I’m so excited to be attending Youth With A Mission (YWAM) as I enter this next phase of my life. If you don’t already know what I’ve been up to, this letter should definitely bring you up to speed.

In the summer of 2008, while I was on vacation with friends in O’ahu, I felt God calling me to commit a longer portion of my time towards missions before I continued with any further education. Through a rather unique series of events, I recognized God was specifically calling me to join YWAM and go through the Discipleship Training School (DTS) program. After searching through the various DTS focuses, I stumbled upon one called PhotogenX which had a strong emphasis on photography along with serving in the global community, combating injustice and delivering the gospel message to the world. Once I had committed to YWAM, I actually ended up talking with friend of mine who lived and worked at a church in Hawaii about a job opportunity before my DTS started. The first three months of 2009 I ended up working with New Hope Diamond Head (NHDH) Church in Honolulu, Hawaii. That short stint at NHDH really reignited my passion for the work God’s doing in the church around the globe.

It’s that same passion that’s fueled my desire to join YWAM and learn more about a missional lifestyle. As a Christian, I’ve received the commission to go into the world and proclaim the gospel of Christ to the lost, bring hope to the hopeless, stand against injustice, feed the poor, clothe the naked, and pray for the sick to be healed. YWAM is awesome because it exists to equip young people, like myself, to live missional lives intentionally focused on reaching the world for Christ and living out the great commission (Matthew 28:19). They’ve sent out nearly four million young people over the course of their more than 50 years in the field. Even in the short time I’ve been here, I already feel like I’m apart of a great heritage of believers who are excited about reaching the world.

And here’s the part where you come in! One of the luxuries I have as a child of the internet is the ability to be in constant communication with you, as supporters, and give you current updates and prayer requests. My vision is that this wouldn’t just be a one-time letter but that, as you choose to partner with me in what God is doing, we would grow closer as the global family of God and in our understanding of the work he’s doing in every corner of the world. I have a sense that God’s preparing me for a long term investment in real global issues of injustice and poverty.

So what does partnership with me look like? Well, I definitely need to be showered in prayer while I’m here in Kona, Hawaii and also once I’m on my outreach in Panama. Classes have already been pretty intense and, by God’s grace, I don’t even think I’ll be able to recognize my old self once this course is over. It’s certainly exciting to know that God will be doing a work in me but I’m also a bit timid or guarded about being completely open and honest with a group of total strangers. I’d specifically like prayer around the area of God refining and pruning me spiritually in this season. I think it’s safe to say I bring a bit of baggage into this experience and I’m just looking to grow closer to God as my spiritual father and feel his love in my life. I would be personally blessed if you committed to pray for me weekly in the various areas I list on my website.

The other real element of support is in my financial needs. God has already blessed me with enough resources for the first half of the DTS but I still need another $5,000 for the following 12 week outreach to Panama. The great thing is I already know in my heart that God is the faithful Provider, he has proven that fact over my last four years of life. There are two different ways to give. One would be electronically through Mountain View Community Church’s online giving system on their website. The other would be to mail a check to them and they can process the rest.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this letter and I hope that you will prayerfully consider partnering with me in the ministry of Christ. To stay connected, I’ll be making a real effort to consistently update my blog each week at www.calelivingston.com along with additional email updates.

And here are a few pieces of info if you’re looking to support me financially:

If you’re looking to donate through Mountain View’s website you should use “Missions” as the category and specify “Cale Livingston YWAM.” If you want to write a check, make it payable to “MVCC” and write “Cale Livingston YWAM” in the memo line.

“You know you have a problem when…

You derive excitement from the alphabet.”

The general public is so used to having it mentally re-enforced that they’re not creative that they no longer try. They just throw their hands in the air in surrender. They’re ill-equipped for the task. So what’s the difference between them and us “artists”? I think it’s that artists actually pursue new, unique things. If we only surround ourselves with the same generic wallpaper and carpet we’ll be hard pressed to think outside of the box. Artists, on the other hand, are constantly immersed in the culture of creativity. And that, my friends, is the key. As soon as you realize that anything is possible you suddenly raise the bar for yourself.

The Christian subculture specifically has such a hard time with this. It’s so insular and shallow compared to the rest of the world. It seems ironic that the religious Christian community tends to favor stagnation over innovation. They’re afraid to keep moving forward. Or rather, they become complacent with where they’re at. But when you break out of this bubble you’ll realize there’s so much more to experience in medium of art.

So my challenge is to surround yourself with fresh, new expressions of creativity. That might mean dissecting the editing and cinematography of the next movie, tv show, or even commercial you watch. Or it might mean that you subscribe to a blog like Inspire Me Now! There are daily, practical steps you can take to expand your imagination and expectations for creativity. Why would you be content with living in black and white if you knew there was color? I think it’s about time people take off the blinders and see the beauty of the world as it was intended to be seen. Life’s too short to settle for mediocre.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiNgLhnOM8Q]

Against Me! – Borne On The FM Waves Of The Heart video
Yeah, I just have this itch that I can’t scratch. I keep watching videos on youtube and elsewhere and they always have B&W footage. Either that or B&W pictures set to a  narration about changing the world, which almost equally as cool. Just depends. I swear, I need a creative outlet! I need friends that have time to spend creating. I need a community that fosters creativity. I think maybe that’s my biggest problem. I’m relation-based; not time-based like our US culture. That’s why I keep slipping back to Hawaii, or even Seattle for that matter. (Hawaii’s not really part of the US, fyi) Relationship cultures = Art cultures. Time cultures = Business/tired/burnt out cultures. Oh, and I’m not bias at all!

Side note: If you don’t know me very well then you’d be surprised to learn that I’m rather OCD and slightly ADHD so I tend to constantly rework my sentence structures and rearrange paragraph orders along with image placements. Right now I’m trying not to let my blog turn into another outlet of thought paralyzed by the impossible goal of perfection. To fulfill this purpose I’ll try to write more candidly and less grammatically correct (if that’s even possible for me?).

In short, Erwin McManus has already captured my heart with just this article alone. He’s basically writing the page of my life that I’m trying to live out right now. The innovation article is also inspiring because it points out that you’re usually up against the wall when the creative genius kicks in. I had a feeling most artists functioned this way. And lastly, I love the call to evaluate the pros and cons of “community” in the digital age. So ofter we just assume that the internet will solve all of our problems without actually contributing any of its own. How short-sighted! Ok, I’m done. Now read!

Erwin McManus:

http://www.collidemagazine.com/article/104/the-futurist

Innovation, because it’s all you’ve got:

http://www.collidemagazine.com/article/126/innovation-is-easier-and-harder-than-you-think

The Illusion of Community:

http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/archives/2008/10/the_illusion_of.html

http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/archives/2008/10/the_illusion_of_1.html

James Natchwey, Photographer.

So I’m at a point where I just have way too many ideas floating around in my head and yet I’m too OCD to actually bookmark every link so I’ve decided to start powerblogging. Yay?! We’ll see how it turns out…

Nifty shirt, I wonder if they have my size?

One of the sites I frequent, weburbanist.com, recently launched a spin-off site focused entirely on going green. Naturally the site is called webecoist.com and has been a great addition to my rss feed page. One post that caught my eye the other day offered up some useful types on smart consumption. I like the fact that they take a concept as foreign and ambiguous as “going green” and break it down into manageable steps. I look at this list of 24 tips and realize I can already start incorporating a few of them into my daily routine, not to mention save some money and lose some pounds. So how exactly are people opposed to this new trend?

Sidenote: Yes, I know blogs have a trackrecord for being echo chambers, which is based in truth, but I can’t help this desire to promote things I’m passionate about using any means possible. For me, blogs offer the chance to archive articles and thoughts I’ve found interesting and also serves as a starting point for ideas and community.

Children Dancing in Auki, Solomon Islands

So here’s the link to this week’s inspirational video. It’s exactly what you’d expect, people dancing from all over the world. There’s many scenic locations covered in the film along with cultures and different dance styles.

But the thing I love the most is what the creator has to say in his Explanation:

“What are these humans doing? Dancing. Many humans on Earth exhibit periods of happiness, and one method of displaying happiness is dancing. Happiness and dancing transcend political boundaries and occur in practically every human society. Above, Matt Harding traveled through many nations on Earth, started dancing, and filmed the result. The video is perhaps a dramatic example that humans from all over planet Earth feel a common bond as part of a single species. Happiness is frequently contagious — few people are able to watch the above video without smiling.”

There’s just something amazing about the solidaridy of us as the human race, created with such uniqueness and beauty. We’re all so different and yet, if you invest the time, you just might realize that we actually have more similarities than differences. This video offers just a glimpse of what we could experience as a global, united community.  For me, this is why I’m so passionate about unifying the Bride of Christ, the global church. And the amazing part is things like art and dance transcend the verbal language barrier and speak directly to the heart. Perhaps they should add to that famous quote and say “A picture’s worth a thousand words, in any language.”

Such is my level of excitement about the vast scope of ideas covered in this article, an excerpt from Michael Pollan’s new book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, that I couldn’t help but quote almost every other paragraph. I must admit, it’s not a just a short internet article that you can skim through. In spite of that I would strongly encourage everyone to read both pages! Michael Polland covers so much ground you’ll want to make sure you read every word.

Without further adieu, here’s the Article Link

I’d love to add my own thoughts to the ideas covered but I honestly can’t think of anything that wasn’t already mentioned. That’s definitely a first for me!

“the reformation of our food economy begins with people going to the trouble and expense of buying directly from farmers they know—“relationship marketing,”…

This is what your hamburger came from, just FYI.

“Much of our food system depends on our not knowing much about it, beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner; cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing. The more knowledge people have about the way their food is produced, the more likely it is that their values—and not just “value”—will inform their purchasing decisions.”

“And why should a nation produce its own food when others can produce it more cheaply? A dozen reasons leap to mind, but most of them the Steven Blanks of the world—and they are legion—are quick to dismiss as sentimental. I’m thinking of the sense of security that comes from knowing your community, or country, can feed itself; the beauty of an agricultural landscape; the outlook and kinds of local knowledge the presence of farmers brings to a community; the satisfactions of buying food from a farmer you know rather than the supermarket; the locally inflected flavor of a raw-milk cheese or honey. All those things—all those pastoral values—free trade proposes to sacrifice in the name of efficiency and economic growth.”

“We don’t have to beat them,” Joel patiently explained. “I’m not even sure we should try. We don’t need a law against McDonald’s or a law against slaughterhouse abuse—we ask for too much salvation by legislation. All we need to do is empower individuals with the right philosophy and the right information to opt out en masse.