My second adventure begins

The three crazy Canadians in the School of Worship (ironically Hannah is wearing an American sweater...)

So I’ve been back in what I now consider my second home, Costa Rica, for one month now (already!). After a month- long visit back to Canada in March, I returned to YWAM San Jose at the beginning of April to do a secondary school, School of Worship.

During my five month DTS adventure here, I discovered rather quickly, that I had an honest passion for worship. I’d grown up playing piano, joined jazz band, and eventually went to study music in university for a couple years, so music had always had a presence in my life.  But one of the first times we had worship as a whole YWAM base, I experienced God’s presence in a way I never had, and it made me thirsty for more. I now realize worship is probably the strongest time that I hear God’s voice and connect with Him. I love and look forward to those times so much.

It feels awesome to be back on base and to see a lot of the people that I missed. Obviously, I miss quite a few from my DTS who aren’t here, but YWAM is about building really deep relationships that will last no matter where you are in the world. It’s so cool how God brings you into an amazing family who you get to know really well, and this new, strange country ends up being your second home. 

So, School of Worship has a similar structure to DTS in terms of how classes are run. We have a new speaker every week, talking about a different topic, but focused on worship and specifically worship through music. In the end though, it’s all about going deeper with God, getting to know who He is more, and discovering who you are in Him. So far it’s been amazing, really.  We’ve had four weeks of classes and I love each speaker in a different way, I couldn’t pick a favorite. Each speaker brings totally new things to the table, each have different teaching styles and ways of helping you learn. It’s so cool!

In SOW, there are only seven of us (a bit of a change from the twenty-two in my DTS), so the atmosphere is quite different than DTS class time. SOW feels more like a place to not only get information thrown at us, but to discuss it amongst ourselves, ask questions, or even question the information given. I definitely find it easier to learn in an environment like this, so I feel like God’s been giving me so much revelation!

First week of classes were taught by one of the base leaders, Spencer Pavely (also one of the awesome Canadians on base…go Canada!). He taught on the Foundations of Worship, so basically what you need to possess as a daughter/son of God before you go and lead people, and that involves knowing God’s character and who He is. There’s always a topic of the week, but often we end up talking about everything and anything, that’s the cool thing about it. If the speaker is being lead by the Holy Spirit, you can get so much out of a class.  I love when Spencer teaches because he’s honest, speaks from experience and has an awesome Canadian sense of humor… which often involves corny jokes with some sarcasm thrown in for good measure!

Second week was a bit of a mash-up between song writing classes with Marcello Rojo, and Hans Wust speaking about our identity as worshipers. Both were incredible! Marcello makes his living as a musician, teacher, and song- writer. He’s an unbelievable pianist and can come up with a new song in two minutes flat (rhyming lyrics included, no joke!). So he basically walked us through the process of song writing, and the difference between writing worship songs versus maybe more commercial music. It was definitely a blast, and in the end we came out with a few new songs written by our class as whole.

Hans Wust is a local Tico, and is one of the most honest people I’ve ever met. His quiet way of speaking combined with his ability to challenge you to be honest with yourself definitely shook some things up in me. He spoke a lot about finding a community of people that you can be totally honest with. That’s what being the church is all about…community, honesty, and accountability. Feeling like you don’t have to hide whatever things are messed up in your life at the time. Having the total freedom to share with people and have them walk alongside you and support you through those struggles. No pretending, no pressure of having to be perfect, just being brutally honest. That’s how we should try and be as the Church. Alongside that, knowing your identity in Christ, instead of your “worldly” identity was another subject he touched on quite a bit. Identity is something we all struggle with, and it’s been something I’ve had to “un-learn” almost. In society we’re taught that worldly things define who we are: what we study, our job, the instrument we play, what sport we’re good at. But any of that could be taken away in an instant…so what would you be left with? I’ve been slowly learning to put my identity in Christ, and the fact that I’m his daughter. It may not seem like a lot, but it’s more than enough for me.

Last week was also taught by a local Tico, David Bastamente  Alongside Hans, David is a brutally honest guy, and has an incredible, incredible testimony. He’s an unbelievably talented guitar player as well as singer, and leads worship at one of the Vineyard churches in Escazu, about twenty minutes from the base. All week with him was basically about being raw, real, and again, insanely honest. He shared his struggles, testimonies, and stories of his life, and expected us to do the same. The basis of what he taught on was finding that community, that family you can belong to, and be totally raw with. Again, that’s what being the Church really means. You need to have those brothers and sisters you can go to without having to put on a mask, and pretend to be the perfect Christian…there’s no such thing. We’re all God’s broken daughters and sons, no matter what. The point is to bring our failures and brokenness to the cross and to be forgiven. It was a challenging week in terms of bringing up things that we maybe didn’t want to bring up, but in the end that God forgives and heals you of.

It’s been an amazing time of learning so far, God is so awesome and I can’t wait to see what else He’s going to do during this time. Before I sign off though, I want to introduce my School of Worship family:

Hannah: fellow Canadian, my amazing leader for my outreach to Brazil, a singer and guitar player, loves chocolate, super crazy and funny.

Joe: from Colorado, was part of my DTS, plays guitar and is just a super chill, awesome guy.

Josue: from Costa Rica, was also part of my DTS, plays drums and loves to bother me like my older brother does.

Kourtney: another fellow Canadian, did her outreach to Costa Rica while I was doing my DTS, plays piano, same sense of crazy Canadian humor Hannah and I have.

Hazel: from London, England, plays the flute and has a hilarious sense of British humor (I don’t think she’s too scared to have three Canadians living with her).

Sharon: from Singapore, plays guitar, really honest, and loves to have fun with the other crazy gals in her room!