An Evening to Remember...

So...once again, sorry it's been forever since I've written. One of these days, I will get better...hopefully! :)

On Sunday, March 28, the youth gathered for a wonderful evening filled with surprises, lessons, and lots of love and laughter. In October, when I found out that God was bringing me back to Georgia to take the youth pastor position at the church, He began to give me very clear vision of an evening He wanted the youth to experience.

The girls arrived at the church at 3p, and were met by Heath and I. We took them upstairs to the sanctuary, and I washed their feet while Heath explained to them the significance of what was happening. A physical example of how we want to serve them and walk alongside them. And then spoke a bit on what we're hoping will happen in the days, weeks, months and years to come.

After we finished, they were excused one by one, and Pastor Wes blessed and prayed for each of them.

They went downstairs, and were led into a classroom turned dressing room, where Joy, Traci, and Kim were waiting to fix the girls' hair, and crown them! :) But before they went into the hair chair, they were greeted with beautiful dresses (gathered over the previous 5 months by wonderful, helpful women of the church!). They changed, and then settled in to get beautiful! And did they ever look (and feel) beautiful! The glow on their faces, as they were prissing around in that room was worth all the effort, energy, time and money that went into the night alone! :)

While the girls were getting ready, the boys arrived at 4p, and went through the same thing the girls did, but with Heath washing and me talking.

After the girls were ready, they headed back up to the sanctuary to have pictures made. They all had an individual shot made, and then had a group shot taken as well.

When the boys were finished getting ready, they headed upstairs, and were greeted by excited clapping, whistling hoots and encouraging comments by the girls! They were grinning like opossums! (whatever that saying means...lol...anyway, they had HUGE grins on their faces!) They took their turn at having individual pictures made and then had their guy group picture made.

After that, we got the whole group picture and the stairwell shot! (Pictures are below... :) )

When the picture session was finished, the kids were dismissed from the sanctuary, and welcomed into a classroom turned dining room downstairs. When God had first given me the vision for the evening, He told me that we were to have a dinner, and that the table would be beautiful, set with lovely dishes and glasses. And that's when I started flipping out! I knew we'd have a sizable group, and I didn't know where I was going to get that many matching place settings... But of course, in typical God fashion, He quickly gave me the answer to that - the place settings were not supposed to be identical. As a matter of fact, the beauty of the table was that no place setting would be alike. The table would be a representation of God's love and acceptance for us. He doesn't love us because of how perfect and alike we are, but because of how unique and different we are! An amazing object lesson! :)

The footwashing was to symbolize how we come to God just as we are, and He cleans us up. Then, He gives us new clothes (the clothes they changed into), and we sit by His side as royalty. The evening was just packed full of physical representations of the things He had spent 16 months pouring into my heart and mind.

We ate dinner, and had a wonderful time enjoying fun and fellowship while eating! Marcia (my aunt) was amazing, and made the spaghetti and sweet tea for the dinner, and then came and took the lead in organizing and getting everything ready for meal time! She had the help of Diane Blackmon (our amazing friend that so willingly jumped right in and helped get everything together), Mama, Traci, Donna, Tony and Stacey - those two guys (Tony and Stacey) were INCREDIBLE!!! They helped from 2:15 until we were totally finished around 8! Great guys! All the wonderful kitchen help, served everything - got the drinks filled, and kept them filled; brought out the cesar salad, spaghetti, garlic bread and dessert (thanks to Traci for making the truffles to go with the "magic mousse"). Everything was wonderful!

After dinner, the kids were presented with their t-shirts, and excitedly changed into them and gathered down at the youth house to have their pictures made. Again. :)

The night was incredible! And God definitely showed up! And has continued to do so! But I want to keep this entry just about our special night, so I'll follow this one up with an update on everything else that's been going on! :)

Enjoy the pictures! :)

The girls' looking (and feeling) like beautiful princesses! :)

The boys looking (and feeling) pretty snazzy!

All of my incredible kids!

Back row: Amanda, Sammi, Jonathan, Nikki, Caitlin, Tanner, Olivia

Middle Row: Brittany, Harley, Josh, Alex, Alexx

Front Row: Nikki, Brittni, Abel

Pastor Wes, Heath, and I joined them all in a fun shot!

The stairwell shot - LOVE it! :)

Even though the kids were ready to kill me after having them pose so many times! :)

Brandy (Heath's wife) was incredible enough to take the pictures - she is a photographer - for us, and I took FULL advantage of it! There were over 150 pictures captured that evening! :) Most of them posed...which is why the kids were dying, but they were amazing, and humored me! :)

Here they all are, rocking the new youth t-shirts. They are posing in front of "The Breadth" wall in the youth house - as soon as the house is finished, I promise to post pictures of the entire thing! All we have left, is doing the final coat in the kitchen, the main bathroom, taking up the carpet throughout the house, putting down the floor in the kitchen, painting the outside, and various other small tasks that will make our house, a home! :)

The front...

And the back...with attitude! :)