Kurt and I are about to start setting up for Ignite Night tonight.

We’re hoping for:

1. 300 Middle Schoolers to show up
2. Souls won over to Christ
3. Smooth sailing in Program and Tech

Please pray for:

1. A quick and smooth set up – we have a LOT of decorations to put up and take down (think about decorating your house for Christmas… then times that by 100)
2. The Spirit to move
3. Robb Schreiber – our guest speaker
4. Chance – he’s our "Santa" tonight… so I hope he’s napped up and ready to sit on 300 middle schooler laps
5. Worship to be moving and powerful

All prayers would be appreciated. 

Expect a Worship Confessional tonight to wrap this up.

Some days, ministry is good.

Other days, I get in the way of myself and it’s just not fun.

Today was a long day. I’m tired. I feel defeated. I wonder if I’m really cut out for this. Though this transition went as well as it could, it’s still difficult. Today, I wonder if I really have it in me.

My greatest fear is not that I don’t have it in me…

…but that this is what I was made to do.

So… after the “disaster” at Wildfire last Wednesday (it wasn’t really a disaster, I’m really just going for the drama of it all), tonight was a breath of fresh air.

I was nervous, for SURE, but prayed all week over it.

Tonight went well. Students really worshiped and that was the best feeling of all.

Our set tonight:

All Day
My Glorious
Take Me To The Cross
Devotion
- break -
The Stand
Till I See You

During the some of my spiritual direction talk, I really just felt an overwhelming sense of the “ugly cry” headed my way. I was talking about taking the trek to the cross and remembering what Christ did for us. I told them that just because I was standing in front of them, leading them, didn’t mean I was a saint… in fact, I am far from it. I struggle on a daily basis to even stay focused on God.

Unfortunately, some of the “ugly cry” leaked out. I hate that… but that’s what makes me me. I fought off as much as I could so that I could get through saying what was on my heart. Fortunately, Nick started the next song off (Devotion) and he rocked it. It gave me just enough time to recover.

I can’t explain my passion in worshiping my Creator. I just love doing it…

So it’s happened.

My first Wildfire since the "Changing-of-the-Guard".  The last time I was here, it was called XtREME and it was on Sunday mornings.

Though tonight was far from perfect (in my mind), it was an absolute blast.  My team is FUN and Kurt is AWESOME!  From every situation that was not "ideal", sprung something truly GOOD.

Here are some examples:

NOT IDEAL:  Starting the night with a song the kids didn’t know.  Um… I didn’t do it on purpose… I seriously didn’t know.  To make it worse, at the beginning of the song, I dropped my pick.  I had to lean over to get it and on my way back up, something large and in-charge flew down my windpipe.  I could no longer sing.  That’s when I realized the kids were NOT singing.  Found out, after we got off the platform, that the kids had never sung that song. 

THE GOOD FROM IT:  My team and I got a good laugh out of it and Nick offered to help me pick out future sets since he knows what he’s doing   I love that a team can bond through my humility.

NOT IDEAL:  Kurt and me not testing out how to sound out a pitchfork over a microphone. 

THE GOOD FROM IT:  We had a good time on the platform playing off each other when "plan A" wasn’t "plan-er-riffic".  The kids laughed

This night could have been quite discouraging for me… it wasn’t the best start, but honestly, I feel excited about this ministry.

It can only go uphill from here   HA!!!

It’s finally out.

I’ve accepted the interim position as the Director of Student Worship at Sunset.

I haven’t blogged about it or made any mention of this until now, but I promise it was for a good reason.  It wasn’t officially announced to the public until last Sunday and I didn’t want to jump the gun on anything that wasn’t "my news" to tell.

This is a huge answer to prayer.  For my consistent readers, you know how I’ve been looking for a job.  Well… Brian and I STARTED praying for a job about 2 days before this position was offered to me.

When I got the call, I was both sad AND excited.  I honestly think Steve has done a great job taking the team to another level.  He’s really grown areas of the ministry in ways I would never have thought to.  He’s made some really in-depth relational connections with team members… especially guys… and has left me with a much stronger "guy" team.  When I was in this position 1.5 years ago, it was quite strong on the girl side. (It’s pretty natural for leaders to draw in the same gender leader volunteers.  That being said, the number of girls pretty much dominated the number of guys.) 

Steve is crazy talented, is PASSIONATE for Jesus and quite OCD (which is always a plus in my mind).  His decision to move on is definitely a loss for Sunset.

I was super excited because #1… it was a JOB!  Not only was it a job TOTALLY provided by God, but #2… it was a job to do what I KNOW God has made me to do.  It would have been weird to volunteer for student ministries only a year or two after I left, but it’s different if I’m working there.

Stay tuned!

The Sunset MOMS website has been updated.

Go check it out when you get a chance (and link it to your blog if you’d like).

WWW.SUNSETMOMS.TYPEPAD.COM

Anna Goodworth spends a lot of time writing a monthly newsletter. I’m pulling all of that into the website so people can pull it up whenever.

Please feel free to use it as a resource and COMMENT away!!!