OM Artists Unite

October 26-29, 2015 we joined fellow OM Arts International artists for a retreat near Atlanta, Georgia.  This is the 7th anniversary of OM Arts and was a good time to reflect on what God has done through our team so far and how He is leading us from here.

At this time there are 50 of us artists in 12 countries, with 11 of these countries having full time arts ministry.

Just in the last 4 years:
-Over 517 artist have been mobilized on short-term mission trips.
-95 short term mission trips have occurred in over thirty countries.
-118 artist and leaders have attended an OM Arts training event.
-109,500 people have heard the Gospel directly from an OM Arts team, plus millions more via Satellite TV.
-7 full-time arts ministry leaders have been placed on the field.

We are thankful to be part of this unique ministry sharing God's love around the world through the Creative Arts.

Amazing sculpture by Chuck Tryon.

Some of us were stretched more than others during one of our sessions where we had to both pose for and draw a partners portrait.

Posing for and drawing portraits.

At the retreat, Katie discovered she had survived a morning run with this scorpion in her shoe!

Ride On

We partnered with SOUND Student Ministry at Peachtree City Christian Church Wednesday, March 30 for a fun and inspiring evening of the UniShow.  Several fellow OM families attend this church so we were blessed with a team effort for set up and tear down.  Dustin shared his testimony and challenge that God never leaves us in our trials but grows us through them.  We heard afterward that this is just what the students needed to hear.

Thursday, March 31 we were able to present the UniShow for all of OM USA at the headquarters in Tyrone.  It was a privilege to be able to give a visual explanation of the UniShow branch of OM Arts International and demonstrate how we might be able to serve in greater capacity among other OM ministries.

Jesus loves the children of Atlanta

We had the great privilege of partnering with NightLight Atlanta for 2 evenings of outreaches in the intercity.  This is a ministry that reaches out to women and children exploited in the sex industry.  We joined the kids club outreaches in two "neighborhoods" of Atlanta and shared a UniShow and Jesus with the children.  At each event Dustin shared the Gospel and led kids in a prayer to receive Jesus.  After leading prayer at one outreach, Dustin explained that those who just prayed to receive Jesus are now children of God.  One boy who had prayed threw his fists in the air and said, "Yes!"  These kids desperately need to know they matter and have a heavenly Father who loves them extravagantly.

It was heartbreaking but we are thankful for the opportunity to share the love and hope of Jesus with these precious kids.  Please pray for the ongoing ministry of NightLight and their follow up weekly with these kids.  They will be leading the kids in a baptism service soon and we pray many kids will participate and take a bold and radical stand for Jesus and find His healing and love.

For the safety of the kids, we are not able to post any photos of these events.

Kazakhstan okay. Papers good, you may enter.

We were blessed to spend our time between TeenStreet and the GO Conference with our friends, the Sachs Family, just outside Stuttgart Germany. They welcomed us into their home and made us feel like family. We had an opportunity to share with their church about our ministry with OM Arts. The church blessed us very generously and we are so thankful for their partnership with us.

After a 7 hour train ride on August 19 from the Sachs in Germany to Delden Holland, we arrived at de Kroeze Danne for the GO Conference. We were greeted immediately with the words, "Your passports are here!" Whew! We are praising the Lord, especially after we found Kazakhstan Visas inside!! God is good!

"Now this is TeenStreet"

We ended the week of TeenStreet with a UniShow. We had a great turn out with the show in the round and multi-level. It was great to be able to challenge so many students at once and show those who worked so hard in the workshops how God can use their unicycling, or any other gift God has given them.

After the program on Friday we connected with OM leaders from other countries who are interested in having us come to minister with them. One comment we heard about the UniShow afterward was, "Now this is TeenStreet!"

We are so thankful for our superstar leaders, Ewout, Ali and Gideon who set up the workshops and fully organized this last event. They were very thoughtful and thorough and helpful each step of the way and we wouldn't have made it through the week without them!

But wait...there's more (unicycles)!

Even after Dustin converted his double wheel into a freestyle unicycle, we realized four standard unicycles were not enough for all the interest we had in the workshops. We decided to order four more cycles from Unicycle.com Germany. The shipment arrived just in time for our Wednesday workshop and once we assembled the new ones, all 8 unicycles were in constant use. We hope to sell a few of the newly purchased ones before we leave here.

We will have a UniShow performance Friday night to cap off the week. Please pray that through Dustin's testimony and message many students will be challenged.

Operation Mobilization OutBound

As part of our orientation with Operation Mobilization we gathered with about 30 other prospective OM missionaries at the OM USA Headquarters in Atlanta, GA for a week called OutBound. This week was anything but textbook and dry lectures like we had been anticipating. At the beginning of the week we were divided up into "tribes" and came up with a tribe name, flag and skit about our tribe origin. At the end of the week had an "Amazing Race" type hunt around Atlanta after being dropped off at the International Airport with a bag of quarters and a list of things and people to find. I'm proud to announce that Waka Waka Hiki Mundo tribe won and we got to sign a trophy with the world on top and a picture of George Verwer (OM's Founder) on the base.

During our adventures downtown Atlanta, we shared Christ with Bemga (from Nigeria whose name means "God lifts me up") and Kim (see photo). Please pray with us that they surrender their lives completely to Jesus! Another highlight was a surprise connection with fellow OutBounders, Sarah and Dax Bryant. Sarah was my sisters college roommate some 10 years ago! It was super neat to catch up and meet her family and hear how the Lord is leading them in missions

Throughout the week we heard from and prayed for many OM missionaries who had come from around the world to cast a vision for ministry in their field. We had practical sessions on support raising, expectations and transitions. Not only did we learn much more about OM as an organization and about its history, we experienced OM first hand and the love and care they have for their missionaries and their desire to thoroughly prepare people for serving the Lord for a lifetime. Even though we have been doing full time ministry for many years, this week was a refreshing reminder of the basics of missions and what it is all about, not to mention a whole lot of fun!