James Palau

HLI Contribution Letter

June 2014

My name is James Palau, and I am 19 years old. My passion is to raise up the next generation
by using my gifting in music to help people connect with Jesus. The next step in my life is to
receive exceptional training in order to grow into the leader God has created me to be.
This coming fall I have an opportunity to participate in a program that will help grow my calling
as a worship leader. I have applied to the Vineyards Heroic Leadership Institute (HLI) in
Duluth. http://www.godogreatthings.com/ where I will be given the opportunity to grow as a
musician and worship leader, but more than that to deepen my relationship with Jesus.
I have always loved music and started playing the violin at four, and then moved onto the
cello. Later on I learned to play hand percussion, which lead me onto playing the drums. My
greatest love though, is worship. For me, worship is a place of peace, where I can connect
one on one with Him.
I come from a musical family, and both my family and I love Jesus through worship. Worship is
where we connect most with Jesus, but it is also where we serve the body of Christ. I have
grown up serving the church community through worship and have helped in missions to La
Vina Reynosa for over 3 years. I also helped with worship in multiple Churches in the Houston
area: I have played in the worship bands at Glorious Grace Church for 2 years (bass and
drums); The Northpoint Vineyard for 6 months (bass and drums); 6 different Seven-day
Adventist churches for 6 years (Cello); And for the last 7 years at Houston Vineyard, I have
faithfully played the drums on Sunday mornings and again on Tuesday Nights for the Youth
evenings. Early on, when I wasnt playing every Sunday, I helped in the nursery department at
Houston Vineyard too.
The reason I love to play and worship is so I can bring people to a place of peace with God, to
have a one on one connection with Him and see that worship is a call of heart. This is my
passion. As I become an adult I would like to ensure that my journey in worship continues
throughout my life. To do that I will need training, And HLI is an ideal environment for me to
learn and be mentored not only as a disciple of Christ, but as a worshiper too. My reason for
doing HLI is so I that I can come back the best worship leader I can be and help Houston have
more worship leaders for people so that they can be guided to God through music.
Now that you know my journey up till now and the reason I want to go to HLI, I should tell you a
little more about the program itself. HLI is a Vineyard leadership program that runs for nine
months. It is a very intense program that is aimed at building, training and releasing the next
generation of leaders to serve in a specific ministry. The input into the students lives is
extraordinary! Some of Vineyards best known leaders including Phil Strout, Michael and
Brenda Gatlin, Kurt Attaway, Steve Nicholsan, Jay Pathak and Casey Corum spend hours

James Palau

HLI Contribution Letter

June 2014

(sometimes weeks) with a very small student group (8 students in the 2015 Duluth class),
training and teaching them
During these packed nine months (where students work harder than they have ever worked in
their lives!), HLI will be exposing me to 3 areas of training: Spiritual Formation, Education, and
Participation. Along with that, I will be able to choose my own learning stream that I will focus
on each week, and of course mine will be worship! The focus of the worship mentoring is to
develop a heart attitude in the worship leader that reflects Gods heart for His people, and
humility.
This program also includes monthly outreaches to churches and communities in the
surrounding region and a 3-week international outreach. I will also be visiting Vineyard
churches around the country to serve and be exposed to different types of Vineyard
churches.
I will return to the Houston Community a well-equipped leader, ready to serve in worship. The
Youth Pastor at Houston Vineyard, Wes Edmondson has blessed my application to HLI and has
written my recommendation letter as part of the application process.
In order to make this educational and spiritual experience possible, I need your help. The cost
of the program is $8000 and this covers everything from mission trips, to books, food and tuition.
The first stage of my application is now complete. In order to secure my place, I will need a
deposit of $500 and then a further $1000 in order to begin the program in early September.
The balance (unless it has been paid off earlier!) will be divided up over the 9 months of the
program. Every single donation makes a difference and gets me closer to my goal.
If you are willing or able to sponsor me in any way please complete the online sponsor form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13yRvSbWSnKnAt8U_cBQ4mweC_LwtcSg0iyGq1m72dAg/vi
ewform#start=openform
As an alternative we have provided a GoFundMe account to make things easier for you:
(please note 3% of your contribution goes to GoFundMe):
http://www.gofundme.com/xh9tgee6
If you would like to make an anonymous donation or further information please feel free to
contact Ruth McLachlan at catherineruthmclachlan@gmail.com.
I am excited about this new stage in my life and I know that you will be too. Please also
consider praying for me during the program, as prayer support is as important as financial
support.
To stay connected to what I am doing find my Facebook group page called A Tale of 2
Cities.
James Palau