Orlando

This weekend, God's been moving in my life. I know I already said a lot of this in a prior post but I'm including it again now as a way to show how God has been blessing me. I left around 12:30 Friday night/Saturday morning and Danielle (Drive band member) and I drove up to Orlando. Including the tolls and a stop at Starbucks in the middle of the night, we arrived sometime around 5am. By the time I got to my room, it was 5:30 and we had to be up at 7am. So I decided to forgo sleep and just spent some time alone. It was great. The hotel we have been at is the Holiday Inn on International Drive. There are a number of buildings on a lovely if not touristy campus. Our rooms have been in the "tower" which is a building 13 stories (though they say 14) tall with a completely open air atrium. The entrance is covered, but enter the center again and look up and you see the sky. It's wonderful. So I spent the rest of that morning sitting on a neat little couch, checking email and relishing the grotto-like waterfall and foliage.

While I was sitting on that comfy bench, I received a much anticipated email. I've been a member of an organization called CITA (Christians in Theatre Arts) for a year or so now and really love what they're doing. Every year they have an annual conference. A few days ago I was randomly on the CITA website and I came across preparations for this next conference, and it's going to be in Orlando. I sent off an email and phone message to those in charge of CITA and got my response yesterday morning. It was an email from the executive director of CITA. He said he had forgotten how close Miami is to Orlando, and that if I was in the Orlando area this weekend, he'd love to meet. Well, it just so happens I am! He's visiting this weekend for conference preparations so after a few phone calls and emails, yesterday afternoon I got to sit down an chat with him. We discussed many things, including the conference itself, involvement of people from the Music Ministry (in many ways) and gave me some helpful hints and even told me about something that could really help the ministry grow. It was a great meeting that really filled me with validation in what I'm doing. I feel so fortunate and give GLORY to GOD for this. :) He also visited with the band and listened to a rehearsal and he liked what he heard.

After a failed attempt at napping during the afternoon (maybe it was my excitement through the holy spirit) we had another worship session at night. (There's a total of four played this weekend.) During that worship, I saw God again. It was a moment I was not expecting. The worship service ended with an alter call. Now, I in my life have been very anti-alter call because of the implication of "saving". This is a subject I have trouble with. I believe we were "saved" when Jesus Christ died for us. So saying you were "saved" when you chose to follow God is a bad idea for me. Because I believe that we refocus ourselves on God many many times during our lives and it is not our saving of ourselves, but our renewed attention to God's love and His saving of us. So alter calls I think are self-serving and saying "I have now saved myself in Jesus Christ". But I'd never seen one in which things made sense. Last night, I saw one in which it was simply a call to repent and return to "our first love" as the preacher put it. I saw many young people refocusing themselves and saying they were sorry. I heard people say that they needed forgiveness. And it was great. I loved it. I felt like people were actually going to connect. Granted there were, as there always will be, those who went merely for show and for a public exhibition of their faith. But I pray that God will move in their hearts as well.

I've met a number of fun youth and young adults who truly seek God, and many who are still searching for everything they yearn to know about life and love. And I've also met those who don't know anything about God or faith and have simply come to learn or find out what this about. But no matter where they may be on their journey, I know God is walking with them, constantly encouraging them to learn, ask and grow in Him.

It's been a good week. And bonding has been going well. :)

I hope all of you take the time to find God in your life this week. Seek Him in all you do.

Cheers!
Em