Mississippi State University

We've teamed up with Campus Crusades to perform a few times in the last couple of months. Last night, we performed at Mississippi State University. We loved it! The people were great to work with. The audience was wonderful...almost 1,000 in attendance.

What we did was come a little early so that we could do what's called street busking. That's when Brock performs some eye catching, attention grabbing illusion or escape to draw a crowd on the street (or in this case, on the side walk at the school). Then, the workers for campus crusade would pass out fliers and tell them about the free show. It worked out perfectly!

Here are some pictures and a video of the street busking:

One time Brock did the glass walk


I don't know what these guys were about, but it was random!


Brock performed in the cafeteria.


That was a key that he was bending in his hand, and then it completely broke in two!

Snoop Dogg stayed in our hotel while we were here, but I didn't see him. It is a small hotel, so everyone was buzzing about it.

Sinchai, Vincent, and Francisca

The best part about the cruise was the crew. They are from all over the world. We had a guy who took care of cleaning our room. His laugh was contagious! His name was Sinchai. I fell in love with our waitress. She was precious. Her name was Francisca. We gave them all dvd's.

The cool thing about our show on the boat was that it was broadcast live on the televisions throughout the boat. Several of the crew members said that they watched it in their rooms. This means that they heard the gospel! One guy named Vincent said that he liked the show and thought that the message was good. He said that Brock's explaining of the gospel didn't put him to sleep. I guess that this is a good thing! Anyway, say a prayer for Sinchai, Francisca, and Vincent that they would come to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ.


Isn't Sanchai a riot?


Francisca and Brock

We are performing at Mississippi State University tonight. Pray that it goes well. Also, please pray for my dad. He's having surgery today. It's not heart surgery, but any kind of surgery is serious.

Brio Cruise

The cruise was great! Brock really stood out, of course, but we met many wonderful ladies and girls. We shared our idea about the chocolate tasting with some of them and they loved it! Brock performed two times...once for half of the group and once for the other half. He also did a 15 minute teaser the first night for both groups. The shows went great, but the best part was in the second service, right when Brock was finishing his teaser, the electricity went out. We found out that the power went out all over the boat. This could be a time of panic, but not when Brock was onstage. He immediately fell to the ground dramatically. Then, he began saying such funny things. He's so good at spontaneous humor that most people were convinced that he had planned the power to go out!

We went to a private island called Half Moon Cay. It was so beautiful! The weather was great on the island. When we went to Freeport, Bahamas on the first day, it was a little cold for us. We are wimps when it comes to the cold.

Our room happened to have a balcony overlooking the ocean. One morning, I went out and noticed that the sun was about to come up. I wondered where it would rise. To my delight, it rose directly in front of me! I didn't have to leave my balcony. In fact, I was still in my pajamas. It felt almost as if the Lord had the sunrise just for me that day, or at least gave me a front row seat for it. Oh, how beautiful it was!


The sunrise


That's a lot of girls!


Not a bad place to go to work


We rented a scooter in Freeport. They drove on the other side of the road there, so it was tricky. It was fun scooting around the island on that thing. Brock felt so goofy on it, but they didn't have real motorcycles for rent there.


The beach in Freeport




Half Moon Cay




Of course, Brock is just past the sign that says not to go beyond this point because it's dangerous.


We kept hiking up to this point. It was beautiful! We were going to keep going, but Brock spotted a couple of large snakes and we were a long way away from a hospital!


Then, we took a nap in the hammocks. What a day!

Vacation

I think that everyone should try and take a vacation every year even if it’s to go to a family members’ cabin in the mountains or beach house. I truly believe that people need that time away. After coming back from our vacation, I feel so refreshed. I’ve already started budgeting for next year’s trip!

For anybody in the ministry, I really recommend two weeks at a time. A minister is never off of work. Therefore, you need that first week to wind down in order to really be able to relax the next week. I honestly thought that I would get a little bored being gone two weeks, but it didn’t happen. It was just the right amount of time. Charles Stanley recommends pastors take all of their vacation time that they are allotted at once. Maybe you could take the kids for one week and then let them stay with the grandparents for the second week.

I also have another recommendation. One year when your children are old enough to get it (maybe 10 or older), take a trip to a third world country. It will change not only your life but your child’s life too. Maybe you could take a mission trip as a family or if you sponsor a child through Compassion, you could go and visit your child as a family. Only 15% of students who attend church regularly in high school continue to attend after they graduate. Most of those 15% have something in common…they all went on a mission trip. These are just my thoughts after our life changing vacation.

Quirks

One of my friends said that when she was visiting family, her husband brought up some of her quirky obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Her uncle told her that she needed to go to a psychologist about it even though they are very minor things and only occur on rare occasions. She began to tell him that she knew a person who cannot stand the sight or feel of wet paper and another friend who has a phobia of peanut butter. Her uncle then proceeded to tell her that she was drawn to these friends because of her “problems.” I told her that I don’t see these things as problems as much as they are quirks. I say to celebrate your quirks! They are what make us each unique.

I have several quirks like how I like to sleep with 6 pillows but condensed it down to 3 when I got married. Also, I like my food VERY hot. Therefore, I finish soup before anyone else begins eating it, and buffets are not my choice because the food isn’t as hot. Another quirk is that when I set a timer or a numbered volume level, it must be 2 higher than an increment of 5. For example, I wouldn’t set the microwave to 10 seconds but to 12. When I told my friend this, she stated that I was weird!

Do you have quirks or is it just me and my friends?

Pictures from the Party

The chocolate tasting table




We had a chocolate fountain


and some hors d'voures


We also had a picture taking area...






Then, Brock shared with everyone.

Desert Time

I have a friend that's going through what I call a "desert time." Many of us have gone through it. The Lord likes to send us through it so that we will be dependent on Him only. I went through my desert time when I was 16 years old. I was born and raised in Daytona Beach, FL. I loved it there! I always told people that my parents could not move until I was in college. Then, I'd marry a guy and bring him back to Daytona. Well, in my sophomore year of high school, that began to change for me. For some reason, I began to want a change and was dissatisfied with Daytona. Shortly after that, my parents said that we were moving to Ft Worth, TX. I was actually excited! The Lord made me uncomfortable where I was in order to get me ready for a change.

We moved to Ft Worth and it wasn't what I thought it would be. I didn't fit in. I didn't have any friends. On Friday and Saturday nights, I would sit at home. I was very lonely. However, I still look back on that time and think that was when I learned to let the Lord be my rock. I spent over two hours a day just hanging out with Him...praying and reading scripture.

During that time, Carmen (of all people) said this in one of his concerts that I attended. He read Luke chapter 4 verses 1 and 14. "Jesus, FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, left Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness." In verse 14 it says, "Jesus returned to Galilee in the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT..." He said that sometimes we need that "desert time" or "wilderness time" in order to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I'm convinced that the Lord has most everyone of His followers go through a desert time simply because He wants to get close to us with no distractions. If you would have asked me at that time if I wanted my circumstances changed, I would have said, "Yes!" Now, looking back, I'd say, "No," because my relationship with the Lord was really formed and molded that year. The Lord cares more about His relationship with you than your circumstances. He's a jealous God. He wants ALL of you to Himself. He's going to do whatever it takes to get your attention.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

We were in Jacksonville, FL last night and tried to get to our favorite restaurant Barbara Jean's. However, we spent two and a half hours working on a way to get there and simply could not do it. However, to my surprise, Brock had arranged our friend who lives there to have some special things in our room waiting for me. He had a note, case of waters (because he knew that I would be concerned about getting us some water), and flowers (Calla Lilies to be exact which are the flowers that we had at our wedding). How sweet!

The reason we are in Jacksonville is because we go on another cruise tomorrow. However, we are working the cruise. The other catch is that it’s a mother-daughter cruise, so Brock will be surrounded by a bunch of ladies (1400 girls and 6 guys to be exact). The cruise is going to the Bahamas. As Brock says, “It’s not a vacation, but it’s not a bad place to go to work.” The fact that it was snowing the day we left Nashville increases my anticipation of this cruise.

Since I will not have access to internet on the boat, I’ve prepared a couple of posts for the next few days. Feel free to comment and I’ll catch up with you next week!

Hay Ride

The other day, Brock took his truck and trailer to conduct a hay ride at a conference in the area. His friend was putting on the conference, so he asked Brock to help out. It happened to be a beautiful day for it.

That evening, he met me and some friends for dinner. He still had the hay in the trailer, so we took a hay ride around downtown Franklin. It was so funny! Brock drove us around the circle in downtown several times. When, we went past the Starbucks, we got several strange looks. However, I found out why most don't participate in hay rides in February...it was cold!

Room in the Inn

Our church has a ministry on Monday nights where they bus in homeless people from Nashville and provide them with a good meal and a place to sleep that night. While they are sleeping, they wash their clothes for them.

Last night, it was the staff's turn to host this event. They went all out! They had a Valentine's dinner for them with chocolate, gifts, and even entertainment. Guess who was the entertainment? Brock. Also, Lindsey the Fireproof Women made her debut, and she did an excellent job!

When I came into the church last night, I was so glad to be in the warmth of the inside. Then, I thought, "What do these people do? It's so cold out there. Where do they stay?" It really broke my heart.

There was such a sweet spirit among all of the people there from the church. There was a warmth there that went beyond the physical. What an awesome ministry!

Emily Singing

This is the youngest child, Emily, from the family in Ecuador singing for us.

Isn't she so cute?

Party, Party!!!

The party was a HUGE success! Thirty-one people were in attendance. We raised $391 last night alone. Plus, with all of the pledges we got, we are going to be able to pay off the family's house!

In the kitchen and hallway, we had hors d'oeurves and a chocolate fountain donning Valentine decor. We even had a picture taking area in the hallway. We took polaroids of everyone at the party.

Then, in the dining room, hiding behind a Valentine's curtain was the chocolate tasting area. We had people go in there in groups of about 4. They would take time to taste each piece of chocolate and record their thoughts as well as rate the chocolate. It was truly an experience!

Chocolate Tasting

To raise money for this family in Ecuador, we are going to have a chocolate tasting at our house tonight! I've ordered chocolate from all over the world. We even got some apples and bread to cleanse our pallets between tastings if we want! We were going to have people over at our house this weekend anyway (you know us), so this time, we are charging a cover charge of $10. That's how we are going to raise the money!

Today is February 8th, and I remember it because it's my sister's birthday. However, it's also a significant date for me. The Lord has often had me start new things on Feb 8th. I first began having a consistent time with the Lord daily on Feb. 8, 1993. I remember praying really hard for a friend on this particular day one year. I even know that on Feb. 8, 2005, the Lord told me to begin writing this blog. That's why it's no surprise to me that we are beginning this chocolate tasting tonight!

I have so much to say about it that I don't know how to begin. This party has two folds. With our particular community, we are going to have a party at our house about once a month. At these parties, we will continue to make great food for everyone and have a great time. The only difference is that we are going to charge at least $10 per person which will go toward some kind of mission or ministry. We are all so excited about this! Michawn said a while back that we have the most parties! Well, we will continue to celebrate...we're just now having parties with a purpose!

The second part of this is that we are going to offer chocolate tasting "kits" to people so that they can have their own chocolate tastings in their houses or churches to raise money for Compassion. I'll go into detail about that more later. I am just so passionate about this right now!!!!

If you want to help out with this particular family in Ecuador or Compassion International, email me at aunygill@yahoo.com.

A House in Ecuador

The show last night started out rough, but in the end, it was excellent. So many people gave their lives to Christ...over a hundred! That's what it's all about.

I want to tell you something that I've been holding in for a while. We are trying to raise money for a precious family that we met in Ecuador. Their house was nothing more than a room with a couple of beds and a table. The walls were made of straw, yet it was so clean that you could eat off of the floor. The mother invited us into her home. There were two little, precious girls who sang and danced for us.

Jenesis, the older girl, wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. She asked her mom if they could get a parrot. Her mom said that a parrot costs $5, and they could eat on several days for that. She told her to pray that God would send them a parrot. A few days later, the younger girl, Emily, came into the house saying that a parrot was on the roof. It was true! A parrot was up on their roof and couldn't fly. They showed us the parrot right then. What faith they have!

Then, she told us that they were praying to pay off their house so that they can fix up the building in front of their house to turn it into a mechanic shop for her husband to work in. Their mortgage is $430 total. I know that you aren't supposed to buy a lot of stuff for people in other countries, but I really wanted to buy this house for this family. I talked it over with our friend from Compassion, and he said that he thought it was a good idea. Can you believe that we can buy a family a house for $430? Tomorrow, I'll tell you how we are going to raise the money...


This is the front building where the mechanic shop would be.


Then, you walk through that building to get to their house.


The mom and the younger girl.


The girls dancing for us.


Jenesis with their parrot.


You can see the room better. Their is some cardboard or something around part of the house, but the rest is like a bamboo straw.

Little Things

Pray for us today. We are driving to Smyrna, TN to perform. It's about 45 minutes away which is nice because we can drive home tonight. Pray that the show goes well.

I wanted to add to what I was talking about yesterday. I'm very good at accepting and having faith in the big things. However, the little things are what get to me. It's so confusing for people around me, because I take everything in stride, and then, with no warning, something that's not a big deal at all will make me so upset.

I think that one of the reasons is because I GET that I shouldn't worry about things that are beyond my control. I cannot do anything about it, so it's easy for me to leave it up to the Lord. However, the little things are usually at least somewhat in my control. Therefore, I think about how I could have or should do something differently.

I'm still working on giving myself and others a break. With the Lord's help, I'm getting a little better at it, but I still need to work on it. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Distractions

The other day, as we were driving to the venue to set up and perform, we both received phone calls from our moms. They both gave us not so good news. Satan seems to do that a lot. He tries to distract us right before we begin a show so that we aren't ready to share the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively. Realize, I'm not saying that our moms did anything wrong. They needed to tell us the information in which they did. I'm simply saying that Satan used it to his advantage to allow us to hear this right before a show and not be able to process it.

Well, I'll tell you this...it didn't work! In fact, this usually makes me know that the Lord is beginning to do something big that night or in our lives.

Neither one of us told each other about our conversations with our moms until we were back at our hotel room after the show was over and done. Then, we had to try and go to sleep. We simply prayed right then and there that the Lord would take care of everything and we laid it all at His feet. Both of us slept like babies.

It seems that on days in which we don't do shows or ministry, we are left alone. Lately, if I ever start to get tense, I run one of my favorite scriptures through my head..."Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty Hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all of your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." I Peter 5:6-7.

Super Bowl Party in Pennsylvania

The show today went great! We began at 4:30 and ended around 6. It would have given everyone about 30 minutes between the show and kickoff except the fact that the fire alarm went off just before kickoff. Everyone had to evacuate the building. It was a false alarm though.

The church that hosted us had a really sweet spirit about them. They were extremely supportive by allowing temporary stadium seating filled with couches to be set up in their sanctuary, and changing their services to Saturday evening instead of Sunday morning. Even though it was a youth event, so many adults showed up to help out. Also, many were praying for this event.

It worked, because the place was packed out and about 50 people gave their lives to Christ. One guy who made a decision for Christ said that he was sick of wrestling with this every night and wanted to get it settled once and for all. Praise the Lord!

Philly Cheesesteaks, Chicago Style Pizza, and Buffalo Wings

This morning, we flew from Dallas to Philadelphia with no problems. Then, we drove a couple of ours to a little town called Lititz, PA. We are performing at a church here right before the Super Bowl. It's an outreach, so pray for many changed lives.

Last time we were in Philadelphia we tried and tried to find Philly cheesesteak sandwiches but nobody knew what we were talking about. Someone actually pointed us to a mall food court.

This happens often...people don't realize what they are famous for. When I asked a waiter for a Chicago style pizza while in Chicago, he sighed and said, "Deep dish or thin crust.". I wanted to say, "Don't you know that Chicago style is deep dish?"

Do you know what they call Buffalo wings in Buffalo, NY? Chicken wings. Since Buffalo wings began there, they don't feel the need to say "Buffalo."

Surprise Family Visit

We flew out of Lubbock this morning and were flying to Philadelphia with a short layover in Dallas. When I looked at the monitor in Dallas to find out which gate we flew out of, it said "CANCELED" next to our flight. We had some time because our first show in Pennsylvania is not until tomorrow evening, but spending a day in the airport did not sound very fun. We couldn't get a flight out until tomorrow morning, so we decided to stay in Dallas for the night.

Our next phone call was to Brock's sister, Haley. She and her family live in Fort Worth. Come to find out, they were free that night, and Brock's mom was in town visiting. This was a really nice surprise because we haven't seen our niece, Eva, since May. She's changed a lot since then! We have been wanting to see Haley and her husband, Ryan, and little Eva for a while now because we didn't get to see them at Christmas time. We just got the opportunity to visit with them on American Airline's dime. We also got to eat at Pappasitos tonight. What a great day!

Eva...

Lubbock, TX

We've been in Lubbock since Tuesday night. Wednesday, we went onto the campus of Texas Tech and did what is called street busking. Brock stood outside along a walkway and performed some crazy, eye catching illusions and escapes. This would draw a crowd. Then, students from Campus Crusades would pass out fliers about the show which we performed on campus last night.

Wednesday was a beautiful day. The temperature was high and it was sunny. Except for an occasional gust of wind, it was the perfect day. Brock and I even went running in a neighborhood near our hotel. Thursday morning, I looked out the window to see it white everywhere. This is the first big snow I've seen this year! It was in Texas! This was a shocker to everyone.

Last night, we filled the theater with over 1,000 people. It was great! People laughed and had a great time. Brock was very sensitive to share the gospel in a way that the students would receive it. Then, we had cards for them to fill out if they were interested in learning more about Christ. It was perfect for this particular group.