2013 update

I grew up singing a song with the lyrics in it, "Seasons come and seasons go, and through it all, this I know: Your love remains..." My desire is for this to always be true in my heart. No matter the season of life you or I find ourselves in, one thing is always true and that is that God's love for us is steady, constant, unchanging and always reliable.

And with that said, more updates will be coming soon to this blog in the upcoming months as this butterfly discovers a new season of life outside of the cocoon... :-)

Paris for 2 weeks, Lyon for the finale!

July 17 - 30, we participated in a summer outreach camp of about 100 people from over a dozen countries. In the evenings, we set up our sound system here at Place Trocadero. We had a professional Christian ballet group from Seattle (Paradosi) and other professional dancers from the USA, French breakdancers and rappers, mime teams from South America and Asia, and multiple musicians. Many of the numbers we performed were original pieces and we had wonderful conversations with the tourists who stopped to watch our shows. Most evenings I sang in English the gospel remix of"Joyful Joyful, Lord We Adore Thee" from Sister Act II. 

This crowd warmer was a take-off of La Bamba
and involved  different sections of the crowd joining
in at different moments -  lots of laughter and fun.

Around 800 - 1,000 people stopped to watch our shows each evening.

Sometimes people would come up and stand next to us while we were singing to take their picture with us. 

TRANSLATING was a highlight for me during our 2 weeks in Paris.  I translated often in the mornings for our worship and teaching sessions.  In the evenings, our shows consisted of four different 30 minute acts in front of the Eiffel Tower. In each 30 minute act,  one or two people would share about their personal journey with God in between the dances and songs we performed. We translated everything so it would be in both French and English. 

Tabi (in the picture below) is one of the ballerinas from Seattle that I translated for. She shared about how God rescued her from a life of living to earn love and acceptance through performing perfectly and the pressure she faced that led to depression and suicide attempts.  The transformation she's come through of believing God's love for her personally and letting it change her into someone who dances and lives with joy and purpose but not for approval was beautiful. I was honored to get to translate for her into French.  Other times I would translate French speakers into English. I really like translating!  

We returned to Lyon after our 2 1/2 months on the road and finished the week debriefing, processing our experiences and praying for each other. In the picture of the living room here, I'm presenting my final artistic project that was a mix of photos I took of bodies of water throughout our 2 1/2 month tour and a dance I performed to a song about coming to the "Water's Edge" to drink (in response to Jesus' words about giving living water to those who are thirsty). Learning to drink deeply of God's life-giving water and experience the intimacy of a personal relationship with Jesus has become a theme for me these weeks. 

We had the privilege of having Joe and Judi Portale with us, the father and mother of YWAM-French speaking Europe. They currently live in Hawaii at the YWAM Kona base, but joined us for the 2 weeks in Paris and then for our team's debriefing week. They were such an encouragement and blessing to me personally and I look forward to staying in touch with them. 

 We had a final evening to receive our diplomas for having accomplished and graduated from the Discipleship Training School. This makes us official "YWAMers" (those who are a part of the family of Youth With A Mission). We began our journey 6 months ago with 5 students and 4 of us finished the school together, having learned much about ourselves, who God is as we see in the Bible and also for us personally through our experiences and relationships, and having shared many adventures together.

The next season of life now awaits... which means choices to make! What I've learned is who God wants to be for me personally, that He is good and faithful, that I have a heart for France that runs deeper than words can explain and that God is doing big things in this country. More will be decided in the next week for my future ... so keep praying for me. It will take courage, but I'm excited for this new season ahead! More to come...

Avignon theater festival

July - A week in Avignon has been a great treat. There are 55 of us performing together in Avignon for the theater festival here. There's the Seattle group of ballet dancers with the Paridosi dance company, an Avignon-based Asian French mime team, a group of musicians from Bristol, England and our Lyon, YWAM team. It's like an artistic explosion of song, rap, dance and... well, art and faith coming together. Ever thought of offering "free prayer for healing?" Some in this team who aren't performing have done that. And the atmosphere of this space is so crazy. Fun and festive, there are artists performing on every corner and people milling the old cobblestone streets. It's really fun and energizing. It's also spiritually charged here and we've had lots of things happen to make us sense that we're living in a big, invisible battle. I would love your prayers for peace, clarity of thoughts and focus as I think a lot about the future, unity in our relationships and protection. Pictures coming soon!

Fun Tidbit:

I've facilitated a music workshop for several days (few hours each afternoon) where about 10 of us have prepared a couple songs with 3 guitars and the rest of us on percussion of all forms (from djembes to spoons and paint cans) and vocals. We're performing them tonight: Peculiar People (by Mutemath) and Shackles (by Mary Mary) - yep, guess who's having fun wailing out the vocals for this gospel-style song. It's a good challenge and so fun. We had great audience participation last night.

4 Cities in 4 Weeks

From Northwest France (city of Angers), to Bordeaux to Biarritz to Corsica and now Marseille, these last 4 weeks have been a blitz. I've enjoyed getting to know this beautiful country more and more, as well as meeting other followers of Christ around this country.

In Bordeaux, we worked with a church that does a lot with the local homeless and helped with food distribution to the homeless. We also hung out by the waterfront with our guitars and hand drums and met other musicians and young people from the city. We had some good conversations about faith and art. A family that owns a vineyard and old chateau and make Bordeaux wines invited us to their home where we enjoyed a good, home-made meal and swim in their pool and tour of their vineyard.

In Biarritz, we participated in the national "Fete de musique" where both professional and non-professional musicians hang out all evening and night playing music. From 6:00 pm to about midnight, we hung out on one of the old cobblestone street corners performing our songs and dances and having lots of great connections with people who stopped to listen for a while. On our day off, 6 of us took a day trip to Spain and spent the day in the beach town of San Sebastian.

In Corsica, we were shown amazing hospitality and stayed in a home with a family that fed us 3 times the amount of food per meal that I'm used to eating and wouldn't let us lift a finger. I had fun translating into French for some of our presentations. We also enjoyed singing with some of the young adults from the local church we partnered with, running several youth get-togethers and hosting an evening outreach event for friends and family of the church members. Highlights for me also included eating out with an old friend from Lyon who has a house in Corsica and time on the beach. Beautiful!!

We're now in Marseille partnering with an African church here, praying for their city and taking our art to the streets again. It's a joy to be here with them.

2 weeks in Angers flew by this way

   We spent the first week with non-stop activities and invitations. The 2nd week we had more time off and spent each day doing lots of rehearsing and fine-tuning our songs, dances, etc. 

Some of the things we did: 

1 hr. classroom presentations for 6th and 7th graders in a Catholic Jr. High School for 4 days in a row

1 hr. performance/presentation to a group of 350 high schoolers in a public school

joined in a weekend retreat at a monastery with 60 ninth graders going through Catholic confirmation and learning about the Holy Spirit and led their evening worship service 

spent about 3 hours in a prison performing and then chatting and praying with about 15 inmates  

In most cases we performed a few of our songs and dances and one or two people shared a bit of their story and the role God has played in their life.  We sing/rap our own lyrics and I've been singing the song Joyful Joyful from the Sister Act 2 soundtrack version. Not only has this song been a joy for me to sing and a good vocal challenge, but a good number of people here know the movie and therefore the song and respond by jumping in and clapping along or, as was the case with some of the students, dance along. :-) It gets people moving and having fun with us. 

I was really touched by a couple opportunities I had to talk with and pray with a few students at the Jr. High School and at the confirmation retreat. After the time of worship that we led at the weekend retreat, we invited students to come to any one of us for prayer. Several girls came up to me in tears and we prayed about different things on their hearts and I did my best to answer some of their questions about pretty deep and hefty stuff. 

Here's a picture tour of some of the places I was this week or things we saw: 

The Angers chateau where there is a tapestry dating back to the Middle Ages that has the whole story of the book of Revelation. 

Fun in a chocolatier - we taste-tested a lot! :-)

Our team at the Solesmes Abbey

The cathedral is over 700 years old - this view is from the castle wall.

 

Sunshine or Rain?

Sunshine or Rain?

Yesterday was an interesting day. We went for a stroll in town and with almost no notice at all, it went from sunny under the roses to a downpour of rain just as we crossed a bridge. A 20 minute walk through the centuries-old town of Angers (pronounced a bit like onjhay) included a gorgeous sunshiny stroll under trellises with pink roses in full bloom and a view of the 700 year old cathedral at the top of the hill and only moments later turned into a sprint across a bridge in pouring rain with wind torrents rushing through the river channelway, finding cover at last under a cafe awning. I couldn't believe how quickly it went from sunny and tranquil to pouring rain and blustering wind in minutes, catching me completely off guard.


Reminds me of the way that sometimes we find life can jump from finding ourselves in sunny weather, stopping to smell the roses, to sprinting in an all-out dash in the pouring rain and wind, searching for the first sign of shelter from the storm. Where did the storm come from? How did this happen so quickly? Didn't even see it coming. Total joy and serenity in one minute to such opposites so quickly.

It has me thinking: how am I responding to circumstances I find myself in? When it's sunny and warm, am I stopping to smell the roses and enjoy the beauty around me? When I find myself unexpectedly in a torrent of cold and blustery wind and pelting rain, where do I take cover? Who is my shelter from the storm? Do I know where to turn and do I have Someone to take comfort in?

Our 3 month Teaching Phase in Lyon is up and we're hitting the road on Monday, May 27, to take our art and heart's message to the streets.  Here's where we'll be going:

NW France: Angers
Bordeaux in the middle/western part of France (good wine, anyone?)
Biarritz (surf/beach town in the SW part of France on the Atlantic, there during their annual music fest)
Corsica (island in the Mediterranean)
Marseille (on the Med. coast)
Avignon (southern France for their annual arts festival)
Paris

The dates for each location are noted on "The Journey" tab. Check it out.

Want to pray for me? Yes, I'd love that! Again, click on the tab title "The Journey" for some specific prayer requests.

It's not too late to partner with me financially either.  Read some of the fun things you can contribute toward on the "Support and Donations" tab, like an airplane ticket, dance shoes or funding the coffee and chocolate budget.

It's a joy to get to share this journey with you.  God is up to something here in France and I love getting to be a part of it with you.