Athens Here I Come?

Kelsey needs an intern for the summer in Greece. She wants me. I need to spend some serious time in prayer about this one. If I decide to go, then I need to start raising support ASAP. It all ultimately depends on graduate school apps, and the job at Biola that I applied for. She sent me this email yesterday...

"what fabulous experience for you to do an international internship with a human rights
foundation. An exciting role in starting a new organization. Helping to plan an international conference on human trafficking; networking and coordinating between existing organizations for feedback about what to do for the conference. An option to design, coordinate, and direct some kind of music project for the African girls who are trafficked to Greece. Conducting research for the foundation. Fabulous references from your Lydia Today staff for a future job in music, human rights, event planning, international relations, blah blah. You know we are serious about this. Many people think it is a great idea for you. :) You would just need to start soon in raising funds."

Right now it is a pipe dream, but for a girl who has never been out of the country, it is a dream come true. Considering that my job is a nightmare, and I am barely making ends meet, why not leave California and spend the summer teaching music in another county right? I really need prayer on this one, that God makes it crystal clear whether I am to stay in California or quit my job and move to Greece for the summer.

If God wants me there, I will go...

Michelle Does California...Day 4

Saturday was Michelle's last full day here before she had to fly back to Seattle, so I had to make sure she got the full Southern California tour. That morning we got up really early and headed into downtown Los Angeles to go to the Garment District and look for some good deals. Every Saturday the merchants have a street fair where all of their clothes are REALLY cheap (like $5 for jeans). It was quite the cultural experience. I had never been and I am pretty sure that I was the only white girl and by far the only blond there. I LOVED IT! Everyone was speaking Spanish and Korean and the air was filled with the smell of wonderful Mexican food.

After we spent some time in Downtown, we headed north up to The Getty Museum. For those of you who have not been I highly recommend it. For one its free (well, besides parking which is only $10). And Secondly it is absolutely beautiful. It was SO cold that day, well cold for LA, but sunny. We toured the whole museum and enjoyed the view.

After the Getty we drove all the way back to Orange County in order to partake in the magical experience that is Medieval Times! My friend Jackie and her fiance Ian came with us and we had the best time. You can never go wrong with grown men in tights playing make believe for all to see.

So one of the best things about Medieval Times is that you are not allowed to use silverware! We got to eat giant pieces of chicken with our bare hands as well as ribs and potatoes. The chicken was about the size of my head! Michelle is a vegetarian and luckily they have a vegetarian option which was pretty good too. But lets be honest, nothing beats the giant piece of chicken. :0)

All four of us enjoying our trip back in time...Hazah!

Michelle Does California...Day 3

Day 3...and what a day it was. I know some of you might be a little shocked by this next post, but honestly, I haven't lost my mind...I promise! So for awhile now I have wanted to get a tattoo. Again I know how this sounds, like some sort of rebellious act, I promise you it is not that at all. So when I found out that Michelle was for sure coming down to visit me, I knew I had to seize the moment and just do it, after all she is the only one I would ever want to do this with. I mean we have been friends for 19 years...wow that makes me feel old. We have had a lot of firsts, the first time I drove solo, I drove to her house, we graduated 6th, 8th, and 12th grade together. We have seen each other through a lot. So that afternoon we went to OC Tattoo.

Michelle got three small symbols on her left wrist...a cross (for her faith), the roman numeral V (for the 5 members of her family), and a star (she needed one more to balance it out ;) )

I got a treble cleff with Psalm 33:3-4 written underneath it on the upper back part of my neck. Now let me explain myself before you all start freaking out. For those of you who know me well, you know that I have had a pretty rough year. This rough year has led me to do a lot of praying and more importantly a lot of listening to what God wants to teach me through these many trials. As many of you know, I have my bachelors degree in music, what many of you don't know is that I chose music over journalism (I was a double major) after a pretty awesome encounter with God.

I was in church, feeling so much inner turmoil because I knew I needed to drop one of my majors, otherwise I was going to be in school for about 8 years. I had no idea which one to drop, journalism at the time was practical, and my parents were strong advocates of that, while music was a risk. This moment in church was the first time that I distinctly heard God's voice and he said..."Kristin, trust me with your music". That day I came home and wrote my first song, funny thing is, I had been trying to write for years and couldn't, the minutes I released control and had faith in God and his calling on my life it came so naturally, as if God spoke directly through me in song. It was so special.

While at APU I went full throttle with my music, I honed my craft and wrote a lot of songs. And then I graduated. Not only did i get a degree upon completion, but also a massive amount of fear, binding fear. I stopped doing music, I stopped writing, I stopped singing, I stopped playing the piano, I hid everything that I wrote in a notebook and tucked it away, basically I stopped trusting God completely. Instead I put my faith and trust in myself and what was safe and easy. I got a job in advertising, it was a cool job, I worked on entertainment accounts like CBS and Showtime. Cool parties, cool people, awesome job...I hated it, every minute of it. I felt like a part of my soul was dying, and I dint know why.

So I quit and got a job teaching music, I started playing the piano again, but I still didn't sing, I didn't write, I kept that notebook locked up. A few months back I was praying and asking God to pretty much change my life, because I know that I am not where I am supposed to be. He showed my that I have been Jonah for the past 3 years, running as hard as I can from anything that he has called me to do. RUNNING. And more importantly that not only have I not trusted Him with my music, but I have not been trusting Him with my life, instead I have been trusting myself...no wonder I am so stressed out all the time. :)

In the Old Testament when God would show himself to his people they would build an altar to remind them of what God had done for them. The first altar Abraham built was an altar that resulted from an encounter with God Genesis 12:7, “Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.” Well, this tattoo is my alter. It is my constant reminder that I have made a decision to not only trust Him, but to believe Him as well, with all of me, to "trust him with my music".

Psalm 33:3-4 "Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully and shout for joy. For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does."

And what is it that you do after you get tattoos...Well of course you get Jamba Juice and thin mint girl scout cookies. After that we went and checked out Balboa Island, which is SO cute. That was my first time there, and I will definitely go back again soon. It is only 20 minutes from where I live. So fun!

I know this is really LONG post...so thanks for reading! :)

Inked

Im a Horrible Blogger!!!

I'm such a horrible blogger! So much has been happening so get ready for one big long update! :)

First off two weekends ago on a whim I decided to drive out to Arizona to audition for American Idol! I was there for less than 36 hours, most of which was spent sleeping. So it all began with me driving to work on Wednesday morning and thinking to myself..."self...you are in a rut and are in dire need of an adventure." So I texted Ryan and asked how he would feel driving out in the middle of the night to Arizona, stand in long lines, get little to no sleep, for an experience of a lifetime. Needless to say he said yes and at 12am that night we drove for 4 and a half hours (yes, I speed, and lets just say I might have been going over 100...oops!) and got into phoenix and went straight to the jobbing arena to get bracelets to audition the next day.


The overall experience was so much fun and really interesting to see how the show is produced. Lets just say they use the word "reality" very loosely. :) Ryan and I waited the whole next day at the stadium to audition, much of the waiting involved sleeping. There were some very interesting contestants who I am very sure will be featured on the show, including a girl wearing nothing but a tiny little bikini, another girl wearing a pink cowgirl outfit from head to toe, and a dreadful singer who managed to get the whole crowd clapping with him. Ryan and I didn't make it through the first round, however he had the judges in stitches while he sang Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer...with full on choreography! It was a great experience, and definitely the adventure I was looking for! :) After the audition we got back in the car and drove the 5 1/2 hours back to CA, lets just say I'm ok not taking a long drive for awhile. :) And for those of my dear friends who live out that way I am so sorry that I didn't get to see any of you, next time I am there I will make sure to give you a call!

After my return from Phoenix, I jumped right into working at Summer Spectacular. Summer Spectacular is Saddleback's (Rick Warren's church) versions of vacation bible school. Its pretty much VBS on steroids! :) My wonderful friend Stacey (on the far right) works at Saddleback in the 3rd and 4th grade ministries, she asked me if I could help her out with over 400 3rd graders. There were 3,000 children ages K-6th. It was so much fun!


The kids had a blast and best of all through all of their fun they got to learn more about Jesus and how much he loves and cares for them. The Bible verse was Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's masterpiece He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."

Sorry about the long update. Thanks for reading!