There and Back Again

           We’re now in our FINAL WEEK of the 2012 Elevate School of Worship! WHAT!? Where did the last few months go? At the same time I can recognize so much kingdom activity. In the students I’ve seen huge leaps of faith in their character, passion for the Lord and for many even stepping out in faith to pioneer a new 9 month internship! For my team I see a new dream team. I thought last year was a dream team…we had so many seasoned leaders and I felt like the rookie among pros. This years’ staff was half made up of student participants from last year. You wouldn't think that by the fantastic way these guys have carried out their responsibilities and displayed matured leadership well beyond their years. 

             It’s been such a good quarter to run with these guys and not the least of which our school leader Daniel Lehmann who has discipled me and invested so much into me. I’ve been able to grow such much as a leader, as a worshiper or Jesus, as a musician and as a son. It’s really neat to look back at all of the leadership God has put over you and to begin recognizing the different anointing that they carry and how those giftings have been imparted down to you. During the Olympics 4 years ago I was trained by Julie in management, communication and in relying on the Lord to open doors that logic might declare as locked shut. How valuable these giftings would prove to be when staffing for two years in Kona, a community of visionaries and pioneers for kingdom works. It’s in Kona that I've learned the importance of intimacy with the Lord, community built around His presence, and the joys of being a family in ministry together. Maine needs to raise up Daniel Lehmanns, Andy Byrds, Kevin Norris’  and Loren Cunninghams …in Kona you can find them in each classroom and department. Being able to glean off of these leaders has had a huge impact on my private life, my family life and my ministry life. I don’t yet know just how blessed I am and how crucial these past two years has been for my development as the man God has made me to be and the destiny I’m daily walking into.

                 It is with joy and hopeful anticipation that our family will be returning home to Maine in the next couple of weeks! We will be looking for work as well as a vehicle. Bora will continue being the amazing mother that she is while partly pursuing translation work. I will be looking into taking some courses at CMCC or a local bible college as we are praying for direction for furthering my education to prepare us for our long-term ministry to Asia. Moving is expensive, and while we’re leaving most of the stuff that seems to pile up after 2 years, many of Jubilee’s things and our ministry tools like my drum equipment need to be shipped. If anyone would like to make a one-time gift to help towards the postage and our travel expenses you’d be a huge blessing to us right now J

               We love and appreciate all of our friends and family who have been following our journey and want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas from the Willsons!!

Psalms 150:5 - "praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals"

  

            Man, in several days my daughter will be 2 years old! It’s bittersweet…she’ll officially be a toddler and no longer a baby.  At the same time we’re celebrating nearly two full years of working at the University of the Nations in Kona, Hawaii. The Elevate School of Worship is in full swing with us now 6 weeks into the lecture phase.  We have 24 amazing students this quarter and we’re getting wrecked by deeper revelations of who God is every week!

            This week the students will perform their own worship songs they've been writing at an open mic style event at the campus’ Banyan tree Café.  Open mic nights are always a lot of fun for the whole campus, and with a whole night of all original worship we’re expecting a really awesome evening where God will be honored and revered above all else.

 

           Also this upcoming weekend on November 18th we’ll have “Worship Jesus Together” at Waikoloa Baptist Church. Several Big Island churches are coming together for a night of thanksgiving and worship through music and scripture reading in different languages. A few of us School of Worship staff have been asked to help with music and I’m so excited to be a part of more events in the local community!  

           Besides the regular lecture times in our school, I've been playing drums for several corporate worship sets.  Monday nights we have “Ministry Night” that is 2+ hours of ministering to the heart of the Father. The amazing thing is that often when ministering to the Lord, He ministers to us! The most dynamic expressions of Joy, healing, repentance and deep reverence have come when the Lord has poured out His Spirit at these events. Wednesdays from 1-3pm our SOW has been leading out in worship and intercession times focusing on the island of Hawaii. Thursdays from 1-3pm we have been focusing on the arts and entertainment spheres of society. Drums are an important part of intercessory prayer. The rhythm sets the pace for the room. It’s easier to fervently pray out loud when there’s a driving, urgent beat in the background J In these sets I've been learning to ask God for His “heartbeat” and to put that to song. There’s a reason drums have been present since the earliest recorded wars throughout history…because they drive spiritual warfare. !

              Bora has lately need the go-to-gal for translation needs. We have over 150 Korean students during this bi-lingual quarter and Bora has been able to help translate for both corporate gatherings as well as for videos. Below is a screen grab from a promotional video for the new 'Lion of War' film trilogy. She's a smart lady and she's pretty hot, too.

Please be praying for our core staff of 9 people as we are seeking the Lord for direction regarding the next internship phase of the Elevate School of Worship program. God is building something very exciting here in Kona that will be multiplied throughout bases all over the planet. Some exciting announcements are coming soon so stay tuned J

A Day in the Life of a School of Worship Student

               

                8:50 am  -  You arrive at the classroom located directly underneath Kona’s 24/7 Prayer Room. Several students are already waiting at the door to get inside. Some are misty eyed with a cup of coffee in hand from the on-campus coffee shop that’s right next to the classroom (thank you Lord).  Some are tired because they led a late night worship set in the prayer room, or were there soaking in time with the Lord…or because they were up all night with friends at McDonalds hanging out. Some staff are in the corner discussing the lecture time with this weeks’ speaker, some are praying, some are setting up the sound system and overhead projector and others are corralling their children into the back of the room that has become the baby ranch.

                

                9:00 am- Class begins with announcements and prayer. Some students sneak in the back because they overslept or because the line was too long at the café’s morning rush. There are always cool stories and testimonies of wonderful encounters with the Holy Spirit in the prayer room and ministry in and around the campus and downtown Kona. Today a young man shares about his growing friendship with one of Kona’s many homeless. A homeless man was drawn to the young man’s guitar playing by the dock and received prayer and fellowship that night. Another student stands up and shares that she got an unexpected check for $100 from a relative that wasn’t even a Christian and now has her lecture fees almost completely paid off. We respond with praise and prayer for this relative and for the finances of other students in the same situation. We transition over to the speaker whom we as a class pray over for the Lord to anoint this person and this time of learning together.

                

                10:00 am- Class is still in session as a few staff sneak out the back to prepare the food for our break time. Another staff member leaves to skype with one of our hosting contacts in Japan where we’ll be visiting in a matter of weeks for outreach. 

                

                10:30 am-   Break time! We all gather in the courtyard to rest our brains for 10 minutes. The speaker‘s table is buzzing with questions. Today we’re looking at Luke 7 when Mary washes Jesus’ feet with her hair and expensive perfumes and the speaker presents that moment as one of the first times Jesus receives due worship here on earth, and presents the idea that Mary was the only person in the room who truly knew who she was in the room with! Holy revelation hits some, confusion others, the one guy that challenges every opinion is surprisingly quiet today.     
             
                10:40 am- Back to lecture. The speaker asks for more questions, specifically from the table of Koreans that is never as loud with their opinions and questions as some other nationalities tend to be. For an English speaker it’s often not until you’re viewing a Korean’s weekly SOW journal entry that you really find out just what the person is processing and learning.  One Korea student shares a profound parallel to something in their own life. Another quietly and shyly asks the speaker to “Please slow down” for the second language students. Everyone laughs and we go back into the lecture.

                

                11:45 am- Lunch time begins with the rest of the campus of over 1000 students and staff. Need to make it to the lunch line before 12 when the Discipleship Training Schools break for lunch because they make up over 700 and that’s when the line gets crazy long!  Today we’re eating Portuguese bean soup…you hear a sigh behind you from the student who was hoping for pizza today. They step out of line and buy a slice from the Asia Pacific DTS that is selling pizza by the slice to raise money for their outreach trip. You don’t have time to be picky today because you need to be at the prayer room at 12:30 to set up and pray for the 2 hour set you’re helping lead.                

               

                1:00 pm- The prayer room is packed with standing room only for the campus’ corporate intercession set. Today we’re interceding for Japan and even skyping with an outreach team already on the ground in Tokyo. We open with the song ‘Shekinah Glory’ that begins a 2 hour flow of worship and prayer to our King. As soon as the worship leader sings the opening words “We wait for you…” several students are already on their knees and faces, pouring out their heart to the Lord. After 30 minutes or so of worship one of the campus leadership gets behind the prayer mic and leads us into a prayer for Japan.  We split into about a dozen different prayer circles and are each given a different issue to pray into. In my circle we’re praying for human trafficking victims that are always created as direct results of wars, kidnappings and most relevantly grand scale disasters such as the tsunami. The prayer group next to me is praying for salvation of souls.  In that group I see an older Japanese Crossroads DTS student. She’s weeping for her nation. I’m reminded of YWAM’s president John Dawson and the way he describes prayer as “Climbing up into the Father’s lap”. I later find out that this woman has been praying for her home country three times a day for the past 13 years! What an honor it is to be in community with so many generations and nationalities represented. On the TV on the wall we soon see the DTS team skyped in from Japan, crowded around a webcam smiling and waving. They give an awesome report of miracle after miracle of healings, salvations and divinely appointed occurrences. The room in Kona then prays and gets words of knowledge, strategy and encouragement. Pumped up and in response to the skype call we flow back into a time of worship.  It’s easy to lose track of time in the prayer room and soon the announcement is made for work duty students to head to their areas for work. Wow is it 5 minutes to 3 already?

                

                3:00 pm-   Much of the campus has their work duty chores to attend to at this time, but not you. The campus could not operate without the help of students, staff and short term mission builders all helping in areas or cleaning the grounds and housing, cooking and meal prep, as well as many other operations that are necessary for this campus to operate. You helped with breakfast prep at 6 am today so you’re heading up to the recording studio. After a 5 minute hike up the mountain-scaling campus you arrive at the studio. You look through the door and see several classmates studying music theory led by one of the staff. You move on to the next door and enter the recording studio. You spend the next hour and a half setting up, sound check and laying down vocal tracks for your newly written song on the new worship compilation album. The concept for this particular album is to fuel the global missions movement and will be taken with outreach teams into several nations next quarter and reach even further through the internet!

                

                5:00 pm- Dinner time! Rather than sit in the courtyard you grab your plate of food and head over to your small group leader’s room on campus. Every staff is committed to opening their homes and warmly welcoming their students for council and fellowship.  Your small group meets at least once a week together and same goes for your one-on-one times with your small group leader. After grabbing a cup of tea and welcoming in the rest of your group you get your journal passed back to you from the leader. You tend to be a softer spoken, internal processor generally so this journal has become an outlet for you to process all that you’re learning about worship and your journey with the Lord. After some lighthearted conversation and catching up on the week you all begin processing what you learned as a group of close friends. Here there’s more time for everyone to ask questions and share experiences out loud, and the trust and love your small group shares is a really special thing. Your group is international, interdenominational and wide ranging in age and life experiences. After praying together for needs to be met and more revelation to be granted you wish your friends goodnight and head out.

               

                  7:00 pm- The campus is still buzzing with activity. The campus vans are still shuttling back and forth into town, the campus theater room is showing a film, the prayer room floor is filling with students ready to pray and worship and its rows of tables with people studying the word. In the Ohana (family)Court the space is shared by local skateboarders and break-dancers, an ongoing outreach to the youth of Kona.  You find yourself drawn to the Banyan Tree Café where there’s an impromptu worship and ministry event just starting. These meetings have been coined as “Revival Gatherings”.   These fiery meetings are full of ministry to the heart of the Lord and crying out for spiritual growth among our community, starting with us on the campus. There are numerous healings and rededications to the Lord. We end with the group of students walking together into the town and evangelizing to the townspeople, there are many awesome stories of salvations and healings! As a campus we’re well aware of our generation’s role in the great commission, and it starts with saying “yes” to the Lord in what He shares with us as his kids. The motto at this campus and for Y/WAM is “To know God and Make Him Known”, and in this School of Worship we’re doing just that.

Elevate School of Worship 2012

                It’s been AMAZING to make new friendships with exciting new church movements such as CRAVE in Oakland/Waterville and Redemption Hill in Lewiston/Auburn. There are precious men and women of God who are helping set the stage for the revival that will come to Central Maine soon, and is already happening in pockets all over New England.

                We are staying on track with our commitment to the School of Worship in Kona, Hawaii through 2012 and will be assisting as staff this September. With the SOW God is equipping and sending out dozens of worship leaders into numerous nations that are hungry for authentic worship and longing for God to pour out His Spirit over their cities.

              

These are some of the areas of focus for the Elevate School of Worship that starts in September:

  The Motive for Worship - love for Jesus

- Passion for Jesus

- Character of God

- Personal Freedom

- The Character and Lifestyle of the Worshiper

 The Meaning of Worship - Biblical Foundations

- Biblical and Historical Basis for Worship

- Prophetic aspects of Worship

- Worship, Intercession and Spiritual Warfare

- The Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Supernatural

The Method of Worship - Practical Skills

- Intro to songwriting, musicianship and recording

- Worship Leading and Teamwork

- Cross cultural Worship Expressions

- Taking it to the Nations - setting up prayer houses

• Our Urgent Needs

                  We're finishing out our trip to Maine and financially speaking we have not raised any new support, in fact we're seeing a decline in both monthly support and in gifts. We're asking our friends and family to prayerfully consider supporting our family as we are preparing to help run another worship school a little over a month from today. Our urgent needs are...

1. Return flight airfare -  About $1600 
2. $900 minimum monthly expenses ( We currently have $300 raised, $1200 necessary)

2 Year Recap : Kona Timeline

              Before reporting back with our home church in Maine I made up a timeline explaining what we've been up to over the past 2 years. It turned out to be a really handy tool, and it was great to go back and reflect on what the Lord has done in our lives month by month over since we were last in Maine in 2010. I decided it'd be a good thing to re-post on our blog so that people who are just getting to know us can see a little of what we're about and where we've been.

2010 FALL

After selling TVs in Auburn for nearly a year after completing our work on the 2008 Olympics Outreach, we were invited by our same team leaders in Beijing to help organize YWAM’s 50^th Anniversary Jubilee Celebration at the N. American headquarters in Kona, Hawaii.  

2010 Winter

Our daughter Jubilee is born on November 16^th, just several days before the 50^th Celebration! This was a busy time but full of so much joy!

2011 Winter

Noah takes up the temporary role of Theater Manager for the newly built Mauka Theater on campus. This consisted of hosting leadership meetings and running the A/V equipment, as well as hosting films for schools, outreach teams, children’s matinees and the evening feature films that provide healthy entertainment for the campus of nearly 1000 people.

Spring 2011

As a family we joined as staff with the Performing Arts Discipleship Training School, YWAM’s core missions training course. Noah led a small group of young people from S. Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Norway and USA. Bora translated for the dozen Korean students, and together we helped lead worship for the class.

Summer 2011

In the summer we visited our friends, family and raised support in South Korea. Jubilee was a superstar everywhere we went, and we were treated to a lot of delicious food. Upon returning we began planning the Fall’s School of Worship.

Fall/Winter 2011-2012

             Elevate School of Worship was one of the most significant times of our life and our ministry. Not only did we learn that we can minister as a family, but also each of us personally grew in our understanding of God’s love for His bride and of our own spiritual gifting and anointing. During the fall we both led one on one discipleship with students. Bora assisted with hospitality and food, while Noah ran transportation as well as local church outreaches.


                  After visas being rejected on two occasions, many of the Ch1na outreach we were organizing stayed to take part in the winter SOW internship. The internship allowed us to make more commitments to local churches, as well as lead regular sets in the campus 24/7 Prayer Room and different classrooms. As a smaller community of 9 interns plus staff we met to pray daily, write new songs, record, develop music skills, minister to each other and minister to the heart of God. The internship was a precious time where we could apply what we’d learned in the fall.

A Visit to Maine

         
            I'm kind of nervous to report anything...because the trend of the past few updates has been for our plans to change dramatically about a week following any update! Well if Hebrews says we entertain Angels, I don't mind giving them something to laugh at once more with this update. :)
            I'm writing this from the city of Lewiston, ME. Lewiston is very unique in that it has a population of nearly 20% Somalian refugees living in it. Somalis, for all they've been through in their war torn nation and horrific refugee camps have some of the warmest smiles and handshakes. Being able to live next door to Hope House, a Family Support Center that opens its doors to families from all over the Lewiston/Auburn area I've been able to see a glimpse of some of the timely ministry God is doing back in my home state. It's also exciting to discover that the Burn 24-7 movement to establish prayer rooms all over the globe have led to 24/7 prayer meetings all over my state! So far I've discovered gatherings in Lewiston, Portland and Waterville!
            Introducing Jubilee to her aunts and uncle and reuniting her with her American grandparents has been so special. She loves her cousins, and they can't help but gush over her right back. :) Reconnecting with our home church at EABC, as well as a new house church ministry and countless friends is such a joy, overwhelming to think of all the people we haven't seen yet!

           We'll be staying at my home in Maine for the Spring and Summer months. Our goal is to be back in Kona before the Fall quarter starts at the University of the Nations. We'll continue to staff with the Elevate School of Worship which we're really blessed and honored to be a part of. This SOW has been life-changing for me personally. God has been sharing so much with me in the areas of intimacy, son-ship, and the marriage of intercessory prayer/ worship and the missions movement. We're committed to the training and sending out of devoted worshipers, prayer room pioneers, new songs and industry changers through the School of Worship school throughout the rest of the year. My family is personally praying into and discussing two outreach locations where we'll see new schools pioneered. Those locations are both in East Asia and as we get closer to a commitment I'll post more details. Please be praying for the necessary support to be raised on during this trip home, as well as vision to be cast, destinies in the Lord to be realized, and hearts to chase after out Lord of Love.

Internship Blazing New Trails / Multicultural School of Worship in Spring

We are now seven weeks into the School of Worship Internship and it’s been such a blast! 9 students stayed on from the SOW last quarter as well as 4 families including ours from the SOW staff. Jubilee is now 15 months old and darts all over campus. The never ending compliments on her beauty never get old…though once she’s a teen I might not react the same way. Though I’m always getting remarks on my beauty and it hasn’t seemed to hinder my humility. :p

We’ve been able to send interns into several local churches around the Big Island weekly to lead Hawaiian’s and visiting tourists from all over the globe into presence-heavy, anointed worship.  It has personally been so rewarding to see my good friend and SOW Intern Daniel grow in confidence and in his giftings at my own local church out here, every week we go further into the presence of the Lord and it’s cool to listen to the new instrumental arrangements and licks he’s adding in as he grows in his abilities and experience.

On campus we are feeding into morning worship times with different schools, songwriting, leading worship and intercession sets in the 24/7 Prayer Room and will soon begin a couple recording projects. I’m personally drumming 6-10 hours a week in corporate worship sets in the Prayer Room. It has been amazing. I’m so blessed to play with some really top-notch musicians from the Kona campus body, Kansas City IHOP(International House of Prayer) and all over. I’m growing in my abilities as a drummer and my heart is expanding as an intercessory drummer. I’m learning to listen to the Holy Spirit and play prophetically, play Heaven’s rhythms. It’s not unusual to lead out in a prayer time for 20 minutes using only the floor tom and bass drum, and awesome things are happening in the Spirit realm and chains are being broken! I’ve never known so much freedom in worship, never seen so much fear-of-man trampled on and we’re seeing revival in people’s hearts for worship in Kona, and that includes my own!

Our family has committed to the School of Worship for the rest of the year. Next quarter we will be staffing the Multicultural School of Worship! It’s a bilingual school, meaning it will be in English with translation in Korean. Kona has a huge Korean community and has many long standing bridges into South Korea. Our school leader Jiwan is an amazing woman. I have server her as a drummer once a week a year ago in a bilingual Worship set in the Prayer Room and it was a really great time. I look forward to submitting to Korean leaders once again next quarter…they are some of the most committed and fired up leaders in missions today. (My wife is pretty cool, too)  

The dates for the MSOW run from April to August which includes outreach. We’re currently planning on leaving after the lecture quarter in July to visit family and friend in Maine and hopefully raise some more financial support.

Our goals as a school are…

• -          For the Multicultural School of Worship to be a worshipping and praying community of sons and daughters from the various nations of the world.

• -          For students to learn, experience and be established in the basic truths of the character and nature of God.

• -          To raise Up Worship Leaders who will be sent into the nations as missionaries to serve and draw out the indigenous sounds of their mission field.

• -          Impart the values and passion to redeem cultures and history through the power of worship, prayer, and intercession.

• -          To train and equip students to rise in excellence in their musical gift and abilities, to teach teamwork and unity in worship teams, and motivate creative expressions of worship.

Support the work of our family and University of the Nations: Kona

             We are very blessed to be able to serve the Lord with our brothers and sisters in Kona. We are at the very center of operations for our mission’s 1000 locations in over 180 countries, with a volunteer staff body of over 18,000 people. We raise our own support to be doing what we’re doing, and we would love for you to partner with our family through prayer and financial support. If you’d like to join in supporting our family and the work of the University of the Nations: Kona please click the paypal link below.