It Came! It Finally Came!

Toy Story reference for those of you who don't know.

Anyways.,....

So Kendall, how was Iceland!!? 

Well seeing as there aren't enough words for how incredible Iceland was/is and that there are LOADS of other things to update you guys on, I might have to reserve some of juicy details for a later post. 

On the whole, it was one of the most soul-inspiring, organic, open environments I've ever been in. The people, the nature, even the presence of God had an intensity I've never experienced before. There was a certain energy, freedom and rawness that is reflected in the natural splendor of the place, that attaches to the soul in such a fierce way. Ive never felt so energized, and so convicted of living life through closed doors. Of tramping through human interaction without the slightest regard for what is transpiring. I kept catching myself, saying slow down. Respect, honor, savor the mere joy of sharing self, life and love with others. Sit back and soak in the wildness and intimacy of the Creator. Honestly I could rave on and on. 

For more details on the outreach aspect, see later, imaginary post....to exist in the very near future. :) Let me just say, it is absolutely incredible what The Lord does through those open to His direction. 

Fast forward a few weeks, and LOTS have been going on here in Harehills. The lecture/placement phase is QUICKLY speeding to a close and I can hardly believe than within a few short weeks we will be headed to Rome for our long-term outreach. A massively exciting addendum to Rome will be the subsequent one week we will spend volunteering with YWAM Edinburgh at the World renowned Fringe Festival. I am wildly ecstatic....!!!! More on that later.

Placements and volunteer positions officially wrapped up at the end of May, but many of us have found ourselves quite reluctant leave these organizations we have so enjoyed being a part of. Consequently, I will continue cleaning up puke at night clubs and jumping around like a crazy person with 200 kids until it conflicts with outreach prep schedules. Didn't see that one coming.

At the end of May our team collaborated to put together an art exhibition, with a focus on celebrating Harehills. We were fortunate enough to be invited by a lovely gallery to feature our work over a three week period. We really wanted to put the spotlight on Harehills and showcase what a gem it really is, despite the general distaste it leaves in people's mouths. We wanted others to see how much we've come to appreciate the beauty that is here, the diversity and the love God has for this place. 

Among the submissions were poetry, photography, free hand henna, watercolor/pencil and watercolor on 140 press. I submitted a 10 minute mini-doc called 'Outside and In' featuring my fellow intern Sulamith's experience coming into Harehills from Switzerland. It's interesting living in a place, and then going to document it. You observe and notice so many things you've grown accustomed to and take for granted.  The whole thing was shot, edited and recorded over 4 days (which meant all night editing parties!) Having to work with pretty low quality camera and no actual recording equipment was something of a challenge, but a great experience ;) I will post a link to it soon :)

The best part of the exhibition was that people from all over Leeds were in agreement that they had never (ever) seen Harehills portrayed in this kind of light before. People don't look at the diversity of this area and naturally think..."beauty." Sometimes it takes a small group of outsiders who really appreciate the wealth of something in order for it to be realized by the actual inhabitants. 

The other best part was getting to speak with an older Harehills native who just happened to be intrigued with Detroit documentaries and comparing the two cities and their struggles. I just love when Detroit randomly pops up :) 

So Rome is looming ahead quite soon. We have one more week of lecture before flying out. I have exactly  £451 left to raise before Friday!! My flight and travel costs were annonymously provided for last week which was a huge answer to prayer, so please keep praying and standing with me in trust for the rest! 

We will be staying with two couples, the first of which we will help run a kids art camp throughout the day. The second couple works with sex trafficking and prostitutes in the downtown area of Rome and we are excited to see what The Lord has in store working with them.  

My project this week was to set up a prayer room in our office to pray for finances to come in for the team (please also be praying for the rest of the team, especially Paul as he is yet to receive his flight funds and tickets have already been booked). Also, if anyone is feeling led to donate to someone else on the team, please let me know! 

Now I know this is already something of a novel (thanks for still reading :p) but I wanted to just mention that as the DTS is winding down the thought of coming home (!!) looms cheerfully in the distance. I'm so excited to see family and friends and also....*mysterious music plays* continue praying about a few opportunities The Lord has brought about for after the DTS. I'd LOVE it if you all joined me in what God has for me in le future! 

Love to you all!!

Kendall 

An Icelandic Welcome!

Well, after about 15+ hours of travel, lots of support and loads of prayer, here we are in Iceland! It is, in a word, majestic. We are so excited to bring what the Lord is doing in Leeds to Reykjavik and see what it looks like in this context! This will be a quicker note just to keep you all up to date, but I wanted let everyone know as we all find out what the Lord has for us here. Because this is YWAM Leeds' first trip to Reykjavik, there were and still are quite a few unknowns about what outreach will look like here. 

This is where being a part of a pioneering DTS is exciting, adventurous dare I say. We believe there is something specific God has for us here, but in being the first delegation from a new school forging first time relationships with the very small YWAM team here, it is hard to know exactly what our position, strategy, or lasting impact will be. It is honestly a bit nerve wrecking knowing that God wants to do something big here, but not quite knowing just what all that will entail. Whether its forging relationships for the future teams that will come or establishing ministry outlets, uncovering new areas to pray into for the Icelandic people or learning/documenting how God reveals Himself and communicates in this land. We have to trust that He will direct us where He wants us. 

So please be praying for inspiration and wisdom. There is a shockingly explosive vibrancy of creativity here. Art, music, poetry, the city is bursting with it and we would absolutely love to be a part of it. So pray that we have avenues of connection with local artists as well as inspiration and skill to create originally and authentically. As we all know, art is the ship of expression and the whole team has felt an expectation that we will tap into a new arena of creativity somehow, so please pray for willingness and opportunity. 

A major means of ministry here is simple conversation. The atmosphere is extremely open and friendly and there is quite the readiness to meet and talk with new faces. Pray for open doors and depth. 

One of our team's major desires is to be a huge encouragement and support for the long term team in Reykjavik. They are going through several changes so we want to be as big a help to them as possible as they evaluate where God is leading them as a team and as a presence in Reykjavik. Something as simple (though not minuscule) as praying over them and hearing God's voice for them is an incredible support and to have an outside group come and serve in that way is quite special. It's not hard to feel a bit isolated on a huge northern island far from an established missions base.

So the next few days will be a lot of prayer walking around the city, exploration, getting a feel for what the city's needs are and asking God to show us what He has for us here. Very VERY excited to see what He has in store. 

Kind of awe-inspiring really that God even uses us humans in His sovereign plans that He could accomplish on His own. I am so humbled and grateful that I get to be a part of something so spectacular. You know, changing the world and everything :) 

Thanks so much for bearing with me and supporting me and the YWAM Leeds team in so many ways! Love you all and expect another post soon! 

Cheers from Iceland!

*Our first day of breathless beauty

Reykjavik 

Miracles, Outreach, Growth...Oh My!

Where to even start! First off a big thank you to my fantastic brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers in Christ for supporting me in so many different ways. You have no idea how encouraging it is receiving prayer, financial support, words/messages...any communication really, showing that even though we're an ocean away I have a family backing me. It makes all the difference in the world spiritually, mentally and emotionally to have that kind of confidence. Especially living in an area that perpetuates an environment of displacement, lack of identity, lack of home and broken families.

Down to business:
Last week I walked into the office to the news that ALL OF OUR SCHOOL TUITION FUNDS HAVE COME IN!!!!!!!! Both Geert and I have a big fat ZERO to pay for tuition fees and have enough to pay for half of our first outreach trip. Since the shock has finally settled a bit my heart is just full of immense gratitute to everyone who has prayed and has been amazingly generous in supporting what God is doing with me here in Leeds.

Speaking of outreach, after praying over the five cities YWAM Leeds has been supporting, the two cities our DTS be traveling to have been decided. There will be a short-term two week trip coming up in April and a Long-term six week trip in late June. The two locations are.....*DRUMROLL*....
Reykjavik, Iceland for the short-term and Rome, Italy for the Long-term!! We are all QUITE excited, as can be expected with Iceland and Rome as destinations, and can't wait to see what God has for us in these two very interesting urban environments. As I said before, half of this upcoming outreach has been covered just in time to book tickets and I am praying and trusting that the remaining £310 will be provided for in time.

It is incredible to me watching Him watch me, as I Little by Little learn what trust means. What reliance looks like, even if it means waiting right up to the very end of deadlines. Geert and I were talking the other day about our funds coming in and how confusing it was because we had both reached a point where we were so sure God would provide, we were no longer stressing about it. Its a bit strange because you always want to check yourself...am I doing enough, am I praying enough, am I trusting enough? And actually, experiencing peace can sometimes feel like carelessness to our pro-active Western world mindsets. Its a funny sensation to practice sitting in assurity with seemingly impossible numbers looming ahead, knowing that He has already provided so much.

In other news, the amount the Lord has been working in my personal, spiritual life is incredible...more than I can even digest much of time. At the beginning of the month one of our favorite speakers Michael Montgomery (an ex-Military, acting, improv, filmmaking, graphic designing, hilarious Irishman) came to speak on Spiritual Warfare. We all sort of assumed it would be a week of crazy spiritual intensity, casting out demons and such. The reality was an intense, systematic check-up of basic spiritual health. Quickness in obedience to the Lord's promptings, self-discipline, pride, selfishness and looking at how these fairly basic areas work (or don't work) in our lives. What ended up coming out was a huge amount of revelation on deep-rooted issues that had been playing out in many of our lives since childhood. This opened the door for a lot of necessary healing, in my life in particular. It was so encouraging to learn from and experience such loving wisdom. Ironically that weekend I unknowingly met and befriended a Satanist. All I could think of was Bernie from the Incredibles....

"Coincidence??? I think NOT!!!!"

Anyways, please keep our Team in your prayers. There is quite a lot to look forward to with the Iceland trip soon approaching. I will be posting again before we leave with specific prayer requests. Again, I so appreciate everyone who is walking through this along with us. It is so encouraging to know that people DO care what we're doing here, that it IS making a difference and that this little Team in Leeds, UK is not forgotten.

Cheers to all of you,

And Go Tigers!

Trust and A Place Like Home

It has been months since I crossed an ocean to set up house, home, life in a little section of Leeds called Harehills. Yes, I reply to the more Leeds residents who think they've heard wrong, I live in Harehills. The Bayswaters to be precise. Known for a rough exterior, escalating crime, drugs and a myriad of cultures and religions mixing and melding, its not exactly where an average Brit would expect 6 Americans, 1 Dutch and 1 Swiss to live. However somehow, this place has become something like home. Maybe its how the streets stay alive well into the night with boys and their footballs and girls and their giggling gossip. Maybe its how every time we pass our favorite bakery they wave and smile knowing at least one of us will stop in at some point in the day. It might be that the Postal man jokes with me every time I pop into the Postal Office or that the night guard at the community building we go to use internet knows she'll have to gently kick us out at closing time when she sees us come in. Then again, it could just be the simple fact that my feet have tread these streets countless times in the past few months, passed these same shops and markets, illegitimate movie stores and off-licenses all proudly featuring whatever culture's products they supply. The Polish store, the Russian store, the Lithuanian grocery shop, Indian bakery and sweets, Pakistani tailoring, Afro-Carribian catering, and dozens more.

But I realize its not just Harehills that I have connected to. Last week as I was walking up my street a little girl walking home from Mosque with her mother and grandmother ran up to me calling my name. I realized she was one of the girls from Kidz Klub who is on my bus route. It completely made my day to see one of my kids outside of the Kidz Klub context, hearing after the fact that it had completely rocked her world to see me! For some reason it hadn't quite set in that a good percentage of our kids come from Muslim backgrounds, and yet whose parents are more than happy to have them attend our wildly wacky Saturday mornings of nothing but Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I ran into another of the kids on my bus a few days later and that Saturday it struck me how much relationships have formed in the relatively short time I have been here. The fact that my presence means something to these kids, that their appreciation of consistency and involvement surpasses even my understanding of it.

I see this translating to the nightclub I work in on Tuesday nights, as this past Tuesday I spent the night camped in the Women's Toilets amid the chatter of girls asking me if their dress is too tight, too short, do they look fat, should they go home with the guy who kissed them on the dance floor, ect. ect. As per usual there are two girls who come in and when one of them sees me nudges her friend and whispers, see! Thats her! And they come up to me to tell me that some Tuesday night I helped carry the friend from the bathroom to the safe room and sat with her while she puked holding her hair, rubbing her back and got them both in a taxi back home. That maybe I don't remember them but that they cant believe there are people who volunteer to do that sort of thing and that their mother said the next time they see me to please thank me for her. Then there's Roxy who I see nearly every week and is shocked every time that I remember her name (I don't mention its not that hard since I see her every week) and reminds me of how I helped keep her dress down and talked her through a drunken meltdown one night and then held her hair while she vomited. Because of this connection I chat with her and her friends whether she comes in with them or not and I realize, this is the other reason where I am has started to feel like home. These people know me and I know them. For people I meet on Tuesday nights, I see them at their most vulnerable, hear things they haven't told their dearest friends, things they probably haven't even spoken out loud before. Whether they remember or not, a connection has been formed.

All this having been said, I must acknowledge the possibility of not being able to stay in this place that has become something like home. Because I came on faith  the school was able to take me on. However my all finances for the school's tuition have not come in and if the week finishes without the funds, I will have to come home. Possibly sometime next week. Ever since I first recognized that God was calling me here, I have struggled to trust in His unfailingness, His steadfast provision. Even to this very moment I struggle with trusting that this whole matter is up to Him. I'm not sure whether or not I should believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that He will come through or try to accept that things might not happen the way I want them to. I know He has called me here, there is no shortage of confidence that He made a place for me here. But I don't know, I just don't know. Yesterday morning I woke up to sun and a cozy warm bed and couldn't help but think God? I can't do this anymore. I'm tired of trusting, I'm tired of hoping. I'm tired of believing the impossible will happen. Somehow 3600 British Pound Stirling has to appear before Saturday evening.
Rejoice. For whatever reason, this is what He tells me. Rejoice. So here I am. Rejoicing in everything He has done thus far. For my kids at Kidz Klub. The girls I meet, for Roxy, for my nameless friends in Harehills. Thank you Father.

Please please please pray for me! Around 2pm Detroit time we'll all be praying for the financial situation. My friend Geert is in a similar situation as I so please join us in prayer. It would be much appreciated. Love and miss you all!
In Christ,
Kendall

Home Sweet Hood

After over 24 hours of travel, I've arrived! I'm living in the Harehills, which apparently is the ghetto of Leeds. Needless to say, I'm loving it. One of the most diverse areas in England, over 72 ethnicities represented. I share a rented house with 3 other girls, right up the street from the other 4 of our team. 

So lectures carry on tomorrow, Holy Spirit week so I am quite excited. The following weeks will be concentrated on community outreach. The team here has quite a heart for the community, it being an urban DTS, so the focus is spread out in several directions. We have an art piece due every two weeks, community projects and then we tackle a social justice issue the alternating weeks. On weekends we're expected to volunteer with one of two organizations. One is kids club, which shuttles and hosts about 500 kids to programs ever Saturday. The other is Street Angels, which provides a monitoring system for the night life here in Leeds. Seeing that people get to their homes safe, handing out water, flip flops ect. 

It's pretty spectacular being surrounded by so many different art forms, we have dancers, a sculpter, painters, photography, visual artists...heaven on earth for inspiration. I'm excited to see some collaborations born :) 

I'm also praying I can find somewhere to get my 8mm film developed....

They tell us it gets pretty dangerous round these parts sometimes, drugs and all. This is where I thank my Pops for all that street wisdom he imparted to us kids. Thank God for being from the D. 

Looking forward to lectures! Please keep me in your prayers as I am still support raising. Thanks so much whoever is reading this, I appreciate you keeping up with me :) 

The flight from London to Manchester!

My new street!

Travel trudging. 

Steps

I've got a plane ticket!!!!

And suddenly it becomes all too real. Visa is approved, ticket is purchased, date is set. Talking to a friend on the phone late last my Detroit night and her early Malawi morning, she laughs and says, well....there's no turning back now. 

Duhn duhn duuuuuhn! (dramatic sci-fi movie music) 

As inch by inching brings me slowly closer to September 28th (yeah, my newly solidified departure date) I get to see with blazing clarity the steps the Holy Spirit laid out for me way ahead of time to get to this point. Most of them didnt really look like steps as my feet stumbled over and around a path I couldn't (and still can't really) see. But from this vantage point it makes sense how my insanely and universally wise heavenly Dad set me a-walkin' a course only He could set up. It makes sense that of course I need to be humbled in order to be in a position to learn, it makes sense that desperation leads to reliance on something greater than self. That my fear-crazed scramble for answers can only be assuaged by sitting with, talking to, spending time with, yelling and screaming at, reaching for the God who just wants to see my face turned to Him. 

As I tramped around Northeast Detroit a couple days ago, photographing abandoned buildings and vacant lots for a private real estate investor, I noticed myself instead of hopping in the car driving from place to place, spending more and more time outside in the gorgeous day connecting with  spaces and structures. It's startling the disparity between the distance one feels surrounded by a steel cage and the intimacy felt with gravel and broken glass beneath one's feet. All of sudden I am a part of this scenery and I have lent to the story of this sidewalk, building, neighborhood.

(At this point I have to resist going on a tangent about the Burroughs of Detroit ignored by the grand development craze  and giants of gentrification in midtown and downtown)

The point is, I like to traverse through life surrounded by a cage of certainty and surety, forgetting the fact that God wants me out on my feet connecting with the scenery of this life He has called me to. Yes, getting glass stuck in my shoes and uncovering squatters and getting chased off a lot by huge pitbulls is a bit sketch; so is letting yourself be emotionally vulnerable or believing instead of knowing ...or hopping a plane to a different continent for a year with little to no money praying that God will provide. I guess it's chalked up to learning how to follow step by kind of scary, misplaced step. 

Keep me in your prayers, and I will keep you posted! 

P.s. here are some photos from my little excursion. I'm going to miss this beautiful city! 

Visa stress and family goodbyes

Yesterday my entire family got together for the last time in what looks to be at least a year. I can't remember the last time all my siblings were together.  Everyone is growing up and going different directions, myself to England, my brother to the Army, another sister to India, and who knows when we'll all be together again. But family is love and specifically the kind of love that doesn't crumble with distance. So looking forward to seeing where life takes us all!

 

So the most recent item on a rather long checklist to consistently keep me up at night is the suspenseful visa wait. There is to be no purchasing of airfare until that blasted visa is safe within my two shaking hands, so as you might imagine, I am a teensy bit antsy. Yet another practice in trust. God certainly likes to follow trends when it comes to teaching me. Or it just takes me forever to learn things, most likely the latter. Either way, please keep myself and this visa process in your prayers. I will continue to haunt the post office doggedly, night and day. 

Postscript: It has been absolutely incredible to be on the receiving end of so much support, all across the board. Thank you thank you to everyone who who is praying, has given, and has provided the most unbelievable encouragement to me. There is nothing like the family of Christ!