Thursday, December 29, 2011

Transitioning over to a new blog URL

Hello,

If you are currently reading this blog post, it means that I have moved this operation to a new URL.

You can get to my new site either by clicking on the picture of the nomad above,

OR

You can click here

Why the reason for the move?
Honestly, I think that the wordpress blogs are easier to manage and personalize :)

See you in the new space :)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

First update from FMA

It has been one month exactly since I arrived back in Kansas City. It is wonderful to be back and actually walking out in the beginning stages of the things that the Lord has showed me about what I’m going to be doing in the future. For those of you that don’t know, I am a full-time student/missionary at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, MO. I am a student at the International House of Prayer University, or IHOPU for short, and within IHOPU I am a part of the Forerunner Music Academy (or FMA) program learning how to lead worship while being sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is saying and where He is directing the prayer meeting. I apologize for the lack of information/blog updates lately, my schedule here is pretty intense. Here’s just a basic snapshot of what it looks like:
• Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
o 8AM-12PM – worship team practice
o 12PM-1PM – Keyboard, Ear training, and Theory class
o 2PM-3PM – Prophetic Singing (or voice) class
o 4PM-8PM – Prayer Room time.
 On Friday instead of prayer room, we have the Encountering God Service (or church) from 6 PM – 10 PM
• Tuesday
o 8:30 AM – FMA Practicum
o 1:30 PM – IHOPU Chapel
o 4-6 – Theology class – Beholding God’s Majesty
• Thursday
o 2PM – Sound mixing class
o 4 PM – Theology class – The Life of David
• Saturday
o Church Service from 6-10 PM

AND outside of class I’m also required to practice approx. 10 hours of voice and piano (altogether, not each ).

That doesn’t leave a lot of time for anything at all, much less time for a job. As a result I am having to depend COMPLETELY on support as a missionary as my income. I only have a few financial partners right now, so things are kind of tight financially. So if you would like to get information on how you can support me, or if you’d like to talk with me to find out more about what I’m doing – Please email me at clarkk@ihopu.org.

But anyways… 

One of the things that I have particularly enjoyed about this experience is the fact that all FMA students are put on a worship team after their first semester of training (my internship counted as my first semester), so I have been singing on my worship team and exercising that ability a lot more than I ever have before. I feel like I’ve also seen a pretty good growth in my vocal skill even after just the first month, so I am very excited to see where the Lord takes me vocally throughout even just the rest of the semester!

Things here have been awesome. I really enjoy all of the classes that I’m taking. I didn’t realize how much I missed having music classes until I started with piano and voice again this past month. Music really is truly what I am meant to do, and paired with our primary purpose for creation, to love God and be loved by God, it seems that I have also found my long term career/calling as a musical missionary at the House of Prayer. I feel like I have an idea of what David was talking about when he wrote psalm 27, specifically verse 4:
“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in His temple.”
I have also even been able to practice playing my saxophone with my worship team, and learning how to flow musically with instruments (guitars, pianos, and basses) and styles that I’m not used to playing in.


Prayer requests:
- for my health/allergies. for the past couple of weeks I have been fighting off allergy/cold stuff making it a little bit more difficult to sing etc. so I need this to be done :).
-more monthly financial partners
- grace and strength to keep on keepin' on :)

If you have any prayer requests that you would like me to cover for you, please email me at clarkk@ihopu.org

Monday, March 21, 2011

Nomadic Soul - What does that even mean?!

So, I know that I said I would definitely be blogging more than I have been, BUT I have also been a lot more busy than I was expecting to be. So here is a blog to hold you over until I can upload a massive update blog to let you know what’s been going on in my life.

SO, here’s a blog that I hope will explain what I’m sure a lot of you have been asking, because I’ve been asking it a while myself as well: “Why Nomadic Soul?”

First. Where did Nomadic Soul come from? Well, last February (2010), the Lord started speaking to me about what His heart was for me and how He wanted me to live my life. He gave me just one phrase, “You’re my nomad”. So after that, I started identifying myself in that way, but I never really understood what it meant. I took at as I was probably going to be moving around a lot since that’s what missions and this growing season is all about. In all honesty, it is WAY bigger than anything that I could have ever thought of initially.

So, tonight in the IHOP-KC prayer room, I was prayer reading through Hebrews, and I came across something quite interesting. I came to the realization that life as a Nomadic Soul is all about living a life of faith. Think about it, Abraham had NO idea what was going to come about in his life other than the promise to him from God that he was going to build him into a mighty nation, but he left his home land behind anyway. This verse exemplifies that, and it just shows me exactly what a nomadic soul is meant to be:

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city
.” ~Hebrews 11:13-16

So this is what the life of a Nomadic Soul is all about. Living for a heavenly city whose builder and maker is God. We have so many promises about Jesus’ return and the New Jerusalem coming to earth that we might not see in our lifetime, but we continue on in our quest for truth and for deeper relationship with God. We don’t look back because we know that what we left is so much less than what we’re running toward. Our exhortation is to continue on in faith just as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Samuel, Gideon, Paul, the disciples and countless other did, believing that our inheritance is in Him, the man, Christ Jesus.