What's Been Going On?

Thursday:
Occasionally in my job duties at our church I am called upon to coordinate weddings if needed. Well, it turns out this last weekend I was needed. One of my friends, Ashley, got married this last Friday, preceded by the rehearsal on Thursday evening.

Coordinating weddings is not something I do often. In fact, this was only the third time in my two-year tenure that I have been called upon to do this. I’m not going to lie; I was a nervous wreck! Just like I was the time before that and the time before that! I mean this is a couple's big day. They've been looking forward to this special day for so long and if I were to screw something up, I would die. Add to that, this couple is friends of ours and if something were to go wrong…I would feel horrible.

I expressed my nervousness to my sweet friend Amanda and she willingly offered to come help me. I must say her being there helped set me at ease. Plus Heath was there so if anything crazy happened I knew he would jump in for me and save the day.

The rehearsal went incredibly smooth, with the rehearsal dinner following shortly after. Dinner was held at The Trail Dust Steak House, which was the perfect match for their country & western theme. I've been a city girl my whole life, born in L.A. and now living in Dallas. Heath’s dad lives in Arkansas, and that’s about as close of a connection to “the country” as I have. So needless to say I had to borrow a pair of boots, and thank you again Amanda. I loved wearing the boots! It felt good to wear them. I must say they made me feel quite sassy.

Okay moving on to:
Friday:
Amanda and I arrived two hours early and were ready to be ready for anything. We were there for the bride should a problem arise. We accomplished a few things that needed to be done, and then began to wait. I was waiting for the shoe to drop…I was waiting for the bride to tell me something was wrong, the candles were wrong, the program was wrong, my hair was wrong…I was waiting for the sound guy to tell me the sound system had suddenly vanished into thin air and there would be no microphones or music for the ceremony…I was waiting for one of the musicians to get last minute spontaneous laryngitis or arthritis or pancreatitus and not be able to play or sing…but ultimately I just found myself waiting as the wedding went off, and the only hitch was the one that was planned.

Okay I made it through the ceremony unscathed, now onto the reception. Honestly, this was the part of the night I was most nervous about. I've never worked a reception before and I had to direct the bride and groom through all of the traditional reception rituals, meet and greet, cut the cake, throw the bouquet, throw the garter! But just like the ceremony it was perfect! The whole wedding was beautiful and not a thing went wrong. This wedding was the smoothest ever. Praise the Lord!!!…can I get an Amen…

Saturday:
I'm not sure if I've talked much about our church's Saturday service. For the past 10 months my Saturdays have consisted of relaxing all day until about 4:30, then going to church for Saturday service. But this Saturday was sadly much different.

Last September, our church conceived a Saturday night service lead by the one and only Curtis Jones. Heath and I jumped right on board when the opportunity came about to serve in the up start of this new ministry. It was an amazing time for us to work together and build some incredible relationships with people we may never have known so intimately. While also offering support to the Jones family in their ministry, a family we have grown to love and a friendship we have come to cherish. This time has been one of the best seasons of growth and fellowship for our family.

Well, a little over a month ago, Curtis announced that the chapter on the Saturday night service would be coming to an end. I was definitely sad at first to hear this news but as time passed it became more bittersweet as these Saturday nights have meant so much to us. On the final night of service Curtis asked Heath to give a brief testimony. Heath did such a good job at articulating exactly how we have felt about the service and what it meant to us. It was like a family. We got to know so many couples that we may have never known. And what a privilege it was for us to hear Curtis teach every week!! We were so blessed in so many ways.

The last service was amazing. Heath and Vernon gave brief testimonies followed by pastor John as he spoke words of encouragement about how this service was a leap of faith for our church that is so non-contemporary. He brought some stones that night that he pulled out of the river while at our church's youth camp in New Mexico. He placed them under our church's historical marker as Ebeneezer stones, to remind us that God is faithful and we will continue to step out in faith and try new ways to reach people for Christ. It was the perfect ending.

Sunday:
This was our first morning back to our traditional Sunday morning church. We had been back only a few times since the Saturday service started. It was a great time of worship as we reconnected with so many people we had not seen in a while.

Here are a few pics from last Saturday night:

Jared and Amber led us in worship each week! They are both so gifted!


Heath giving his testimony. We didn't normally do our service outside, but it was perfect for our last night.


John setting out the Ebeneezer stones.


No Saturday night is complete without some Ella/Jackson playtime!


Sassy! Please take note of the gold Mary Jane shoes. Be still my heart...I love these shoes!