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30 aprile A Weekend to RememberFor the past two days, I have been "recovering" from a whirlwind of a weekend with my husband. We were presented with the opportunity to attend Family Life's A Weekend to Remember and we jumped at the chance. Chris and I haven't gotten away for a weekend with just the two of us in about twelve years. I'm not sure how so much time got away from us.. we've just really enjoyed family life with the kids. I can see now that we need to make time for just the two of us more of a top priority! We had an amazing time.
My friend Kathy gave us complimentary tickets to this event. Thanks again, Kathy! So we decided to head up to Seattle the day before the conference started so that we could get settled in and have all day Friday to play and sightsee. The location was special to the two of us because we spent part of our honeymoon in Seattle, almost NINETEEN years ago. We haven't been back, just the two of us since. It was special to walk around city center, holding hands and just looking back over the last nineteen years. Not much had changed at city center, but we noticed that alot had changed in us. We were 18 and 21 when we got married. Yep. Alot's changed..
We arrived at city center just in time for the Seattle world's rhythm festival to get started. I LOVE rhythm! This was so up my alley. Hand drums everywhere. You'd walk through the area and there would be cirlces of drummers here and there and they would just plop down and start playing with what another group across the lawn was playing. Very fun, but it was killing me to not have my drum so that I could play too.
We watched the drummers for a while and then decided to tour the Experience Music Project while we were there. It is a museum of rock music that had its roots in Seattle or the northwest area. Now I love music and even though this type of music was not my favorite, I could appreciate it. I did a walk through, was glad I saw it and then was ready to move on, but Chris was just getting going. So instead of being bored out of my mind or Chris not getting to see everything, we decided to split up for a little while. Chris would stay and I would continue to walk around Seattle center. We had our cell phones. We could hook up easily enough in an hour or so.
Heading out to go take a walk in the sunshine was nice, but it struck me. I would never have done that when Chris and I were first married. I was not very confident in my new adult life and it would have unnerved me to take off on my own (plus, we didn't have cell phones then!) I kind of smiled to myself and just enjoyed being alone for a little while. I wasn't sure what I wanted to see, so I decided to walk back over to the lawn area and see if the drummers were still playing and they were. In fact, more and more drummers were accumilating by the hour as the opening ceremony for the festival would be happening that evening. As I was walking by, appreciating the music they were creating, one of them motioned for me to come over. I almost said "No thanks" but I would have been furious with myself if I had. He held out some shakers to me, but I had already noticed a drum sitting there that no one was playing. I shook my head to the shakers and pointed to the drum. The man smiled and handed it over.
I wish you could have seen what this scene looked like. If you were going by appearances, this was a group where I really didn't "belong". There were women with long, flowy dresses flitting about with shakers and tambourines. A group of people doing yoga poses off to the side. Long hair. Dreadlocks. The leader of this musical group was wearing pointy, little elf ears and spoke with an English accent. Then there was me. Looking rather cute in my new capris that I bought at the Eddie Bauer outlet. Short hair with the ends flipped out. French manicured nails. I looked like a soccer-mom. Not some free-spirited percussionist camped out at the foot of the Space Needle!
But for over two hours, I hung out and played with these friendly people. I learned new rhythm patterns and even started a couple of my own. By the time I was done, I was exhausted but thrilled. I had stepped out of my comfort zone in a huge way and met some very nice people that I wouldn't have normally had the opportunity to meet. I know that this encounter was a special treat set out just for me by Jesus. I had just been telling Chris that I was really going to miss playing music this weekend. But He is the source of all things good and when you ask Him to delight you, He will.
We checked in to the conference that evening and began a weekend of encouragement, reflection and conviction about our marriage. Another thing that was a gift from God. Chris and I have been slowly climbing our way back out of probably the biggest slump our marriage has ever gone through. We have had some counseling along the way and both felt like we were turning the corner and headed for a new season. The timing of this weekend was perfect.
We even ended the weekend by renewing our vows to each other. I always thought that renewing our vows someday would be so sweet and romantic, but I have to say that for me, those words carried a whole new impact than they did the first time around. It wasn't all sweetness and fluff when I was saying "for better or worse, in sickness and in health". We have shared devastating loss, sickness and grief. We have shared good health, celebrations and answered prayers. Those words were packed with meaning in a way that was very different from the first time we spoke them.
The other thing that I'm so thankful for is that fact that we didn't have to give a single worry about our children while we were away. James spent the weekend with my mom and dad and Jennifer spent time with my sister Lori and her family. A HUGE thank-you to them. We couldn't have done the weekend without them and our friend Stephanie checking in on our doggie. How blessed we are!
I highly recommend this conference for anyone that's interested. It's called A Weekend to Remember by FamilyLife.
23 aprile Women's Worship Team leads worship at church- fresh from retreat
Sticking with tradition, our team led worship for our church family last Sunday, the weekend after we returned from our annual women's retreat. I know, the sound quality can only be so good with Chris trying to record us on my little digital camera, but I am amazed at the nice things that I'm hearing from the different members of the team as they worship the Lord. 15 aprile Just got back from leading worship at our annual women's retreat.I am "recovering" from the highlight of the year for our women's worship team. We just got back on Sunday evening, from leading worship at our women's retreat. It was awesome!
Worship was sweet, the teaching was phenominal and we just had some good fun with each other. We stayed up entirely too late, laughed way too hard, got outside and enjoyed the first bit of nice weather that we've had around here. It was great.
We got to take part in the second installment of a three-part series that we are studying. This year was the Feasts of Yahweh. Go to Revealing Journey to see what we were blessed with. I am still just chewing over the things that we learned about. I have such a better understanding of what the Old Testament was all about and how Jesus was and is the fulfillment of it all. Really, it was just the tip of the iceberg, I'm sure, but it makes so much more sense to me now.
I was taken aback again this year to see how beautifully the worship time blended with the teaching time. This is the third time that we've led worship at an event where Corinne and Michelle were teaching. Twice with our own church and once for another church's retreat. It really feels like we were made for each other. We've joked about the idea that if they could pack us up and take us with them, they would. But really, I wasn't joking. If God decided to take our little team beyond the walls of our home church and go out and be a blessing to the larger body of Christ, I would be thrilled and would do it in a heartbeat. You never know..I've been feeling for quite some time now, that I am teetering on the edge of a brand new season of life. I think that it's no mistake that God has made the ladies on our team so versatile. What He plans to do next, I have no idea, but I know that it's going to be a great ride, even if the next season is to be right where I've been planted. I am just excited to see what's around the next corner and if God's the one leading this journey, I am up for anything! 07 aprile Times of refreshing.For any of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you know that I have been grieving the loss of one of my best friends who moved to Heaven just before Christmas after a long battle with cancer. There have been odd moments in the months since Cheri passed away, that the feelings of missing her strike me anew. Some of those moments are very profound; like when I am with the worship team on Sunday morning and I look out to the congration, expecting to see her worshiping to a song that I know is one of her favorites...and she's not there. She was one of those people that helped me cast all of my stuff down at the throne of God and really enter into worship just by being there. I miss that and now I have to find others to inspire me in that area.
Sometimes, it's the silly things that make me miss her. A few weeks ago, I was watching American Idol. That was one of our things. Cheri didn't get out of the house much at all during her last year and watching American Idol together was something that we could look forward to. Sometimes I would get the opportunity to watch it with her in her living room, or if I couldn't do that, we would call each other afterwards and hash out our opinions. Just a couple of weeks ago, the show had ended and I reached over to grab the phone and I was reminded anew that Cheri wouldn't be there to answer the phone.
I think back to most of our conversations when we were together and what I treasured most about our friendship was that we wouldn't be chatting more than a few minutes when we would be talking a hundred miles an hour about something new that God had taught us this week or showing each other the latest treasure we had found during a Bible study. We couldn't help ourselves. It was never anything forced or "religious". It was just an overflow of the joy that Jesus was filling us with as we learned some of the lessons he was teaching us. Some of them were adventureous lessons and others were hard lessons that had to be learned more than once. But Cheri and I found it easy to end up talking about Jesus with each other and it was a real blessing to me. I have missed those conversations deeply.
Yesterday, however, I had the surprise blessing of spending the afternoon with my dear friend Maureen, who I haven't seen in three years. I would have to say that she has been a wonderful mentor to me as a musician, but more importantly as a worshiper. Remember how Moses' face would shine after he had been in the presence of God? So much so that he took to wearing a veil to cover it a little because it was creeping out the Israelites! Well, I've never really seen that happen, but the closest I've come is with my friend, Maureen. I think that she lives in constant conversation with Jesus and it physically shows in her face. I want my face to look like that! You can't buy that look in a bottle and you won't get it from any botox injections. That my friends, is the glory of God shining through the life of one of His children. I pray that others can see that shining from me more and more every day.
What a treat it was to have Maureen and her daughter spend the afternoon with us. We found ourselves lost in conversations about Jesus and how we long to know Him better. We talked about the things that He has so clearly been doing in our lives since we saw each other last. We shared songs that we had written with each other. It was such a blessing to me that it brought me to tears at one point in our conversation.
Yesterday was like a long drink of cool, clear water after months of drought. Thank you, Jesus. You gave me just what I needed. You reminded me that with You, I don't have to ever be thirsty again. In my grief, I lost sight of you for awhile and you so kindly gave me a time of refreshing to remind me that You are the source of all things good. 02 aprile April Fool's on the dog!Instead of playing any jokes on each other this year, Chris decided to play one on Maggie, our dog. He brought home an owl decoy that he had as a decoration at the shop and decided to see what Maggie would do when she discovered it.
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