This statement has been slamming me in the face for the past week as I sit and realize its relevancy to life, to art, to growth....this responsibility to sit and take in. Many times 'Selah' is used in scripture to the same effect. Be still and listen. The affect that small act can have. The way it can impact the most influential art, the most passionate convictions. How it can spur one to move and to make.
In less than 2 months I will be moving my life, my art, my growing pains 3,000 miles away to Leeds, UK, the 4th largest city in the United Kingdom. Its an urban city, over 72 ethnicities represented in a 2 mile radius.
In the next year I will be interning at the Arts & Justice Discipleship Training School (to learn more see here! http://www.ywamleeds.com/#!the-dts), a 12-month internship program lived out in the YWAM Leeds community. It’s a full-on discipleship experience, focusing on: art, creatively communicating life to a broken world; and justice, what is required to practically restore a broken world. It is grassroots, involving interactive community. I will be mentored in developing my creativity and in learning new skills to enhance and process my creative journey. I will be working with video and photography, focusing on documentary style film. I'm looking forward to implementing my work with 35mm and 8mm film. (Stay tuned to glimpse some of my work, coming soon!)
We will focus on social justice tackling issues such as Human Trafficking, Global Warming, World Hunger, Poverty and I hope to bring steps Detroit has taken to combat Digital Justice to the table as well.
These issues are not foreign. Living in, as they say, Detroit Proper these are realities I see confronted daily. Having the opportunity to process through solutions on a global level is crucial to the strength of the change I would like to see in my own city.
To be perfectly transparent, there is some fear involved. Its all faith right now. I'm in the process of raising money for visa and plane ticket. The tuition of the program is a whole other story. I'm the type of person to think I can figure everything out, the classic control freak. Well this is one I can't manage (talk about learning humility!) I need all the help I can get! Prayers and support notwithstanding! If you feel so led to support financially, please donate using the helpful paypal button!
One thing is sure, I will be challenged in more ways than I could probably ever imagine. Forced to grow in ways I never have before. For the past month I've woken up every single morning and said God, its too big. I haven't the means, I haven't the talent, I haven't the perspective. But nothing has been able to shake the quiet confidence that this is where He is leading me, this is where I am supposed to be.
I can't wait to make the leap and start staring at this world through the eyes of one who will change it
