Monday, January 30, 2012

Day 18: Cleveland

Yesterday we joined up with the tour in the morning for Jam Church, where one of the bands will lead us in worship and then either Nick or the tour pastor will lead us in a message.  This morning, a few of the guys from Newsong lead worship and Nick spoke on Mark 2, challenging us to really be intentional on praying for the lost, sharing His story with them and doing whatever it takes because that's what Jesus did for us.  He did whatever it took to show us His love for us.

Nick told us all about this girl who had just come up to him the night before, who had been really moved by the message.  She told him how she'd been abused most of her life, hurting herself, all these horrible things, and that tonight she finally felt like God loved her and knew her.  She had her hand holding tight onto something and handed it to Nick....without him looking at it yet, she told him that it had been around her neck for most of her life, as a constant reminder to her of how worthless she was.  She told Nick that she didn't want to wear it anymore because from that day forward she wanted to see herself as God saw her....beautiful.  As she walked away, he opened his hand to see a chain with a razor blade on the end.  This is the object she wore around her neck daily....a razor blade.  And that girl now walks with the freedom of Christ, having a banner of love to hang around her neck from now on.  That is the power of Jesus.  Incredible.

After church a group of us went to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  I gotta say it was pretty great to go there with some of our new friends, who happen to be signed to labels that are on the walls of the Hall of Fame.  We were there with band members from Newsong, Peter Furler band & We As Human....and someday we'll go back there to see all their names on a wall too! ;)  (You should check out their sites: www.weashuman.com, www.peterfurler.com, www.newsongonline.com)  It was really great to see Michael Jackson's glove, the Beatles' guitars/suits, the Temptations' stage outfits, Janis Joplin's car.....all this stuff that a non-musician loves about musicians....the dumb things, but I enjoy it.

When we got back to the venue, Tawny & I had record setup time and then met our awesome volunteers Megan & Chad.  They were super.  We prayed with them for a few people that we met throughout the night and just had a great time talking about ministry together.  So thankful that they were there with us.  I also had a chance to talk with these two girls, Emily & Hope.  Hope was super depressed looking....like not even responding hardly or looking up.  It felt like something was just not right, so when Nick came by, I pointed her out to him and said we needed to pray for her....so he went over and started talking with her and then called me over.  We got to pray with her and tell her how much God loves her.  She started crying and was really thankful we came to talk with her....later on in the night I saw her laughing and smiling.  It was great.

All in all, it was a great end to the weekend.  Though we're off of the tour for the next few weeks, you can be sure I'll still be praying right along with them and trying to be patient while waiting to go out there again.  This is such a great movement....so thankful to be part of this.  God is doing great things.

 

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Day 16: Blahs

I don't have many words for today. I woke up with a terrible stomach ache, and a few hours later was in the emergency room getting fluids pumped into me after having passed out 3 times and other things too. I'll spare you the details ;)

We didn't get to the city until after the show had begun. Thankfully Jay was able, with the help of another guy on tour, to get into our road case and set up our booth. Tawny dropped me off at a hotel to rest and handled the rest of the night on her own. So glad she could do that....I was able to get some good rest knowing that her and Jay had everything under control.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Day 15: Reading, PA

Tawny and I are back on the road again, starting in the town of Reading! The last week, I was at home working and tawny was enjoying time with her grandparents on the beach. We met back up for a little getaway in New York on Monday. SO much fun. I really miss living there, and am always conspiring for reasons to move back ;)

But even amidst our galavanting around the city, we were itching to get back to the tour. I really missed everyone and just wanted to meet some new people in Pennsylvania! So I got behind the wheel and braved the crazy streets of Manhattan on our way out. Obviously we made it, though not without a few close calls. ;)

It was great to be back, setting up our booth again, seeing the other merch reps and musicians, seeing a new city and all the fun that comes along with all that.

Dara Maclean came over and met us tonight. She told us about her live of worship and performing and how she's been able to connect with some amazing ministries through that. It was such a pleasure!

Going to sign off, as I'm not feeling great. Please pray for our health and continued growth through the time spent in the Word. Thanks for traveling with us!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

I will be Undaunted

If you've traveled through some years with me, you know that there have been some pretty amazing things that have happened both wonderful and painfully difficult.  Each having their own place at their specific time, teaching me and shaping me as they do, as I continue to seek the face of the Lord and His purpose throughout each of these happenings.


Throughout the recent months, there has been a wavering amount of fear that has crept into my world.  Fear of the unknown, uncertainty about the future, fear of rejection, all sorts of feelings that I'm sure other people struggle with as well.  And in the past, I would just take each of those as it came, deal with it and hopefully move on.  But something recently has really been challenging that in me.  Encouraging me to take a more pro-active approach, by stepping out boldly in confidence that my Father God has each and every situation planned out just so, and that I merely need to trust in His goodness over me. 


My blog has been titled "Walking, Stumbling to a home not yet seen" because quite frankly, many of the trials that I was going through were so unreal & earth shattering that many days I felt like I was stumbling along, just trying to make it one step at a time.  There have been some terrible years, but now I feel like moving beyond that and looking square on to what Jesus holds for me as I learn to stand up straight and walk into His grace & promises.


This is where "Undaunted" comes from.  If you looked it up, you would see that it is a word that means "Not intimidated or discouraged by difficulty, danger, or disappointment," and is synonymous with the words fearless, intrepid, brave, & courageous.  In the Bible, there are many times where God changes someone's name in order to make it known something in them has changed...like when Saul's name changed to Paul to show his change of devotion & purpose, or Jacob's name (supplanter) changing to Israel (having power with God), or Simon (God has heard) being re-named Peter (rock).  These were all significant name changes that had a lot to do not only with where a person was at that point, but more so where they were going.  


In the Bible there are over 300 passages on fear, and more specifically where God tells us not to fear!  Something that is repeated that many times should make us think, right?  I mean if it's that important to tell us so many times, then A) we must not be alone in this fear and B) God must really want us to trust Him instead of bowing to fear.  So this is a challenge I'm going at with God.  To not be defeated or weighed down by fear, but to move forward with Christ, remembering the past and using it as a catalyst for the next adventure.  Hopefully we can walk down this road together!


"For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you." Isaiah 41:13

Snowy Roadtrip pt 2

Well, we made it! A little later than we had planned on, but the whiteouts & cars in the ditch didn't stop us from getting to WinterJam!  :)  We all had such a great night, experiencing the music in a new way.....as people in the audience, not just working behind the scenes. It was a great time.  There were so many people who stood to say "Yes" to Jesus too, that it was quite overwhelming!  All the bands were (as usual) really good...probably better because I was actually given some time to sit & watch rather than strain to hear anything from the outside concourse! :)  Here are some photos/videos from the night. 


And.....keep watch, there's a change a comin' to this blog life of mine, and I think you'll enjoy it!

Friday, January 20, 2012

Snowy road trip pt 1

Not exactly sure why winter felt like January 20th was the day to come at us, but it sure wasn't the greatest day to decide to drive to Des Moines! Even when I'm not touring with WinterJam, it seems to find me somehow.

This morning we, a few of our PULSE staff, are driving down to enjoy the WJ show and to give my co-worker a run down of everything we have been doing. It's going to be great....if we get there! ;) Tonight instead of Skillet we are having Toby Mac! Can't wait!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Day 12: Funnies

Yesterday was a pretty sweet day. We started out realizing it was Friday the 13th, and read our devotional that talked about waiting on God's adventures.....so we weren't sure how it would turn out. Here were some of the highlights:

As I was getting in the service elevator, two employees told me how to work it and said "oh yeah, and MAKE SURE you press this button or the door won't open and you'll be stuck in there!" so I used the elevator and made it out ok. But since I was in a hurry, when I got out, Tawny hopped in to go back down and as the door was about 5 inches from closing, I remembered about the button so I frantically yelled "don't forget to press the button or you'll get stuck!" she yelled back "which button?" but then the door closed. I started laughing SO hard!!!!! When Tawny made it out.....five hours later ;) she was laughing too. We both nearly collapsed we laughed so hard. Good times.

Day 10 and 11 on the road again

We have been so tired in the evenings we have not be able to blog and the past two days feel like a blur. We are off the beach and back to work. Here is a brief recap and we will try and blog more after tonight. we handed our roughly 2,000 copies of John. Herd the testimonies of more then a few new believers. Met Phil Joel and Peter Furler. Shared bagel with some of our Winter Jam friends. Had a guy come to our table and drop a beat.

The Lord is the One who goes ahead of you; He will be with you He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Deuteronomy 31:8

Friday, January 13, 2012

Day 9: Beach Bum pt 2

1. Watched the sunrise over the Atlantic.
2. Ate another bagel at Bagel World.
3. Got a new haircut and was being flirted with before I even left the building!
4. Played Skip-Bo on out the porch.
5. Drove on the beach all the way to the end.
6. Watched surf-glider things and dodged rain while walking the beach with my bro.
7. Ate amazing seafood at Boston's.
8. Watched The Help.
9. Went in the hot tub, ocean at midnight and then back in the hot tub.
10. SLEEP.

Great day. :)

Psalms 139:1-4 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Day 8: Beach Bum

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

Today was the most wonderful
That I've had for a while....at least of all 11 days I've lived this year! ;)

Today was the first day off-off that I've had in a long time. We started it by sleeping late, then heading to a local bagel shop where they make bagels fresh every morning!! They. Were. Good. Real good. I savored every bite of my egg, cheese and bacon sandwich on an apple cranberry cinnamon bagel. :)

Next we got some supplies from the drug store and headed to our beach. We stayed out there until early afternoon. It was fabulous. We played in the ocean, walked on the beach, collected shells, laid out, painted our toe nails, and sat in the hot tub.

Later we went to a few boutiques and got yogurt from Mango Tango. :) After that we took a short rest at home because clearly we had been working SO hard all morning. And later we went to diner at a local Mexican restaurant, Mi-Mexico. It was great. Especially when we tried speaking Spanish to the waiter. Funny.

When we got home we challenged each other to a few games of pool, then put in a movie but all fell asleep.

It was a great day. I literally broke out singing the doxology because I was so thankful.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Day 7: Old Savannah and New Smyrna

Well how can I tell you about our day? We had planned to drive through the night so we could be to FL by morning, but after driving a few hours we decided it'd be best to just sleep.

Once we started driving again in the morning we realized we could be in Savannah just after noon, so we decided to take a pit stop in Old Savannah for lunch. I'd been there 11 years ago and loved it so I'd been talking it up to Tawny and thankfully when we pulled into town she fell in love with it too!

The cobblestone streets on the river with colorful storefronts were a beautiful sight for sore eyes. Up and down the riverwalk, we settled on a place called 'Spanky's' for lunch. It was recommended by two locals, and we would now recommend it too. :). It had great pizza and burgers.....and you must try the potato things....forgetting the name, but they were GOOD. Tawny bought some flowers that an old man made out of palm leaves. It was cute.

We then headed towards our FL destination of New Smyrna Beach, where my brother Tyler and my friend Sue both live! When we pulled into town, we met my brother and picked up some Chinese take-out with Sue. She then took us to a house she'd gotten us for the week, which is literally ON the beach! Walking out onto our huge balcony overlooking the Atlantic coast, a full moon glistened off of the crashing waves below while a light breeze wrapped us in welcome. Need I expound on how I felt at that moment? ;)

This house has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 large decks, a cabana with a swing, a billiards room and a hot tub out in the freshest of air. This is SUCH a blessing for us. We are definitely grateful, even more so when you say your evening prayers by the light if the moon. Amen.
We then headed towards our FL destination of New Smyrna Beach, where my brother Tyler and my friend Sue both live! When we pulled into town, we met my brother and picked up some Chinese take-out with Sue. She then took us to a house she'd gotten us for the week, which is literally ON the beach! Walking out onto our huge balcony overlooking the Atlantic coast, a full moon glistened off of the crashing waves below while a light breeze wrapped us in welcome. Need I expound on how I felt at that moment? ;)

This house has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 large decks, a cabana with a swing, a billiards room and a hot tub out in the freshest of air. This is SUCH a blessing for us. We are definitely grateful, even more so when you say your evening prayers by the light if the moon. Amen.


(ESV) Psalms 139:9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

Psalms 139:9-10 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

Monday, January 09, 2012

Day 6: Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte

Started out the day with some good coffee. Headed to church with the whole tour. We missed the first bit but, what we got from it was that those things that we feel we need to control so tightly are precisely the things we need to hand over to God.

After that we got to have a long and relaxing lunch with some new friends from the tour and still managed a record set up time...the booth was up in about 20 minutes. The rest of the night seemed pretty normal but here is a recap of the weekend: we handed out about 3,000 gospels of John. Just last night Nick spoke to almost 13 thousand people. Tawny had a great conversation with this girl who was impacted by the night. She was struggling with knowing how to share the gospel with some teens that she works with and after hearing Nick speak she found a new inspiration to keep trying.

We ended up fitting all of out extra boxes into our road case with a little help from our awesome volunteer Chip. And to end the night we ate the most amazing mouth watering mini donuts ever. Now we are headed into a couple of days of rest in a location to be announced... :)

Here are some things to pray for,
Nick as he speaks the next few days in Florida.
That the responses made this weekend would continue to grow deeper.
That everyone on the tour including us could have a few days for good rest before going back out.

.....oh, and we got locked out of our car at midnight. And got a bowl of candy from our friends while we waited for the locksmith. :)

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Day 5: We as Friends

So we woke up early because we had to head out and pack our many boxes into the back of the pilot. We had our coffee and eggs but still did not know how this was all going to work out. While pondering the situation, we noticed that the guys from We As Human happened to be at breakfast at that same time. We started chatting with them and found out they were driving them selves to each location as well. While talking about merch, Tawny and I made a joke about wanting to sell more so we could have some more room for our luggage. The guys were a little wide eyed and generously offered some space in the back of their trailer. We were shocked and super thankful that something temporarily worked out for our extra boxes. We loaded up and headed out on our way to Raleigh, North Carolina. I wasn't feeling 100% so thankfully Tawny was up for driving. On our drive we made a few pit stops and even happened to run into the band alone the way. Tawny challenged them to a race which I'm pretty sure we won...no....actually we absolutely won!

We enjoyed the drive...it was beautiful traveling over the mountains, across the rivers, and through the woods... But instead of grandmothers house we ended up at a huge arena. Thankfully the second day of set up went much faster and we even had time to spare...We As Human came in later than they had expected and had no time to set up their merch before they went on stage. We offered to help and they quickly accepted leaving us with a bunch of boxes and signs that we didn't know anything about. We set everything up the best that we could especially after hearing that some important people were there to see them that night. Tawny ended up running their booth for about an hour with loads of people trying to buy t-shirts and CDs while she was unsure of any costs or even how to process their payments :) but it all worked out in the end. They were super thankful and I think we made some new friends at the tour.

The show it's self went really great. We probably handed out over a thousand RESET books and saw a huge number respond to the Gospel. The end of the night was fairly simple and Tawny and I got to sleep at Matt and Arianne Green's house, some good friends of mine.

So I'll leave you with this thought. On our drive throughout the mountains of Virginia I awoke to what I thought was the out line of the mountains, but as we drove closer I realized it was merely then sun making a silhouette of the clouds. It made me think of this morning when we woke up and didn't know how we were going to fit everything in our car, and how I had made a big deal about the situation, when really God's providence was about to shine through. I sometimes see mountains when it's really just a cloud which can easily evaporate when the light shines through. Tawny and I are learning everyday how to trust God even in the little things!

Mark 9:23 :)



Saturday, January 07, 2012

Day 4: The Beginning

Yesterday was an informational giant, fun-filled, running around like a chicken with it's head chopped off kind of day! ;)

We picked up Jay and Nick in the morning and headed to a mandatory tour mtg. Everyone was there. They introduced the pastors, managers, drivers, bands, etc. Nick spoke to the group a bit about what our hearts purpose should be on this tour, through our music, speech and interactions and prayer life for our unsaved friends/family. It was great. We then had a short merch mtg, and from that we needed to run some errands---buying a table and making some copies.

While we were out we got our new PULSE t-shirts and hoodies!! (which I'm currently wearing). The thing is though, that we then had to come back from errands and setup all our new things, the tv & DVD player (which wouldn't read our disc), lights, and then train in Tawny and the young volunteers we were assigned......all in about an hour. :/

We got it done.

The first night was ....good but crazy. We snuck away at times to see the show, and eat dinner...meeting Mark the drummer of Sanctus Real and some of his cronies...got tasked with stuffing 400+ Reset books with our info cards, taking photos of the show some to het some social media on our fb page, making friends with the booth people to our left and right, etc.

At the end of the night, We realized we had too many boxes to fit into our already packed car!! So we fit what we could, and figured we'd somehow cram our luggage in SOMEHOW the next day. ....that story will come in the next post. :)

To end the night, we made a 1am stop at Wendy's. Agh it's the little joys of life.

Today Tawny and I had some good talks about resting in the Lord. So I'll keep this verse in mind--Psalm 4:8 which says 'In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone oh Lord, make me to dwell in safety.'