Friday, September 23, 2011
Where does the time go?
Uhhhhhhh, it's September 23rd already? Since when did that happen?! Well, 2 days ago marked the 1 month anniversary of hitting the road. It is insane how time is flying. It's even crazier to think only 8 months left on tour. Tour has been one of the biggest growing experiences for me. I've been stretched and pulled, we are still human. We are real people on the road just answering God's call for our lives. It's been a roller coaster. We've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of every tour team member. Haha, I mean we live with each other. What do you expect? But I have made some of the closest friends on this bus. God is awesome. Even with the ups and downs, we have grown so much as a team and as individuals. When days get hard, all of those cares and worries go away in a heartbeat when students come forward to give their lives over to Christ and put on a ring. It is a reminder of why we do what we do. After only 7 shows, over 800 students have given their lives to Christ. 800 lives changed forever. 800 students that have joined us in eternal life with God our Father. That leaves me speechless. Hearing that just makes me want to fall on my knees praising God. It allows you to humble yourself. I feel so blessed to be a part of such an awesome ministry and such an awesome team. For some of us, we have only known each other for 1 month. We act like we have known each other all our lives. God has been so amazing in just one month, I am so pumped to see what He is going to do after 9 months. All I can say is...Praise God. We are headed to Tennessee for a couple of shows. Then 4 shows in South Carolina. I get to see a few friends in South Carolina, which leaves me very excited. After SC, Alabama. Again, I get to see a familiar face there as well. Then in 2 weeks, I will be headed HOME! See you soon, Pittsburgh! :]
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Devotional boot camp.
Wellllllp, here's a quick update from on the road! Tour has been going awesome. God is so good. There have been some ups and downs, we're still human. But nothing that is too big for God. Some shows have been a little rough. In El Centro, CA, Ke$ha was playing and right after, "This place about to blow," literally...it blew. the power system had some glitches and everything turned out. We were laughing hysterically afterwards. Mason did an awesome job running around like a maniac to get things back on within a minute. Everything worked out. At our show in Greenville, TX, we were a little worried due to the venue had a lift for us to get our equipment up on. With a lot of team work, it was one of our quickest set ups and tear downs. So far, there have been close to 500 commitments to Christ...after only 5 shows. God is gonna do some awesome stuff with this tour. And I couldn't feel more blessed than I do right now to be here.
Well, now I'm sure you're wondering what the title, "Devotional boot camp" means. As a team, we try and have a devotional once a day. On the side, the girls have been doing a Bible study and studying the book of Ephesians. That book is so good! But anyways, devotionals usually just mean reading a few verses from the Bible and talking about it, then prayer requests. Well, Paco and Dani had a surprise for the team last night. We were texted earlier saying wear comfortable shoes and work out clothes for devotionals. uh...Okay! When we got down in the main lobby, we went to start and Paco led us outside into a field. He then continued to read to us 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. The title of it is "The need for Self-Discipline".
It reads, "24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."
We discussed it a little bit and our thoughts on what we thought it meant and things like that. After we discussed it for 10 minutes, we took a few minutes to pray. Then, Paco gave us a set of instructions. We were gonna be taught some self discipline. As a team, we did a group work out. We started with an indian run. If you don't know what an indian run is, it is where everyone runs in a single file line around a field. The last person has to run up to the front of the line. Once they get there, they have to raise their hand and the next person runs up and so on and so on. After we did about 2 of those, Paco gave us stations. One station involved squatting then jumping and hitting your knees in the air above waste level. We had to do 10 of those. The next station was sitting on the ground in the middle, standing up and turning around, sprinting to the tree, back to the cement, back to the middle and sit down again. We had to do 5 of those. The next station was getting in push up position, hands together, feet together. We had to open our hands and feet up wide and do a push up to the left, bring it back to the middle, then do the same to the right. That was equivalent to one. We had to do 10 of those. The next station was kneeling down, jumping back into push up position, jumping back into kneeling position, jumping up, doing 4 punches, then back down to kneeling. That equalled one. We had to do 10 of those. We had to go through each station 3 times.
Our team consists of people of all sizes, all different physical abilities. Me, I am not athletic at all. I mean, I was majorette captain in high school, which can be pretty challenging during advanced twirling, but we never really had to run TOO much. It was just awesome to work together as a team to FINISH the stations still breathing. Some people were about to puke, some may have puked, let's just say, it was hard work. BUT WE ALL FINISHED. The more athletic ones were there to go slow with the nonathletic ones and motivating everyone all the way. We were cheering for each other and motivating each other to keep pushing to keep trying. Everyone gave it their all. It was an awesome learning experience and was cool to work as a team. Did I enjoy it? Not so much. Was it worth it? Yes. I have some heart issues I was a little worried about, but God got me through. Along with the others who have allergies, asthma, and other health problems. We all got through, and we all are gonna feel it in the next few days, but we learned a lot about working as a team and disciplining ourselves to cross the finish line.
Well, that is all for now. We have a 10 hour drive today to Hereford, TX. Praying that people show up to the show tomorrow. Austin, TX show got cancelled due to the fires going on in the area. The team is praying for everyone affected! God Bless!
Well, now I'm sure you're wondering what the title, "Devotional boot camp" means. As a team, we try and have a devotional once a day. On the side, the girls have been doing a Bible study and studying the book of Ephesians. That book is so good! But anyways, devotionals usually just mean reading a few verses from the Bible and talking about it, then prayer requests. Well, Paco and Dani had a surprise for the team last night. We were texted earlier saying wear comfortable shoes and work out clothes for devotionals. uh...Okay! When we got down in the main lobby, we went to start and Paco led us outside into a field. He then continued to read to us 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. The title of it is "The need for Self-Discipline".
It reads, "24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."
We discussed it a little bit and our thoughts on what we thought it meant and things like that. After we discussed it for 10 minutes, we took a few minutes to pray. Then, Paco gave us a set of instructions. We were gonna be taught some self discipline. As a team, we did a group work out. We started with an indian run. If you don't know what an indian run is, it is where everyone runs in a single file line around a field. The last person has to run up to the front of the line. Once they get there, they have to raise their hand and the next person runs up and so on and so on. After we did about 2 of those, Paco gave us stations. One station involved squatting then jumping and hitting your knees in the air above waste level. We had to do 10 of those. The next station was sitting on the ground in the middle, standing up and turning around, sprinting to the tree, back to the cement, back to the middle and sit down again. We had to do 5 of those. The next station was getting in push up position, hands together, feet together. We had to open our hands and feet up wide and do a push up to the left, bring it back to the middle, then do the same to the right. That was equivalent to one. We had to do 10 of those. The next station was kneeling down, jumping back into push up position, jumping back into kneeling position, jumping up, doing 4 punches, then back down to kneeling. That equalled one. We had to do 10 of those. We had to go through each station 3 times.
Our team consists of people of all sizes, all different physical abilities. Me, I am not athletic at all. I mean, I was majorette captain in high school, which can be pretty challenging during advanced twirling, but we never really had to run TOO much. It was just awesome to work together as a team to FINISH the stations still breathing. Some people were about to puke, some may have puked, let's just say, it was hard work. BUT WE ALL FINISHED. The more athletic ones were there to go slow with the nonathletic ones and motivating everyone all the way. We were cheering for each other and motivating each other to keep pushing to keep trying. Everyone gave it their all. It was an awesome learning experience and was cool to work as a team. Did I enjoy it? Not so much. Was it worth it? Yes. I have some heart issues I was a little worried about, but God got me through. Along with the others who have allergies, asthma, and other health problems. We all got through, and we all are gonna feel it in the next few days, but we learned a lot about working as a team and disciplining ourselves to cross the finish line.
Well, that is all for now. We have a 10 hour drive today to Hereford, TX. Praying that people show up to the show tomorrow. Austin, TX show got cancelled due to the fires going on in the area. The team is praying for everyone affected! God Bless!
Friday, September 2, 2011
New Adventures.
Well, I promised a lot of people I would keep them updated on tour life and my new life on the road. I feel so blessed to be a part of such an INCREDIBLE team. We traveled the country in basically 4 days...already. I am currently in Yuma, AZ. My host family is absolutely amazing. So blessed already to be meeting such awesome people. We had 2 and 1/2 shows in this area. 151 commitments to Christ the first show, and 29 commitments the second show. God is so good. We had a week off for labor day weekend just to adjust to tour and to hang out with tour team members families and such. It's been cool to see everyone else's home town. Especially the fact 3 of the girls from Yuma lived with me in the past. I was excited to get to see where THEY came from instead of them coming to Pittsburgh. I am so happy I am here. God has called me and blessed me so much, words cannot even describe. I know the road is gonna get tough, but my focus is that I am here for a reason. And tour has been my dream for 2 years now. Dream a dream so big, only God can make it happen. Some of the friendships I've been making is definitely a God thing. He knows that everyone needs someone on tour. Mary Scott has been my rock to lean on:] The entire team is so awesome. Everyone is so welcoming and loving. We make one big dysfunctional happy family now. So many inside jokes already and it's only been 3 weeks. I cannot wait to see what God is gonna do in us and through us.
You're the God of this City
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are
You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are
There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here
There is no one like our god
There is no one like our God
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here.
You're the God of this City
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are
You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are
There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here
There is no one like our god
There is no one like our God
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here.
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