New Season

I know I don't blog very regularly, but I'm working on it. I promise. So what's been happening in my life lately? Well, let me be the first to fill you in!

Element FINALLY had our first service in our very own warehouse. We had something like 145 adults and 13 kids. Awesome, right?! Most churches open their doors for their first service in a home with like 3 people. I feel like we're already an established church. I guess the whole shift from Revolution to Element helped with that, though. Either way, I'm more thankful than anyone will ever know for the opportunity to be involved in not only this church, but this movement. Our official launch service is on September 21, so keep us in your prayers as we launch this thing for real.

I started my classes at USF Polytechnic. I have to say, aside from the ever so tedious Psychological Statistics class, I really do love the campus. The campus is super small and there's always parking. I could never park my car and walk to class in less than 30 minutes at SEU. It's nice being able to get to class 5 minutes before I'm supposed to be there. :)

My family is awesome, as always. I always feel so blessed when I think about my family. My little niece Hayden is starting to pick up quite a vocabulary. I can't wait until the day I can talk to her on the phone and carry on an actual conversation. Right now her idea of a phone call consists of "Hi!" and "Bye bye!" She's too cute for words. She makes me want a baby, like, yesterday.

Anywho, updates on the church and life in general will hopefully be a regular thing now.

Why I love Florida:

I was driving over the Bay yesterday morning as the sun was rising and it really did dawn on me just how much I love Florida. Here are a few reasons I love my state:

1.) The beach- I can be there in 45 mins and get a tan that will last for weeks on end.
2.) My family is here- all of them minus 4...but those 4 are slowly coming around to the idea that this is the greatest state in the USA.
3.) My church- I am so lucky to have a church family that I adore. We're so blessed to also have a new building and an awesome pastoral family.
4.) Disney- My most favorite place EVER. I could live there.
5.) Good shopping- I'm a shopoholic and never go to the local malls without falling in love with something.
6.) Music- We have a pretty awesome local music scene in the Bay Area that I don't enjoy as much as I should, but hey, it's there if I ever need it.

That's all I can remember right now, but as the other thoughts come back, I'll be sure to post them.

Oh Precious is the flow

I think something I've always struggled with as a Believer is the idea of forgiveness. The concept that God can take every sin and forget it completely baffles me. Sometimes I feel like I'm the one who brings up past offenses when I'm feeling low. I remember the times I made a bad decision or said the wrong thing. I think about when I didn't do something I should have or when I did something I shouldn't have. I've struggled with this since I was a little kid, honestly. The whole "forgive and forget" mentality is something I have never been able to embrace. I was feeling really down on myself this past week for little random things that if I were to tell you what they were, you would laugh at me because they seem so insignificant. To me though, they weren't. So I'm sitting in my office today and I started to sing "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus" for a reason only God knows. I think today is the first time I really appreciated the song. "Oh precious is the flow that makes me white as snow". How much did I need that today?! It's funny to me that God seems to speak to us in a way we all will be sure to understand. For me, it's through music. I hear God's voice in simple song lyrics that I could have heard a million times before, but for every situation, it seems to make sense like it never did before.

So today I'm thankful for God's grace and forgiveness.

God, help me to remember that everything I do is in Your hands. All the good stuff as well as all the bad stuff. Everything that I do will work for the good of me because Your hands are guiding me and leading me. I am Your child. I love you and I thank you for every new morning.

All moved in!

So, I'm in my new apartment. I think the reality of being on my own set in last night when me and my roommate went grocery shopping. I know I'm going to sound like a loser for saying this, but I was kind of lost without my mom there with me. She wasn't around telling me what to buy and how much something should cost and such. It was a little overwhelming! But, $35.00 later, I managed to escape with my sanity and 5 bags of groceries that should last a while. I thank God for frozen chicken in a bag and orange juice.

It took all day Saturday to get everything up the stairs. If it weren't for my buddies Will, Nic, and Chris, it would've taken longer. Thank you! I still owe you dinner! Everything is coming together quite nicely! We still have a long way to go, but it looks awesome for being a bunch of college girls' apartment. I brought my dog with me and I think she's still in shock. As I was leaving for work this morning she started to cry right as I picked up my keys. She'll be alright in a couple weeks, I hope. It's amazing how aware pets are.

As the apartment comes together, I'll post pics and hopefully start having people over very soon!

I'm Amazed Everyday!

Like I mentioned in my first blog, I'm moving into a fabulous apartment in 5 days! I never really realized just how much it actually costs to be independent, but I'm beginning to see why some people live at home for so long (Hey, I've got 23 years going for me, so that is in no way a knock at some of you who are still at home). I began to start budgeting just how much I was willing to pay for things and started surfing the web to find great deals I could take advantage of (Ikea.com is a live-saver!). First on my plate; a dinning room set. Come to find out, my parents were just going to give me theirs. Awesome, right? Next up, various kitchen stuff. Here's where my amazing friend Jill comes into play...She just happened to have a whole room full of random decorations (many of which were kitchen related) and said to me one day, "Just come over and take whatever you want!" So I did. Now, not only is my kitchen complete, she also gave me various wall hangings and decorations that will basically keep my apartment decorated until whenever I decide to buy new stuff...which will probably be never because if you know my friend Jill, you know she's got an eye for decorating, so everything is beautiful. Awesome, again, right? The last stop on my journey to independence was a trip to the magical Couch-Buying Land. I'm not gonna lie, this was the part I feared the most. Big furniture is SO expensive. Well, I began to pray that God would just provide me a couch. I've been praying this for about a month, and it seemed He had given a way out. A friend of my roommate was going to sell her couch to us once she moved out of her place to get married...The only catch was that we weren't going to get it until mid to late June. All I could think was that we were going to have a livingroom full of neon green and pink bean bag chairs transforming what I thought was going to be my classy apartment to the dorm room I so longed to leave. But, it was a steal ($125.00) and was in pretty good shape. Fast forward to about 2 hours ago. I was informed that my dad was helping my uncle move some new furniture into his gigantic home and lo and behold, one of those items was a new couch. What was he going to do with the other one, you ask? Well let me tell you! He was going to sell it, but, being the persuasive (or manipulative, your call) girl that I am, I called him and asked him if he'd keep me in mind as he was preparing to part with his old couch. Not only did he keep me in mind, he just gave it to me. So here I am with a $3,000.00 Broyhill suade-leather infusion chocolate brown couch sitting in my garage just waiting to be moved into my livingroom! God is good! I never, ever, thought my first place on my own would be as awesome as it's going to be. I can't even begin to tell you how thankful I am for everything. I can't wait to roll up my sleeves and get my place moved into and decorated. So yeah, that's it for today. If you're not busy on Saturday, I could sure use some help with all my awesome stuff! :) I leave you with a picture of my niece that has NOTHING to do with the post, but she's so freaking cute, she doesn't have to:

To Change the World

It always seems to me that God speaks to me the most when I'm driving in my car. It never fails...I turn on the engine, hop on I4 and then it happens. For those of you who don't personally know me, I drive about an hour every day to and from work/school (but that changes to a 15 minute drive in a week PRAISE GOD!) so thankfully, there's a lot of time available for God to speak. This is how it went down the other day:

I borrowed the new Hillsong Live CD from my buddy Lindsey, so I popped it in to get me through a horrible traffic-filled drive through the interchange of I4 and I75. On this particular CD, it's a complilation of the Hillsong crew singing all over the world. The album is done in English, but there's this one small track that's in Spanish. It was recorded in Paraguay or something like that, but anyway, it was not in English. I was listening to these people praise God in their own language to a song that was written in a language they normally would not know and my soul just began to long for something. I want my music to be the kind of music that transcends language barriers for one sole purpose: to praise God. God began to speak to me to tell me that that is a totally possible. So that's my goal for the rest of my years as a worship leader. I will make music that allows people from every part of the world to truely worship God with everything.

Life

So this is my first blog on this site. I randomly blog on my myspace, but I want to make this a regular thing for me. So here it goes:

I've made my decision. I'm transferring (yes, again) to USF to finish my schooling in the area of "Social Science". I'll basically be able to study History and Humanities and then one day teach them on a high school level. This shift in my life is brought on by a number of reasons, but one reason seems to stick out to me more than any other...I want to graduate. If I were to stay a music major, I'd be in Lakeland for another 2 years (with senior recital, piano profeciancy, and all the religion classes I'd be required to take). So I'm done. Life will be better and I think I'll actually get a job when I graduate now. Hah.

Another huge event taking place in my life right now is my move into my very own apartment! May 3, 2008 will be the day I take the leap from my parent's nest and begin to be a real adult. Scary, I know. But hey, it's about time. I'm so very excited about the opportunity to be on my own (with my dog and a few roommates). I've been discovering my "Martha Stewart" side and I have to say, it's becoming stronger every day. I'm buying decorations for my kitchen and imagining little ways to make the place fabulous. My husband will be a lucky man. I'm all about being a housewife.

Other than all the changes going on, life is awesome. My job is wonderful, my family is doing awesome, and Element church is up and running! I can't wait to see where God takes us with this. I know awesome things are about to happen and I'm so blessed to even be considered to be a part of this movement.

As this week begins, I'm reminded that God is a great God and He uses things we deem insignificant to radically change our thinking. I'm praying that this week, I keep my mind open enough to hear from Him.