"Surreal but Nice"

I have had a crazy past few weeks...well couple months since my last post! I knew I needed to update when my friend, Amanda, told me she needed something to read so I needed to get on it! To quote one of my favorite movies, Notting Hill, these last two months have been "surreal but nice." To keep this long post (I mean, it has been 2 months) interesting, there will be lots of pictures.

At the beginning of September, we shot a promo video for Masterpiece and Intimacy that we were going to show for the first time at the Christy Nockels concert and then send out to all the organizations and churches to advertise for our two events. The video looks amazing and we've had great response! Our video guy was awesome and did such an great job shooting and editing it.

Here it is!:

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We finished that up and then I headed for Atlanta with my friend and mentor, Donna Stuart. A church in Houston asked her and another couple (Matthew and Lizi Bailey) that lead worship there to record some of their songs for a cd for the church. I had some fun moments before I left that weekend of remembering how different I was when I first started college. I found a paper from a class I took freshman year and it basically described what my goals were in life career and throughout school- all have changed. I no longer want to be a buyer, I am not living in New York like I thought I would be, and I have not made a 4.0 :) And I am 100% peaceful with all of that. Thank you Jesus! It's fun to see how He has shown me my desires and where He wants me to walk in them for the time being.

Being in the studio was such a gift for me; I am so thankful Donna asked me to go. It was so amazing to see the whole process from start to finish. I left extremely encouraged in seeing how Christian artists love Jesus and love to worship Him through their gifts and talents. Everyday in the studio started with prayer and if there were frustrations with a song or anything we prayed. It wasn't about business...it was about Jesus and wanting others to draw near to Him through their music. And not going to lie...it gave me a little itch to do that someday. If Jesus opens that door for me one day I would gladly walk through it! I loved Atlanta and cannot wait to go back...which will be in January for Passion 2010!! It was such a fun city and I had such a great time being there. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Donna getting ready to record guitar

I got to sing a little back-up on one of the songs!

The producer, Jason, showing me some different stuff on electric

Sweet Friend

Sitting in the studio listening to the track

After Atlanta it was time to turn 22 and get my Aggie ring!! Both happened, but not quite the way I had hoped. I ended up getting pretty sick on my birthday, and even worse on ring day. Long story short-I ended up having surgery to have my gallbladder taken out! My parents took such great care of me and my sweet mom stayed for a week helping out and cooking and cleaning- such a blessing. Definitely one of the hardest weeks I have had in a long time, but Jesus was so good and allowed me to heal pretty quickly after and I am feeling so much better now. I would love it if you would pray and believe with me that this will do it- no more sickness! Thank you to everyone who wrote cards, brought flowers, prayed and cared for me- it meant so much and truly encouraged me to know I am loved.


Then it was time to get things rolling with Intimacy '09. It was such a sweet night and I really believe Jesus used it to teach girls that He is better- no matter who you are or what you've done. Liza's story was one of the best pictures of redemption I have ever heard. She has a beautiful story and I believe that so many girls were touched and challenged by it. I definitely was. The night ran so smoothly and God worked all the little details out. He is entirely faithful and I am so grateful for the ways He has allowed me to serve the girls in this area. I couldn't ask for a better gift! These are just a few of my favorite pictures, taken by Lacy Dagerath, http://www.morethananimage.com/.

This week 2 very fun things happened, one far outweighing the other. The first was going to see the Season 5 So You Think You Can Dance tour. It was so fun and I had such a great night just spending time with my friends watching some amazing dancers! And after we met all the top 12, haha! But it was so fun. Here are a few pictures for proof :)

America's favorite dancer

Kayla, my favorite from season 5

And the other fun thing, that is obviously more exciting, is Kiva Victorie came! I am so excited for the Lee's having a new family member and looking forward to watching her grow up. It's been so fun getting to pray for her these last nine months and getting to hold her today was so exciting! She is absolutely beautiful!! Here are a few pictures and to see more check out Steph's blog.

Precious Kiva Victorie

Aubs and Kiva

Kiva's Mom :)

Clayton's turn

And in between all of this I have had tons of groups projects, tests, quizzes, running the marketing for Masterpiece, and keeping up with people! But things are finally starting to slow down and I am getting into more of a routine. I feel like so many big things have been crammed into a few weeks, but it's been so good learning and walking in the different things Jesus puts in front of me. I'm excited to see where He takes me next....hopefully it won't take me 2 more months to fill you in on that!

Intimacy 2009!!

Well, in a little over a month, the 3rd annual Intimacy worship night will be happening! I am so excited. I have been working really hard on it the last few days (and over the past several months :) ). I really believe Jesus is going to do some sweet things during our time that night. I was just reading over Psalm 139 a little when I was making up the facebook page. It's the chapter I was reading when I got the idea for this event 3 years ago and it speaks so much to me everytime I read it. He knows when I sit and when I rise...blows my mind that He loves and cares for us that much. My heart's desire is that every girl will come just as they are and leave understanding God's love for them a little more...or a lot more :) I am so grateful for all the support, prayer, encouragement, and help I have received. I am constantly overwhelmed and grateful for the friends Jesus has put in my life that have loved me so well- this is a big part of why I love ministry- I've been ministered to so much.


So these next few days will be pretty busy. Advertising and promoting Intimacy, we're shooting a promo video for Intimacy and Masterpiece tomorrow, and last but definintely not least I'm going to Atlanta for 5 days! I'm heading out Sunday with my friend, Donna, and am so excited to get to see her record a couple songs for an EP. I am so grateful for this opportunity to see how the whole recording process works and really looking forward to just spending time with my friend. I'm thankful she asked me to come along; I have been so blessed through her ministry and music.


I will definitely be blogging about that trip when I get back. Until then, please be praying with me for Intimacy and for Masterpiece (which I'll blog about another day-way too long for now). Pray for girls to come, our speaker-Liza, Donna and the band as we prep for worship and all the other little details to run smoothly and most importantly for girls to see the reality of who Jesus Christ is. Jesus, please let your Spirit move and we give you total freedom

The Sunshine State

We're back from Florida! It was such a great week to just sit and be with my family and not have a schedule or anything planned. It didn't seem like it was going to go so well on the first day when the tropical storm hit right after we pulled into our rental house! And the second day a tornado hit Beaumont, but thankfully didn't go near our house. Finally, Tuesday afternoon we were able to hit the beach. I'm not a huge ocean fan...not going to lie, it just kind of freaks me out a little and last year getting stung by a jellyfish didn't really help that out much. But I conquered my fear and got in the water...and thankfully there were no jellyfish this time! It's so hard not to see how creative of a God we serve when you're on the beach. It's insane the things He came up with! We snorkled, napped on the beach, rented a boat, shopped and ate great food.

I'd have to say the last night we were there was my favorite. We headed down to the bay and there are a bunch of shops and restaraunts kind of like a boardwalk. There was an air show going on when we were walking up and a choir singing on a stage that was set up in the middle of all the shops. They sang a bunch of patriotic songs to begin with and it was such a reminder of the rich heritage we have as Americans. Then they started singing songs about Jesus. It was awesome...so many people were gathered around listening to these people sing about our Savior. And the choir was mixed with all ages and the sweetest little old lady was on the front row of the choir on the right. She was singing her heart out and just rocking out to every song. You could see such a joy on her face. It made me really wonder what her story was. Had she been a believer most of her life? What kind of hardships had she gone through? What joys? I was so encouraged just watching her sing and praise Jesus...I pray I will be that joyful about Jesus the rest of my days and always singing praises to Him!


And just when we thought the night couldn't get better...it did. The MC introduced the next group of performers- the Highsteppers. It was a dancing group, but not just any dancing group. I didn't think I would fully be able to explain in words so I took a picture to capture the full effect. Please enjoy...


They did a fabulous rendition of All That Jazz. It definitely made the night more fun. I was litterally thinking "this is real, this is really happening...that is a bunch of elderly ladies...and one man...dancing to All That Jazz. This night could not get any better!" Oh but it did, we got to eat right on the bay and there was a fireworks show that was insane. They set off so many and it was such a great last night to a fun vacation!

Me and my sis at dinner.


Vacation was great and needed, but I'm ready to be back in College Station! I can't believe school is already starting back up in a week, but I'm kind of ready to get back into a normal schedule. Senior year...here it comes. I'm so excited to see what Jesus is going to do this year and expectant to learn more and grow so much. He's done so much the past few years of college and I am so grateful for all I have already learned. This year I just want more Jesus!

Big Beautiful Beaumont

One of the nice things about my parents living in Beaumont is how close we are to the ocean...which means more fishing for me and my dad. I love to fish. It's definitely been one of my favorite things to do with my dad. A couple weekends ago my roomie, Anna, and I went to surprise my mom and my dad took us fishing on Saturday. It was probably one of the craziest days I'd had in a while. Let's just say there's nothing like 4 women on a boat trying to fish...my poor dad.

Here's a picture of Anna's catch!

Me and Anna on the boat before the "incident"

So the incident I was referring to...our boat's pretty big, but not big enough for 4 women to fish, especially when half of them don't know what they're doing. Background: this is the first time since I was probably 7 or 8 that I've seen my mother fish- she's not exactly the granola type :) My dad always wants her to go fishing with us and she finally did. Well, we were fishing and I accidently threw my line over my sisters. As we're reeling the lines in to make sure they don't get stuck, my mom decides to cast right in the middle of it! So both my sister and I tell her not to do anything, and that we would fix it...of course, she tries to get her rod and reel out of the way when suddenly there's a splash...yeah she dropped the rod and reel right in the water...deep, deep water to which it immediately sinks to the bottom. My mom starts laughing so hard as my sister and I just nod our heads in shock and try not to laugh knowing my dad won't be too happy. This whole time my dad's at the front of the boat not knowing any of this is happening. He turns around to see what she was laughing at and couldn't believe she dropped his best reel in the water...that's right, his $250 rod and reel...gone...forever. It was hilarious-not at the time- but definitely is now. Anna was very entertained that day.

But at the end of the trip he said she could drop as many of his rods and reels in the water if that means she'll go fishing with him. My sweet dad!

One of the other great things about living in Beaumont. Gigantic fire hydrants:

This one's for you, Jen...I bet they don't have any of these in Australia!

As beautiful as Beaumont is, I'm excited to say I'm going to be hanging out in Destin, Florida with my family for a week starting Sunday! So excited to rest, shop, eat and just hang out with my family.

Jesus is Better

So I just realized I never did a follow up about Laity Lodge, the camp my friend, Bernie asked me to lead worship and speak at a couple weeks ago. I was definitely nervous going into it, but I think the Lord really used that night to get a hold of some of His girls. Thankfully, my sweet friend, Blaire, went with me- so I didn't have to drive over 4 hours by myself and I had someone to practice my talk with :) It was definitely the most beautiful camp I have ever been to (sorry TbarM) and the counselors I met were so generous and encouraging. We were set in a covered outdoor pavillion that had a river and huge canyon behind me- it was so beautiful. I love having worship in a setting like that, where you can so easily see God's creation as you're singing to Him.

So it definitely helped calm my nerves to lead worship and directed my focus where it needed to be- Jesus. I was amazed at how comfortable I felt as I started sharing my story and the talk I had prepared. I felt like I was where I needed to be. I talked about how we, especially as women, are created with this deep desire and need for affection, adoration and devotion and so often we try to find that in other things. This is a great God-given need, I believe, but it is one He wants to meet. I shared with them about longing for this and other things and asked them at the beginning to write down on a note card their deepest longing at this point in their life. I wanted them to be thinking about this as I was sharing and at the end I had them write down on a card "Jesus is better." I shared with them that Jesus is so much better than anything they could have written on that card- even the good things. Often times we have to wait for those good things, but Jesus is even better in the waiting. Then we had a time where they could come to these crosses that were set up behind me and lay down that first card that had their longing on it. I wanted them to have a tangible, physical reminder of laying down their longing before the Lord. I told them to hold on to the other card that said Jesus is better as a reminder of this night, and that He is better than anything we could want.

The response and worship at the end was so beautiful and it was so encouraging to see Jesus move. Girls were using the space behind me as an altar and really spending time thinking and praying about it before laying it down. Jesus was so, so good and I am so grateful He gave me that opportunity. And it was so great seeing my friend, Bernie in her element- she's such a great girls' director and I loved watching her do what she loves. Thank you, friends, for praying for me- Jesus answered!

I finally had my first 2 weekends in College Station all summer! It's been so nice not to have anything scheduled and I'm so glad my roomie, Anna's back! I feel like I've finally caught up on summer these past two weeks. And summer's not over yet!

I am Unnecessary

So in this last month and couple weeks I've clocked in...ready for this?...at least 40 hours of driving time!!! Isn't that crazy!?! I've driven to New Braunfels, Beaumont, Dallas, San Antonio and back to College Station a few times. Needless to say I'm a little tired of my car and the road- something that I usually enjoy. But in all that driving I've ended up in places that I have loved- home to see my best friend get married, another friend marry, tons of family for 4th of July (almost caught a shark by the way!), floated the river, walked the Riverwalk, made lots of fun memories, hung out with old friends and made some new ones, and had some really sweet time of journaling, prayer and worship.

I am tired.

But, at the same time, I am refreshed.

I just got back from a worship conference in Dallas with some really fun friends. I felt like it was a pretty full 3 days, even though we kind of skipped out on some of the conference :) Thursday, the second day of the conference, was the best for me. That morning I dropped off the girls that came with us and headed to Barnes & Noble to read and journal for a while. It was so good and I hadn't journaled in a while so it was definitely needed. I was processing a lot that day, but it was so good looking back. I got to reflect a lot this week on what I do as a worshipper and "lead worshipper."

As I thought about it for a while and really thought about worship I wrote this: "I am merely someone who can help people come to worship Jesus- BUT I am not necessary, I am not essential to this. There are no gifts, skills, or words I have that can merit true worship for others. They can assist and help usher, but ultimately worship is about Jesus and a group or individual loving Him through their heart, soul, body and mind-all for the glory of Jesus. Worship is obedience poured out- sometimes and often times creatively through song, art, dance...etc."

So... I am unnecessary, but so grateful He still uses me and allows me to play and sing and worship with other believers.

Thursday night I was totally blessed by Jason Upton and the way he led. He started off by saying something like none of us are professionals at being in the presence of Jesus- we're all beginners. That pretty much knocked me over with conviction!

One of the verses stated and spoken about a lot was Psalm 33:1-5, "Shout for joy in the LORD, o you righteous! Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; make melody to Him with the harp of 10 strings! Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. For the Word of the LORD is upright, and all His work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD."

I love the details in this verse. Sing a new song, play skillfully, with loud shouts. Why do we do all of these things, why do we worship? Because His Word is upright and because He is faithful. Isn't it funny how often we ask God to be faithful? That's like asking water to be wet. It's who He is and always will be-FAITHFUL. It's because of His abundance in His faithfulness that we can constantly be singing a new song.

So I am really glad I went to the conference. It was beautiful to see another group of believers loving Jesus. But I'm definitely glad to be back in College Station for a few days...that's right just a few. I'm headed to Laity Lodge camp in Leakey on Wednesday to lead a girls' worship night there. I would love it if you would pray for me as I prep for that. I'll actually be leading worship and speaking for a little bit. So a new challenge for me, I've never really spoken at anything before. But I'm excited to see how it goes and what Jesus wants to do with that time.

So here's to another few hours on the road :)

My Best Friend's Wedding...

Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Henderson!!!

First Dance to the song Abbey's friend, Heather wrote for them

Me and the beautiful Bride

Heading Out

At the Bachelorette Party



Abbey and Her Dad

It was a wedding weekend for sure. It started Thursday night with a lingerie shower. Friday was the bridal luncheon and rehearsal. The luncheon was in the same place that Abbey's mom had hers 30 years ago. And Saturday we did pedicures and a cook-out at Abbey's house with the whole wedding party and some family. It was so good to just sit and spend time with Abbey on Saturday. I was helping her pack in her bedroom and started thinking about how many times we stayed up till like 4 in the morning in that room talking and praying for our future husbands. Jonathan is what we prayed for for Abbey and more. I totally lost it- I mean tears down my face lost it-just thinking about how God has been so faithful to Abbey in bringing her and Jonathan together and how faithful and good He has been in my friendship with Abbey. So I got to pray with her in her room one last time as Abbey Deetjen. Definitely one of my favorite moments from the weekend.

It was such a beautiful wedding and was so Jesus-centered. Abbey was so gorgeous and the ceremony was perfect! I couldn't be more excited for my friends. I have loved this past season of friendship with Abbey so much as she's been engaged and I am really looking forward to seeing her as Mrs. Henderson! And I'm really excited to see Jonathan be a husband. God's voice and direction has been so clear on their relationship and I can't wait to see how their marriage is going to be used to draw others nearer to Jesus.