The One About the Truck

So after yesterday's post, I thought I'd better step it up a bit, and fill in some of the actual things we learned, discovered and experienced at SHINE. I'll start at the end instead of the beginning, with one event that really illustrates how God is in details that we are not even aware of, that He protects us in ways that we don't even comprehend, and often we are so caught up in details that we don't even recognize it. You'll see what I mean.

Rewind to mid fall. A friend of ours found himself in need of a vehicle to drive. We own a pickup truck, free and clear, that sits in our driveway undriven most of the time. We keep it around because it's paid off, it hauls brush pretty well, and what self respecting southern boy would be without one?

Anyway. We loaned this truck to our friend, to use for whatever he needed, for as long as he needed. And that was that.

Fast forward to the last day of SHINE. First thing in the morning, I received a text message and an urgent voicemail from this friend to please call as soon as possible there was an emergency with the truck. {Now, we had been living in amplified awareness of God's presence all week long. That will become important very soon.} So, with the rest of the family still asleep, I slipped out into the hallway and called him. He answered, very distraught, and explained that while sitting in his driveway, our truck had caught fire and burned up.

In that moment, having marinated in the Holy Spirit all week, I was able to view this circumstance through God's lens. Honestly, I would like to say that I intentionally took the high road, and consciously chose not to feel devastated or upset or angry or whatever about the loss of the truck. Unfortunately, I cannot claim that I did that of my own power. But the Holy Spirit working in and through me showed me immediately the BLESSING of this event. My friend kept saying, "I just keep thinking that if I hadn't borrowed the truck..." And the only thing I could see without a doubt, with complete and utter certainty, was that if he HADN'T borrowed the truck, it would have caught fire at our home while we were all at SHINE! And it would have burned our entire house to the ground.

So, through our generosity (but not BECAUSE of our generosity), God put a plan in place in October, to save our home in January. He allowed our generosity to be a vehicle (no pun intended) for our own protection.

How many times in life, do we tie God's hands and not give Him the chance to bless and protect us as abundantly as He'd like? How many times do we experience that protection in unexpected ways, yet not recognize it as protection? Yes, our truck burned up. Yes, my husband is now a "good ole boy" without a pickup, for the time being at least. But, He took something we weren't really even using, and He used that truck to served His purpose for the person who needed it, and protected us in the process.

Oh, I forgot to mention. Our friend who was borrowing the truck? He had secured another vehicle the day before the truck caught fire. The day. Before.

After a lot of thinking, we suspect that the fire was caused by compromised wiring that had been chewed on by a squirrel. It took us a long time to pull this together and even realize that there had been a squirrel in there, but we finally put all the pieces together and that's the picture that emerged.

But here's the thing, that happened AGES AGO. Like literally, several YEARS. That wiring had been compromised all that time, and yet... And yet God prevented that fire from starting until the time that that truck was no longer needed as a truck (including a previous time that we had loaned it it to other friends in need!!).

So you see, there was no way to be anything but grateful in that moment, standing there half awake in a hotel hallway, receiving such bizarre, unexpected, seemingly tragic news. The only thing I could do was say a prayer of thanks and awe.

P.S. We have since learned that the truck is a total loss, and our insurance is handling all of that, to even further blessings. What we will be receiving is not enough to buy a new truck (sorry, honey) but it is more than we'd expected, and quite enough to allow us to move up the timetable on paying off our trip to SHINE (we had strategically and responsibly financed a portion of the trip), and to kickstart a "New Truck" fund.

Picture explanation. Since we don't take portraits of objects (at least in our family), this photo of Mairwen scraping the windows on our car last winter, with The Truck in the background was the best one I could find. I think it fits.

There, I've said it.

So, you may have noticed that I have mentioned that there are updates coming, and then they never came. Or maybe you didn't, but I have. Here's the thing. SHINE was an amazingly incredible experience for many reasons. It was busy, it was overwhelming, it was exhausting, and phenomenal. We came home encouraged, excited, and motivated. However, as the time has passed, the excitement has stayed in place, but the motivation, well, it's kind of drifted away.

Here's the conclusion that I have come to. We as humans, generally speaking, are excited about excitement. We love the idea of doing something great, where it all falls apart is actually having to do the great, or even do the work it takes to get to the great. For my part, I truly believe that Mairwen was in her element at SHINE, and that great things await her as an actress and model, even though I have not the slightest clue whatever, what any of that will end up looking like.

But, there's a part of me, little or large I have yet to determine, that kind of want things to just stay the same. There is a bit of fear of the unknown, in recognition of the potential for failure. But, it comes down to something much simpler than that. It comes down to realizing that dreams, visions, even divinely appointed purposes, don't happen without work.

So I am here, sitting at a stoplight talking to my phone, to myself, to you, to tell you, and me, this. And I wonder, how many God given visions, missions dreams, never came to fruition, never had life altering, world changing outcomes, because we, as humans, a general rule, are lazy?

So here I am, rambling as I drive up the road, with illusions that someone will read this, and find it at least mildly entertaining, and that this will mark the beginning of me saying, "yes, I'll do the work. I will do the research, the mailings, the contacts, the driving to acting lessons (which we are already doing), the searching for auditions, the education in the industry, everything and anything that it takes to facilitate God purpose in Mairwen's life, and therefore in her family's life, my life, to bring Him ultimate glory."

It would definitely be the easy, lazy thing to do, to put SHINE in the past, categorized as a "mountaintop experience," and get back to life as usual. But I am starting to suspect, that life as usual is not in God's plan for any Christian. Each day, even if somewhat predictable in our pseudo stability, each day is it's own grand adventure, with countless opportunities to choose God, to choose love, life and purpose.

Complacency is perhaps Satan's strongest weapon against many a believer. Complacency and comfort, and laziness. I'm posting this without any revisions whatsoever. I will admit that I have gone through and made sure that voice recognition didn't do anything too incredibly absurd to any of my words. But, I need to prove to myself that I can do this thing. That I can come up with an idea, compose it, and publish it without editing it to death for days, because that is where my posts go to die.

And I do believe, whether you as readers agree or not, that part of our journey, is for me to chronicle it here. If my ramblings can serve any purpose to inspire someone else, or even simply to hold me accountable to myself for the things that I have said that I will do for God, then it has served all the purpose that it needs.

Long overdue

Disclaimer/explanation: I wrote this post on my tablet, right before it went into a coma. Took til now to realize it had uploaded to the cloud and wasn't stuck in my device! More up-to-date information is being written, but in the mean time, here is what was new last month...

Okay so I've been promising an update for some time now, I think it's about time that I deliver!

Shortly before the Launch weekend in June,  we asked for prayer for finances and discernment. Immediately after being prayed over at our weekly church prayer night, we were able to connect with someone else attending the Launch to be a roommate and split the price of the lodging. Fully believing that there is no such thing as a coincidence,  we felt very strongly that God was telling us to move forward and watch so we did.

The weekend was remarkable. It provided Mairwen with much experience and acting instruction. We were able to gain a lot of knowledge about what is going to happen at SHINE. Mairwen once again excelled at cold reads (that means seeing the script for only a few minutes before performing it). We had a great time creating a fun product to advertise and Mairwen had an opportunity to get some more practice at her least favorite acting skill, improv!

God was working in our midst, as we hit it off wonderfully with our roommate, who lives outside Philadelphia, and told us that next time we should stay at her house Friday night and she would still split a hotel with us on Saturday. We have already made plans stay with her on the way up to the one day photo shoot in September.

AMTC is proving to truly be a family. The atmosphere at the launch was a mix between a professional clinic and a family reunion. The coaches had a wealth of knowledge and advice to impart and they did so in an astoundingly positive manner. The youngest participant was 6, and the oldest was almost sixty. Varying ethnicities and disabilities were represented and embraced.

As for Mairwen's personal experience, it took her most of the first day to loosen up and be herself, but she was game for everything they threw at her, she even jumped into a group improv, shortly after having a very challenging experience with the individual improv. I am astounded see her growing into this calling that God has placed on her life. We were able to connect with several other participants who live in the St afford/Fredericksburg area! In fact, we are working to organize a rehearsal event to allow them some practice in front of a real live audience before SHINE rolls around!

There is still much work to be done; online training, skills improvement, photo shoot. And we are still hoping to raise a significant portion of the lodging and additional fees for the remaining Launch weekend and for SHINE. God did bless us substantially this summer in a twofold way. Tim had the opportunity to go on temporary assignment as an interim engineering director at a hospital in New York state. In addition to giving him the opportunity to gain directorial experience, he is receiving a bonus for the assignment. This bonus more than reimburses for the money that we have already invested in AMTC activities, and goes a long way towards repairing the damage done by the financial attack we experienced. We believe that this was God's way of confirming for us that he is not intending for this journey to be a financial burden on us.

We are still hopeful that there are individuals out there who are interested and willing to support us financially in some way, or even businesses, however we stand confident that whatever the source he chooses to use god will provide the resources necessary for mary when to shine at SHINE!

In more recent news, both Mairwen and Hannah are participating in Frick and Frack's Art Is In camp this week. Friday night they will be performing in a musical titled, He's the One That I Want. Both of the girls have speaking parts and Mairwen will have her first vocal solo!

From Mairwen: All About Me and AMTC

     Hi, I'm Mairwen. I'm almost 11 and I just finished 5th grade. In my class there was a group of us that wrote and put on plays for our grade. That's when I realized that acting was not only to entertain an audience, but also for the actor to have fun and do something that they like to do.
     Here are some pretty flowers, just because:

      I first heard about AMTC on the radio when we were coming home from church and I thought that it would be cool to be in. Later that day my mom came to me and told me that if I wanted a chance to audition for AMTC that they were having one in Richmond that we could go. I told my mom that I did want to go so after school, (the audition was on a Monday) we drove down to Richmond for the audition.
     The day after the audition we got a callback saying that AMTC wanted me to come back because they liked my acting and thought that I should compete in a competition-like event called SHINE. SHINE is held in Orlando, FL and every year by AMTC; once in the summer, once in the winter. I am going to winter SHINE this December. The VIP's there judge you acting, singing, modeling, or stand up comedy. Many participants come home from SHINE with job offers or agents. That's what AMTC helps to prepares me for.
     I'm excited to be going to SHINE because I think God will help me to use my talent of acting to entertain other people and lead them to follow Him.

(Photo credit: Hans Braxmeier, isn't it pretty??)

Heading to LAUNCH?? (a.k.a. Funding Update #1)

I feel uncomfortable writing posts related to funding. A large part of this is my ongoing struggle with (against?) humility. Another factor is that I don't want you wonderful folks thinking that we see you only as potential contributors (that is absolutely, positively and undeniably NOT the case!). I also know that not everyone who is rooting for us has the ability to support this journey financially. And lastly, I don't wish for those of you have already contributed to feel as though we are pushing or nagging you to give more.

Where and how you pass on God's financial blessings in this world is, in fact, between you and God (see Matthew 6:3). But we believe that God IS calling at least SOME of you to support this adventure, and if we don't share our need, how will you know?

I'm saying all of that for my benefit, at least as much as for yours. I am attempting to be completely transparent about our need, without crossing into the realm of begging or bragging. I think that maybe I'm starting to get it.

SO... without further hemming and hawing, what I need to say is this. Mairwen has a LAUNCH weekend (read: intensive 2-day training session) available in mid-July and we have not yet reached a funding status that enables us to go. Train fare will run anywhere from $300 to $500* and lodging will be another $500-$600 (we haven't factored in incidentals at this point). AMTC holds these events outside NYC proper, which lowers the hotel rates considerably, but they are still substantial, as you can see.

*The decision to take the train vs. drive is based primarily on safety (and also, by the time we paid all the tolls when we drove to the VIP seminar, it really wasn't any cheaper!)

We are grateful to have received $100 in pledges into our GoFundMe campaign already, however that means that this LAUNCH trip is only about 10% funded at this point. The sooner we are able to make train reservations, the lower the fares will be. Please prayerfully click over to GoFundMe and donate a few dollars (or a lot of them, if you can!). Truthfully, every bit does help. And if you can donate a few dollars now, and a few more dollars later, that's appreciated, too. God WILL use and multiply whatever you give. And please share this opportunity with others. You know people that we don't. People that God wants to use for His purposes and His glory.

Obedience and Humility

This is not easy for me to write. It is humbling to the point of embarrassment, and in part because I realize that I should not have waited to the point of desperation to swallow my pride and admit this to myself.

We need your help.

Well, let me put it a slightly different way. We need GOD's help, and we believe God is calling us to open the doorway for Him to channel that help through you.

Mairwen attended her first "in person" AMTC training this past weekend and it was a wonderful experience. However, the travel and lodging expenses were eye-opening. God blessed us with a tax return sufficient to pay Mairwen's entire tuition, and we glorify Him for that.  After this weekend, we now realize that our remaining "collateral expenses" may easily equal that amount.

In the past two years, the Lord has brought our family up out of a severe financial crisis through His faithfulness and our obedience. We are still on the road to recovery. We do not believe that God would bring us as far as He has, only to take us back down into financial peril. We trust that He will provide, if only we will continue to obey His leading.

And we believe that He is leading us to reach out to our family, friends, and community to support Mairwen in her calling to SHINE for Him with the talents He has given her. For equipping and outreach is not just our family's responsibility, but the responsibility of all Believers. It was both selfish and foolish of us to think that God would expect or even allow us to travel this journey on our own.

Won't you please join us in being part of the marvelous plan He has to use Mairwen's gifts to bless the entertainment industry and spread His Word in a dark world??

Please visit http://www.gofundme.com/aka4go to contribute.

The First One About Mairwen and AMTC

Mairwen is a ten year old girl whom God has gifted with talents in acting and modeling. She has been called to use those talents to spread God's love in and through the entertainment industry!

To that end, Mairwen has entered The Bridge training program with Actors, Models and Talent for Christ. This program endeavors to equip Christians in media to be missionaries in their areas of gifting, while developing their talents, and imparting the professional skills they will need to survive and thrive (with God's blessing!) in their crafts.

The Bridge culminates with an event called SHINE! It is part conference, part performance, part networking. It is attended by highly influential VIPs of both mainstream AND Christian media, and many performers have jump started their careers there. Friends of ours attended several years ago and it was a life changing experience for them on multiple levels!

How Can I Help?

1. Pray for us. The pastors at our church frequently remind us that, "Everything begins with, ends with, and depends on God." Here are a few specific prayer points:
-For God to be glorified through Mairwen.
-For Mairwen's spiritual strength and growth.
-For family cohesion and strong relationships.
-For the growing and molding of Mairwen's talents.
-For financial and logistical provisions.
-For the doors and opportunities to open according to God's plan.

2. Logistics and networking. These are going to be vital for us! Here are a few ways to help us "get connected"
-Spread the word! Share this post with your friends!
-Do you live in the NYC area or know someone who does? We'll be making three or four trips to the city before SHINE and it would be great to have a friendly place to stay. And any tips on getting around would be great too... It's been a while since any of us have been there!!
-Do you have access to discounted air or train fare? We'll be doing quite a bit of traveling!
-Do you know anyone (Christian or not) in the media/entertainment industry who would be willing to be a resource for us? AMTC's resources are considerable, but we're of the opinion that more resources are better than less.

3. Contribute Financially
AMTC is an entirely unique program of tremendous value for the cost, but the cost is still... costly. And in addition to tuition there are travel and hotel costs, and occasional miscellaneous expenses as well. You can contribute at our Go Fund Me page. All funds received will be used to pay expenses directly relating to her participation in The Bridge and SHINE (lodging, travel, incidentals). Any unrelated or family activities that occur on any trips will be paid out of our family finances. Now you know =)

About Conduct
We ask that all comments made on this page be kept positive! Mairwen WILL be reading them (and she reads and approves my posts). If you have CONSTRUCTIVE criticisms, you may send them here.

Thanks for taking the time to read all this! We pray that Mairwen's journey will be an encouragement to you, and that her talents will be a lamp on a lampstand in a darkened world!