Update on Recent HOLLYWOOD OUTREACH REPORT - JUNE/JULY 2002
- by Dave & Marlene Dickson, YWAM, Tyler, TX - MDRJ@aol.com

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The following excerpts are from a recent update from the Dicksons:

"…We have wrapped up our eighth School of Performing Arts. And it was, in so many ways, an unbelievable summer outreach to Hollywood in California; the third summer in a row that we have targeted that city! Thank you for your prayers as we travelled and ministered as a family. As you read the following report, we want you to realize how your partnership with us is having an impact!

In our SOPA, we teach of God's heart of restoration, and His kind intentions for us as His people to be "co-creators" with Him in the restoration process. This speaks of his desire to see spheres of society redeemed, which includes the arts! For this reason, we travel to Hollywood to pray for His people who are diligently working in that industry with a desire to be SALT AND LIGHT in a dark place, a place that literally INLFUENCES the entire world. In doing this, you quickly learn that it is one thing to point out the obvious fact that Hollywood is full of corruption, but quite another thing to actually pray and believe that we CAN INFLUENCE THE INFLUENCERS toward God, and affect the industry with the good news of Christ. AND IT IS HAPPENING!!

God had challenged us several years ago to "RENEW HIS CONVENANT WITH HOLLYWOOD." At the time, we had asked, "What type of covenant could God have with Hollywood!?" Our questions were answered in discovering a book that detailed the founding of Hollywood by a Christian couple at the turn of the century. This couple, Horace and Dahlia Wilcox, desired the land they had purchased and named "Hollywood" to be a Christian community. They even offered free land to Christian churches desiring to locate there.

Eventually, the silent movie industry began to move into the area because of the good climate and variety of landscapes for filming. The "upstanding Christians", upset at the influx of what they considered as less desirable neighbors and disturbances, rejected the actors. Signs on boarding houses read, "NO DOGS, NO ACTORS ALLOWED!"

Hollywood eventually sold its municipality to greater Los Angeles for water rights, losing it's right to say what developed there. The results were a movie industry that flourished, and a Christian influence that nullified itself.

But God does not forget His promises and His intentions for the land. And His challenge to His followers is to look at Hollywood through His eyes, to see it's potential to influence for the GOOD. Thus were born our "Holy-wood tours", in which we expose our SOPA students, as well as the church at large, to see the Hollywood industry in a different light.

14 students and 11 staff (plus our three kids) travelled in two vans pulling all our equipment in two trailers. Having spent three months together in the lecture phase of the school, we had become a tight-knit family, full of expectation for our outreach destination. And we were not disappointed.

A broad stroke of what happened this summer:
- We had felt specifically that we were to take the "Rise Up" production that Marlene produced earlier in the year based on the events of 9/11. It became so obvious during the course of our trip how powerful and timely a message this production had. The controversial court case, which tried to remove "In God We Trust" from our pledge, was based in California. We actually were able to perform our production DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF the condo of the judge who decided that case. It was a powerful act of intercession.

- We worked with a variety of churches in the LA area, performing, doing workshops, door to door evangelism, and challenging believers to "rise up" to the call to make a difference in their communities....

- The Christian manager of (a major local hotel), invited our team to come and pray for that hotel. We divided into small prayer teams and walked the grounds and prayed. Several days later, he called us back to ask that we return to pray again, because there was a marked difference in the spiritual atmosphere of the hotel. These types of powerful intercession for people and in strategic locations were a common thread to our outreach.

- We met (a well known talk show host) on the street one day as he was walking and we were able to talk to him and encourage him that we were praying for him and that God would bless him. He was very receptive, and this was an example of the many divine appointments that we xperienced during our time in that city.

- We performed our dances and songs on the Santa Monica promenade as well as on Venice Beach, encouraging and praying for hundreds of people, and leading others to Christ. One man we prayed for said, "Wow, I never expected to meet God at Venice Beach!" In all our ministry, we reached over 8,000 people with the Gospel!!

- We prayed on almost every major studio lot in the city, including Universal, Disney, CBS, Fox, Warner Brothers, and Paramount. There are regular monthly prayer walks taking place on all these studio lots, as well as Bible studies taking place on some of the lots for the Christians who work there! The Christians working in the industry are very united in their purpose to be lights in the darkness! Be encouraged!

- Marlene and another staff girl had the opportunity to work as extras for the newest Saturn car commercial. During the two day shoot, they were able to talk to close to 100 different people. At the end of the time, they were praying with several other extras. Another walked up and said, " I've seen extras do alot of crazy things on a shoot, but I've NEVER seen them pray before!" Salt and Light! Watch for the commercial on TV, as it is now playing nationally. It's the one with people running down the highway and sitting in parking lots as if they themselves were cars...

We will continue to target Hollywood with our prayers and with future teams. In fact, we are currently planning YWAM's first Global Arts Gathering, to be held late July of 2003 at Biola University in LA. Marlene is co-chairing this event, which plans for at least 500 YWAMmers from around the world to gather in that city for a week long conference, strategy and networking time.

More info on this event will be forthcoming. ...