Day 103: Leaders, Vision, and Blessing

Today started earlier than I normally would have enjoyed, the reason being that I was rostered on Front of House Assistant for chapel. In the first class, we were privileged to hear from Dr. Dave Martin, a very VERY cool guy from Mississippi; he talked with us on goal setting, and it was a great talk. I feel pretty confident in my goals now thanks to Dave! After that sweet class, we had chapel; for the first time, I actually got to do something with production. I was scared out of my mind at first, but then I was pretty happy that I didn't ruin anything. YESsssss. It was also great to see and hear firsthand how the stage managing works; it's a much more complicated thing than one would regularly assume. I have a greater appreciation for production stuff now, let's just leave it at that! My afternoon was basically chatting with the family; that's all I needed to have a good afternoon. The evening was summed up in 3 words: Leadership Vision Night. And it was epic. Pastor Brian decided that we should watch the Vision Sunday presentation to remind ourselves what we're trying to accomplish; I think it was a great choice. He also gave some details on Hillsong New York: the leaders set to spearhead the prepping and starting of the church have been chosen, and there have been tiny advance towards it. To put it nice and simple, it's gonna take a while to get this church running in full force, but in the end it will bless a LOT of people. LVN never ceases to amaze, and I hope there will be more during the year.

The real treat to today was on the way back from LVN. It turns out I am amongst legends: my friend Lauren, who is in the same Music Excellence class as myself, has many friends who happen to be in bands I know and listen to. It turns out that the boys of Nevertheless (may they continue to rest in peace) are frequent church-goers at her particular church (I may even get to have lunch with her and AJ from the band when he comes to visit Australia!!!), she has friendships with band members from groups like Oh, Sleeper, Before There Was Rosalyn, and The Chariot, AND she is actually related to none other than Jaci Velasquez!! What a set of credentials THAT is!!! I also got to hear from another good friend, Riley, who told me about how he played on stage with Philmont and Our Heart's Hero and has met all kinds of worship legends like Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith, DC Talk, and even Petra!!!!! Plus, my OTHER Texan friend, Jarryd, is friends with one of the members of Impending Doom, which when you look at all this just goes to show that there are highly favored people in my midst. Today, all in all, was an absolute blessing; and to put it in Dr. Dave's words: "the rest of your life will be the best of your life."

God bless,
Steven