h: July 2009

now that everyone i needed to tell face to face has been told, i am ready to tell the entire world. last monday i officially accepted the position of production manager for the acquire the fire encounter tour. this is a huge step for my career on the road, as i will be in charge of an arena tour...

the opposite side of that coin is that it is a huge commitment as well. i will be flying to texas on august 16th, and will be there (except for a couple of side trips) until we fly to our first event on october 1st. after that i'll be flying out every wednesday and flying home every sunday until may. this has brought on a couple of big changes in my life.

first - i can no longer tour with pureNRG... it may sound silly to some of you, but i really have enjoyed working with those kids - seriously. i LOVE those kids, and i will miss very much carolyne, caroline, and jordan.

second - effective august 16th, i will be resigning from my position as youth ministry director at advent lutheran church.... which means leaving another set of teenagers that i LOVE. i have spent 3 years at that church developing relationships with some of the coolest teenagers - ever. i do feel like my ministry there is done - i knew that when we came to a controversial point while studying "the shack" and all of the students had no issues with it. and they used the same words i would have to describe why they had no issue with it. i have given them everything i could have, and they have a beautifully personal faith now.

the backstory - for a couple of years now i have been splitting my time between touring and local church youth ministry. this has left me not giving 100% to either, which isn't fair to either of them, and recently i have been feeling called to touring full time. and then i got a phone call asking if i was interested in a fall tour with acquire the fire. turns out it's really a much longer tour than that, and it is a youth-focused tour. after a good bit of prayer and conversation, it became clear to me that this was God making it obvious that this was the way i was being led. and while the past two days, when i had to tell 2 different sets of teenagers that i would no longer be working with them, have been very VERY hard on me, i have a peace that i am making the right choice, and following God's call on my life.

so now i ask that, if it's your thing, you please pray for me as i embark on an exciting new voyage.

for not blogging for a while, so here you go katie.

i've been in several different countries since i last blogged. instead of telling stories, here's some pictures.

elliot and josh in zurich. i'm starting with this one, because it's one of the best concert pics i've taken. thanks to the guy there who gave me some pointers.