Bringing the Heart of Missions to High Schoolers

 This summer YWAM Los Angeles is re-launching our Mission Adventures program! MA is a one week, immersive missions experience tailored specifically for youth groups and high schoolers. Groups come from all over to receive teaching and training here on our campus, and then we launch them out into the city to live, serve and minister.  MA was originally founded at YWAM LA, but it hasn't been running here for the past few years. MA now operates at 33 YWAM locations worldwide...

Last fall we had a time of base-wide prayer where it became very apparent that God was resurrecting Missions Adventures at YWAM LA. During that meeting I felt an incredible passion for MA. I knew that God was impressing it upon my heart to be involved, so I raised my hand to be a part of the team that was gonna bring this adventure back. I had no idea how I was going to be involved, just that I was to be involved...

Shortly after returning from leading a team to Costa Rica and Panama, and as I was beginning to transition into staffing our current leadership school, I was asked to take on the main responsibility for coordinating MA and getting it ready to blast off when our teams arrive in July. Man was I surprised! I knew it would be a challenge, but it felt right to rise to the occasion and say yes. It's already been an awesome experience of growth and learning. I'm looking forward to all of the action that July will bring!

In the past we've always sent our MA teams on outreach to Mexico, but this year we felt called to do outreach right here in LA. I'm super excited to see us become more involved in ministering to our city. That's a big part of my heart and hope for YWAM LA.

So here I am! - coordinating and preparing the outreach activities for our incoming teams. I know that this season will have a huge impact not only on our community, but on the individual lives of the students who are going to come through. Many people who have been introduced to missions in high school through MA have returned to YWAM to do our six month Discipleship Training School, and many more still have been called into full-time missions. Whatever the case may be, I know that God is in this and that He's going to do incredible things.

You can get a little glimpse into the heart of Mission Adventures by watching the video below. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers and for reading along! 

A Prayer Room, a Piano and a Prince

Have you read my last post? If not, I would highly recommend it, because it provides the context for what I'm going to be sharing in this post. And you'll also notice some remarkable similarities between the way that God spoke to me on that occasion and in this one. But I'll give a brief intro... 

A few weeks ago while trainers from Restoring The Foundations were here at YWAM LA I had the opportunity to go through three sessions of ministry for what they call Soul/Spirit Hurts. The ministry is a prayer process where you ask God to lead you back to a hurtful memory and allow Him to bring healing.

I closed my eyes and prayed for God to take me back to wherever He wanted to take me. After a few moments, I saw myself inside of the prayer chapel at the YWAM LA campus. I was 21 and it was during my Discipleship Training School. I was surprised to find God leading me here because this was actually a really good memory. I had just been reading in 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 and God was speaking deeply to me about the hurts and mistakes of my past. Despite all of my rebellion and brokenness, He had never stopped loving me. He had redeemed me back into right relationship with Him. It was an awesome time of encountering God's love. Pretty good memory, right? What else did God wanna show me?

Well, I asked Jesus to come into the memory...

I was in a small side room in the prayer chapel that had an old stand up piano inside. I walked in and there He was, peaceful and beautiful, playing away on the piano. "I've been waiting for you". For years He'd been waiting, playing His song for me. He wrote down a piece of sheet music and slipped it into the back of a Bible, telling me that I was a part of His story. There was a cushion in the middle of the floor where I had been praying, and I saw heavenly, golden light shining on it. "I've prepared a place for you". There was a silver bowl in front of me that caught all of my tears as I knelt down and prayed. Jesus took the bowl, poured it out onto the piano keys and continued to play. This might sound familiar to what He did in my last memory. He took my pain and redeemed it into something beautiful. It was just another part of His love song for me.

Then I asked Him to take me to the Father...

The top of the piano opened up and there was radiant, golden light shining out from within. The Father had been there all along. Jesus said to me, "the Father is the song. I just sing the song". That's a fun one to ponder. It was quite the mind-blow.

Jesus had come. The Father had come. It was time to revisit the original memory and see how it had changed.

When I walked back into the room everyone was there. The Father, the Spirit and the Son. They were singing, "We love you, and We'll never stop. All this is for you..." (from the song When You Walk Into the Room by Bryan and Katie Torwalt). I was there on my knees, so joyful, swaying back and forth to the music. They placed a crown of flowers of my head and called me Little Prince. It sounds a little silly to retell it, but it was awesome. They gave me my identity. I am a son of God. I'm a member of a Royal family. I am so loved. I am secure.

I went up to the piano like a little kid and asked Jesus if I could play too. He said yes of course. And now we get to make music together.

I can't say enough about the intensity, the strength, the beauty, and the faithfulness of God's love. We are as His children and His heart burns to share that love with us. I hope that you find yourself in a place where you can trust and receive His love, and receive continual revelation about just how profoundly deep that love goes.