders and quakes at the very whisper of His Name…

1 The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?…

5 For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.

14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD. -Psalm 27

 

 

One More Week…

Right now I’m sitting in the student center enjoying a day of slowly getting work done. Some guys in the SBS school are playing ping pong and a nice fire is warming up the room. The past few weeks have been anything but dull and it’s in these quiet moments that I find I’m able to slow my mind down to a healthy working pace. There is only one more week of class and the first quarter is finished. They say that the next quarter is even more intense which makes me curious because these past couple of weeks were the busiest I think I’ve ever been in my life. We just had our Christmas concert Friday night and it went really well. We combined our efforts and talents with the School of Worship’s musical repertoire. One last guest choreographer will be coming this last week who is from New York and used to be in Martha Graham’s company. I’m anxious to be able to be taught by someone who was taught by a famous modern dance pioneer.

Besides all of the dancing and work I’ve been doing here I have also been learning swing dance and the west coast swing which I am convinced is the funnest activity I think I’ve ever done. We usually get a group together and go every other weekend to dance to a live band. We’ve all had fun learning new moves together and I find it relaxing to get away from dancing by…dancing! There’s just something about swing dancing specifically that helps me to relax and laugh at mistakes and forget about problems. For me, it’s as if the Jazz music is like the fingers that play the instrument, and I’m the instrument. I can’t help but move to it. It invokes unity in friends, and provides an outlet away from the hours of studying the School of Biblical studies and the dancers do. I don’t understand why more people in my generation don’t do it. When swing dancing began with the beginning of Jazz from the African America culture, they knew what they were about and it was genius. It’s different dance styles like this that make me want to pursue dance even more and see just how much God can use it in it’s endless possibilities…

Yet as much as things are going well here there is a big problem that seems to weigh everything down as much as we all try not to let it. Many of us do not have enough money to pay our tuition fees. As all of out money comes from supporters many of the the girls who are not from America do not have enough money. It does not help that dance is just beginning to be redeemed back to God and many people do not think that dance even has a place in the church. (That is a lie fed to us by culture, stereotypes and history.) As it is, our school owes the base a considerable amount of money and if we do not have the money by the time Christmas comes, some of the girls will have to go home and not complete the school. That means less people will go on outreach with us. That means their lives as it is moving in this direction will be put to a stop. That means what we thought God wanted is maybe not what God intended. Or maybe this is another way for Satan to keep this school from fulfilling God’s purpose for it. I can’t even think about some of these girls going home after all these weeks. It’s almost like we’re family and it wouldn’t be the same without them. As I’d mentioned earlier, I’ve never known any group of girls, any group of dancers, to be as sold out for God, as loving and as special as these girls. There are family problems and they dance. There are many bruises an soreness and they dance. They have nothing and yet they give everything to God and to those who need help. They have no sleep and they dance. There is no more energy and we study and study. Some know they might not be able to come back yet they give their all. Much prayer is needed and lately I find myself going to talk to God and plead with Him to finish what He has started. And I know that He will. What extra money any of us has, is given to the group to do what we feel God has told us to do. One girl gave up Macbook. Another girl gave up her last 500 dollars. And many others of us gave as much as we could and still we do not have enough. The rest will come from God. (God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” -Numbers 23:19)

Besides all of this God seems to find that our freedom is more important than how much money we have or if some of us finish this school or not. Freedom from bondage so that we can help free those who are still in bondage. Freedom from the fear of man, freedom from financial fear, freedom from our own dreams as we give all our expectations and selfish goals to God. These are things that my school is letting God heal and that is the wealth that has been gained, and it is richer than all the money that we gave to each other on Giving Night in attempts to come closer to our financial goal. And the sweetest moments is when all 13 of us and our 4 staff are dancing together in a powerful worship to God. “Worship is Warfare, because it is praise.” It is a whole new level and dimension of worship as none I have ever known. That is worth more than any money ever given or spent. Besides, God can do the impossible.

 

 

Since everyone’s been asking me about it,