Rachel Starr Thomson

When we flew out, we really didn’t know where we’d be performing. But we were excited to learn that besides churches and a large theatre, we’d be going into Vancouver’s Skid Row area to minister at a beautiful women’s day shelter called “The Great Room.” This article talks about the Great Room and the wonderful women who work there.

Here’s an excerpt:

VANCOUVER, Canada — Meet the thirteen “radical hostesses”  — women who have journeyed through hard times, and often life on the streets, and who are now reaching out to share their growth and healing with other women.  Throughout the Olympics, these hostesses have given tours of their community – the Downtown Eastside, welcomed and served visitors in the sacred space of the Great Room, and gathered women from the street to enjoy some of the creative artists that perform almost daily.

Hands down, the Great Room was for us the most powerful place to minister. We performed full-length versions of “Street Lullaby” (a call into God’s peace) and “Dream” (a story of sin and deliverance), and the ladies responded afterward by telling us how much both pieces met them where they were. We prayed with them and worshiped with them.

It really struck me that we could come from such different backgrounds, yet our plight of fallenness and need for redemption is the same.  I told the ladies before we did “Dream” that it’s a story they might recognize as their own, and it’s also my story, and Carolyn’s. And it was really special to see how well these truths could be communicated through poetry, storytelling, and dance — through the beauty and the power in these art forms God has given us.

The article also includes a few pictures from our visit and this recap from their point of view:

Yesterday afternoon Rachel Starr Thomson and Carolyn Currey of Soli Deo Gloria Ballet — a poet and a ballet dancer — came to the Great Room to share their gifts with us, and it was absolutely beautiful. Combining music, spoken word and dance, they shared an amazing message about the journey of life, full of joys and sorrows, despair and hope, and ultimately healing and freedom. During the performance, the poet asked, “Are these chains on my soul? I cannot crack this death. I cannot find the way.” The dancer twirled and leapt as these words and music filled the Great Room in response, “My chains are gone, I’ve been set free. My God my Saviour has ransomed me. And like a flood, His mercy reigns, unending love, amazing grace”.

Amazing indeed.

Much of what we did in BC was perform as part of the Aha Concerts in Surrey and Vancouver. Put together by the marvelous Russ and Sandy Rosen, they were singing, moving, colorful mosaics of music and dance and culture . We didn’t realize that 100 Huntley St had covered them until we stumbled across this online, so I will let video (and Sandy Rosen) speak.

(The poet who says “Are these chains?” in a pained voice is me. The dancer in blue and black is Carolyn. We were performing “Dream,” our piece on deliverance and getting “back to the garden.”)

Yesterday I intended to blog, but didn’t because I was fatigued. I had just driven in from Toronto, after being in Niagara, after being in Vancouver, and I was bushed. Still am, but I’m fairly jazzed up on coffee at the moment. This is good, seeing as I have a LOT of work to catch up on.

Still, life = crazy is a normal equation for me, and for all my siblings, and thankfully for Carolyn as well. We were raised crazy. That is, our lives were never especially settled, smooth, or predictable. Our parents followed God’s call down strange and wonderful paths, made some mistakes along the way, and taught us to roll with the punches.

This really came in handy in Vancouver. When Carolyn and I landed in Abbotsford, there had been a mix-up and no one was there to pick us at the airport. We waited a few hours, but hey, no problem! I marked a lot of extra papers in the time. Our performing schedule changed daily, but that was really no biggie either. (We found it all pretty relaxing because there was always someone else telling us what to do.) Our transportation got messed up a lot, but the worst we ever had to do was wait and make a few phone calls at a pay phone.

My point is that I’m grateful for all the craziness growing up, for the training in flexibility, adaptability, and a general attitude of believing that things will work themselves out. They do. And God is still in control, so stress is ultimately pretty pointless.

Now to apply that philosophy to the home front as I catch up on work and deal with some financial snags …

I have now been home from Vancouver for three days, but balk every time I think of blogging. Reason being: there is too much to blog about!

For example, Jeffrey Overstreet’s latest book in the Auralia Thread, Raven’s Ladder, was released on February 16, and it is amazing. He was good enough to send me a (signed!) advance copy, and I have written a review which will be posted here and at BlogCritics.org shortly. Best book I have read in quite some time. I’m very sorry I missed the release date, but I was really busy in Vancouver, which brings me to

another thing I need to blog about, which is the trip itself. I will go into more detail in the next few weeks, but for now, I will say it was an amazing experience. Carolyn and I performed several times a day along with many other Christian artists in a church, on street corners, at a women’s shelter in the poverty-stricken east side, and in a huge theatre. We were able to dive into this city where the world is currently meeting and use writing and dance to celebrate the glory of God and invite people into His peace and deliverance. What an incredible privilege.

While we were doing that, I had a couple of articles published that I didn’t have time to tell you about. So here are the links:

“Seven Values of a Heavenly Life” — Store up treasures in heaven by living a heavenly life here on earth with hospitality, generosity, self-discipline, love of truth, love of purity, love for sinners, and passion for daily living. Published on Boundless.org.

“Keeping the Heart in Your Writing” — My guest post on the fabulous blog of agent Rachelle Gardner. By identifying your passion, fasting and feasting, and practicing discipline, you can keep the heart in your writing even in the busiest of lives.

Aaaand in preparation for the Olympics, I published our first book under the Soli Deo Gloria Ballet imprint, Pieces of Grace (And What They Mean). This is a little book containing poetry we use in our short pieces and a short story, along with a few theological notes. We didn’t actually get to sell it in Vancouver due to a bizarrely late delivery, but it’s good to have it out anyway! I will eventually get it up on this site; in the meantime, check it out on Amazon.

I’ve been thinking about songwriting lately for two major reasons: annoyance and joy.

Annoyance with a trend in worship music these days to be formless and void (what do some of those words mean, anyway?) and joy in music that does worship and that does teach and exhort, as well as having musical excellence to it.

One of my favourite links these days is Nathan Partain’s music blog. He’s a worship leader at a Reformed church who writes folk-rock melodies for old hymns. The music is fairly rough and raw, which is how I like it, and you can download lots of it. My favourite songs are “Be Reconciled” and “Come, Jesus, Come.”

Nathan is involved with a group of worship leaders who post music, art, and liturgical thoughts under the name Cardiphonia. Check them out here.

So my question the other day about songwriting wasn’t entirely rhetorical; I was leading up to something . Does music — specifically music with words, songs — have a God-given purpose? Is there something we’re supposed to do with it? Obviously, song is an incredible form of expression. But is self-expression all there is to it? In my opinion, if you’re only about expressing yourself, you’re going to become self-indulgent very quickly, and self-indulgence is a sinkhole for artists of any kind.

Paul talks about song in his letters to the Ephesians and Colossians, with an interesting double emphasis:

… be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 5:18-19)

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. (Col 3:16-17)

There are three purposes listed for Christian song here (and by “Christian song” here I mean songs that are specifically related to our faith). One is obvious: to sing to God and express gratitude to Him. The others are maybe not so obvious: we’re supposed to use songs to “speak to ourselves” and to “teach and admonish one another.” In other words, we should sing songs of worship and praise, but we should also sing songs of doctrine and truth and exhortation. At least, that’s how I take those verses.

Looking at most of the music in the church these days, what do you think? Are we fulfilling those purposes?

The Vancouver adventure has begun! As you read this, Carolyn and I will be in the air somewhere over the great Canadian prairies (or possibly lounging in the Calgary airport on layover — I haven’t checked our itinerary that closely). We will have been awake since 3:00 a.m. and flying since 7:15.  We have an evening and a morning of orientation, and we begin performance, I think, Friday evening.

We appreciate your prayers as we fight to stay awake, forge into into public territory with our hitherto private studio work, navigate Vancouver during this insanely busy time, and seek the Lord together.

For today, just pray that we make it to the end of orientation without going completely loopy, getting sick, or falling asleep in embarrassing places. With the time change, we’ll be “awake” almost 24 hours.

According to Google Maps, there’s a Starbucks in walking distance from our accommodations, so we hope to hop online and update now and again. In the meantime, I’ll be posting some previously written and scheduled posts.

I have been up for two hours, but I’m only halfway awake. Some days it’s just really hard for me to stop sleeping, even after I’m vertical and have eaten and studied my Bible and gone through the whole morning routine. I suppose being up until nearly 2:00 a.m. doesn’t help.

This morning I hoped to get a lot of work done, but the challenging thing about doing intellectual work — that is, work that requires a mind fully engaged at all times — is that you can’t really do it while you’re half asleep. So thus far this morning, I’ve checked my e-mail and Facebook, stared blankly at the paper I’m supposed to be marking several times, and sorted a bunch of unmarked music in my iTunes.

I think I live much of life like this — good intentioned, but only half-awake. It’s that age-old “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” dilemma. I’ve often thought that I would have slept in Gethsemane too. The amazing thing is that Jesus stayed awake there, and He’s still awake, always, fully active in our lives. His fingers won’t ever slip from exhaustion. His vision doesn’t blur. “My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:2-4).

A quick scroll through Facebook updates. Funny updates, comments on the mundane, friendly chatter. And then, every two or three statuses, something about Haiti. Fundraising. Requests for prayer. Sobered and sobering thoughts, promises to pray, worried questions about loved ones.

Yesterday the island of Haiti was hit by a 7.3 earthquake that wreaked incredible havoc in Port-au-Prince. Death tolls may fall between 45,000 and 50,000, and the quake may have left 3 million people “hurt or homeless,” according to this article.

I can’t even imagine those numbers.

And yet, for all that, my day has been pretty cheery. I’ve prayed for Haiti, but my heart has not really been there. I have one friend there, working with YWAM about an hour and a half from Port-au-Prince, and she’s safe.

Her e-mail newsletter yesterday said that as she and her coworkers ran for safety in a large field,

You could hear the entire city all shouting and yelling at once. It was a very eerie sound.

This morning nearly all of the guys on our staff drove out to Port au Prince, as well as the “5th Section” to check on their friends, family, and to see what we can do. They did not return until dusk. I’m not sure if any one of them will be the same again.

Apparently almost every building in Port-au-Prince (an hour and a half drive away) has flattened. The prison flattened killing everyone in it. A school flattened killing 400 children. Almost every business has flattened, including some of our only large stores.

At the moment the UN are only driving around. The aid workers are taking photos. What is so crazy is Haiti doesn’t even have the tools to dig the people and debris up.

These things are so far from my experience, in my lifetime and today, that I can hardly imagine them. My emotions can’t go there. I pray, but I’m not crying — not like those of my friends who have been there, who know people there, who wish more than anything they could help. My heart is not really in Haiti.

But God’s is.

As Christians, we have access to the throne room of God. Bold access, Hebrews tells us. Come today and pray for Haiti. I will be. And I won’t be praying out of my heart — there’s not much of value in it in a crisis like this. Instead, I want to pray out of God’s heart. I want to pray knowing that our Creator knows the name of every person lost, of every person homeless, of every person injured, and that our Saviour cares. Yes, come and pray; come and give; help practically if you can. Not because of how much you care. Because of how much He does. Add your voice to those around the throne asking mercy and salvation and provision for this nation.

I’m preaching to myself. I want to find that my heart, over the next days and weeks and months, is in Haiti.

Like most people, I went into the new year with plans.

God came into the new year with surprises .

Years ago, I committed my life to God. I meant that in a practical sense: whatever He wanted me to do, I would do. And it’s been fascinating, ever since, to see how He leads. I’m really looking forward to this year, because if the nearly two weeks of 2010 are indicative of what’s to come, it’s going to be the Year of the Unexpected!

I planned to teach the usual group of students. God changed that and provided new courses, workshops, editing clients, and writing opportunities to make up for the lost income.

I planned to go to Niagara on a Friday and return Wednesday morning. Circumstances forced a change in plans, sending me home Tuesday morning instead. Just before I left, I got a phone call from a friend (in a my-plans-meet-God’s-surprises situation of her own) asking if I could pick her up at the airport in Detroit on, guess when? Tuesday morning. God had already gone ahead of me to make that possible.

I planned to fly to Florida in February. My friend there e-mailed to say things were up in the air, so could I hold off on booking a flight? In the meantime, our last-minute application for Soli Deo Gloria Ballet to perform with an artists’ initiative in Vancouver during the Olympics was accepted. If I had already booked a flight for Florida, I wouldn’t be able to go. Once again, God prepared the way.

Proverbs 16:9 (NIV) says “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” As an author, I know when my characters are planning things that won’t go the way they expect — but I also know how I’m directing them without their knowledge. As a human being, one in relationship to God, I do my best to plan my course in a godly and productive way. But I can rest (and delight) in knowing that God is already determining my steps. He knows where I’m really going and how I’m going to get there.

All that’s really left to me is to live the adventure .