Meet the Team!!

Erin Crain is a FIERY 32 year old from Tacoma, Washington. When I say FIERY, I actually mean pyromaniac. When she prays… its pure fire. When she speaks… it's pure fire. She is the definition of bold and fearless in every aspect. She loves the Lord with all of her heart and has been waiting patiently to join YWAM and enter the Mission. The Lord knew what He was doing when He put her on my team. Not only is Erin trained up in freedom and leading people into sovereign deliverance before the Lord, she is an incredibly talented rapper. You heard me… RAPPER. I have never heard anything like it. She is a preacher, teacher, evangelist, fearless leader.. but most importantly, a friend. Sometimes I feel silly being her "leader" since she is older and wiser than me. She also has really rad hair.

Rami Son is the most diverse woman I have ever met. When I first met her, I was thrown for a loop. Here is this incredibly beautiful little Korean girl, but then she opens her mouth and has the thickest Spanish accent while having perfect English grammar. She is from Ecuador and speaks Spanish, Korean, and English… and does them all fluently and beautifully. It is so refreshing to know we are called as a team to "go into the nations" but I feel like we are bringing all of the nations with us in this one woman. She has an amazingly tender heart before the Lord and it has been such a joy getting to know her. She is bold in her speech and not afraid to preach the Gospel to anyone around. I have had the privilege to walk with her "one-on-one" in discipleship over the past 3 months and I have seen her heart be transformed, restored and set free time and time again. I believe she is called to bring women into true restoration and will begin walking that out over the next 3 months.


RoseMary Cho (aka Rosey) is an incredibly mature 18 year old from Indiana. She has a stinking cute high voice and soft speech and my heart is at peace when I am around her. She carries such authority in innocence and purity and I believe high school girls will be brought into the Kingdom just because of her friendship with the Lord. I have seen her grow and mature radically in the past 3 months and she is such an asset to our team. Did I mention she is Korean-American?! Bringing the nations with us. The first time I prayed for Rosey, I felt the Lord say these things: "joyful" "dancer" and "seeker of truth". She is marked for joy, is carrying it into America, and will release it into all the nations.

Jamie Chang is an 18 year old ALSO from Indiana. Fun fact: she and Rosey were friends before DTS and now they are on the same Outreach Team together! I am beyond excited for this joyful woman to be going to L.A. and NYC with us. She is careless, fearless, and so teachable before the Lord. She carries a boldness like I have never seen. I am excited for our friendship to blossom, especially because we are so different. My first impression of Jamie was on a "get to know you" night the first week of school we had to give "fun facts" about ourselves. Of course, mine were the following: "My name is Kellye, I love pink and I love rhinestones". Jamie's "get to know you" fact was quite the opposite: "My name is Jamie, I hate pink I think it's obnoxious". She loves MMA fighting and tattoos and has really rad converse high tops. Although from the worlds viewpoint, we are complete opposites, I see her heart before the Lord and how incredibly gifted and anointed she is, and I cannot wait to run with her and transform hearts with her. Anytime she opens her mouth to pray or speak, it does something to my heart. I do not have language for it yet, but I see something in that tiny little girl. She is pregnant with destiny and the Lord is about to push her into greater greatness.

Nali Kim is an incredibly beautiful 20 year old from "Philly". If her style doesn't make her the stinking cutest thing you have ever seen, her accent will. She has genuinely become one of my best friends in the past 3 months and I couldn't imagine this trip without her. Best part about Nali joining YWAM and coming on Outreach: her mother tricked her into it. Yes, you heard me. She was tricked into coming. BUT, I have never seen a more teachable heart and hunger before the Lord. We have laughed together, cried together, fought for each other, and I have seen utter transformation in that woman's heart. She has a heart for the lost, and a heart for women and wants to work with those that have been trafficked. I am telling you… this woman will transform the whole world. She has truly "counted it all as loss" for the sake of knowing Jesus. Leaving her family, and friends and life back home and seek after the Lord, she has experience intimacy and relationship with Jesus in a whole new way. I had the AMAZING privilege of baptizing her in the Pacific Ocean a couple weeks ago. She has been set ablaze for the Living God, and is ready to take it to the nations!

Last but certainly not least… my BEAUTIFUL co-leader Lizzie Stein. She is the most mature, joyful, and humble 20 year old I have ever met. (Pause… I feel like I am a pageant announcer in this whole blog. I can see my girls coming on stage in fancy dresses doing a stiff and rigid wrist wave, while I hold my MC mic and read there well-written bios aloud to the audience…. unpause). I met Lizzie last year during my DTS. She was in PhotogenX and would come into the cafe every morning where I worked and would order a "quad-shot Milli Vinelli". We got to know each other a little, but it was when we came back to staff we really went deep into friendship. She is an insanely talented photographer and went to India last year for her outreach (you should look her up on Facebook and creep her work). I have had close girlfriends growing up, but Lizzie really has found a unique place in my heart. She is my accountability partner, prayer partner, crying on the shoulder partner, and "Kellye, get a grip on life" partner. I am so thankful she is leading this team with me. She has a heart for University and High schoolers to radically encounter the love of Jesus and come into the Kingdom. She is a little bundle of love and freedom and carries the manifest presence of Jesus anywhere she goes. She has truly become one of my closest friends and I know we will be bonded forever after this summer.
Shameless Lizzie plug: http://www.elizabethannephoto.blogspot.com

THERE YOU HAVE IT. My incredible team. We head out on the 29th of this month, staying in L.A. for 7 weeks, then off to N.Y.C. for 4 weeks. We believe we will see many come into the Kingdom, we will unify the Body, and bring friendship and love everywhere we go through our little family centered around the presence of Jesus. 7 very different girls…entering a very broken nation of America…. praying for absolute revival. In the words of Erin Crain: FIRE!!!

Re-entering the City of Dreams.

I remember the first time I flew into Los Angeles. I was 18 years old and on a flight for my first season of American Idol. I remember looking out the window of the plane seeing the Hollywood sign and trying not to pee my pants. It was almost too much to handle. All the buildings, the bright lights, the busyness of it all. I fell in love all over again.

Here's the thing. Ever since I was little, all I wanted to do was move to L.A. I was infatuated by the city and had never even been there. Actually, it wasn't so much the city, but what L.A. was about: Anyone who was anyone lived there, and I was set on living there too.

(Most 8 year old girls write in their diaries about best friends or stuff that happened at recess that day… I have diary entries where I am doing nothing but praying for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.}

{Majority of elementary school girls cover their notebooks with princess pictures they colored or doodles of hearts and stars…. I cut out pictures from magazines in my mom's room of celebrities and pasted them to my notebook so I would remember to pray for them daily.}

{My prayer requests in Sunday School were regularly for Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears. I am sure the other kids thought it was weird that I rarely prayed for a sick relative or problems in my own family.}

{When faced with the typical childhood question of "what do you want to be when you grow up?" my answer was ALWAYS a movie star or a musician. I was always confused when I heard other kids giving answers like "veterinarian", "doctor" and "police officer". Why wouldn't you want to be on a stage? Why wouldn't you want celebrity friends? I never once desired to be anything outside of the entertainment business. That's not true… I would want to be a wedding planner. On the side, of course…. and only for celebrities :)

The other day someone asked me if the only reason I felt "called" to Los Angeles was because I felt it could be an easier way to be famous but under the umbrella of being a missionary. They quickly corrected themselves and apologized, realizing it came across a little harsh. I wasn't offended at all, and it actually didn't phase me.

Being "famous" was all I ever worked for growing up. I've been on a stage since I could walk. My parents have spent more money on vocal coaches, piano lessons, dance lessons, and acting classes throughout the years than I care to admit. Graduating high school, I had no intentions of "getting a real job" or even "pursuing a degree". I was pursuing further training for the stage. That's it. All I've ever though about and dreamed of.

When the Lord encountered my heart last year, all of these intentions changed. I no longer had any desire to seek out the world. I wanted Him. Nothing but His whole heart, and His plan for my life. I assumed that would mean moving to Africa and living in a township, or in the jungles of Cambodia. I imagined He would put me as far away from the media industry and the secular world, since that is what I sought out.

The Lord is funny in that way. He sat aside a year of my life to get my heart right before Him. Taking me to Cambodia and Hawaii and really depositing His heart into mine. He radically shifted my heart and made me fall more in love with His ways.

And now, I am headed back into the city I dreamed of since I was little. I fly to Los Angeles in less than two weeks. I am co-leading a team of 5 amazing girls and believing the Lord to transform the entertainment industry, and the entire city of L.A. We will be joining with multiple different ministries and organizations there and partnering with them to share the Gospel. (My beautiful co-leader, Lizzie Stein)

After that, we are headed to NYC. We are working with a wonderful agency called Models for Christ and joining up with other YWAMers there to work Fall Fashion Week at Lincoln Center. Some of our girls will be dressing models backstage, others photographing the Red Carpet, and others getting into the shows and loving on people inside the tent. We are going to host a 24/7 Burn during the week, and pushing hard into intimacy for what the Lord is doing that week.

The reality is, He gave me the desires of my heart when I was little. He never wanted to take me away from the things I loved, but wanted me to be in them WITH a heart after Him. I can be in the world, but not of the world. I can be in the entertainment industry pursuing the heart of God, and not pursuing what the world offers.

The renewal of our mind comes from the washing of he Word. I used to wash myself with the world and the fruit of it was desiring what it had to offer. I have been renewed. Washed clean, and He is sending me back into the things I love.

The next blog post, I will introduce my team to you!!!!! Get excited to meet them!!