Encouragement

Saw David Crowder Band in concert yesterday. They were amazing! I love their song Everything Glorious. The lyrics say...

You make everything glorious

And I am Yours

What does that make me?

The definition of glorious in the dictionary says: marked by great beauty or splendor

So yes...if God made everything glorious, and we are His....what does that make us?

A creation marked by great beauty or splendor.

Put that little fact in your pocket** and carry it around with you :)

**note: I guess you could write this truth down and literally put it in your pocket...but when I was referring to pocket I meant more of a figurative "pocket"....you get the gist ;)

Help-Portrait

Heard about a really cool organization. Help-Portrait. A photographer started an event by just asking his fellow photographer friends to help him take pictures of people in need. This idea spread so quickly, that it reached places across the world like France, South Korea, Germany, and Japan...to name a few.

I had the privilege of hearing this man speak today and he said that his main goal in taking these professional (and beautiful, might I add) shots of these people is to help them to realize how very special they are.

Volunteers helped to get these people ready for the photos (clothes, hair, makeup) and then they were treated like stars with their very own photo shoot.

A few stories he shared included a man who had only had his picture taken once...when he went to jail. A man and his son who were separated because of problems with alcohol and drugs were reunited to get a photo together. A single mother and her two children got their very first family portrait.

One person who had their picture taken wrote on the website:

"Receiving a gift is like getting a rare gemstone; any way you look at it you see the beauty refracted." --Proverbs 17:8

The Help-Portrait photographers that showcased their God-given talents at the Nashville Rescue Mission ARE those rare gems. They captured the inner light of many who have felt broken, worthless, unattractive, unloved and under-appreciated"

They are doing another event soon. If you'd like to get involved..check out their website

http://help-portrait.com/

we did it

Ignite....this was the name given to the group of young adults at my church. We just recently had a worship service to kick things off and get everyone amped about all the events we are having this summer. Unfortunately, I was unable to be there and experience it (I was at a wedding!), but I did hear that things went well. I must admit, I was really nervous about the outcome of our efforts. It's one thing to dream something up, and it's another to actually pull it off. We started off with some great music, a great speaker, more music, and then a barbecue to finish it all off. I was informed that there were some new faces there, which is awesome.

Why, do you ask, did we need to have a "service" when there is a perfectly good service given on Sunday mornings. Except for when the speaker is talking about marriage or parenting, most of the young adults are able to apply what they hear on Sunday to their own lives. The service we held was not because we weren't being "fed" or because we didn't think Sunday measured up. The reason, at least in my mind, was to be able to connect with other people in my age bracket.

My church offers an awesome program for elementary school children (Valley Kids), services for middle and high school (Impact and Riot), and finally a service (sometimes referred to as "big church" by the kids) for the rest of us adults. My small group wanted to start something for the in between ages experienced in your twenties.

Think about it. Most of us don't exactly fit in with all of the adults. We are still trying to figure out what we want to do for the rest of our lives, who we want to marry and live with for the rest of our lives, and just how to do all the stuff our parents used to do for us like finding insurance and taking care of our finances. While it's great to get guidance and wisdom from people that have gone through these stages of life, it's nice to know there is a group of people I can relate to that are going through these things with me.

I want the young adults in this area to get serious about what is important in life. So whether they know God or not, I hope that this summer brings a lot of new and interesting people to CCV to get connected with not only other people their age, but God as well!

I am excited about the future of Ignite and the young adults at CCV.