the winter is past & the springtime is here

"My lover said to me, "Rise up, my darling! Come away with me, my fair one! Look, the winter is past, & the rains are over & gone. The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come..."

Song of Songs 2:10-12

It's a beautiful season on the West Coast. The hills of Los Angeles are greener than usual, a strange hope is in the air. Something is changing here, something big is coming. My team came not knowing what to expect, but with one simple word from the Lord to run with: spring is here.

We started ministry on April 1st at the University of California in San Diego (UCSD), coincidentally on the same day that former president Bill Clinton was starting off a conference focusing on global change. We walked around the campus praying & worshipping-enthroning Jesus in His rightful place, high above the humanism that is so celebrated there. HE is the only solution to all the injustice on the earth, amen?

The next night, two worlds collided as my family & childhood friends came together with my new ywam family for a night of worship. We simply ministered to the heart of the Lord, & He was faithful to come & inhabit our praises, sending waves of His love & healing. We saw many hearts encouraged as we prayed over one another & also one partial healing (the pain went away in someone's shoulder, not sure if it's fully healed). We joined together with one family praying for salvation for their children & got word the very next day that the oldest daughter had accepted the Lord into her heart that night! I was so humbled & thankful to see the Lord pour out His faithfulness & open heaven over my home!

Next, we moved on to Los Angeles, & on day one of ministry there, at Venice Beach, my team shared the gospel & prayed for over 30 people. We had the opportunity to bless some incredibly anointed rap artists who were believers, & we ran into a young man who was temporarily homeless & had just been robbed the night before AND it was his birthday!-so we bought him a root beer float, a new sweatshirt & some shoes, & we prayed over him. His name is Robbie, & the Lord is radically pursing his heart & he knows it! Oh, & one of the ywam LA guys we were with led a kid to the Lord at the skate park. The kingdom of heaven is near!

So our schedule for LA is simply this: hitting the streets during the day, doing evangelism, prayer walks, & worship, & then helping establish the ywam base's house of prayer at night, doing sets four days a week. We're also partnering with a local youth group, Models for Christ, Kid Works-an after school program for children at risk, & some other local ministries. We've connected at a heart level with all of these people rather quickly with the help of a similar word of the Lord for this season-the winter is past & the springtime is here!

Here's the rest of our schedule, so that you can be praying for us along this journey!

April 3-29: Los Angeles, CA

April 30-May 2: Redding, CA

May 3-10: Corvallis/ Albany, OR

May 11-June 13: Seattle, WA

Also, you can join our group on Facebook for more consistent updates

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/home.php?sk=group_102865653130263

Ps. I'm sorry, I just realized I haven't introduced my team!...

Katelyn Leavitt-25, from Alaska, co-leader

Alex Graves-24, from Washington, co-leader

Megan Heller-17, from Kauai

Elisabeth Melkerean, from Norway

Jaimie Kim, from Korea

Victor Chun, from Canada

Jen & Michael Arsenault, from Florida (Jen's pregnant!)

...& that's the family.