Women of Faith 2013

This all started a few weeks ago when I called my mom and told her I wanted to go to the Women of Faith Conference -- by this time I figured it was too late, but some of my favorite people were going to be there so I figured it was worth trying, right?!
We talked about it off and on for a while trying to make a game plan because we had some connections. I planned to come home this weekend just in case, and good thing I did because instead of even having to use our sources, Mom won tickets! WHAT?! Yes. God blesses me like crazy ya'll. What an unexpected gift.
Day one was awesome

We got to go to a meet and greet with Mom's friend Lysa, who just so happened to be a speaker at the conference. Such a cute lady and such a speaker of truth. Loved getting to hear her speak this weekend.

To be quite honest, I have an unhealthy admiration for Kari Jobe and she was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to this conference. So naturally I was ecstatic that night one's concert was none other than .. Kari Jobe! So good!


While I knew Kari was going to be there, I didn't know that some other people from the Gateway worship team were going to be there too, so when I saw one of my social media friends Amber Rhoads up on stage that was another element of excitement in itself -- I had never seen her in person and here she was! This girl was awesome live, so naturally my first instinct is to tell her that she rocks and cross my fingers that I get to meet her, even though I weirdly felt like I already knew her.
Without hesitation she agreed to meet up with me today -- which leads me to day 2 of the conference.

First off, Christine Caine spoke.. love love love her.
Amber led worship with the other Gateway girls this morning then during our lunch break [get this] she comes to ME. Climbs up a jillion flights of stairs and goes straight to my seat. I was so taken back by this woman's humbleness. I was not expecting that at ALL. As if I needed more to like her, she proceeds to tell me and Mom [who I'm pretty sure is Amber's new number one fan..] part of her amazing story. LOVE that I got to share the Pink Out day of the conference with this fellow daughter of a breast cancer survivor. What a special moment.  -- And the kindness continues! Amber goes back down to lead worship again then comes back up to my seat to give me her new CD.







Speaking of her new CD.. GO BUY IT ON ITUNES! I'm listening to it right now, Broken Beautiful by Amber Rhoads do it do it do it. My favorite track is Broken Beautiful. Shocking, I know ;)
This girl made.my.day. ya'll.   What a joy it is to meet people who have almost been like worship leader mentors to me. Even greater is that her love for Jesus is SO real, and that was evident in her acts of kindness to make me feel special today. Seriously, everyone around me was talking about me whenever she'd leave, wondering why she came to see me. I felt like a million bucks.
So she's the real deal. Go buy her music, and go see her live if you can because she got some PIPES.

Amber ~ So so blessed by you today! Thank you for leading us in such sweet time of praise and worship this weekend. I look up to you for so many reasons and now I am so excited that I can [officially] call you friend! :)

Started off last week finding out I get to lead these guys in worship. What a blessing being surrounded by old friends and new and what a great thing YoungLife is on the Texas State University campus! So thankful for the freedom of religion.

We also had our very first Austin Stone at Texas State which ROCKED.

Super proud to call The Austin Stone Community Church MY church.

The week ended just as sweet as it began

Leadership retreat was a breath of fresh air and a splash of water on a dry soul. 

We sang songs in the dark, we learned how to be better fishers of men, we prayed for our ministry and we just had fun in each others company. Thankful for so many of these people's examples and for their friendship. 

A new school year is a blank canvas to be written on with dreams and faith.


I hope everyone had a great first week of school! Praying this one is a monumental one for me, and for you too! Don't be afraid to dream big, don't be afraid to go out on a limb and follow blindly where the Lord leads you.

God didn't let me go too long wondering why that whole SMA thing even happened. Before I had thought, maybe just maybe He's pulling an Abraham on me.. and He was. He confirmed it today as I was doing some reading through Kisses From Katie [awesome book, especially for those with a heart for missions]. But the Lord knew how much I enjoyed the Wimberley team and He knew I had just gotten comfortable. He just wanted to see if I would say yes to His call and lose that comfort for His sake, only to find out in the end that I don't have to. These people are some of my most prized after only a year of knowing them, and while I didn't risk my relationships with them by going to SMA  [they were all super supportive and I thank God for that because that would have made it so much harder] I would have definitely thrown plenty of Monday nights away that could have been spent being absolutely ridiculous with my friends.
Ceirra and James, I'm so glad that you guys followed the call with me.
If nothing else we have that long and agonizing day to look back on how strong we were in our beliefs and trust that the Lord would provide and that we would minister to kids the way we have been taught how. It also helps that we completed those extra trainings and have those fun memories to share that nobody else in our county has. Ya'll are incredible leaders and incredible friends.
I thank God for you and for our crazy experience.

Well you can pretty much ignore my last post..
After going through SMA training, an 11 hour day of meetings, headaches, almost vomiting, strengthening friendships, chick fil a,kids toys and bombarding our area director's house   -- all three of us that were offered the job turned it down. I could just delete the last blog post and erase it from my life because it's like it never even happened, but God was trying to teach the three of us something through that day/ the SMA experience, and I'm still not quite sure what it was to be honest with you. It's weird that all three of us had some sort of confirmation that we were supposed to continue with SMA, but in the end none of us did -- and that too was a peaceful decision. We met a great man and leader through the process, and I know I'm grateful for that new friendship.

It's a long story that took up an 11 hour day. It doesn't need much discussing besides the fact that I'm back at Wimberley and that is absolutely where my heart lies, so I am happy!

I will go where You shine

First of all, disclaimer: I am not quitting YoungLife haha. The beginning of this blog post kind of makes it sound like I am, but I assure you I'm not going anywhere!

My YoungLife journey hasn't been as long as some, but it's been a crazy ride just in this past year
 -- more than most would probably say for their experience.
I haven't even technically been a leader for even a year, yet I'm already going through a transition. After being placed at Wimberley High School, I was set. I loved everyone, I mean EVERYONE on my team. All of our personalities fit so well together, we fed off of each other's high energy and it just felt so right. I was comfortable. The thought of ever leaving these people was nowhere close to ever crossing my mind, after all .. I had just gotten placed, which means our journey together as teammates was just beginning.
June 25th is when things started shifting. I remember the day, which is weird because at the time all of this didn't seem like stuff I really needed to think about. I was about to get on the tram to my summer school class and I got a text from my area director which was then followed by a phone call. After telling him I was on my way to school he quickly filled my brain with some ideas and threw out that he was starting a new YoungLife group at a school that wasn't in the plans during placement and he was picking three people from our county to take a position at San Marcos Baptist Academy and be paid to be a YoungLife leader. I'm sitting on the bus and all of these people are watching me as I'm trying to make sense through the loud noises of the tram engine and the occasional squeak of the tires of what the person on the other end is saying to me. Our conversation was very brief and vague, I just ended the conversation with "I have time to think and pray about this..right?" I didn't even know if I had to make this decision on the spot. Luckily, I didn't.
At that point in time, I was still holding on fairly tight to my title as a Wimberley leader. Why would I ever give up something that only gave me feelings that were associated with goodness?
Maybe the thought that I didn't know if I would work well with these new people had crossed my mind. What if we weren't alike?  Almost all of my friends from CollegeLife and leadership training were placed on my team with me, why would I leave that? I already had what I wanted.
I let it go for most of the summer and didn't even think about it, then I buckled down and knew I really needed to pray about this. I think that's when God started softening my heart. I spent one Sunday by the pool and I looked up and let the Lord dream for me. He gave me dreams in cloud shapes, specifically the shapes of continents. (Africa was one!). Just two days after that happened I went in for my meeting with SMA, they handed me some papers that told me about the school and I look down and see "Mission Field: Our student body represents countries such as Angola, Cameroon, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam. Our domestic student population represents five different states outside of Texas and 45 cities within our state" -- some come from Austin, San Marcos, Wimberley, Buda, Kyle, etc.
-- Not only is that impressive but the vision of continents and countries in the clouds was for this, and I believe that vision is going to go far beyond the walls of this school for me. "Why do you want to be here?" they asked. My first thought was uh.. I was kind of picked, I didn't have much of a choice on that one. But then words came out of my mouth so naturally, and they were truthful, which was the big thing. "I haven't stepped foot outside of this country [except for Mexico], but I can tell you the Lord gave me a heart for mission related work and people of the nations." and I then proceeded to tell them about my love for Africa and her people. Lucky me, there's some of those people attending this school. If you haven't gathered this by the extreme amount of diversity, SMA is a boarding school and, as you can tell by the name, a private school. For those of you in YoungLife you know that this isn't the norm for outreach schools for YoungLife, so that's going to be another adjustment for me. But this is good, it's really good.
My emotions are still undecided on how I feel right now, but I know this is where I'm being led, and that's all that really matters.

One of my devotionals recently that comforted and confirmed my feelings says it best,
"Saying yes to the Lord goes far beyond logistics.
It goes beyond a block in our schedules, a note in our planners.
It reaches beyond the gifts we feel comfortable using, 
beyond the box that our status and culture and insecurities
would like us to live within. 
A yes to the Lord is impossible to qualify on earth because it is a Kingdom business.
It has eternal repercussions, soul-changing ripples that reach all the way to Heaven's shore." 

I know that I'm about to be made uncomfortable. There's only three of us on a team, which means we're doing work for all of the other teammates that are non existent. We're starting from the ground up, but it's going to be great because I'm starting to see that the moments of being uncomfortable are what draws me closer to the Father's heart, and that... that is so worth it.

Lord I find You in the seeking, Lord I find You in the doubt.

This week I learned that Sarah from the Bible and I have something in common,
we're restless in the wait 

When God promised her and Abraham that He would give them a child, even at their old age, she got tired of waiting and tried to take matters into her own hands. I catch myself doing that, a lot. 
Sarah, who tired of waiting for her child to be conceived, told her husband to sleep with their slave thinking that she could start a family through the slave. Well, once their slave became pregnant Sarah was pissed. -- So obviously taking things into her own hands turned out well. Not.
Even after Sarah pulled that move, the Lord kept His promise to Abraham and Sarah and gave them a child. He who promises is always faithful, even now.

I desire the day when I will not tire of waiting for the Lord to carry out His plan.
I desire the day when I won't try to take matters into my own hands and I surrender all control.

Father, please turn my restlessness into rest

Being in a season of waiting, I asked the Lord to wait with me.
I asked Him to sustain my faith       and He gave me this today. (via Jesus Calling)

"Keep walking with Me along the path I have chosen for you. I could instantly grant you the spiritual riches you desire, but that is not My way for you. Together we will forge a pathway up the high mountain. The journey is hard and you are weak. Some day you will dance lightfooted on the high peaks, but for now, your walk is often heavy. All I require of you is to take the next step, clinging to My hand for strength and direction. Though the path is difficult and the scenery is dull at the moment, there are sparkling surprises just around the bend. Stay on the path I have selected for you. It truly is the path of life."