Hillsong's Colour Conference Los Angeles [PHOTOS]
/Imagine — if one woman can change her world imagine what one company of women can do. — Bobbie Houston
Bobbie Houston and the women's ministry of Hillsong Church (Sisterhood) hosted Hillsong's Colour Conference at the Orpheum Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles on Saturday.The ministry is about "women from all walks of life, young and old, coming together to build friendship and champion one another to flourish in all that we do.""We are pioneering new territory with the Colour experience compressed into an exciting 'one day, power packed event' in three locations - New York City, Phoenix and Los Angeles," stated Houston on the conference website. "Our own Hillsong team will bring their unique leadership distinctive to the table, and I’m excited to host Colour in not only one city - but three."The Los Angeles conference was the last of the three scheduled.
Photos: Dever Creative/Anthony Dever
Described by “I Am Second,” under the testimonial ministry’s video of him, as an “underground rap artist” who “grew up a fish out of water” in a Hispanic neighborhood, he is considered a poet and artist “in the midst an alpha male urban environment” early in his career. At 
He added, “The way that we become less afraid of each other is to actually be together, to sit in the same room, to humanize each other and to say [things to ourselves such as] ‘Oh, he likes Starbucks grande lattes, me too,’ or ‘He has kids that are adolescents that he is trying to raise. That’s just like me, too.’”Foster said that there is much to benefit from “the sense of being together and understanding that fear is the engine for most of the dysfunction that we are seeing in our world.”He said he believes that fueling the fear is the large amounts of time many of us spend consuming news and television which “teaches us to be afraid.”“Our brain is taking in millions and millions of data points and cues all the time and I think we don’t realize how that’s impacting us in a really negative way,” he said.“I’m telling people to step back from that system and say, hey, listen, you are swimming in a system that is teaching you to hate people, to see people as your enemy,” Foster explained. “If we can step out of that and say, ‘Why don’t I shut up for a second and just listen.’ Instead of throwing a virtual stone from a million miles away, ‘Why don’t I just sit at a table and have a coffee with somebody?’”People should be able to sit down and have a conversation, he said. “I don’t have to agree with everything you say. You don’t have to agree with everything I say. The fact that is not happening in our society is very destructive thing that’s going to lead us on a journey that’s going to yield things that we ultimately do not want as a church, as a country, as a society as a whole.“The way that we heal our cities is unity, is coming together, is giving people the benefit of the doubt, is holding our tongue and actually spending some time listening, and asking a question versus giving an answer.”Foster was one of several speakers on Thursday, the first day of the two-day 
When volunteers from around the world flew into West Africa in 2014 to help battle the Ebola epidemic, they knew there was a risk that they, too, could get sick and die. They went anyway 
Arthur Rasco: We wanted to put together a documentary film that would basically be a testimony to God of the things that He did in the lives of Dr. Brantly and Nancy — to give glory to Him for a miraculous set of circumstances that really unfolded to save their lives. It’s kind of like a modern-day epic mission story of seeing God work through circumstances, God work through people.Foust: Describe your emotions, and even those around you, when you learned that, first, Dr. Brantly had Ebola and then Nancy did, as well.Rasco: I can remember the evening that I got the notice that Dr. Brantly had tested positive for Ebola. It was rough. Of course, I knew that Samaritan’s Purse was doing what it could to fight Ebola. Doctors Without Borders and others had turned to us to say, “Hey, will you help care for Ebola patients there in Liberia?” Doctors Without Borders had their hands full with care in the Sierra Leone and Guinea, and Samaritan’s Purse had a longstanding relationship and a strong foundation in Liberia. So we had connections with doctors and nurses and hospitals. Samaritan’s Purse stepped forward. I knew that it was going to be a challenge for us. To hear that our doctor had come down with the virus, and then another person had come down with it, it was devastating.Foust: And you likely were thinking in your head: 90 percent mortality rate.Rasco: Yes. All of us were really scared, and none of us knew what would happen. We had to do what we could to get them the best care possible. We could do that here in the states, but then how do we get them here? That became a challenge. And who would step up to take care of them? That, too, was a challenge. And is there any treatment at all that we can give them? Different people stepped up to help, and that is one of the fascinating subplots of the story – just seeing so many people come together to save the lives of Dr. Brantly and Nancy.Foust: Has the story amazed you as much as it did other people – that there are volunteers who will go to a country knowing that if they catch Ebola, they very well could die?Rasco: We wanted to tell a story of stepping out – what it means to step out in bold faith. And as Dr. Brantly talked about, letting compassion almost fuel a courage which would then be greater than any fear. That is, not seeing Ebola patients as Ebola patients, but – as he talks about in the film – this could be my mom, my father, my sister, my brother. He urges people to see Ebola patients as real people that need love and care and then – no matter what happens – ‘I’ve got to do my best to take care of these people, even if that means I’ve got to put on a suit and enter an area where this deadly virus exists’ – they were willing to do what they could.On the Web: 
I'm so grateful that our church believed in creating a space like this in our neighborhood — believed in going out the doors of the church to our local public school to connect with families who would never come through the church doors on their own — believed in the power of relationships to infuse a life with hope.This little boy and his family are now a regular part of our church community. Every Sunday he attends Kids Church while the rest of his family attend the 11:15 am North service.It turns out, hope is contagious, and not just for the kids!— Sarah Dornbos
When asked how he approaches high schools for the first time, considering that the current political climate includes a large adversarial component, he said, “I don’t think that there is as much hostility towards the gospel as there is towards religion. I think defining those two (gospel and religion) and separating them from the beginning and realizing that a religious agenda is not the same as living out the gospel.“What we find in going into a campus is that we bring the Good News of the Kingdom,” he continued. “The Good News at its core is that we don’t have to be bound and linked the same as we once did. There is freedom in Christ. That’s not just modeled in a sermon or ‘Let me do worship in your school’ or ‘Let me go preach to all your kids.’ That’s modeled first in my response to how I will serve an administrator or my willingness to obey even some of the laws that already exist.“Sometimes, it’s not even [about] laws, but confusion about what separation of church and state really means. When we go into a campus we are there to serve… whether they let me preach the first week or let me preach in 5 months, I’ll do whatever I can to serve that campus and to bring the love of Jesus onto that school.”The