The First Week

Hello loved ones! It has been almost one week since my arrival to Brisbane and wow, what a flurry it has been. Thank you so much to all who have donated and prayed for me to be sent into this beautiful place called YWAM Brisbane. From the moment I met with Hannah and Lana (the other two ladies leading and pioneering this ministry), my spirit has burned within me; I’ve never felt so specifically picked by God to do anything like I have with this Worship and Music Ministry. It’s an amazing and humbling experience to create a vision with two other people who are on the same page with the same heart and desires from God. What a ridiculous dreamlike reality – to be called by God. Wow. Before I go too far, I’ll give you a layout of set details about what we’ll be doing:

THE HEART: The heart of this ministry is to create a worshipful community/a community of worshippers. This doesn’t restrict everyone to musical worship, but has a heart to thread worship into every facet of one’s daily life: work duties, meals, prayer time, evangelism, conversation, management, etc. We are called to worship with our lives and we have a heart to know the Presence of God so intimately in everything we do and be a part of creating a community who is immersed in the Presence.

That being said, music is a beautiful tool we have to overtly express our hearts to Jesus and as it pertains to me, worship will have a lot to do with music.

“Worship through music is a diving board into the Presence.” –Jonathan David Helser

We believe that we have been called as leaders to steward this heart vision by seeking the Lord together, worshipping and praying together, and ultimately pursuing Him and showering our love on Him. I never want to manipulate God by “loving on Him” with an agenda or to “get” from Him. He is the all-consuming, all-powerful, most gracious Creator of everything. We wouldn’t even be without Him, let alone this ministry. If worship is to be the foundation of this base, then we believe it’s natural to start there. Freely He gives to us, freely we give back.

THE SCHEDULE: Each day is pretty full from 8:30-17:30. I’m involved in base duties (cleaning, painting, helping building the new buildings, meal prep, etc.), assisting and leading at and preparing for different ministries on base and at community worship, personally developing musical skills, co-creating (writing songs) with our team, studying with WorshipU (an online school put on by Bethel in Redding, CA), managing the website and social media, etc. In general, we are in charge of rostering and organizing everything pertaining to worship on base.

THE PRAISE REPORT: This week, one of my friends here gave me her Canon Rebel DSLR camera… WHAT in the world. I am completely blown away by this and hardly have words for how much excitement I have for this gift! I can’t wait to use it for this ministry and also for my own personal use!

THE PRAYER “NEED”: Honestly, this is a hard one for me because I’m the kind of person who only wants prayer to receive more of God’s Presence! But logistically, I am still in need of $150 in monthly support, or $1,800 in total. There is also an opportunity for me to go to New Zealand with our team in September for a three-day worship conference, which I would really love to go to. They haven’t posted the cost of that yet, but airfare runs at about $500. The conference might be free and we might also be able to get free accommodation, so prayer for that would be so great. If I receive the monthly amount, then I can use the money that I have saved up to go towards this conference.

THE EXTRAS: We will be going on a retreat this weekend to Radcliffe to stay at The Jesus Hotel J. It’s also free accommodation. I forgot how much free stuff is in YWAM! I may not have WiFi there; if so, I will not be able to be reached.

Last week I was spending time with God (still can’t say that without freaking out… how do we even get to spend time with GOD!? Blows my mind.). I was reading John 14:1-4 where Jesus is speaking to the disciples. He says, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for You? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” And the passage then goes on to talk about some really amazing things like the promise of having the Holy Spirit and the promise of Oneness with Jesus and the Father. Here Jesus describes a room in Heaven that is prepared for me and for you. He says that He has personally prepared this place for us, not for us to be alone, but to be with Him. “I will come again and will take you to Myself.” If we are to bring Heaven to earth, I believe that we can reside and live in this prepared place every day by walking in obedience and following His leading the best we can. This means that anywhere we go, we won’t be alone. He promises that He will be not only present, but go with us to the place He has prepared. To me, this is such an intimate promise because it’s interlaced with the promise of receiving the Holy Spirit. In this space between life and death, Jesus describes to the disciples that He will give His living Presence to live inside of us and be there to help and guide us in every day life. “The world cannot accept Him [the Holy Spirit], because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” John 14:15-20.

In all of that, I think of confidence: we can be confident in our place in Heaven knowing that wherever God calls us or whatever He asks us to do, we can go boldly because the Spirit of Jesus, the person of Jesus, resides inside of us (who we call Holy Spirit). We are seated in Heavenly places because Jesus is seated there and He has offered the opportunity to become One with Him.

Overall, thank you so much for your love and support. I miss you all so much and love you so dearly.

With love,

Lyss