The Fall

choreographed by Austin Eckstrom.

danced to the song Trogdor by Cellofourte.

this dance took a lot of time and effort on the choreographer's part AND the dancers' part. but it was so worth it. the team really stepped up and worked so hard on this. they learned it and it turned out amazing. so did the masks...all painted by austin, emmanuil, and sam n. they did such an awesome job with them...

and all together it creates a cool picture of how easily we can get pulled into something looks so good and exciting at first...but then quickly gets out of control...and by the time we realize, it seems almost impossible to get out.

but what we don't always realize is that Jesus is always there. He never leaves...no matter how many times we push Him away. and He is the only one who can truly save us from the things that trap us and overwhelm us.

how amazing is that??? He knows how much we need Him, so He never leaves. He keeps loving us, keeps watching out for us...and all He wants is for us to turn to Him and love Him back...with everything in us. and how crazy is it to think that its even something we have to think about??? unconditional, perfect, holy love.......or the world that promises only to entertain us for the moment and nothing more. but we do struggle to surrender fully - myself completely included.

my prayer is that we can see all of it for what it really is and see that God is every bit as good and perfect as He says He is...and He is the only one who ever will be enough forever.

and in turn, learn to love Him the way He deserves...

A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.
Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge— no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
Psalm 91:7-11

Anger

choreographed and danced by Ashley Hart.
to original music by Chelsea Kimball.

This dance is a product of a lot of spiritual battle. Satan made it very clear throughout the process of putting this together that He did not want this dance performed...ashley had trouble remembering her choreography - not a normal thing for her at all, even the night before we hadn't seen the final version, she was feeling sick with a cold and feeling tired and dizzy, etc. but in it we spent time praying with her and over her and it truly was a battle. and after A LOT of prayer, this is the end result. in the end...God won. He did His thing - and Satan couldn't do a thing about it. This is his creativity and gifts at work...beautiful.




i see things like this and i wish i could dance or write music...they are such amazing gifts and have such powerful abilities to portray pictures of God's love with His power. im not saying at all that i am not amazingly grateful for everything God has given me - because i am SO grateful...i'm just so in awe of all the different aspects of Him.
this is just a glimpse of the body of Christ...and i just love seeing how it all works together.

God amazes me over and over with His creativity and i just love knowing that this is only a part of what He can do....and only the beginning of what He has planned for this team.

psalm 139...He's got it.

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139: 1-7 & 23-24

this passage has hit me in a huge way in the last few days...
this time in my life is SO huge and i am being tested and taught and stretched...and while it gets tiring and hard at times - its so so so worth it. Its how He prepares us for what is coming...because He knows. and He knows what we are lacking.
i love this time of my life right now, as crazy as it is, i am trying to just soak it all in - not get too focused on what is next, but just trust that God has it all under control.
and the thing is - is that He actually does. He has shown me over and over again in the last few months that He is in control. He knows it all and He is in control of it all. its beautiful and i just am so so so in awe of how true it is.
just today there was a situation where i had the opportunity to get so angry and offended and get the blame off of me and put it on someone else...and i prayed. and instead of me having to worry about it - God just fixed it. just like that. this huge problem went away...and i am just so grateful that i took the time to refocus on Him...because my flesh wanted to make it ugly. but He's in control. :) its not always easy, but if it was - we wouldnt have to be learning the lesson.
so like in the psalm - my prayer is that God will search me...search all of me and keep on refining me...so that i can continue to experience more and more of Him. love it.

Worship?

hey this is Emmanuil,

So at the last meeting, we all got "spiritual reading" for the upcoming missions trip. The book that was passed out was The Worshiping Artist by Rory Noland. It was a book that Jillian ranted on about sometimes at ALIVE meetings, which I didnt really pay that much attention. Some of the things she read out of it were kinda cool. But I never really wanted to read it, the cheesy cover didnt help either. So they passed it out and it became mandatory reading last week.

So yesterday i picked it up and started reading the intro and throught the entire first chapter. Let me tell you this: It was awesome! I was super surprised, the chapter began to define what worship was and caught on to me and dragged me through the rest of the chapter, I was soon writing extensive answers to the follow up questions (which is surprising for me). The chapter described what is worship and explained that its not just the half hour you sing on sunday morning, that worship is everything you do! One thing i read that got me super jazzed up, I even underlined in pen! yea thats right i defaced a book! (Even though its mine now) anyway what it said was: "Simply put, worship is our response to the presence of God"-wow that is so cool right? I thought the book would talk about music for most of the time and the other the how its fun to paint while you listen to the Christian rock station. But in fact it is totally about how you respond to God to say that you know that he is there and what you do when you know that.(Don't yell at me, because i know there are other parts to worship.) But it was so cool to read something that I usually would not enjoy reading, a book that is totally "christian" but thats a foolish thing to even say, because its not "Chritian" its real and that is something awesome to read about

Another thing that I just love about this book so far is just how many awesome points it has on certain things. Many times throughout the chapter I started to laugh because of the things that totally matched up to the things I think about and sometimes feel like no body understands. I just love to see the things that I think about alot, just simply stated. Its so great, I answered all the Qs and even started to do the personal action steps, which are pretty sweet. Its something that i love doing because in reading this book, answering these questions, and taking up some of those challange actions is my own way of private worship, amongst other things.

Well, I was pretty excited about this, and when i exprience something cool i like letting it out and telling everyone just like seeing an awesome movie and the next day talking to everyone how cool it was.

Anyways, thanks for reading the post


Emmanuil

la casa se quema, a turkey leg, beatboxing, and other fun things...

another meeting of the nogales team! tonight was so fun...we spent some time learning dramas that we could use for kids ministry. they did SUCH a good job. and seriously - most productive night i think we have ever had. haha...but so fun. they learned 3 different dramas that we could use as ministry - some with words that they'll have to learn in spanish ;) but some of them know some spanish and did really good job! and we'll keep working on it.
a few highlights...nate as the beat-boxing firefighter, isaac being stuck to a chair trying to eat a turkey leg, and the horror movie version of "la casa se quema".
:)
we also got our bible study books that we'll be going through - its called "the worshiping artist" by rory noland. i have had it for awhile now and i was trying to go through it and really just spend a lot of time on it, but i have been so bad at making time for it - SO now we're doing it with the team - so i have to...haha im excited to do it as a team. its a cool book about how to use art as worship and what it means to use our gifts and just a cool look at the different attributes of God.
so itll be fun to read through and see what God has for us all!
sarah also shared a devo. she read from Hebrews 10:19 - a verse that struck her in a new way this past week...a really cool word picture of God sprinkling our hearts clean of guilt and washing us with PURE water....so cool. that we can be cleansed and made new because of what Jesus did.
and we talked to the team about our new idea...and they were ok with it. haha...and so we are going forward, seeing what else God throws out there. so we just need need need to keep praying and listening for what God has...
and now we just need to start practicing and learning the new part, edit the music, get the scripts translated and recorded! thats all...;)
and work on getting cds made of the music from the show!
im just really excited for all of this knowing that God is just so in it all, He's been there, making His presence known every step of the way and its so so great.
so we just need to keep praying, stay focused on the purpose of this all and just see what it is He's calling us to!