El Award-O's? Red Carpet

so we had the first official El Award-O's? ceremony last night.

it was great. the outfits were fabulous, dinner was incredibly classy, great pictures were taken, awards were handed out and fun was had.

its ok...it happened all the time in the 80's. :)

anyways...here are some pics from the red carpet.

the cast of The Project: HOSEA...

so excited to meet his favorite stars and get an autograph!!!

looking good, huh?

they are famous for a reason...haha

oh geez! is that Jordan Cross and Chelsea Robinson? werent you "the girls"???

dont i know you from somewhere? werent you in The Project or something???

and here we have nathan porter, just rockin the flow...

just loving the camera :)

so much fun!

El Award-O's? Dinner

We all took our well-dressed selves out to dinner to Taco Bell, keeping with the "Mexico" theme. :) yes, we do realize its not exactly authentic...but its so good!

and we looked good in it...agree?

just chillin in Taco Bell...its ok, it happened all the time in the 80's...

one of our beautiful, well dressed, not at all awkward couples. cute, huh?

we ate and then were onto photo shoot and awards!

El Award-O's? Awards

The Award Ceremony took place at the Thurston's home.
we used a really hi-tech microphone and had all the awards and certificates ready to pass out.
each team member got an award that they earned somehow throughout the process of creating the show.
here are some pictures from the ceremony!

the official presenters

Sam accepting her award...clearly an emotional moment for her, thoroughly understandable.

Jordan Cross's award
Chelsea Kimball's award


toast! to the team and to God who has blessed us with all that we have and for all that He's called us to and gotten us through!


these awards were chosen specifically for each team member from the highly acclaimed area thrift stores and then covered in gold spray paint.

i have no doubt that they will be displayed proudly!

the awards we gave were funny ones, but in all reality - i am so grateful for ALL the hard work they put into this show. they gave up A LOT of saturdays and thursdays for us and our crazy ideas. so i give a HUGE thank you to the whole team and want to make sure that they know how incredibly appreciative we are of all of them!!!

so thank you team! we LOVE you! and are so ready for this trip!

2 more weeks!

2 more weeks!
we had a GREAT practice thursday night!
ran through the dramas we know, worked on the Project a little, even ran through a ministry drama in SPANISH! :) and they sounded great!
we will be ready with ministry, im not worried - especially now that God has blessed us with a whole afternoon all together in Arizona because we are leaving a day early...:)
a little extra practice time.
love it.

God put on my heart psalm 51 to share with the team this week. and i was talking to sherrill about this too - this is a time where we need to be asking God to just cleanse us. to reveal things in us that shouldnt be there and then let Him take it out...
because on mission trips satan just brings ALL the ugly out and amplifies it. especially when its such a short amount of time...what does it say in revelation 12? "he is filled with fury because he knows his time is short" he will do all he can to break us down in the short week we'll be gone...so we need to work on getting rid of all our "ugly" now.

we also had a "big group" time, talking about our books and just talking about what we've been learning from them.
it was really cool to hear what they have been getting from it and what God has been teaching.


2 weeks left...so crazy. it has come SO fast and i just cant believe its almost here! but it is...God is faithful.

tonight we have our Award Ceremony...El Award-Os.
you might not have heard of them before...its all right, they are new.
instead of formalwear, the dress code is 80's themed. and we go out to dinner - we decided to go with the theme of our trip and still someplace classy...so we're going to Taco Bell. and then the awards...
stay tuned.
all i can say is - there will probably be tears.
it'll be a really moving night. :)

pray for us as we get closer to leave!
pray for unity and just a broken spirit before God, just willing to let Him form us.
so so so excited to see what else He has planned!

big things

so i just finished watching the movie Extraordinary Measures and i realized how much i love hearing stories about people just fighting for what they want. how someone just makes a decision, sets a goal, and then goes after it and because they do that and dont let anything stop them, no matter how crazy - big things happen. people are affected and impacted. i just kept thinking how God calls us to huge, seemingly impossible things and when we decide to just go and follow after Him with everything in us...big things happen and there is an impact. us taking the big steps for Him gives Him permission to move in us and through us and just rock everyone around us and there is no telling how far the impact will reach.

crazy how movies and stuff can just speak to the very depths of us, huh? i would say God has used art and drama and things like that the most to speak to me over the years. from a quick 2 minute drama to a look at a painting to a 2 hour movie or a 3 minute song...God speaks. and those visuals hit you in that moment, but then stay with you forever. a lesson in an image.

something cool God is revealing to me is this...

for example...

some people have the minds to read and understand and study - and then speak and teach that message.

then there are some people who have visual minds, they can hear that message, read a passage just see it, a picture just forms in their minds.

now...what if one never shared their way of thinking with the other?

what if the artist never got that picture out of their heads and into a drama or onto a canvas?

what if the person who read and studied never spoke the words out loud or wrote them down?

here is the revelation (and it might seem obvious, but its hitting me in a new way lately)...

we have a responsibility to identify our gifts and then learn them, practice them, use them...because what we have been given - not everyone has. what we have to offer will complement, teach, impact the other members of the body.

which in turn will lead/help them to learn and use their gifts, which might reveal something new to you, and its a beautiful beautiful cycle!!!

but if we ALL dont embrace our gifts and actually use them...it wont work.

not everyone has the visual mind, and not everyone has the intellectual mind, or everything in between.

we were designed to work together and complement each other.

and for me personally im realizing that almost everyone learns from a visual. almost everyone has been affected by a song or a painting or a drama or a video...

but not everyone can create them.

so would you agree that it would be the artist's responsibility to take the images they see and create it, get it out somehow so that someone else can see it, and learn from it, and then turn around and apply it to their gifts...etc?

crazy how well God knows us, how well He worked all of this out.

His design truly is perfect.

love it.

so take some time, find out what He has given you, what He wants to use you for and EMBRACE IT. listen for His calling and His voice and know that what He says is the TRUTH...decide to fight for it...and then fight. like i wrote earlier...God will do big things when we take big steps. the key though is to hear Him and follow His call to take these big steps...if we just take big steps or do these things...then we're just doing them.

i cannot say it enough - let God be the focus, let Him lead you in EVERYTHING and just be in awe of all that He is.

because when we really fight for what He is calling us to...big things happen. so much bigger than us.

psalm 51...make this your prayer, let Him cleanse you and purify you and make His desires yours.

and let Him make you the person He designed you to be.

and then embrace it and experience all the JOY that comes with it!