The Sunday spoon fed gospel

I have gone to a Sunday service religiously my whole life, even when I threw out my belief in God for a year. For some reason I still found a church to attend. I would sit in the back and take the hour to "recenter." I would journal about any high or low points of my week and make my grocery list for the following week. I would participate in the singing because I enjoyed it. Strangely enough I never stopped worshiping God. To this day this fact baffles me. 

Still no Jesus, no authentic community, no love. 

I could walk in and out without saying a word to any one. 

After my full on, diving in, encounter with Jesus I was drawn to Sunday service for different reasons, I listened and I truly loved it. I found Jesus and real community because I dug in HARD to get it. 

About a month ago God released  me from the building, from the obligation to the ritualistic Sunday sabbath. I no longer had to demand my Sundays off from work for religious reasons. I could lay down religion, dogma and ritual and walk away. I Expected to be relieved. I was grieved, I missed the old way, the old wine, my comfortable spoon fed meal of gospel once a week. I didn't know what to do.

The bible verse "do not abandon the gathering of believers"  kept ringing in my ears.I obeyed, I continued the intentional conversation.

I found myself in a group of believers who are all of one mind. We all see the problems in the "church" of today. But we are sick of talking about it and have all in the same season realized we want to try to do it the way we all wish it was done. Without division, strife or exclusion of other churches, but with a consciousness that the one we follow is Jesus and we are fellow soldiers in the same army. This is an ambitious experiment to take on with a group of sinners, rejects, failures, and fools. But why not try? Why not step outside of the boxes we built and ask the question, God what do you want? And be willing to hear an answer we have never heard before, an answer that has never been done, or an answer we don't know how to do that may require self sacrifice and full surrender. 

Sounds terrifying, powerful, and inspiring.  

Get community, get healthy, & Take it to the streets

Still in California

Expanding my portfolio of Jewelry

Watering my PLANTS and my PEOPLE

& Pushing back darkness.

Church is not....

the building, the sermon, or the worship.

Church is the conversation,

and worship is a life style!

Chew on that.

One of the lines is 18$ pendants made from salvaged metal and found objects. This is my first. Let me know what you think! (yes it is an american $ bill)

From a High School near you-

About a month ago, God began to put San Clemente High on my heart. At least 5 times it was said to me that I need to get onto that campus. Then I had a vivid powerful dream about revival and all of the people on the beach in the dream were high school age. I said 'ALRIGHT GOD I AM GOING!' I began to ask around about how I would try to do that, Do I get a job there? Do I sub? Do I proctor? Do I just walk on and pretend I am a student? (I have asked quite a few of the kids I have met how old they think I am: the consensus is about 17 or 18 ha) I finally talked to Taylor, he is the first person I met at my church when I got here at the beginning of this year and he just left for YWAM Perth Australia exactly 2 years and one week after I went. He told me about this:

Created Club is the christian club on San Clemente High campus right down the hill from my house. They meet every wednesday during lunch and I can get there after my classes just in time. The night before the first meeting the president of the club couldn't sleep and she got a vision of a random girl she didn't know just showing up at the club to be a blessing. That girl is ME!

Today we had a blind wise old man as a guest speaker. He wanted the students to ask their hardest questions. They came up with:

If God is real then why is there so much misery and death?

"Don't kiss the cactus, don't play on the freeway with razor blades and we do it anyway."

Does God love people who are not saved?

Does God love gay people?

And then the bell rang---- we only had about 27 minutes.

all of the objects scanned where found on the ground at the high school.

Constantly Surprised

Yesterday afternoon I went to the grocery store right down the hill from my house to get some

I had started to feel a scratchy throat and I am to busy to get sick- I can't afford it. As I pulled into the car park (just a little shout out to Australia) I noticed the place was crawling with kids. School had just gotten out. I noticed myself get excited. I love high school age kids, I have such a huge heart for the place in life that they are. As well as recently I keep feeling like I need to find a way to get into this school in particular and just LOVE on them. Either way I ended up buying two boxes of tea and an organic lime. As I was walking to my car I noticed this boy and his girlfriend. The boy was holding his shoulder and looked like he was experiencing a lot of pain. I kept thinking "Are you ok?" all the way to my car. I dropped off my stuff and walked back to them. I asked if everything was alright and the boy told me that his girl had forgotten that he had hurt his shoulder and had hit him playfully and popped it out of the socket or something. "Well can I pray for you?" popped out of my mouth. He said, "If you want." I said a simple short prayer for healing and walked away. As I walked away I heard the girl say something that completely astounded me. I guess I usually expect to encounter hostility to my faith or at least for people to think I as crazy or something.

She said, "Wow she was so nice, I LOVE PEOPLE LIKE THAT."

Next time you see someone who is visibly experiencing pain or illness I encourage you to ask if you can pray for them. We are here to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons. (Matthew 10:8) That sounds intimidating so lets start with healing the sick in our home towns in the name of Jesus.

Secrets of Social Media & Internet Marketing

-was the community education class I went to today. I hoped that it would inspire me to blog more but in reality it just reminded me how much I dislike the internet in all of it's intricacies. I would much rather Garage Sale or read on the beach than type and look at this screen with its vast potential and complete void.

I did learn that those adds on Goggle cost the advertiser an average of $2.50 every time you click on them and don't buy anything. So don't click thats just mean.

I am going to go watch The Star of Bethlehem and you should too!

Saturday morning I arrived in sunny southern California. My plane got in so early that the sun wasn’t even out yet! That did not by any means discourage my spirits. A truly wonderful friend picked me up at the airport and whisked me off. By the time we got to the beach the weather was perfect. I needed to let the sun recharge my soul before I even considered that I had less that 48 hours before school was scheduled to start. Order conformations, parking passes, books, class times, pencils, notebooks, church, Joan, farmer’s market, grocery stores, unpacking, sleep, laundry, and homemade fresh salsa filled those short hours. Now I am sitting in my thinking chair after my first day of school (Pilates, Environmental studies, and Jewelry 9am-6) wondering,

“What just happened?”

Summer calls for a bit of traveling

Right before I left on this adventure

Madeline & I had a back yards sale on the 4th of July!

+60 MORE $$$$

I plan to keep this updated with the treasures I meet along the way...

to see a very precious friend named Alexander

for Matthew and to experience the area I am feeling called to for 2012.

To finish my Teaching English as a Second Language Certification

Here I plan to enjoy buckets of FAMILY!

To Baptize my Soul Sister Madeline!

And back home by August 20th for my second semester of College

This place is unreal please visit me I am have been so blessed!

Lets have a CELEBRATION!

$142.87

has been donated!

I am completely delighted. I am going to individually celebrate every dollar. It fills me with pure joy to know that you believe in me. I need that kind of encouragement. In the grand scheme of things it might not look like much, but all you need is a seed.

Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible. ”' Matthew 17:20

God planted the seed, & he is growing a great tree of faith in me.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the garage sale!

Internet Garage Sale

CLICK

First Semester of College .check.

Jewelry Making A

Screen Printing A

Pilates A

Child Development A

Sailing A

Photo credit: Liv

What I learned in sailing...

Well I also learned how to sail on 14.2 foot Capi's

Oh and I learned how to tie very Nautical Knots

And now for the rest of the story

The view from our porch

The woman herself

I am not good at this.

I forget that I have this, and when I remember I avoid it.

I can't pretend I have it all together, or that I put a hard 40 hours every week towards my goals. I am just a girl with a dream. And this is just a platform for me to tell MY story as it is written.

Success or failure.

It will be raw,

It will be real.

And it will be full of truth.

I left for California the weekend after Christmas in the middle of a snow storm. I only had 3 places to stay confirmed for the journey and a VERY new friend as my co-pilot. And to top it off I had no idea what kind of roof I would or wouldn't have over my head for when I arrived. I seem to enjoy flying by the seat of my pants. What can I say I was designed for adventure. Either way it felt right and my classes started in 12 days at Saddleback College. Delaware, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and New Mexico welcomed us warmly. (Two books on tape carried us through, The Alchemist and Into the Wild, I would highly recommend them both)

As we checked in late at night to our first hotel on the journey right outside of Albuquerque NM I realized we were only 2 days away from California and I still had no place to stay. When I am standing on the edge of Faith I like to ask God what he's got cookin'. And he replied with a vision not a visual trance but a vivid impression. There was an older woman in Orange county that needed me. She didn't need any physical help but God had heard her heart cry and was sending me. Her heart cry was to have dinner with someone once or twice a week and when she fell asleep at night there would be someone there just incase. I made sure to put in my personal request that she would have an ice maker and a clean kitchen and then said:

Well alright, How am I gonna FIND my old lady?

.....TO BE CONTINUED....

NEW ART FOR SALE!

Custom Set: SOLD

15$ each

Recycled walets: 5$

PS: I make my friends drink all of them

My hand typed business cards, credit to Artist Matt Radwan for typing.

The are all typed on old Christmas cards from years past.

Thursday's Creative Arts And Cooking Class

My sister Mary Grace Debow is the One Tree Of Life's Organizational director and design coordinator. The secret of my payroll at the moment is: I trade my time for her expertise. I have been teaching a Creative Arts and Cooking class to LEVITY, BELLA, and MUSIC Debow every Thursday.

IN ORDER TO:
-Have our weekly charity meetings
-Work on my skills as a teacher
-Spend quality time with my nieces
-Give my sister one minute to breathe without them
-And to bring creative air with me where ever I go

These are some photo highlights of the past few months with the kids.

Chocolate Chip Muffin Quiz & Ingredients

She got an A+

PERFECTION CONFECTION!

Planning our headbands

Bella

^^ Levity in action ^^

Music

Tomorrow we are going to learn how to make Potato Soup and our art hour will be spent writing and illustrating each child's personal mini story book.

Stay Tuned!

If its the last thing I do!

Well more like: If it is the only thing I do today.

I WILL BLOG!

I have been turning out-dated keyboards into beads to make jewelry.

This is how^^^ plus a very small bit drill.

These are the first of many to come. Let me know if you like them!

And with my extra time today TACO SALAD my way.

Rice,

Black Beans,

Lettuce,

Tomatoes,

Shredded Beef

(left in a crock pot all day with salsa),

Plain Low Fat Yogurt,

and my favorite part:

sautéed SWEET POTATO and MUSHROOMS in coconut oil.

The other day I went to...

ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

For the:

I met quite a few wonderful people. A beautiful girl named Ali and a posh Miss from greece as well as the founders of the NOT FOR SALE campaign, the founder of invisible children, and the founder of twitter and square (a way of accepting credit cards from your mobile phone).

At some point I hope to visit what Not for Sale is doing in Peru.

In order to learn from them, especially the surf ministry, and possibly intern.

As well as hopefully work with them to start my dream in Nicaragua!!!

But first I am going to move out to California, I hope to arrive here^^^ by January 1st.