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.