God is Ridiculous & AJ Rocks!

Yep, you read me right. God is ridiculous. I think I said that about 10 times last night. Last night I had the opportunity to speak at Acoustic Jeremiah, a quaint little chapel in the woods where you can hear good music once a month. I spoke there when I was home in August, and last night went much better--we had electricity! And, between Matt and the rest of the awesome people who come out to AJ, the kids in Liberia are in for a treat!

I had a vision for decorating for the night.

I was pretty happy with how it came out.

The music was good. The time that I shared was good (I think, I don't really know what I said...but people were smiling and nodding and reassuring me.) And, God was so good!

I connected with some great people who were really interested in ORR and our ministry in Liberia. Others just wanted to hear stories about the kids. And others wanted to give. The wonderful people at AJ collected 50 bottles of children's vitamins! A random woman gave me 4 bags of hygiene items! I sold 75 bullet crosses, and they want more! I felt comfortable, and I feel like I was really able to share my story and my heart...and the people embraced what they heard. To top it off, Alli Rogers and Justin McRoberts played some great music! And Justin shared his heart about what we, as Christians, are called to do...and I wish I would have recorded it...because the things he said should have been followed by a huge AMEN!

[Alli's husband-Kirk, Me, Alli Rogers, Justin's wife-Amy, Justin McRoberts, Matt & McKenzie from Acoustic Jeremiah]

The Donations--The people at Acoustic Jeremiah are awesome!

Children's Vitamins and Hygiene Items

See...God IS ridiculous and AJ rocks!

A Night to Remember

On Saturday night, I had the opportunity to share about Orphan Relief & Rescue at Acoustic Jeremiah. My sister Julianne went with me. I should have known...when the two of us are together, it always makes for an adventure!

We decided to leave the house early to head to the north side of Atlanta; we planned to make a pit-stop at REI and then we would head to Canton. We allowed an hour to get from REI to the Chapel, and I knew that would be plenty of time. As we approached exit 14, the sky looked ugly! We drove through Micky-D's for a $ menu dinner, and as we sat in line at the drive-thru the rain began to pour...and I mean, POUR! It seriously looked like a hurricane! (I later heard there were 70mph winds around Atlanta)

We got our double cheeseburgers and proceeded to the Chapel with caution. Well, there was a completely uprooted tree laying across 3 lanes of the 4 lane highway, so we waited about 15-20 minutes to pass. Then we turned onto the road that the church is on, and I knew we were only about 2 minutes away. There were a few cars stopped on the road, and come to find out, a powerline had fallen across the road...and this was the only way to get to the church. By this time, I was really beginning to feel like God was playing some mean trick on me!

After waiting here for almost 30 minutes, we got tipped off by a local resident that there was a gravel driveway that we could take to bypass the downed powerline. We decided it wouldn't hurt to give it a try...so off we went, looking for the magical gravel driveway. We bypassed the roadblock, and arrived to a chapel with an empty parking lot and without electricity...making it alittle difficult to have a concert! We decided that we would walk back down the road and tell everyone about the magical driveway...and people began to make their way through. We walked back to the chapel, and almost every car that had gone down the driveway was now in the parking lot! And, the lack of electricity made for a very good topic of discussion with the 50 or so people...trying to get them to imagine life without electricity. I honestly really don't remember what I said, and I think I spoke for about 10 minutes. I sent eveyone home with a postcard that I had put together the night before, so I hope it will be a reminder to check out ORR's website and my blog. I also asked them to pray for Liberia, for the children and for ORR's ministry. Then we had a really good concert...without power...without mics...without guitars plugged in...without lights....it was the real 'live and unplugged'!

Anyway, thanks to Matt at Acoustic Jeremiah for giving me the opportunity to share! It was an adventure! I figure this was pretty good practice...nothing more could go wrong, right? And, since I'm not much for speaking in front of crowds, it made it much easier to do it in the dark and without a mic! If you were at AJ, and that's why you're reading this now...thank you for listening and thank you for digging deeper into God's call to care for the fatherless.

[I was pretty proud of my flyer creation, haha.]

Orphan Relief & Rescue Benefit Night

For those of you in Georgia....

Come out to Acoustic Jeremiah to hear some good music and to hear me talk about what God is doing through Orphan Relief & Rescue's ministry in Liberia! All of this for $5! A love offering will be taken, and all of that money will go towards ORR's Relief program. If you can't make it, then you can pray for the event. Pray that people will show up, pray that they will be receptive to what I have to say, pray for me...that I will just let God do all of the talking, pray that people will feel compelled to give and pray that above all else, God would get all of the glory!

Music or No Music?

Being the music lover that I am, I decided to add a playlist to the blog. I usually don't have my volume up when I'm reading blogs, so it doesn't bother me. But I know when I do have the volume on, it kind of bothers me. But the songs I added are good songs...very appropriate or just a good tune! Anyway, I'm taking an unofficial survey....music or no music?

P.S. If you haven't heard the song 'You Are On Our Side' by Bethany Dillon, you must listen to it! It's at the very top of the playlist.