Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Home/Hotel

Last week, we stayed in our hotel for almost a week. Our hotel becomes like home for us especially if we stay for a long time. This hotel had a hot tub and great indoor pool. One day, we had a pool party for Jordan, one of the bmx guys. It was his birthday. That was fun!

We worked out in the gym almost everyday. One day, a few of us realized that they had changed the flooring and added mirrors to the gym. We were admiring the changes when Steph said, "I feel like this is our home or something." We were all like, "They put in new mirrors and a new floor!"

Home sweet home...kinda. I'm home now, and I can tell you that there is a difference. Pray for us today. We are filming our dvd in Alabama. Pray that everything goes smoothly.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Videos from Freedom Experience in Kansas









Coming to the End of Yourself

Two things happened yesterday during the last service. Brock was speaking at the church that brought us in for the Freedom Experience. It was the last of 11 shows since Wednesday. It had been an amazing week yet an exhausting week, too. At the closing of the last service, Brock said, "I guess I'm done!" Everyone in the church began clapping. Then, they rose to their feet...a standing ovation! This moved me to tears.

Also, while Brock was having everyone pray toward the end of the service, I began climbing the stairs up to the sound booth for the last time. We'd done four services there over the weekend, so I'd climbed the staircase many times before. As I was walking up, I felt the Lord tell me to pray for the people sitting on either side of the aisle as I passed by them. The strangest thing happened! I barely had enough strength to physically make it up the stairs, but I felt the power of God literally radiating off my body to the people as I passed by. This was a new experience for me!

Later, I shared with Brock what had happened. I couldn't believe that I could be that drained, yet the Holy Spirit could still use me at that point. Brock made a very profound statement about it. He said, "When you live in the extreme, that's when you live in the supernatural. When you come to the end of yourself, that's where God is."

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Freedom Experience in Wichita

Our prayers were answered! It was a miracle that the weather was nicer yesterday and the gym wasn't hot. This isn't the first time that the weather was altered during an FX. In Florida one time, a hurricane passed through, but it stopped when it got to Palm Coast where we were doing the show. Then, it picked back up again. Even the weather men were scratching their heads about that one!

The show went great! Over 500 people gave their lives to Christ over the last two nights in Wichita. What great success! The Lord really showed up in a big way. Thanks for your prayers.

Keep praying for us this weekend. Brock has to speak in two services here in Kansas tonight and two services in the morning. We are completely worn out, so this is going to be tough.

Friday, April 25, 2008

FX in Wichita, KS

After doing two days of school assemblies, we had our first night of Freedom Experience last night in Wichita, KS. The school assemblies have been going well from what I can tell. We have four different teams out doing them. CZ, the rapper, and Tim Byrne, the freestyle skater, are on one team. Stephanie Smith, the new GoTee artist, is on another team. Casting Pearls, the Christian rock band, is on another, and Brock as well as Lindsey, who eats fire, is on another team. One of the bmx riders goes with each team to do a little flat land riding at the schools. It surely worked, because the place was packed out last night. In fact, 150 people couldn't get in the doors. I have no idea what to do tonight about the numbers!

It went well last night considering. The gym that we are performing in has no air conditioning. It was so hot!!! That's not very good conditions for anyone. By the time Brock began to speak, people were beginning to get rowdy. However, there were still hundreds that gave their lives to Christ last night!

Pray that the heat doesn't cause people to leave before they hear the message tonight. Also, pray that the crowd isn't so rough and many come to know the Lord.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

My Favorite Part of Our San Francisco Trip

My favorite part about our San Francisco trip was when we caught a cab over to this ice cream place called Bi-Rite Creamery. We were told from one of the workers at a chocolate shop that this was the best ice cream in the world. She told us that we needed to order a Sam's Sundae.

We did this on Friday afternoon at about 4pm. It was a beautiful day, so we weren't surprised to see a line out the door for ice cream. We ordered the Sam's Sundae just because we were told it was the thing to get. I wouldn't have ordered it otherwise. The ingredients were chocolate ice cream, olive oil, sea salt, and whip cream. Sounds gross, right? Wrong!!! It was the best ice cream I've ever eaten. Maybe it was the type of ice cream and olive oil. I don't know, but it was amazing! I don't even like ice cream, and I dug into this stuff!

We sat on a bench outside of the ice cream place with other ice cream eaters. As we ate our ice cream, we soaked up the refreshing sun and watched the locals do life. There was a field across the street where children were playing soccer. Someone dropped their ice cream on the sidewalk, and we watched dogs run to it to lick it up as their owners tried to continue walking them. Then, we saw a tow truck towing off a car parked on the road beside us. Then, we saw another one and another one. We noticed a very small sign hidden behind a bush that said that this was a towing zone between 4 and 6pm. Brock would tell everyone who parked beside us that they were about to get towed. They would thank him and move their car. We saved about 5 or 6 people from being towed! Good times!

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Muir Woods and Alcatrez

We took a tour of Muir Woods where we were able to see Redwoods. The Coast Redwoods are the tallest living things in the world. They can get over 200 feet tall and over 14 feet wide.

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We saw a black tailed mule deer there.

Then, we went to a cool little town along the bay called Sausalito.
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Then, we went to Alcatrez...
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It was very interesting to hear about all of the escape attempts and such. You toured the former prison with your own headset with 4 former inmates and 4 former guards as your hosts. It was very well done. The most interesting thing to me was that when we got there, we thought that it wasn't such a bad place. You had a great view of the bay and San Francisco. That's what one of the inmates on the tape said was the worst part. You could see what you were missing in life. In fact, you were only 1 and 1/2 miles away from it, yet you could never taste it. From what I gathered, losing your freedom is the worst part about being in prison.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Chocolate Tasting at GMA

The chocolate tasting that we hosted for the leaders of Compassion International went extremely well! I didn't know how it would go. It was at 9:30 in the morning which is definitely not the best time. We think that it would be better at night. However, everyone loved it! There were a few people there who were planning on going home and hosting one. There was a young couple there just out of college that decided they were going to start having parties with a purpose in their community. Lots of people had some great ideas about it.

Also, there was a girl who was working at the coffee shop where we hosted the tasting. Brock felt like he needed to ask her something. He did. He asked her what she wanted to do with her life. She said that she wanted to be a nutritionist in Africa. Brock's question was, "Then why aren't you doing that?" She gave some reasons like she needs to go to school for it and doesn't have the money. The school that she wants to go to has been "processing" her application for over a year! Brock said that these are all tiny obstacles that shouldn't deter her from her dream. Nothing is impossible with God. It was a great encounter, and she said that she needed to hear that. Please pray for Mandy.

Then, we went to the place where all of the GMA festivities were going on. We plopped down on a bench in the middle of it for about 3 hours. We just sat there and everyone came to us. It was fun to visit with some old friends. What a great day!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Big Week

Pray for us this week. This is GMA week. Although we're not doing as much this year at GMA, we still have a big day tomorrow. We are hosting a chocolate tasting for some of the Compassion workers tomorrow morning. Then, we'll be around all of the GMA festivities. Tomorrow night, we have a dinner with the Compassion group.

Tuesday, we fly out to Witchita, KS. We are doing a Freedom Experience there Wednesday through Thursday. Since I'm going to be super busy, I'll post the rest of the San Francisco blogs over the next couple of days.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Expelled the Movie Weekend

We went to see the movie tonight and the 600 or so seat auditorium was about 80% full. That's very good! There were a few hecklers in the theater. At one point, police officers came in. Some people left during the film. However, most stayed for the entire documentary and everyone clapped at the end of it.

There was a group of students from a local high school who were passing out fliers to a follow-up debate that they are going to have on May 1st. A church in Louisiana rented out the whole theater tonight. Florida and a few other states are already trying to pass laws to allow more freedom for science educators. So, good things are already coming from this movie. Please, please, please support this film.

It's sorta cool that we are participating in getting the word out about this movie. You see, a long time ago, Brock came up with a t-shirt design. Since then, people have used it for bumper stickers and other such things. You may have even seen the t-shirt at some point. The t-shirt read "Darwin Lied" with "Genesis 1:1" underneath it. I wrote a one page paper about it to pass out to anyone who bought the shirt in order to educate them on the subject. It's cool how this is coming full circle.

Expelled the Movie

Go see "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" this weekend. It's important to see it opening weekend to let everyone know that we support the message of this film. "Expelled" is a documentary hosted by Ben Stein (you know the dry eyes guy and the guy who said, "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller..."). It exposes the no tolerance policy of creationism in the scientific world. It's very interesting, and every Christian should support this film.

Our group is going tonight to see it together. I hope that it's not sold out...well, actually I do!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

The Miracles Show in Bentonville, AR

This show that we did last night was so complicated that we rehearsed for two days a couple of weeks ago. Then, we got into the building the night before our show and began to set up. Well, we didn't get finished setting up until 10 minutes before the show began last night.

At one point during our setup, I texted a few people to pray for us at 6pm last night (that's when the show began). I received texts back immediately telling me that people were praying. Then, I received a text from one of my girls at home and she said, "Funny you should ask. A group of us are planning to get together and pray for you tonight at 6pm." Then, I felt very encouraged.

The show went so well for a new show. Thirty minutes before the show began, we were throwing breakers and equipment was breaking. I thought, "Oh no! This is going to be like the first few Freedom Experiences!" They were close to disasters, but it wasn't. In fact, everything went very smoothly and I know that it's because of prayer.

This show is very different for us. It's not as high in energy, and it's a little more serious throughout. However, we talk about Jesus the entire time. The focus is on Him the entire show. There is something so special about that.

I was so tired last night that I slept in my clothes! I haven't done that since I was a kid! We all worked so hard. I feel like the Lord is telling me that He's pleased with all of the hard work and our obedience. That's a wonderful feeling that I wouldn't trade for the world!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Pray for the New Miracles Show

Pray for us tonight. We are performing our first Miracles show in Bentonville, AR. I feel a lot of pressure to make this show great because we are representing the Miracles of Jesus! Wow! There's a lot of technical stuff involved in this show as well. However, we have our friends, Brad and Kyle, to help us. Plus, we've seen a lot of opposition for this show. We need your prayers. I feel like the Lord wants to do something big!

Chocolate, Chocolate, and More Chocolate

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We toured this chocolate factory. That was interesting.

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This was our favorite chocolate place that we went to...

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it had over 350 different chocolate bars in one store.

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The owner at this place talked with us for a long time. He was fun and interesting. We gave him one of our dvd's and he popped it into the store dvd player while we were there.

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This place let us try some cool truffles and we bought some single origin chocolates from all over the world.

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This guy is a famous chocolatier in San Francisco.

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In all we went to 11 chocolate shops. It was fun!!!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

San Francisco

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We had a wonderful time in San Francisco. The weather was great! It was bright and sunny, 70's and 80's degrees (that's warm for that area of California). The people are very diverse. We ate at the best Indian restaurant I've ever eaten at. It was so good that we ate there twice!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Videos from the Party







Sunday, April 13, 2008

Chaos Birthday Extravaganza

I'll show you pictures and tell you about San Francisco just as soon as I have the time to upload the pics. We just got home last night. Now, we are getting ready for church. We are going to the early service because we're going to have a birthday party for our friend this afternoon. I think that the party is going to include nap time, because with the time change and getting home so late, I'm so tired.

This party (like all of our birthday parties) is going to be crazy! Stephanie's birthday is Tuesday. However, we are going to celebrate it today. We are going to a friend's house for appetizers after church. Then, at some point, Brock is going to blow an air horn. Then, we are all going to run to our cars and drive to another friend's house for lunch. Steph is going to be very confused at this point because everyone is going to know what to do except her. Then, we're taking her to Starbucks and our house for cake and ice cream. Also, at each location, she's going to have to put on something crazy like a wig, birthday tiera, and a tutu. It's going to be fun!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

The Gift of Hospitality

A little over a year ago, I took a spiritual gifts test with my girls. Included in the top few gifts of mine was the gift of hospitality. I thought, "How can this be used?" I knew that back in Bible times, people would stay at others' homes as they were passing through town. That doesn't happen too often now. Then, I thought that maybe it meant making people feel comfortable no matter where you were...even if it wasn't in your home. Either way, I asked the Lord to use and develop this gift.

The last couple of weeks I've really seen how the Lord has done this very thing. We had our second Party with a Purpose on Easter. Then, we had a band of three guys, a "road manager," 3 different girls on two separate occasions stay at our house within the last couple of weeks. Plus, I hosted a chocolate tasting.

It's exciting to see the Lord use you in different ways. I especially like it when He uses the gifts that come naturally to us. Who knew that He could use such a fun gift for His glory? What are your spiritual gifts? You don't have to feel like you're bragging. The Lord is the one put them in you!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Beat Up

I feel like Satan has been beating up on us lately. I cannot go into a lot of details, but it's the little things. For example, Brock broke out into hives for almost a week. Our travel has been horrendous. Everything just hasn't been smooth lately.

However, I read this scripture this week: "But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved." Hebrews 10:39. This made me feel strong! I realized that I was beginning to shrink back and feel defeated. This is exactly what Satan wants. This is his tactic. You see, we were beginning a lot of new things over the last couple of months...Parties with a Purpose, Chocolate Tastings, The Miracles Show. Satan wants to stop us before we really begin. It's not going to happen! We will not shrink back!

Beware! These are graphic pictures...actually they are just nasty. I wanted you to understand that this was not just a little rash. He had these hives all over his body at times. Poor guy! He was itching so badly.

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Thursday, April 10, 2008

Show in Davis, CA

We performed at the University of California in Davis last night. It went so well! The place was packed, and we all laughed all night together. College students are some of the best audiences because they really get Brock's sense of humor. Also, college campuses are a spiritual battleground. I could feel the opposition yesterday. However, the Lord conquered on the UC campus last night!

Some pictures of Brock doing an illusion on campus yesterday afternoon to promote the show last night...

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Davis is the bicycle capitol! They were everywhere! The bike lane was started here.

I'm so excited!!! Today, we are going to go into San Francisco and explore for the next couple of days. I think that it's the only big city that we haven't been to in the US. I'll tell you all about it later!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Long Day

Yesterday was a long day literally. It began at 6:30am central time. I got up early in order to catch a flight at 10:15. (Can you believe that a flight leaving at midmorning still means that you must get up at the crack of dawn?) Of course our flight was delayed. Plus, it went to Philadelphia to get to San Francisco.

When we got off of the plane in Philadelphia, we heard them announce "Last call for San Francisco." That was our flight and it was a terminal away. We both took off running. I don't know if it's because we just got off of a plane and were depleted of oxygen or what, but we were both gasping for air when we reached the gate. Our lungs were burning. (Any medical people out there know if this can happen?? We're both runners so we are not that out of shape.) However, we made it to our gate and on the plane. All of our luggage made it too, except one bag. It happens to be the most important one for the show tonight. I hope that it gets here today.

We finally pulled out of the airport at 6pm pacific time starving. That's 8pm central time and we hadn't had time to get lunch in Philly. Where did we go??? A chocolate shop! San Francisco is known for its chocolate and this place, called Chocolate Covered, was closing at 7:30. There was a lady behind the counter named Paley. She was on the phone when we got there and looked like a hippy in her 40's or so. The place was small but lined with tons of chocolate. Brock had talked to the owner on the phone earlier and he told him that he had over 350 different chocolate bars!

Paley got off the phone and said, "Don't mind me. I was just doing a dog rescue." Brock told her that she could go back to it if it was an emergency. To that she replied that it wasn't an emergency and she did it all the time. Then, she preceded to tell us about so much chocolate and let us taste a lot of it. We tried all kinds of chocolate. The weirdest ones we tried were one called "spicy chicken" (there wasn't really chicken in it), a bacon chocolate bar (it smelled and tasted just like bacon), and a pepper chocolate bar (it tasted just like cracked peppercorn). We also tried other kinds of chocolate that we'd never tasted. My favorite was a cinnamon bar. The whole experience was amazing!

Then, we grabbed dinner at a Yucatan place that was wonderful! We then, drove a little over an hour to Davis, CA where our show is tonight. I got to bed at about 10pm. That's a good time. What a long day, but I'm glad we are here! Pray for our show tonight. It's at the University of California here in Davis.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Rain, Rain Go Away

It rained all week last week...from Sunday through Saturday. It got a little depressing. I was extra tired and unmotivated. I didn't realize how much weather affected me until I moved away from Florida. In Florida, it rains a little almost everyday, but it's rarely overcast. It will be bright and sunny yet raining. I remember after living in Texas for a little while, I asked someone what was going on because it had been overcast for a week. His reply was that it was just winter. Ugh!

However, the rain went away and Sunday and Monday were beautiful! It was the perfect temperature and sunny. After having such a nasty week, all of us really appreciated this good weather. We went to the park Sunday afternoon, and it was packed with runners and families with strollers and dogs. I'll tell you that the cloudy times really make you appreciate the clear days!

Monday, April 07, 2008

Chocolate Tasting Party

The chocolate tasting went well Saturday. Only 20 people showed up as opposed to 60 that committed to it, but that was okay. Twenty people were easier on my nerves. Out of 20 people (a few of them being children), 4 Compassion kids were sponsored. That's successful! I learned a lot during this tasting. Here are some pictures:

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Saturday, April 05, 2008

Hosting a Chocolate Tasting

Please pray for me today!!! I'm hosting a chocolate tasting for the women at a church in Murfreesburo, TN. There are going to be 60 women there! I feel confident about the actual chocolate tasting, but I'm not too sure about speaking about Compassion after that. Brock usually does that part. Please pray that my passion comes out and that I don't get too nervous.

This is the plan: Everyone will congregate around four different tables (approximately 15 at each one). I will lead everyone through the tasting on the mic. Then, everyone will sit down in the center of the room as I share about my experience with Compassion International. After that, the women can mingle around. We will have two chocolate fountains set up, a table with Compassion children that you can sponsor, and a table where you can actually buy the chocolate bars that we used in the tasting AND a chocolate tasting kit (yes, we have those ready now).

Please pray that despite me and my fumbling words, that lots of Compassion children get sponsored. I am so passionate about this! I saw how much it can change their lives. Now, in my head, I add the number of Compassion children that are sponsored to the number of people that get saved at our show. That's how strongly I feel about it. I believe that this program is another way that the Lord is getting the gospel out to other parts of the world. We can each be a missionary to one child.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Pics from our Girl Weekend

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All of us in the cabin

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Us being bears

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Kyla's laughing

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Emily's thinking about what we are going to do next, no doubt

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Amy is animated as she tells a story

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Heather tried on one of the other girl's hair extensions to see how she would look with longer hair

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Lindsey's telling a story

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Stephanie's laughing

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We talked...

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and laughed

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Of course, this kind of stuff was everywhere with girls!

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We all rode together in Steph's van

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Of course lot's of singing was going on...

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even the driver!