It's a promo of our art school AME. My leader asked me to make a promo video. Honestly, I wasn't really enthusiastic about it, because finding good video recordings about the stuff we do as a school and ministry is frustrating sometimes...
Well, however luckily I prayed and asked Daddy's opinion. So He gave me this idea to make a story. I started forming this idea of a dancer, musician and actor preparing themselves for a show and thinking deep stuff in the same way. So instead of just using already filmed material I planned to film something new.
When I told my idea to my leader she liked it but took it to a totally new level. She made it more real and dramatic and split one video to three different stories!
So we wrote and filmed this first part quickly. Naka was the director, while Cami filmed the most of it. The actors are all from our base, as usual :D Later on we edited the material with Naka and I composed the music with Joel.
To be honest I'm super happy for this product. It could be a way better of course, but we still have two more videos to make ;) Let it touch you and come to do our school! Or at least share it forward.
P.S. It's the same school I came to do here in 2011. It will change your life!
I'd like to share a bit about the YWAM Conference we had last week. The theme or slogan was "Llamados a servirle" which means "Called to serve".
Every year we get together as YWAM Argentina and some other ywamers who are part of our family but now serve as missionaries in other countries. The location of the conference changes from year to year and this time we had it here at home in Ituzaingo, Buenos Aires. Well, that meant that the last month before the event we had lots of work to do as we prepared the base for about 400 visitors.
So basically we worked non-stop from the morning continuing until after midnight painting, building, fixing things etc... I was also helping with coordinating people with their tasks so I was quite busy during the days and at nights I had more time to do specific things.
Many times I really doubted whether we will be on time with all the preparations or not. However God was super faithful and we received help from other YWAM bases, and somehow God provided money to do lots of stuff.
From the opening performance
So after working that much I also had lots of expectations for the conference. During the event I was serving in worship, sound system, recording and sometimes translating. But I was able to listen every word preached. These gatherings are so important for us as God speaks clearly, reaffirms our calling and shows His direction.
This year we also presented our project of opening a new YWAM base in the city Rosario in Argentina. So the all the people blessed us and also rose a generous offering. But I'll explain more about that later.
I really want to visitFinland this year! So I'm planning it to happen this August. Please be praying for guidance and finances already!
This is something I've wanted to do for a long time! I really would like to introduce the amazing people I'm serving with. They truly are as a family for me! They are the AME Art Ministry.
Here at the YWAM base in Ituzaingó, Buenos Aires we are around a hundred staff members serving voluntarily and full-timely. Each staff member belong to an ministry which is the group of work where they spend the most of the time of their days. The ministries are focused in different spheres of the society: family, education, sports, arts, communication etc.
So today I will introduce you the ART MINISTRY AME (Artists in their Maximum Experience)
The art ministry of YWAM Ituzaingo is composed of an internationally diverse cast of artists. Our main focus is to use all areas of artistic expression to feature principles and values. Through what we do we try to challenge society to embrace a different worldview.
OBJECTIVES:
To co-create with God and to express his heart through the arts, seeking out new creativity and taking hope and salvation to people.
To disciple and minister to artists.
To redeem the arts of all nations.
How do we do it? Through different artistic disciplines, participating in social, cultural and sporting events, offering workshops and performances to churches through the following projects:
Art Studio
AME School
Liberarte
Bands
AME productions
Additionally, our ministry has the vision of promoting artistic events during summer and winter vacations in the more touristic locations of Argentina like Mar del Plata and Villa Carlos Paz. By doing this we offer a family-friendly and evangelistic show to the public. Our goal is to be a part of the official show business grid, to participate in national awards in Argentine theater and to bring influence and transformation to this area of society.
Contact: jucumarte@gmail.com
The Maldonados: Hiram (Puerto Rico), Paula (Argentina), Mia, Lucca & Tiago.
The Ramires: Daniela (Italia) & Joel (Argentina)
The Nakayamas (Argentina): Maru, Naka & Takeo
The Arredondos (Guatemala): Edi, Marielis, Daybel & Zoe
The Kodys: David (USA), Noemi (The Dominican Republic) & Eloise
The Lozzis (Guatemala): Sara, Joseph & Walfer
The Theimboueones: Katie (Australia), Mathias (New Caledonia) & Owen
Chile
Canada
Guatemala
USA
Guatemala
Brazil
Guatemala
Finland
Chile
Finland
Mauro (Argentina)
Gabriel (Argentina)
That's who we are. These people are amazing and brilliant. If you want to pray for some of them specifically or support one of them financially, just let me know!
Few days ago we finished our Art Seminar called ELEVEN 246. It was a camp -like seminar we held here at our base in Ituzaingo, Buenos Aires. The participants were 16 teenagers and young adults. Most of them came from different churches of Argentina but we also received one girl from Finland and two from Chile!
As the staff of the art ministry we had different roles during the seminar: teaching, worship leading, sharing devotionals, leading games, helping in the kitchen, etc, etc... I myself spent lots of time translating everything to Finnish. Luckily I was not by myself with that and in some moments my brain started to think in my mother tongue once again!
During the seminar all of the guys received and took part into different art classes: acting, music and dance in its diverse styles: contemporary, hip hop, folklore, break dance and salsa. So each one of them had some classes they had never tried before. And in the end of the 11 days they got to perform in their final show.
The group was really united and open to receive our teaching and hearing God's voice. As God had told us beforehand, many of them found their way back to God, some received Him for the first time and others took important decisions for their future. For me personally it's such a joy to be part of their life with my own part. We're all so thankful to God for using us for His Kingdom!
Teaching outside when it's too hot to be inside
Argentinean folklore
Salsa
Thank you all for your prayers and support! I'm so privileged to serve Lord full-time without needing to worry about my financial support. Love you all!
Hope you all had the best Christmas ever! I spent mine in the coast of Argentina in a city called Mar del Plata. I came here to the local YWAM base to rest a bit before starting the 2016 with everything!
This year 2015 has been full of action as the missionary life always seems to be. Once again it's hard to believe that all these things happened in one year. Let's see a bit.
It was the beginning of the year as we created the musical "Huesos Secos" with the art school students and performed it. The school finished in March and some students joined our ministry.
The YWAM conference was this year in Mendoza. We went a bit beforehand to help with the sound system. But beyond the work it was time to renew in the Spirit. In 2016 the conference will be in our base..!
One of the happiest memories of the year was when Marko, my youth pastor from Finland came to see me here! We even got to know the famous waterfalls in the North of the country.
We also got to arrange LIBERARTE, the art event for the youth of our city. This year was very fruitful cause some of the guys stayed in contact with us and we were able to disciple them.
Then the real miracle of the year was our outreach to USA. I had a little faith in the beginning but by your help the trip came true! And how God blessed every single detail..!
Our second outreach was to the South of Argentina where we performed our family musical in 7 different cities, all together 25 times including schools, churches, theaters even outside... Thousands of kids heard the message salvation through this play.
In September we had this unique opportunity to record three songs in a professional studio with our band Pujahca! It was something we didn't expect but God just arranged it all! Such a great experience!
And the rest of the year we had three weddings at the base, we started reaching out the hip-hop culture, continued giving art classes, celebrated the Christmas with the neighborhood and many more things...
This was just a quick look to the year to be able to WONDER God's goodness and faithfulness! Remember that all this was possible because of your support and prayers! I couldn't be able to do any of this by myself! So thank you soooo much!
The year hasn't been super easy but it's good to see how fruitful it was anyway! I'm expecting new things of 2016 and trusting that Daddy has some cool stuff prepared for all of us!
We'll start the new year with an art seminar. The invitation is open for everyone!
P.S. Even though my plan and vision is to stay here in Argentina and serve Lord here for now I do want to visit home back in Finland this year! So please join me in prayer so everything will fit together!
I'm still alive and doing well. This time I'd like to share the newest choreography of our guys! For the first time we have such a big and diverse dance crew as all of the dance students from the last AME School stayed in the ministry.
As I wrote in the end of the last post we are about to leave to another outreach, this time to the South of Argentina. We are leaving in nine days and will stay for almost three weeks.
We were invited to take our musical to eight different cities in the South. The shows will be at theaters and schools. The good part is that the audience is already there because it's going to be part of their school schedule.
"El Viaje de los Hermanos Luna” is our own original musical with lots of colors, noises, laughter and a really good message. Through the play we want to tell the children and people of every age that there is another option for our boring and problematic lives. The solution is personal encounter with “The King of Lights” who represents God. This is such a great opportunity to share this important message to hundreds of kids!
So these last days have been long days of production: wardrobe, choreographies and props. I myself have been composing the new tracks we want to add to the play. To be honest the musical is getting better than ever before!
I write most of the music on computer but we also record real instruments.
The new wardrobe is getting even more colorful!
There are people in the South organizing the whole tour and they are in charge of the internal transport and accommodation. However we have to buy our plane tickets. In our team we are families and young adults, twenty people in total. The half of us have their tickets already, but the rest are still with this economical challenge.
The price of one return ticket is around $300 USD.
If you are willing to help me or our team please let me know! We also need your prayers, there are a lot of spiritual warfare going on, especially in the area of health.
