EPIC Update

Here are some thoughts on my week  and the conference we went to with our student leaders as I got ready for my EPIC girls night on Friday.

Leadership Rocks, Tampa FL

This past weekend Greg and I had the opportunity to take our EPIC student leaders to Tampa for a weekend conference. We had a great time and were able to have some deep conversations and heartfelt moments. One of the coolest things was being able give a Bible to and  to teach two of our students how to use it.

Our focus for the next 6 months with our students is that they would learn what it means to be a Student leader. That they would understand it is not about position or power, but about serving others. 

Underwater Fun

This past weekend was exhausting, but also full of God moments. Some of my EPIC students worked with me at our Healthy Kids Outreach at the YMCA on Sat & 2 girls spent the night. We had some incredible conversations and 1 girl Ash, accepted Christ!!!!

God is doing so much. Please pray for my teens.

Here are some fun photos from our afternoon of hanging out at the pool.

Enjoy!

Panama reflections

Here is a short video from about day 7 on our trip. We had just arrived in Panama a few hours previously and were experiencing a huge difference from the living conditions and poverty we experienced in Nicaragua

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My Life is Worth Nothing.......

So, this past week I had the opportunity to attend the Photoshop World Conference in Orlando, FL. This is the first time I was able to afford to attend this conference as it is pretty expensive ($500 for reg). Pray my business does well this year :)

Anyway, I learned lots and again realized how much I still would like to learn.

Over the course of the conference I had a severe case of swimmers ear. I was in a lot of pain and could not talk much because it hurt to even move my jaw. God once again filled my heart with the word he has been speaking to me over the past month.

OBSERVE.

So, instead of meeting new people, I observed...... and began to thank God for where he has me in life.

You see, back in 2000 I had a great internship working for a fortune 500 company. It was luxurious and paid well.  I was offered a continuation of my internship until I graduated the following year and a promise of a job.

From a worldly perspective this was great and very secure. I had been volunteering all my free time doing ‘ministry’ for the past 4 years at our college campus, leading small groups, prayer and encouragement teams, women's conferences, worship team...... I worked with many people who were on ‘staff’ with the ministry. 

While I loved serving and doing ministry, I had decided that working as a full time ‘staff’ member in a ministry was not for me. I wanted to be in the workplace and share God there.

Well, that summer God offered me an internship where I would make $800 for the summer & work my tail off. It was for a nonprofit company - Young Life. I ended up taking the internship in NY.  My fellow co-workers thought I was crazy to leave my current job and looking back, I was. However, God had a plan far beyond what I could imagine.

Long story short, that summer was one of the most fulfilling jobs I have ever had. There was something amazing about working hard and designing videos that each week shared about the adventure of a week at camp and the message of Christ dying for our sins.

Back at the Photoshop conference as I sat observing the other attendees and heard about where they worked and what they did, yes, there were moments of wishing I had the latest equipment and unlimited resources for designing, but there was also the reminder of the gift God has give me.

He has put me in my sweet spot.

There is nothing I would rather do than use the talents God has given me to allow people to connect deeper with him, or perhaps see a perspective of him that they didn’t even know existed.

Paul sums it up in Acts when he writes:

"But my life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus- the work of telling others the Good News about God's wonderful kindness  and love."-Paul  (Acts 20:24)

I guess God wanted to remind me that even though sometimes we don’t always see the affect of our efforts, there is nothing better than our efforts being to increase his kingdom.

**disclaimer - I do not believe that you have to be in full time ministry to be living your life in this way, this is just the journey that God has taken me on.