It is officially done. The walls are painted beautifully with orange, green, and blue paint... Three flat screen TVs hang on the walls, perfected with a ridiculous sound system and sweet hook-ups to the internet... The couches match the walls, and are angled just right in the corner of the room... The microwave, refridgerator and bar area, open dance floor, comfy seats and loud speakers are screaming, "Flock party! Super Bowl party! Dance party! Any kind of party! Pleaseeeeee."
And party is exactly what we will do. Party of Praise. Thank you, Jesus, for this beautiful room that you have blessed us with, the future amazing experiences we will have in this room, and for all the awesome people who made this room possible. Amen.
Well, speaking of awesome experiences in the new room.... Last night definitely made the list. The first AP FLOCK took place on the new couches with the TV in the corner. Awww yeah. And the TV was first officially used to watch a behind the scenes look at Matt Maher's new song "Turn Around" (from his new album The Love In Between, which comes out on September 20th). How perfect.
In Matt's video, he talks about repentance. About how when one guitar string breaks, it affects the whole guitar. About how one decision can affect your whole life, and the lives of those around you. Probably my favorite quote from the whole movie was "Repentance isn't just saying your sorry. It means finding a new direction." I mean, how true is that? I know I do it all the time... "Lord, I know I haven't spent enough time in prayer with you this week. I'm sorry." No! I should be saying, "God, I need your help. I need to turn this around and make time to talk with you and build my relationship with you." It takes that extra effort to use a few minutes that I would be on Facebook to tell God about my day. It takes that extra effort to go sit with the kid who's sitting all alone at lunch. It takes that extra effort to say no to something even though you know it's better for you in the long run. It's all about those extra efforts.
For new shnazzy youth rooms, for great conversations, and for Matt Maher... GOD IS GREAT.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
"We're family now." Prayer and Action KC.
Well, ladies and gentlemen. Prayer and Action has done it again (and by it, I mean screamed in my face to wake me up to how I should be living my life). After six days of painting houses, meeting new people, climbing ladders, acting like complete freaks, eating PB&J sandwiches, trying to sing, dancing like fools, and letting people know what's on our hearts, I think it's safe to say that every single person on P&A was changed in one way or another.
It was such a blessing to have the opportunity of serving those who needed our help in Emporia, and we got pretty stinkin' tight with our homeowers. In fact, Maria even made us a mexican fiesta lunch to show her appreciation. And Orville was probably the cutest, sweetest old man I've ever met. I know that I'll never forget either of them, because like Maria said, "We're family now."
But along with all the work we did around Emporia, we got to listen to some amazing talks from the P&A staff. So I'm going to give a little run-down of some of the things that I really took away from each of these powerful presentations.
Day 1. (Seminarian) Dan's talk about the Trinity:
This whole talk was amazing. The main idea was that the Trinity is a big triangle of Love among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I attempted to re-create Dan's diagram of where we are in the Trinity, so that is the (badly drawn, sorry) picture below. The arrows are the love going from one to the other, which are all God, because God is Love. Then the little smiley face in the middle is us. Something he said that really stuck out to me was that "Prayer is us listening in on what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are saying about us." I mean, how cool is that?
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Day 2. Susan's talk about Social Justice:
I also really enjoyed this talk because she made it super relatable to all of us. Susan explained social justice as being like the Google Earth app for the iPad or iPhone; When you see the whole world, it looks really pretty with cool colors and stuff... But then we all get focused on ourselves and are like, "Hey, I'm going to find my house!" So we zoom in so far that the colors fade and it gets ugly. That's how we're NOT supposed to live -- focused on ourselves. We are called to the seven themes of the Catholic Social Teaching: 1. Life and dignity of the human person. 2. Call to family, community, and participation. 3. Rights and responsibilities. 4. Option for the poor and vulnerable. 5. The diginity of work and the rights of workers. 6. Solidarity. and 7. Care for God's creation... And something I really took away from this was how she said that when we think of justice, we think of like fighting evil. And that's exactly right. We're fighting Satan, and kicking him straight in the nuts. (Click here to see Chris Walters' blog post "Straight in the nuts." It's epic.)
Day 3. (Seminarian) Dave's talk about Chastity.
This was one of my favorite chastity talks that I've ever heard. It wasn't your typical "abstinence and modesty!" talking that you always hear. It was more of the other side, the guys' perspective. And Dave's two main focus points were Beauty and Love. With beauty, he discussed society's ridiculous distortions of how people (particularly women) are supposed to look to be beautiful. But every human being is a temple for God and, therefore, every single human being is beautiful and created exactly in God's image and likeness. This leads to the broad topic of love. But I really like how Dave stressed how women bring out the best or worst in men, and we should be the best version of ourselves to encourage guys to be the best version of themselves. We talked about how God loves us more than any other human ever could, and how He will NEVER let us down. Because God IS Love. Powerful stuff, I tell ya.
Day 4. Caleb and Karlie's talk about Reconciliation.
Both of these amazing young people really stressed how important the sacrament of Reconciliation is in growing in our faith. They both talked about God's never ending mercy and forgiveness, and how he will always bring us back to him if we seek his forgiveness through confession. No matter what we've done, no matter where we've been, we will ALWAYS be his beloved children. Karlie talked about how even when others around us are falling, if we seek God's forgiveness, He will never let us fall (Psalm 91). God's love and mercy are uncomparable to anyone or anything else. He is that awesome.
Day 5. (Seminarian) Matt's talk about the Eucharist.
I've got to say, if I had to pick one thing that really stuck with me this week, it was the importance of the most holy Eucharist. Matt explained how the Sacrifice of the Altar is the living re-presentation of the Sacrifice of the Cross. It's kind of a lot to take in at first, but once I understood this connection, the gift of recieving Christ's body and blood becomes so much more intense and awesome. He talked about how the Eucharist is way greater than any martyr, because Christ's sacrifice for man in the mass triumps over any man's sacrifice for Him. That was stinkin' amazing to me. I later talked with Dave about the Eucharist, and the way he described the importance of the Eucharist to the Catholic Church was so eye-opening, as well. He said, "To physically have the Love of your life, Jesus Christ, inside of you is the most intense connection you can possibly have with Him. And no other church has that deep, physical connection." Wow, Jesus rocks.
And finally, Day 6. (Seminarian) Jeff's talk about how to take this stuff home to our communities.
It's pretty obvious that everything we learned can totally change our lives, but if we don't know how to bring it all back with us, it's not too helpful. So Jeff had four main ways that we can bring this stuff back and keep our Jesus fires burning strong. 1. Pray the Rosary daily. 2. Daily Adoration (if available) or silent prayer. 3. Night prayer (Liturgy of the Hours) and the Salve Regina. 4. Pick a Saint and connect with them, learn about them, pray through them. All the things Jeff said are pretty reasonable, we just have to keep up with this faith we grew at P&A. We can totally do it, with eachother's help, of course.
We are like a family now. The Prayer & Action KC family. It's our job to help eachother through the rough times, to remind eachother of what we learned, to love eachother, and to pick eachother back up when we fall down. -- "This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:12-13)
It was such a blessing to have the opportunity of serving those who needed our help in Emporia, and we got pretty stinkin' tight with our homeowers. In fact, Maria even made us a mexican fiesta lunch to show her appreciation. And Orville was probably the cutest, sweetest old man I've ever met. I know that I'll never forget either of them, because like Maria said, "We're family now."
But along with all the work we did around Emporia, we got to listen to some amazing talks from the P&A staff. So I'm going to give a little run-down of some of the things that I really took away from each of these powerful presentations.
Day 1. (Seminarian) Dan's talk about the Trinity:
This whole talk was amazing. The main idea was that the Trinity is a big triangle of Love among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I attempted to re-create Dan's diagram of where we are in the Trinity, so that is the (badly drawn, sorry) picture below. The arrows are the love going from one to the other, which are all God, because God is Love. Then the little smiley face in the middle is us. Something he said that really stuck out to me was that "Prayer is us listening in on what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are saying about us." I mean, how cool is that?
I also really enjoyed this talk because she made it super relatable to all of us. Susan explained social justice as being like the Google Earth app for the iPad or iPhone; When you see the whole world, it looks really pretty with cool colors and stuff... But then we all get focused on ourselves and are like, "Hey, I'm going to find my house!" So we zoom in so far that the colors fade and it gets ugly. That's how we're NOT supposed to live -- focused on ourselves. We are called to the seven themes of the Catholic Social Teaching: 1. Life and dignity of the human person. 2. Call to family, community, and participation. 3. Rights and responsibilities. 4. Option for the poor and vulnerable. 5. The diginity of work and the rights of workers. 6. Solidarity. and 7. Care for God's creation... And something I really took away from this was how she said that when we think of justice, we think of like fighting evil. And that's exactly right. We're fighting Satan, and kicking him straight in the nuts. (Click here to see Chris Walters' blog post "Straight in the nuts." It's epic.)
Day 3. (Seminarian) Dave's talk about Chastity.
This was one of my favorite chastity talks that I've ever heard. It wasn't your typical "abstinence and modesty!" talking that you always hear. It was more of the other side, the guys' perspective. And Dave's two main focus points were Beauty and Love. With beauty, he discussed society's ridiculous distortions of how people (particularly women) are supposed to look to be beautiful. But every human being is a temple for God and, therefore, every single human being is beautiful and created exactly in God's image and likeness. This leads to the broad topic of love. But I really like how Dave stressed how women bring out the best or worst in men, and we should be the best version of ourselves to encourage guys to be the best version of themselves. We talked about how God loves us more than any other human ever could, and how He will NEVER let us down. Because God IS Love. Powerful stuff, I tell ya.
Day 4. Caleb and Karlie's talk about Reconciliation.
Both of these amazing young people really stressed how important the sacrament of Reconciliation is in growing in our faith. They both talked about God's never ending mercy and forgiveness, and how he will always bring us back to him if we seek his forgiveness through confession. No matter what we've done, no matter where we've been, we will ALWAYS be his beloved children. Karlie talked about how even when others around us are falling, if we seek God's forgiveness, He will never let us fall (Psalm 91). God's love and mercy are uncomparable to anyone or anything else. He is that awesome.
Day 5. (Seminarian) Matt's talk about the Eucharist.
I've got to say, if I had to pick one thing that really stuck with me this week, it was the importance of the most holy Eucharist. Matt explained how the Sacrifice of the Altar is the living re-presentation of the Sacrifice of the Cross. It's kind of a lot to take in at first, but once I understood this connection, the gift of recieving Christ's body and blood becomes so much more intense and awesome. He talked about how the Eucharist is way greater than any martyr, because Christ's sacrifice for man in the mass triumps over any man's sacrifice for Him. That was stinkin' amazing to me. I later talked with Dave about the Eucharist, and the way he described the importance of the Eucharist to the Catholic Church was so eye-opening, as well. He said, "To physically have the Love of your life, Jesus Christ, inside of you is the most intense connection you can possibly have with Him. And no other church has that deep, physical connection." Wow, Jesus rocks.
And finally, Day 6. (Seminarian) Jeff's talk about how to take this stuff home to our communities.
It's pretty obvious that everything we learned can totally change our lives, but if we don't know how to bring it all back with us, it's not too helpful. So Jeff had four main ways that we can bring this stuff back and keep our Jesus fires burning strong. 1. Pray the Rosary daily. 2. Daily Adoration (if available) or silent prayer. 3. Night prayer (Liturgy of the Hours) and the Salve Regina. 4. Pick a Saint and connect with them, learn about them, pray through them. All the things Jeff said are pretty reasonable, we just have to keep up with this faith we grew at P&A. We can totally do it, with eachother's help, of course.
We are like a family now. The Prayer & Action KC family. It's our job to help eachother through the rough times, to remind eachother of what we learned, to love eachother, and to pick eachother back up when we fall down. -- "This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:12-13)
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Justin Bieber vs. Jesus
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love kids. Little people are my favorite because they are like the Energizer bunny - They never run out of juice. And for this reason, I absolutely love Get Real at VBS. 5th and 6th graders are old enough to have a somewhat intellectual discussion, but at the same time, they are probably the funniest creatures on this earth. So I thought I would share just a few of the hilarious comments that came out of their mouths, and a couple other funnies from the red team.
Me: "If you were able to meet one famous person, dead or alive, who would you pick and why?"
VBS kiddo: "Umm, probably Jesus. Or Justin Bieber... They're both pretty important."
(Glad to see we've got our priorities straight!)
Extremely talkative red team child: "Guess what? Last night I had a dream that I was on the elevator up to heaven! And I got to the top and I was like, 'I'm here to see Jesus!' and this old cranky lady told me 'Go sit in the waiting room like everybody else!'"
Me: "Okay guys, so on this sheet you're going to rate these jobs from 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst. Believe me, none of them are too great."
Oliver Davis: "A live-in babysitter for a family with 8 kids?? That's not too bad! That's like what Sara Batenhorst has to deal with every time she babysits my family!"
Kid: "Why does our group always have to split in half for service projects?"
Me: "Beacause we're the awkward seventh group. They don't know what to do with us."
Jack: "We should have called our group 'The Leftovers!'"
Oliver, Dillon and Joe having a different dress-up theme everyday... One day I come home from VBS to find my brother and my cousin in my room, wearing my dresses and heels. The first thing that came out of their mouths were "We look like girls with short hair!" Not okay... definitely not a good theme day, but hilarious nonetheless.
Doing the Boogaloo and teaching the kids the Istanbul, not Constantinople dance...
But I don't think any of us will EVER forget the epic last day including a the amazing "House on Fire!" skit, a water balloon toss (which we turned into an all-out water balloon fight... to get some sweet revenge on the kids who caused us problems throughout the week), and the fire truck showing up and completely soaking every kid from head to toe. I think we were all a little sad to see our crazy youngsters go... But there's always next summer!
For kids who never run out of energy, who deck themselves out in their team color every day, who compare Jesus to teenage pop stars, who love God, and who never stop making me laugh... GOD IS GREAT. :]
Me: "If you were able to meet one famous person, dead or alive, who would you pick and why?"
VBS kiddo: "Umm, probably Jesus. Or Justin Bieber... They're both pretty important."
(Glad to see we've got our priorities straight!)
Extremely talkative red team child: "Guess what? Last night I had a dream that I was on the elevator up to heaven! And I got to the top and I was like, 'I'm here to see Jesus!' and this old cranky lady told me 'Go sit in the waiting room like everybody else!'"
Me: "Okay guys, so on this sheet you're going to rate these jobs from 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst. Believe me, none of them are too great."
Oliver Davis: "A live-in babysitter for a family with 8 kids?? That's not too bad! That's like what Sara Batenhorst has to deal with every time she babysits my family!"
Kid: "Why does our group always have to split in half for service projects?"
Me: "Beacause we're the awkward seventh group. They don't know what to do with us."
Jack: "We should have called our group 'The Leftovers!'"
Oliver, Dillon and Joe having a different dress-up theme everyday... One day I come home from VBS to find my brother and my cousin in my room, wearing my dresses and heels. The first thing that came out of their mouths were "We look like girls with short hair!" Not okay... definitely not a good theme day, but hilarious nonetheless.
Doing the Boogaloo and teaching the kids the Istanbul, not Constantinople dance...
But I don't think any of us will EVER forget the epic last day including a the amazing "House on Fire!" skit, a water balloon toss (which we turned into an all-out water balloon fight... to get some sweet revenge on the kids who caused us problems throughout the week), and the fire truck showing up and completely soaking every kid from head to toe. I think we were all a little sad to see our crazy youngsters go... But there's always next summer!
For kids who never run out of energy, who deck themselves out in their team color every day, who compare Jesus to teenage pop stars, who love God, and who never stop making me laugh... GOD IS GREAT. :]
Sunday, May 15, 2011
GOD EQUALS LOVE ... The light bulb moment.
You know those times when you go around in circles trying to figure something out? When you think it's so complicated and there's so much to comprehend? That was my group at FLOCK, trying to pull out the meaning of 1 John 4:7-21. There are so many different aspects of love that are discussed in those verses, but just a few main ideas that we found were:
LAY IT DOWN FOR OTHERS: And yes, by "it" we mean your life. Defenitely a crazy thing to think about. But if you truly love someone, you want to put their needs before your own, even if it means giving your life.
DON'T TALK LOVE, DO LOVE: Pretty much "walkin' the walk" and not just "talkin' the talk." You can't say you love someone if your actions aren't going to back it up. Show them you love them, don't just say it. After all, actions do speak louder than words.
LOVE > WORLDY STUFF: Loving someone is way more important than the little things in life that really don't matter. Who cares what somebody thinks about you if you're doing what you love, or showing someone you love them. Love pretty much trumps all else.
And after trying to connect all these points... We had our light bulb moment. GOD EQUALS LOVE. That's when it all clicked for me... God equals love. And God knows all things. God is never wrong. Everything he wills to be done, is done. He never fails. So since God is love, that means that LOVE NEVER FAILS.
Love.
Never.
Fails.
It's such a simple concept that is so easy to complicate. If we can just live and love knowing that God has everything under control (I mean, it's God... He knows whats up), everything will turn out exactly how He has it planned. And, as I learned from Veggie Tales back in the day, "God's way is the best way."
GOD EQUALS LOVE.
LAY IT DOWN FOR OTHERS: And yes, by "it" we mean your life. Defenitely a crazy thing to think about. But if you truly love someone, you want to put their needs before your own, even if it means giving your life.
DON'T TALK LOVE, DO LOVE: Pretty much "walkin' the walk" and not just "talkin' the talk." You can't say you love someone if your actions aren't going to back it up. Show them you love them, don't just say it. After all, actions do speak louder than words.
LOVE > WORLDY STUFF: Loving someone is way more important than the little things in life that really don't matter. Who cares what somebody thinks about you if you're doing what you love, or showing someone you love them. Love pretty much trumps all else.
And after trying to connect all these points... We had our light bulb moment. GOD EQUALS LOVE. That's when it all clicked for me... God equals love. And God knows all things. God is never wrong. Everything he wills to be done, is done. He never fails. So since God is love, that means that LOVE NEVER FAILS.
Love.
Never.
Fails.
It's such a simple concept that is so easy to complicate. If we can just live and love knowing that God has everything under control (I mean, it's God... He knows whats up), everything will turn out exactly how He has it planned. And, as I learned from Veggie Tales back in the day, "God's way is the best way."
GOD EQUALS LOVE.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
BV Tiger Print. Review of new Mikey Needleman Band CD. :]
BV Tiger Print. Review of new Mikey Needleman Band CD, All For You.
Click here to see the story on bvtigernews.com... Or you can just read it below. :]
Christan band with local ties releases strong sophomore album
Click here to see the story on bvtigernews.com... Or you can just read it below. :]
Christan band with local ties releases strong sophomore album
March 23, 2011
Jordan McEntee, Design editor
Other than my fellow Christian music junkies, most people have never heard of the Mikey Needleman Band, much less listened to its new album, All For You.
It’s unfortunate.
We’re going to change that.
For starters, Mikey Needleman is a Johnson County local who started the Mikey Needleman Band in 2006.
It’s unfortunate.
We’re going to change that.
For starters, Mikey Needleman is a Johnson County local who started the Mikey Needleman Band in 2006.
This Christian band consists of Needleman on guitar and lead vocals, Bill Hurrelbrink on bass, Lance Pollard on lead guitar and Vince Kirk on drums.
The band released its first album Waiting For You in 2008 and its new album All For You on March 8, 2011.
All For You contains a mixture of up-beat and slow songs; however, they all have the same message — praise and worship.
The first track, and my personal favorite, “All For You” is a fantastic song with high-energy, killer vocals, amazing guitar and especially meaningful lyrics.
It’s one of those songs that I’ll sing and dance along with about 700 times in my car with the windows rolled down. It puts you in the mood to rock out and sing, even if you have a terrible voice like mine.
My favorite thing about this album is that the words actually mean something.
Too many times these days, artists just sing about things that don’t really matter (like Lady Gaga’s P-P-P-Poker Face). Lyrics shouldn’t just ramble and rhyme. Listeners should connect to the lyrics on a personal level — this album is the perfect example of that.
Every track on this CD has the potential to make you sing along while rocking your little iPod headphones, but also to make you actually stop and think about Mikey’s purpose for writing the song.
All For You is overall an incredible album, and I strongly suggest it to anyone who likes some good, solid Christian music, or really anyone at all.
Copies of the album can be purchased on the band’s website www.MikeyNeedleman.com and will soon be available on iTunes.
The band released its first album Waiting For You in 2008 and its new album All For You on March 8, 2011.
All For You contains a mixture of up-beat and slow songs; however, they all have the same message — praise and worship.
The first track, and my personal favorite, “All For You” is a fantastic song with high-energy, killer vocals, amazing guitar and especially meaningful lyrics.
It’s one of those songs that I’ll sing and dance along with about 700 times in my car with the windows rolled down. It puts you in the mood to rock out and sing, even if you have a terrible voice like mine.
My favorite thing about this album is that the words actually mean something.
Too many times these days, artists just sing about things that don’t really matter (like Lady Gaga’s P-P-P-Poker Face). Lyrics shouldn’t just ramble and rhyme. Listeners should connect to the lyrics on a personal level — this album is the perfect example of that.
Every track on this CD has the potential to make you sing along while rocking your little iPod headphones, but also to make you actually stop and think about Mikey’s purpose for writing the song.
All For You is overall an incredible album, and I strongly suggest it to anyone who likes some good, solid Christian music, or really anyone at all.
Copies of the album can be purchased on the band’s website www.MikeyNeedleman.com and will soon be available on iTunes.
Monday, February 21, 2011
The epic experience of WINTER JAM 2011.
Last night at the Sprint Center was probably one of the most epic concerts of all time. 10 amazing Christian bands, 10 bucks, 7 of my best friends, an hour of waiting, and 4 hours of rockin' music. However, you can't fully appreciate how awesome this experience was until you hear the story of the miracle of how we even got in the door.
All 8 of us drove two cars down to the Sprint Center, and by the time we parked (fifty thousand miles away from the building) and walked there, it was about 5:30. We walk up and see THOUSANDS of people in a huge mob of a line literally wrapped ALL the way around the Sprint Center. Um yeah, that is a tonnnnnnn of people. So just like everyone else, we go to the back of the line to wait our turn to get tickets. Meanwhile, there are people walking around saying things like, "It's already sold out, so you might as well get out of line now!"
Well, if you know me, Evelyn, Sara, Erin, Maria, Jane, Bailey, and Miranda, That was not happening. We were not taking no for an answer.
So the line starts disintegrating except for this giant mob of probably a thousand people in front of the doors. By this point we are all freaking out that it's about to start pouring down rain and that we won't be able to get in... So what did we do? We rocked up and prayed. "Dear Jesus, please let it not start raining on us. And please help us get in there to see the Newsboys and David Crowder Band. We love you. Amen." :]
At that point, we saw a huge opening right next to the door and decided to go ask somebody if it was actually sold out. So we asked someone and the answer we got was that there were still seats open but that they were out of actual paper tickets and were getting more. So within 5 minutes of us standing there, we were part of a miracle from Jesus Christ: They opened the doors and starting passing out the last of the tickets.
We witnessed the truth of God's word... "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and a door shall be opened to you." WE LOVE YOU, JESUS.
Once the madness of getting in the door, finding seats, and helping Miranda fix her cut-open toe was over, the concert was fantastic. Best three performances of the night- Kutless, Newsboys, and David Crowder Band.
And my favorite moment of the night was during David Crowder Band's "How He Loves" when we all linked arms and were swaying back and forth singing praise to the One who loves us, forgives us, and died for us.
Unbelievable night. :]
The craziest thing to me was this morning, the day after the concert, I got on the Kansas City Star website to see what they had to say about the concert last night. I click on the Entertainment tab and the first thing to pop up is a review of the Ke$ha concert downtown last night at the same time as Winter Jam. There was absolutely nothing about this phenomenal, huge Christian concert with 50,000 people inside and waiting to get in. Ke$ha VS. David Crowder Band, Kutless, Newsboys, Newsong, RED, Chris August, Chris Sligh, KJ-52, Francesca Battistelli, and Tony Nolan... Hmmm. Interesting.
But nonetheless, the concert was epic. Yay for Jesus Freaks. :]
All 8 of us drove two cars down to the Sprint Center, and by the time we parked (fifty thousand miles away from the building) and walked there, it was about 5:30. We walk up and see THOUSANDS of people in a huge mob of a line literally wrapped ALL the way around the Sprint Center. Um yeah, that is a tonnnnnnn of people. So just like everyone else, we go to the back of the line to wait our turn to get tickets. Meanwhile, there are people walking around saying things like, "It's already sold out, so you might as well get out of line now!"
Well, if you know me, Evelyn, Sara, Erin, Maria, Jane, Bailey, and Miranda, That was not happening. We were not taking no for an answer.
So the line starts disintegrating except for this giant mob of probably a thousand people in front of the doors. By this point we are all freaking out that it's about to start pouring down rain and that we won't be able to get in... So what did we do? We rocked up and prayed. "Dear Jesus, please let it not start raining on us. And please help us get in there to see the Newsboys and David Crowder Band. We love you. Amen." :]
At that point, we saw a huge opening right next to the door and decided to go ask somebody if it was actually sold out. So we asked someone and the answer we got was that there were still seats open but that they were out of actual paper tickets and were getting more. So within 5 minutes of us standing there, we were part of a miracle from Jesus Christ: They opened the doors and starting passing out the last of the tickets.
We witnessed the truth of God's word... "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and a door shall be opened to you." WE LOVE YOU, JESUS.
Once the madness of getting in the door, finding seats, and helping Miranda fix her cut-open toe was over, the concert was fantastic. Best three performances of the night- Kutless, Newsboys, and David Crowder Band.
And my favorite moment of the night was during David Crowder Band's "How He Loves" when we all linked arms and were swaying back and forth singing praise to the One who loves us, forgives us, and died for us.
Unbelievable night. :]
The craziest thing to me was this morning, the day after the concert, I got on the Kansas City Star website to see what they had to say about the concert last night. I click on the Entertainment tab and the first thing to pop up is a review of the Ke$ha concert downtown last night at the same time as Winter Jam. There was absolutely nothing about this phenomenal, huge Christian concert with 50,000 people inside and waiting to get in. Ke$ha VS. David Crowder Band, Kutless, Newsboys, Newsong, RED, Chris August, Chris Sligh, KJ-52, Francesca Battistelli, and Tony Nolan... Hmmm. Interesting.
But nonetheless, the concert was epic. Yay for Jesus Freaks. :]
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
"I'm getting better at awkward silences!"
AP FLOCK. Or should we just call it "THE best way to spend an hour and a half on a Wednesday night"? Yeah, I think we'll go with that. Well, as always we started off with Happies and Crappies... for an hour... which somehow turned into a discussion about Aaron's college "adventures," Joe's State football ring (that is aparently also a mood ring, it has a button that says things when you push it, and it'll run out of batteries if you don't charge it with your car charger. But watch out, you might get the cords all tangled up), and the brownies that made Brian feel crappy, literally.
Then we split. Guys in the conference room, girls in Sara's office. Somehow we managed to have a somewhat deep conversation about role models despite the random discussions about Sara's friend getting engaged, going to Uncle Tom's Cabin, her friend getting stranded at an airport and ending up meeting an old lady and going to a Matt Maher concert, etc....
So our talk about role models started a little something like this:
Sara: "So somehow this lady got my name and wants me to ask you guys this question and take your picture for the cover of their publication or something."
Jane, Kenz, and me: "Okay... So what's the question?"
Sara: "Describe what you look for in a role model."
AWKWARD SILENCE >>> Staring at eachother. >>> Waiting for someone else to talk. >>> About 2 minutes go by.
Then Sara says, "You guys - I'm getting better at awkward silences!" :]
So as funny/awkward/hilarious as those few minutes were, we actuallycame up with a pretty good list of a few of our role models: Our parents, Sara Batenhorst, Andrew Rockers, Debbie and Dana Nearmyer... That awkward silence actually provided some pretty great thinkin' time... Then we (mostly Jane) came up with this idea that when we think of someone as a role model, it is because they have qualities that we admire and that we wish for ourselves to have. We see something in our role models that we want to try to work toward. These people inspire us, push us, and inspire us to be the kind of people we want to be.
And as I'm typing this listening to Matt Maher on my iPod, I think about how great of a role model he is for those who listen to his absolutely phenomenal music. But as much as he can influence my life, I don't actually know him, unfortunately. Then I think about how many fantastic people God has surrounded me with every single day, who I've grown close to and who truly are my role models. :]
Then we split. Guys in the conference room, girls in Sara's office. Somehow we managed to have a somewhat deep conversation about role models despite the random discussions about Sara's friend getting engaged, going to Uncle Tom's Cabin, her friend getting stranded at an airport and ending up meeting an old lady and going to a Matt Maher concert, etc....
So our talk about role models started a little something like this:
Sara: "So somehow this lady got my name and wants me to ask you guys this question and take your picture for the cover of their publication or something."
Jane, Kenz, and me: "Okay... So what's the question?"
Sara: "Describe what you look for in a role model."
AWKWARD SILENCE >>> Staring at eachother. >>> Waiting for someone else to talk. >>> About 2 minutes go by.
Then Sara says, "You guys - I'm getting better at awkward silences!" :]
So as funny/awkward/hilarious as those few minutes were, we actuallycame up with a pretty good list of a few of our role models: Our parents, Sara Batenhorst, Andrew Rockers, Debbie and Dana Nearmyer... That awkward silence actually provided some pretty great thinkin' time... Then we (mostly Jane) came up with this idea that when we think of someone as a role model, it is because they have qualities that we admire and that we wish for ourselves to have. We see something in our role models that we want to try to work toward. These people inspire us, push us, and inspire us to be the kind of people we want to be.
And as I'm typing this listening to Matt Maher on my iPod, I think about how great of a role model he is for those who listen to his absolutely phenomenal music. But as much as he can influence my life, I don't actually know him, unfortunately. Then I think about how many fantastic people God has surrounded me with every single day, who I've grown close to and who truly are my role models. :]
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