"God says 'YES'"
I am sitting here, my second day in Hawaii as volunteer at University of the Nations, I am so thankful and nostalgic thinking about my first visit to YWAM-Kona. But first, let me back up to a year before that.
In April 2014, I was with Ad Deum in New York City for an amazing event called Project Dance. Project Dance is a three day event for dancers that has a free outdoor concert with the intention to bless the city that particular city. The first Project Dance was held just off of Time Square in NYC after the 9/11 attacks. Cheryl Cutlip, the founder, had the desire to bring hope back to the city by putting on an outdoor concert. Since that first event, Project Dance has exploded to cities all over the world. You should check out their website to see if there is an event near you this year!
That particular year, I met a girl from another dance company named Sarah, and we happened to start talking about our interest in possibly participating in a YWAM dts program. Both of us were intrigued, but had some questions about if that was what God had planned for us. During this conversation, a man walked up to us, that we both knew, and told us that he felt like he had a word from God for both of us: "God says 'yes'". I remember looking at Sarah totally shocked and saying "Well, I guess I need to pray more about this!". Now, this man, is an amazing godly man that I trust and he wasn't close to us when we were talking to know what we had been talking about. It was so crazy, but regardless of the perfect timing of this strong word from someone that I trust, I took it with a grain of salt and started praying and thinking more seriously about YWAM.
Over the next year, I did a lot of research about different dts programs in different nations, but I had a lot of trouble finding a program that seemed to fit. A couple people brought Kona up to me, but I had it in my mind that I wanted to go out of the country. I eventually gave up on the YWAM plan, but as soon as I did, Randy, my director, invited me to go with him to teach for a week at YWAM-Kona. That was my first clue that God was up to something.
My trip to Hawaii was amazing and life changing. It was there that I remembered the word that I received a year earlier that "God says 'yes'", and here I was at YWAM. It was a exactly a year from the day that I got that word in NYC (April 19, 2014) that I flew to YWAM-Kona for the first time (April 19, 2015). I was blown away by the divine orchestration of it all and how my "yes" word really happened!
That week, the Lord awakened so many desires in my heart and one of those desires was dance missions. I realized that my heart is more alive dancing out on streets and in markets rather than on stages in theaters. I realized that I have a passion for teaching dance. I realized that I have a passion for people knowing their true identity in Christ. And I already knew that I had a passion for travel and different cultures. All of these things perfectly culminate together in YWAM and thus again ignited the desire in my heart to serve YWAM and do a dts to gain more knowledge and experience in this area.
And here I am in Kona again. The Lord opened the door for me to do the HeartBridge Performing Arts dts in April 2016 as a student, but also teach dance for the program at the same time. And because I wanted to come to Kona in January, the Lord again opened a door for me to be a Mission Builder (volunteer) for three months spending my time teaching dance and serving the School of Performing Arts, which is a course for the University of the Nations on the YWAM campus. I am so thankful to be here and very curious how this next year will play out!
In April 2014, I was with Ad Deum in New York City for an amazing event called Project Dance. Project Dance is a three day event for dancers that has a free outdoor concert with the intention to bless the city that particular city. The first Project Dance was held just off of Time Square in NYC after the 9/11 attacks. Cheryl Cutlip, the founder, had the desire to bring hope back to the city by putting on an outdoor concert. Since that first event, Project Dance has exploded to cities all over the world. You should check out their website to see if there is an event near you this year!
That particular year, I met a girl from another dance company named Sarah, and we happened to start talking about our interest in possibly participating in a YWAM dts program. Both of us were intrigued, but had some questions about if that was what God had planned for us. During this conversation, a man walked up to us, that we both knew, and told us that he felt like he had a word from God for both of us: "God says 'yes'". I remember looking at Sarah totally shocked and saying "Well, I guess I need to pray more about this!". Now, this man, is an amazing godly man that I trust and he wasn't close to us when we were talking to know what we had been talking about. It was so crazy, but regardless of the perfect timing of this strong word from someone that I trust, I took it with a grain of salt and started praying and thinking more seriously about YWAM.
Over the next year, I did a lot of research about different dts programs in different nations, but I had a lot of trouble finding a program that seemed to fit. A couple people brought Kona up to me, but I had it in my mind that I wanted to go out of the country. I eventually gave up on the YWAM plan, but as soon as I did, Randy, my director, invited me to go with him to teach for a week at YWAM-Kona. That was my first clue that God was up to something.
My trip to Hawaii was amazing and life changing. It was there that I remembered the word that I received a year earlier that "God says 'yes'", and here I was at YWAM. It was a exactly a year from the day that I got that word in NYC (April 19, 2014) that I flew to YWAM-Kona for the first time (April 19, 2015). I was blown away by the divine orchestration of it all and how my "yes" word really happened!
That week, the Lord awakened so many desires in my heart and one of those desires was dance missions. I realized that my heart is more alive dancing out on streets and in markets rather than on stages in theaters. I realized that I have a passion for teaching dance. I realized that I have a passion for people knowing their true identity in Christ. And I already knew that I had a passion for travel and different cultures. All of these things perfectly culminate together in YWAM and thus again ignited the desire in my heart to serve YWAM and do a dts to gain more knowledge and experience in this area.
And here I am in Kona again. The Lord opened the door for me to do the HeartBridge Performing Arts dts in April 2016 as a student, but also teach dance for the program at the same time. And because I wanted to come to Kona in January, the Lord again opened a door for me to be a Mission Builder (volunteer) for three months spending my time teaching dance and serving the School of Performing Arts, which is a course for the University of the Nations on the YWAM campus. I am so thankful to be here and very curious how this next year will play out!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Thanks for sharing!
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