Monday morning thoughts on Tuesday

I can’t seem to stay in the habit of actually posting my weekend brain dump on Mondays…Tuesdays seems to be a much more realistic goal –

• We had our first Saturday tech rehearsal for the GAFA production, Creation. With three weeks left before the real deal it is easy to get overwhelmed with all of the things that have to get done. But everyone did a great job and it was obvious that they have all been working very hard. This is truly going to be a beautiful show – full of the wonder and creativity of our God. I want to honor Him with what we produce in this show…
• If you haven’t made plans to come to the show, DO IT NOW! You don’t want to miss it, I promise you. There are two shows – one Friday, May 16th at 7pm and one Saturday, May 17th at 3pm. Tickets are only $5 and can be purchased from any GAFA student, on-line HERE, or at The ROCK the next two Sundays.
• If you want to make a financial contribution to Glory Academy so that we can continue to impact this community with excellence in the arts, give us a call in our office. (910-602-5302) You can purchase an ad to go in our program or just donate as a sponsor. Either way, you are supporting an amazing ministry in this community!
• Sunday was incredible. So many new things happening all at once and my head is spinning! The stage looked amazing. You can go here and see pics of the transformation. Carolyn is doing a great job – as always – and we are so honored to have her on our staff because she always goes above and beyond what is expected and gives her absolute BEST to whatever she sets her hands to do. (Thanks!)
• Pastor Ron made an BIG FAT HAIRY announcement Sunday morning. In August – on our church’s 20th anniversary – he will set Bryan as the new senior pastor of this church and step into a new role and new season of ministry himself. If you weren’t in the service to witness this, you MUST listen to the MP3 of the message so you can be a part of helping us spread the excitement! Carolyn should have it posted sometime today.
• God is really stirring some things in my heart concerning GAFA – HUGE things that scare the heck out of me – but I know that there is provision for all things that He puts in our hearts to do. I will be sharing some of this with you later – too much to put in this post. Just be praying for me and my staff as we navigate through the waters of change and expansion. It’s going to be a fun ride! 🙂
• 8 1/2 weeks to go before baby Rylee arrives! Time is flying by…

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Rachel Vs. Reagan

Yea – so Reagan spends three days a week with this family and they teach him to fight with big sticks… 🙂 Watch and laugh, people! I stole this video from Matthew –

This is why…

He’s the love of my life – and in 10 weeks there’s going to be another one to get completely lost in…

Monday Morning Thoughts

Wow – what a weekend…

My team led worship Friday night and Saturday for a conference held at the church – it was a ton of fun and, as always, my team did an amazing job! I have to say that I am always grateful for the grace of God – leading worship three times in one weekend is not easy even when you aren’t 31 weeks pregnant! 🙂

The announcement of my job transition was made Sunday morning. I was humbled by the response of our people. Thank you, everyone, for your support and understanding of this decision. I am so looking forward to serving GAFA in a BIGGER way and continuing my involvement in the volunteer arts teams of The ROCK. Ya’ll are not going to get rid of me yet!

The lights are in and training begins this week! Carolyn, you are amazing and this church is beyond blessed to have you on board with us. Thanks for all of the extra time and brain power you put into this project!

The painters arrived this morning to transform our stage. The awful pale beige is leaving us and in it’s place is this beautiful black wall! I am SOOOOOO excited!

I would like to congratulate Johnny Fuller for being the only human on the planet that can break a wireless microphone just by the sheer force of his vocal volume. 🙂 (thanks for the comic relief during worship yesterday..)

The excitement continues in the halls of Glory Academy. I snapped this picture today of little Serena as she tried on her Giraffe costume for our “Creation” production next month. Isn’t she adorable?

Go See…

Carolyn has been posting like a crazy woman today. Geez – you would think there was something to be excited about around here.

Go check it out and see what all the fuss is about.

And if I haven’t mentioned it in a while – she is amazing and we couldn’t do any of this around here without her. Ya’ll give her some lovin’ – K?

Azalea Festival Outreach

Wilmington celebrated the annual Azalea Festival this weekend – we had fabulous weather and the azaleas were gorgeous! Tons of fun things to do around town and especially downtown. Saturday, Celebration Dance Company from Glory Academy of Fine Arts performed on two stages and did a total of about an hour of performances – they did an amazing job and I was SO proud of them! Thank you, Casey, Melanie and Lynne for all of your hard work to put all of this together!

This was our last outreach event of this season – these girls have worked tirelessly to minister to this community for the past nine months and the parents have all been so supportive of the vision of the academy. Below are a few pictures from the event – let me know what you think!

Some BIG News!

So, tonight I shared some big news with my incredible creative arts team at The Rock. I have to admit that I’ve had major anxiety knowing I was going to have to break this news to them – even though I have been simultaneously thrilled by what God is about to allow me to do. You see, when my second child is born in about 10 weeks, I am going to have the amazing opportunity to stay at home with Reagan and Rylee and give them my full mommy attention! In mid to late June, I will be stepping down as Creative Art’s Pastor here at this amazing church that I have served full time for the past 10 years.

I will remain as Director of Glory Academy of Fine Arts and be able do a majority of that work load from home. I have such a wonderful staff and a school full of incredible families and I am really looking forward to being able to give more of my brain power to seeing this amazing ministry become more successful in this community.

This has been a decision that has been made through much prayer and discussion with my husband and some people very close to me and I am very excited that God has directed me in this new season of our lives. I believe there are several things that God is going to allow me to give my attention to during this time and I am so very excited about all of them.

1. My children are a gift from the Father. Even though I have had amazing people who have cared for Reagan for the past 2 1/2 years, I have grieved every day that I have had to hand him over to someone else. I can not tell you how blessed I feel to have the opportunity to give Reagan and Rylee more of my time and care – they are the biggest ministry opportunity that God has ever given to me. I am humbled by these gifts from the Lord and scared to death that I will never measure up to what they really need from me. (but by the grace of God….)
2. I can’t wait to be a high-capacity volunteer in the arts ministry at The ROCK. It has been a long time since I’ve had the chance to serve without it being my job and I am passionate about remaining on the team in whatever capacity the new leader asks me to be. My heart is still here and I am so excited about the vision of this house and how I can contribute my skills to seeing the vision fulfilled. You WON’T see me sitting on the back row…
3. Glory Academy has been a gift from the Lord to this community and I have been blessed to be a part of it. My attention has been divided for the past three years as I have tried to successfully direct two full time ministries. I feel this is such a wonderful chance for me to focus most of my creative energy on building this amazing team of dancers and artists for the restoration of the arts in the church.
4. I am so excited about walking through the process of bringing on a new team member to this ministry staff. There is a new level that we’re about to step up to – a whole other level of anointing, leadership, creative intensity and passionate worship – and I am honored that I am being asked to be a part of the search process. We ask you to pray with us that God would supernaturally direct us to the right person quickly…this baby is coming fast! :

Let me close this post by saying that I have been incredibly honored to serve with some of the most amazingly talented people on this earth for the past 10 years. At times I have felt completely inept to do this job God has called me to do – but His grace has sustained me and given me every good and perfect gift that I have needed to see purpose fulfilled. The journey is not over for me in this house – I have the opportunity to remain a part of this team and I am so excited to continue on this pursuit of vision. I covet your prayers during this season of transition for me, my family and this team.

Here we go!

Wow

Five Weeks To Go! This is such an exciting time around here – our 2008 Glory Academy Production, Creation, is quickly approaching and we are so excited! There are tons of details still to take care of of but things are coming together and God is being gracious to us through the process. Carolyn has done an amazing job on the graphics for the show and all of the teachers have been incredible through the choreography, costuming and rehearsal process – you are all my heroes!

Tomorrow I order all of the material for our set design and I think it’s going to be amazing this year! (of course…)

Today was a great day for our Ad Sale Campaign. I went by to visit with Abbie and Daniel and their new little baby, Lizzy at the hospital and after I left I went by Perry’s Emporium to visit with Mr. Alan Perry. They have been sponsors of the Glory Academy end of the year production for the past two years and today they jumped in again! Thanks, Alan and Debbie, for your generous support of what we do.

When I returned to the office, I received another sponsorship packet from a family that wishes to remain anonymous – GRAND SPONSORS! As always, God is faithful to provide every need for what He’s put in our hearts to do.

A couple of weeks ago, Alpha Mortgage become Grand Sponsors again for the third year. Thank you, Michael and Julie, for your faithful and generous support of the arts. We could not do this without all of our amazing contributors – you are all fabulous!

So – everyone be sure to support these two businesses! And, if you would like to be a sponsor for this year’s event, let me know. There are many different levels of sponsorship so get out those check books and start writing! 🙂 There is still a great big fat HUGE need and we appreciate any level of support! Shoot me an e-mail (abbye@therockofwilmington) or call me at the GAFA office (910-602-5302) and we’ll get your info.

Love you all – Abs

Monday Morning Thoughts

I had a great weekend…and lots to do this week…as always –

• Our ladies’ getaway at Oak Island went really well. Pastor Miriam from River of Life in Jacksonville came to speak to us about “The Confessions of a Virtuous Woman”. It was amazing…took lots of notes, of course.
• Got home Saturday in time to have lunch with my boys. Don and Reagan had a great morning doing “guy” things. They went to Home Depot and the Auto Store – you can’t get much more manly than that, I suppose. But then it was “mommy time” – snuggling in the bed reading books and snoozing away the afternoon. LOVE THAT….
• Carolyn got back last night – we’re all glad she decided to actually come home. I imagine after spending a few days in the presence of such techno greatness as Los and Brad that it would be difficult to come back here. I know she learned so much and she’ll be posting about it all soon…so be sure to go check it out and get inspired by all of the creative genius that is Northpoint and Buckhead Church!
• Great service yesterday morning – a few sound glitches in my monitor that were a bit painful, but worship was amazing and transcended my ability given the fact that I am still full of snot and have a greatly altered ability to BREATHE!
• Worship team auditions yesterday afternoon – it’s always interesting to see what’s out in the house – most of them that came were brand new to the church and that’s amazing!
• The team learned “How He Loves” last night – WOW – that’s all I can say. That song kills me every time and I can’t wait to do it this Sunday! Get ready people – this song is scary.
• This week is spring break for our public schools and for GAFA. It’s going to be quiet around here for the next few days but a great opportunity to get some things punched off the list! There is SO much to do.
• Lighting goes in starting one week from today! Then the stage wall gets painted the following Monday – this place is going to look drastically different in a couple of weeks. yippppeeeee!
• Azalea Festival is this week! Everyone needs to go to the street festival downtown this Saturday. Celebration Dance Company from GAFA will be performing on two stages at 1:40 and 4:00 – this is their last ministry event for this season, so come on out and support the girls this Saturday! For more info, call Lynne in the office at 910-602-5302.

Have a great week, everyone!

Two Year Old Photog

Reagan took this picture of himself last week with my IPhone… pretty good for a two year old, huh?

I know, I know… I felt the need to post something 🙂