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