My Staff Video!!

To help our future students get to know our staff a little bit before they arrive.. we all did a short video! So I though't I'd share mine with you guys!! Here it is:   

This is my life.

One of the most common thoughts that I’ve had since I’ve been back in Kona is “I can’t believe this is my life!”. Jesus is so faithful! It has definitely been stretching and challenging for sure, and will continue to become more so, but I love that this is what the Lord has called me to. I literally get to love and pursue Jesus, go after His heart, live in community, and learning how to lead and disciple and love the lost as my full time job! 

Leadership track has been incredible! I’ve been able to dive deep in the place of prayer and intercession, both corporately and individually. As part of the leadership track we have 4 hours a week that are called “watchman hours”, where we have complete ownership over that hour in the prayer room to be the one partnering with the Lord’s heart and being with him to worship and pray, to be the “watchman on the wall”. It has definitely been challenging, and sometimes it goes by super fast and other times a hour seems forever, but it has been an amazing and challenging time of learning how to pray! The Lord has been establishing steadfastness in my heart during this season and making my roots deep in Him. He has spoken Psalm 1:1-3 over me during this season: “Blessed is the [woman] who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but [her] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law [she] meditates day and night. [She] is like a tree planted by steams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that [she] does, [she] prospers.”

I’ve been given the incredible opportunity to lead worship for one of our corporate prayer and intercession sets from 1-3pm in our prayer room every Friday. Our crew - Community Transformations - was given the Friday sets and I was asked to lead the worship part of it with others in our crew making up the band. It has been so amazing! There’s such a joy that comes from doing what the Lord has created you to do! It has been a journey of learning how to lead worship in the prayer room for an intercession set. It’s very different than leading a devotional or for a church service, but my heart has really come alive and into a new level of anointing and passion for the Lord and for corporate worship and intercession! I’m still learning a ton, but loving every minute! I’ve also been able to jump in and sing on many other teams, being able to cultivate giftings of prophetic singing and choruses. And have been having a ton of fun being able to worship and sing with my friends and amazing musicians here on the base, and I’m learning so much from them!

Another huge part of the track is serving the campus every morning. The awesome part about this is that I was placed in the DTS office processing student applications. We are processing apps for every DTS in the upcoming quarter, (there’s 8 DTS total running this fall) including the DTS I’m staffing - Community Transformations. So because our staff is working in the office, we get to be very involved with our students right from when they start applying! It has been incredible getting to know our students and being able to start the discipleship process now before they even get here. Every time I get to talk to one of our future students, I get so excited for what the Lord is going to do in us this fall!! So far for our school we have 88 students accepted!! We’re completely amazed at how many incredible, hungry for Jesus, students that he’s sending to our school and community for this fall! A major prayer request for us is that we have a majority of girl students, which while that is normal, we are praying and asking the Lord to even out the ratio a little bit more! We felt like he told us to pray for the releasing of 30 more guys, and so far we’ve had 3 of those 30, so 27 more! Please pray with us for the releasing of these guys!! If you want to know more about Comm Trans, visit our website: www.commtransdts.com

Our staff is almost all together now and the remaining ones will be coming within the week! Its been so fun to get to know each other better and come together as a community and staff team. They are some of the most fun, weird, crazy, hungry and passionate for Jesus people I’ve had the privilege of running with, and I can’t imagine staffing a DTS with anyone else! We will be praying into outreach locations and pairs for leading the teams within the next few weeks, so please also be keeping us in your prayers for direction and clarity from the Lord! I’m slightly nervous but really excited to see who I’ll be leading with and where the Lord is leading us to go!

We have another 6 weeks left of this quarter before our arrival day, so as I am completely looking forward to the fall quarter and the starting of our school and fully diving into staffing and discipleship, I am giving the Lord everything that I have for the rest of this season to get everything that He has for me!! 

Please continue to pray for the Lord to prepare me and our staff team as we prepare for the fall! Also some of our staff (including my sister!) are heading to New York City in early September to minister at fashion week and work with Models for Christ, so keep them in your prayers as well! Also continue to pray for full provision from the Lord for me, our staff and our students! 

Love you all! Praying for the Lord to bless you and keep you, for his face to shine upon you! 

25 days till the start of my next adventure!

Just under a month and I'll be headed back to Kona! So many mixed feelings in that statement! I'm so excited to be back in kona and with the incredible community at ywam,  and have anticipation for what the Lord has in store for me, but there are people I have to leave behind and sometimes that's hard! Although all my friends and family are supporting me and excited for me as well, I'm definitely going to miss them! Praise God for Skype and texting apps! :)
One of the biggest things I've been learning since being home is about partnership. The Lord always seems to want to take me deeper in learning how to trust him more and continue in step by step affection based obedience. Support raising has definitely worked those spiritual muscles! Its been a challenging but good process in learning how to partner with the Lord and trust him in this area of my life. Its a daily obedience process of asking him what is the next step, who is the next person to contact, and what is the best way to clearly communicate my vision and his direction in my life. Some days the overall goal does seem a bit overwhelming though! But I remind myself that He is faithful and He is provider and I'm confident in Him!
With that being said, I am currently at a committed $460 a month, just over half way to my monthly goal! I am still in need of more monthly support partners or one-time gift contributions. Everyone on YWAM staff is a volunteer and we raise our own support! It is such a privilege and blessing to be able to join with friends and family and partner in what the Lord is calling me to do. Not everyone has the calling or the opportunity to go, but we can all sow into the kingdom by loving and support those who do, both in prayer and financially. I would love if you would please pray and consider the idea of partnering with me! As part of my family or one of my incredible friends, or someone the Lord led to read this, I would love to share and invest in each other lives and have you be a part of this adventure with me! I cannot do any of this without Jesus and all the people behind me supporting and praying for me! By supporting me to go, any and all of the victories the Lord wins through my team and I will also be your victories. Any amount is incredible, it's more the willingness to give and the desire to be a part of this with me that is the biggest blessing!
All of my support will be going through YWAM Canada and is tax-deductible. If the Lord has led you to give there are multiple ways to do that. YWAM Project Funding accepts cheques, money orders, credit cards, online transfers, and automatic bank withdrawals. Any cheques can be made out to YWAM with a note with my name (Carlynn Petersen) and sent to:
YWAM Project Funding
PO Box 57100 RPO East Hastings
Vancouver, BC
V5K 5G6
If you are interested in donating through credit card, online transfers or automatic withdrawal click HERE. This will take you to the ywam canada donation website that has more detailed information and forms you can download and fill out.
Also do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, concerns or prayers!
Email: carlypetersen89@gmail.com
Cell: 604.724.4054 - Canadian
        253.227.0054 - American
Please pray and ask the Lord if he is leading you to partner with me! Thanks so much!

Home Sweet Home

I know its been so long since I last posted! Here's an update!

The end of our trip to Nepal was amazing! Our last week spent in Pokhara was one of my favourite weeks out of our entire trip! The first few nights we went to dance bars to chat with the dancers and waitresses and share with them the love of Jesus. My group went to the same club three times to visit and talk with the same three waitresses. These girls were all under the age of 18 and were working there to provide for their families and couldn't get another job because of their lack of education. We were able to encourage them and share the gospel with them, one of the girls had never even heard the name of Jesus before! We were also able to meet with them outside of the club for lunch to talk and just spend some more time with them! For our other 3 nights in Pokhara, we showed The Passion of the Christ in three different areas. We saw many people get healed, including an older grandpa who walked in with a cane and after praying for him, he was marching around behind one of our translators saying "left, right, left, right, hallelujah!" in Nepali! The Lord truly blew our expectation of our last week of ministry in Pokhara!

I've been home now for just over a month and its been super busy! In the past month two of my best friends have gotten married! Its been a super fun month of celebrating with them and getting to love and serve them in this special season of life! I've spent lots of time helping them get things ready for the day, planning showers and parties and just offering moral support! :) I love weddings! And its one of my favourite things to love on my friends and help make their day the best it can be! Other than weddings, it has been so good to be back home with my family and friends. I been having many opportunities to share what the Lord did in our team, in Nepal and in my heart, encouraging friends and getting excited together about what the Lord's doing all over the earth! I'm getting to lead worship at my church this sunday night and I'm really looking forward to it, especially after how much I've learned from the Lord during DTS!

Since being back at home, I've decided and felt the call and direction of the Lord to return to Kona and go on staff with YWAM, continuing with the Community Transformations family! I am so excited about returning to Kona to continue to run with this incredible group of people who are wholeheartedly abandoned and following Jesus! I am committing to the base and this community for a year. It will include living in intentional community, sharpening each other, intentional discipleship, prayer room hours, serving the campus, local ministry and developing leadership skills. The year will also consist of staffing the next Community Transformations DTS starting this coming September! The DTS will run from September through March, three months of lecture phase in Kona, then I will co-lead an outreach team for the following three months, starting in January '13. The Lord has given me a heart and vision for this next generation to be raised up, in love with Him, armed with truth, and trained and sent out to make Him known and give Him glory in the nations! I will of course be very involved in singing and worship on base, in corporate sets and in the prayer room! I'm so excited to see the doors the Lord is going to open for me during my time in Kona and to fall more in love with him and help disciple and train the ones He brings to our school!

I am looking for partnership for this next calling from the Lord! I will be raising financial support with the goal of $800 a month. Please pray and consider partnering with me and Community Transformations! For more information please let me know!
Email: carlypetersen89@gmail.com
Phone: 604-724-4054
I have a paypal account link to this blog if you would like to donate, I will also be setting up an account with YWAM Canada and information on how to set up monthly support will be coming soon! I'd love to share more of my heart and vision with you if you are interested in partnering with me so please let me know! Thanks!

Some Highlights!!

Sorry for the delayed next update! The last few weeks have been busy and flown by! There's so much to say but I'll just stick to a few highlights! 

First our second trek up to the village Puma. Praise God we went again! Haha although I was slightly nervous to go back, especially for a whole week, because of how sick I got last time... It ended up being a great trip and totally redeemed the first one! We spent the week building relationships and helping wherever we could - mudding houses, chopping and carrying tons of wood and teaching english to the woman's club that hosts us! We also went to a nearby village to share the gospel and pray for them. We ended up having an epic dance party and people got healed and some kids got saved! It was a really fun time in the mountains! While we were there the Lord started challenging my view and expectation of  ministry and evangelism and what it "should" look like. He's been teaching me how to share the gospel in word and deed! There's been a bunch of freedom and release of random false pressure I tend to put on myself because of this. Learning how to love and walk like Jesus is incredible! And often looks different than we think! 
We returned from the trek and had our pastoral visit from one of our school leaders, Steve Schallert! It was so fun to have him here with us and experience nepal and be encouraged by him! We also had our second 24 hour burn with all our Comm Trans teams all around the world! This time we hosted it in the YWAM cafe here in Kathmandu, and were able to have our friends from Iris ministries and other ywamers come and worship with us! It was an amazing 24 hours of ministering to the Lords heart! All of our team took slots to worship in their own way, like drawing, painting, reading or singing scripture, sing hymns.. Things like that! It was really cool to see how creative the lord is in how unique he made us all! For me the burn also gave me time and space to dream with the lord and he's given me increased vision about the future! :) I love spending long hours with the lord! 
The last couple weeks we've been continuing our ministries here in the city. Still helping out at higher grounds bakery and building relationships, hanging out with the Iris children's home kids, praying for people around the city and building up and encouraging other believers! 
Last Thursday a few of us went with one of translators, Ganga, to a rehabilitation center for the disabled and people with leprosy. We met with a group of believers there, worshiped and prayed with them and each of us gave a word of encouragement, it was so amazing to see their love and dedication to the Lord. We also played with some of disabled kids... They we're so full of life!
On Saturday we went to a youth service that another one of our translators, Nelson's, band was playing at. We had a fun afternoon with the small group of youth that came and the band worshipping together! Singing in both Nepali and English! At the meeting I also got to speak and share briefly what the lord has been doing in my heart and a word of encouragement that the lord had given me to share! It was really cool to be able to speak and share!
We only have 14 more days here in Nepal! It's crazy how fast and yet how long it feels like we've been here! We're finishing off the week here in Kathmandu and on Saturday we leave with the Iris team for one last trip with them to Pokhara, the other main tourist city in Nepal. From what we hear it's beautiful with lots of ministry opportunities. We're exactly sure what it will look like yet, but probably lots of evangelism and we will be showing the Jesus film in a few parks and sharing our testimonies. We then will start our debrief week off there and will finish it up here in Kathmandu! Continue to pray for the rest of our time here, for us to walk out in the fullness of everything he has for us in the next 2 weeks! Love you and miss you all and I'll be seeing you soon!! 

Half way through outreach!

By the end of this week we will be half way done outreach! Looking back it feels like we've been here forever, but looking forward to what we have planned it feels like it's going to fly by. The past two weeks we've all been doing some different ministry things around the Kathmandu valley. A couple of us girls have gotten involved with a local business ministry called Higher Grounds, a cafe, bakery, crafts and jewelry making for women out of the sex trafficking trade or high risk women. It's been really fun helping out in the crafts and jewelry making, getting to know the girls working there, tons of open doors for friendship ministry and discipleship. I help out there twice a week usually. They took us to their church on Saturday and we spent the day with them just hanging out and getting to know each other better. The other days as a team we've visited other temples to pray and worship, and spent a morning learning about the sex trade and trafficking industry here and how we can be involved as a short term team. We're hoping to go into some dance bars to minister to some of the girls working and potentially share the love of Christ and offer them another way than dancing. I'm excited to see how the lord will lead us in that and who he'll lead us too!! 
I'm definitely feeling more settled here and into the outreach swing. Every day I feel the lord teaching me and opening my heart more and planting new dreams into my heart. I have been leading most of the worship times for our team and have learned so much about worship leading and grown in confidence so much. The Holy Spirit has truly been my teacher in all of it and because of that I have fallen in love with him more! The intimacy and closeness i've felt with the Lord had been so sweet and refreshing. I've even had the chance and encouragement to start writing a few songs as well. :) This weekend I'm helping lead worship with a team from the international church for their service. 
That's really all to report for now! We're super expectant to see what the second half of outreach is going to be like and what the Lord is going to do. We're pressing in for the fullness of our time here, everything he has for us. Please continue to pray for us! We head out on another trek to the same village and then to a few surrounding ones on the 31st for a week. Definitely pray for us then! Especially for health, I really don't want to get sick again! Also of course for the Lord to lead us and move through us as we preach the gospel and serve the people!

Fun facts about Nepal - to help paint a bit of a picture of what it's like here for you all! 
1. There is always room on the bus for one more! Even when there seems no humanly possible way, there always is! They are not afraid for people to hang off the side either! 
2. Socks with sandals is culturally appropriate 
3. The honking of horns are continual and are the cars communication to each other, meaning many different things! Including: "hello" "hi" "hows it going?" "I'm here!" "I'm happy" "I'm sad" "I'm angry!" "I'm turning" "I'm passing you" "I'm not passing you" "you're in my way" "go faster" "go slower" "it's my birthday!" "I'm leaving" "bye" "see ya later" ... You get the idea! :) 
4. Grocery bags are used for groceries and lawn ornaments
5. The bus boys sound like auctioneers yelling the names of the towns out the side of the bus. As well as whistling and hitting the side of the bus! 
6. Food is ridiculously cheap! I can get a good full meal for around $3. And a decent latte for just over a $1
7. Snickers has become my favorite treat here! :)

That's all for now! As I think of more I'll add them! 
Blessings!

Three Weeks In!

We have just finished our third full week here in Kathmandu. In most ways it feels like we've been here so much longer yet it's crazy to think we're heading in to our forth week. After our first week of really praying into what the Lord has for us here and getting to know the city, our town, the contacts and settling in we started to go after some of the words the Lord gave us. Week two we went to a few different temples to pray for people and pray and worship in and around the temple. Giving the one true God the honor and praise due his name! On our way to the first temple we stopped for this older couple sitting on the side of the path, half in a puddle of water with just a thin blanket. They talked through our translators and found out she had been blind for the last 10 months. We all gathered around them and prayed over her that the Lord would come meet them and heal her. Almost immediately she sat up and started saying "hallelujah" and "I believe" in Nepali. We continued to pray for a while and the Lord continued to minister to them and began healing in her eyes, she was able to see some light and shadows!! Some of our team then took them to get some food and help provide for their physical needs. We continued to the temple and prayed and worshiped overlooking the entire city, declaring the Lords goodness and lordship over this land! It was so amazing to be able to play the guitar and lead my team in worship in the middle of the Hindu temple. The next day we went to a lake that one of the girls on my team had heard of in prayer, and met a Nepali believer who had a business there and was able to pray and encourage her. She also was blind in one eye and as the lord ministered to her heart, he also started to heal her eye as well. She was able to see more light by the time we left! Praise! But more incredibly the Lord specifically lead us to her to be the body of Christ and encourage our sister and she said her hope had been restored! I've been learning tons about how the lord cares about everything, but He mostly cares and desires our hearts to come and be restored and find our rest in him. Our spiritual health he loves to meet us in and bring full healing every time! That were we also visited a mother Teresa home and helped out with practical duties - washing clothed and dishes. We also broke into two groups and together walked the road that encircles the main part of the city and prayed for it the entire time. It has been a journey of listening to the lord and seeing what he wants us to do daily. Which, honestly, can be exciting and somewhat frustrating as well! The lord is working and challenging me in so many ways, but He is so good. We finished that week with a 24 hour burn with everyone around the world from our DTS! Its 24 straight hours of prayer and worship. It was amazing!! Too much to tell!! :) but to some up my heart was drawn closer to the lord and my passion set more on fire for the place of intimacy and ministering to His heart! Week three we trekked up to a village called Puma. We went with the purpose of helping rebuild a house and disciple recent believers. We had a 6 hour bus ride and three hour hike to this little village built up on the side of the mountain with the most beautiful view of the Himalayans! It was beautiful and the people were super welcoming. Unfortunately I got really sick and was taken out for most of the trip! :( which made it more difficult and not fun! So not the best trekking experience.. But our team as a whole worked hard and helped with the house and we ended up more disciplining by example and the village was definitely impacted. 
Please continue to pray for me and us as we head into our fourth week. Pray for health as a bunch of us have been and still are sick. Miss you all! I'll try and update again soon!! Blessings!