Tales from the BCB #2

Just a lil snippet from yesterday.

It snowed.  In October.  In NOVA.  At the outdoor venue for the reception.  All of this to say that although our plan was thrown off, my cute lil bride stayed calm cool and collected.

As I ran into the church to start photographing the procession, I ditched my coat and walked confidently into the foyer greeting folk....and looked down.....

to notice that the top two buttons of my shirt had become unbuttoned..(I didn't leave the house like that folks)  and my hot pink bra was loud and proud for all to admire.

With a gasp and a clutch of my wayward buttons I dove into the stairwell to remedy the situation.  All properly done up I went to open the door and found I was locked in the stairwell.  It locked from the outside.

After a kind usher let me out, I made my much humbled walk of shame up to the center of the aisle and sat down to do my job,  I wonder if the people sitting behind me wondered why the photographer kept looking down at her boobs all through the service? haha!!!

Just checking, friends, just checking.

Various-ities.

I dreamed about Bolivia for the first time in a long time last night.  I miss my patria.  Going to Nicaragua so often makes me guilty.  Like perhaps I'm cheating on my true love.  Also, Judy is asking me to visit, and I would love to be in Cocha again.   Maybe a trip to the homeland is in order next year. 

My camera died on me this weekend.  Just quit.  Thank you Jesus that it was at the end of a wedding, and not the beginning or middle.

I am always fighting off insecurity it seems. 

BTW, during the same wedding in which my camera died, I hopped up on a ledge to get a better angle and belatedly realized I was 12 stories off the ground on a ledge.  It still makes my palms tingle. 

I'm thinking a lot about gossip lately and how much I do it, and how much it goes on around me.  Need to read me some Proverbs. 

Ryan got an orange mohawk and ran the Tough Mudder.  I like the mohawk.  I'm a little terrified that he's going to turn into one of the running addicts around us at BRCC.  He's under strict orders to not. even. think. about it.  We shall see. 

Go away frownie-face!

Lately I've been listening to myself and I hear a lot of negativity and complaining.  No good. 

Time to turn that frown upside down!

:D

le sigh

Under the harvest moon,
When the soft silver
Drips shimmering
Over the garden nights,
Death, the gray mocker,
Comes and whispers to you
As a beautiful friend
Who remembers.

Under the summer roses
When the flagrant crimson
Lurks in the dusk
Of the wild red leaves,
Love, with little hands,
Comes and touches you
With a thousand memories,
And asks you
Beautiful, unanswerable questions.
~ Carl Sandburg

And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
The love I bear thee, finding words enough,
And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough,
Between our faces, to cast light on each?
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

swirling..caught up in an eddy.
wind or water?
flexing with the flow
letting go of the need to control
which way the current goes


save me sweet and low
so the song and story go
come in with this frantic flow
as this soul dances
on to the merry ebb and hope

of freedom

Catalyst 2011

Refreshing.  Renewing.  Fun.  Those are the words that are Catalyst for me.  2 days in ATL with 13K other church lay and staff leaders.  There is SO much out of the last two days that to try and break it down for you would be a short novel.  So I'm gonna bullet point things that stood out to me.

*Andy Stanley:  "Do for one what you wish you could do for many."  Burn out and struggling with how to fill the relational needs of 15 people at the same time...a lil bit of what my struggle has been with Crash.  First session was an immediate answer from God. 

*Phil Collins session had one point that totally stood out for me.  He said, "Life is people."  Following hard on the heels of the idea of burn out and feeling pulled in many directions is the thought of priorities.  I'm an ambitious person but if I look at the world and the end of my life having a successful business and a certain level of fame isn't really what I think God wants for me, or to be honest what I want for myself.  It was a good reminder to pull back and where maybe church had been coming in second to work, to rearrange that a little bit.

The 8 of us CRASH girls were the coolest kids there, obviously and being the relational creature that I am the conversations with my ladies = heart filled. 

* Jo's face cream jar that resembles mayo
*Andy walking out of the hotel on morning one and responding to the cheerful clerk's good morning with, "so you know where we're going".  haha.  Nope.
*Speed dating with Melissa for 6 hours
* Challenging the boys back at the Ridge to a plank war.  More on that later.
* H&M.  H&M.  H&M.
*  The Cupid Shuffle with Faith and Angie and a hundred of my new friends.  
* conversations with all of them that went deep places that were good for us and for our walk with Jesus.

 

My favorite speakers were definitely day number 2.  Mark Driscoll!!!!!!!

*  Fear Not.  every time God says fear not, it's followed with I am with you.  

*  Fear of anything or anyone except God is a form of idolatry. 

And Priscilla Shirer was so good.  She just made me want to stand up and do something amazing for God.  Immediately.  

*Hillsong NYC was there the first day to be the worship leaders.  Ok.  Can I be perfectly serious and tell you that I had to pray during the worship to be able to focus and separate myself from the fact that Joel Houston is freaking gorgeous.  Freaking gorgeous + Aussie accent = every single woman in the room distracted.  Putting Joel aside, the worship was everything you expect from Hillsong.  And praising God with 13K people is pretty powerful.  

The fall out from Catalyst for me, that I think will be the most lifechanging will be that I finally said yes to what God's been asking me for a while and I'm on the teaching team for Crash now.  That's scary for me not in the sense of the teaching or the speaking, but in the time commitment aspects.  But that is obedience too, life is people.  And maybe God is changing my focus from my business being central to my business being a source of fuel for ministry.  Still thinking that one through.

I love my church.  I'm overwhelmed with thankfulness for Blue Ridge for the ways God has used them in my life.  The people I love and love to serve with and the teaching that feeds my soul.  Here's a few more pics from the week, plus a sample of our planking.  Sometimes silly is fun. :)

 My buddy Wade-O.  :)

 Faith writing to african kiddos

 Carrie Plankin'

 This is the kind of planking you can do when you used to be in the military. 

And I just like the reflection of Andy driving in my massive sunglasses. :)

BE PRESENT. :)