I Want a New Look

Yes, I know, many have asked me, WHERE HAVE I BEEN? with my blog updates. I am working on change and wanted a new look for my blog. (I have also been working on my new look of losing weight, guess how much) I hoped to have it by now, but I don't. So don't judge me, it is coming. Many of those that can help me make this new change have been busy also with leading out on a revolution. So in the meantime, as I create and design the new look that I want, while don't you log onto http://www.thegiftrevolution and begin a change in your heart, life and the hearts and lives of others!!! What gift can you give?

New Neighbors

In the last week, the FRC Media team has moved their offices and become neighbors of TheRUSH Student Ministry. We were so excited to get new neighbors and have company next door!! So as a "Welcome to the Neighborhood" gift, TheRUSH made brownies to welcome the gang! Today, Heredes delivered a tray full of Little Debbies with a sign saying TO: The SugarRUSH - FROM: Media Team! Don't be surprised if we re-gift them for the holidays back to you!

Thank you Heredes, Mo, Ian and the rest of the crew! We love having visitors and company!!!

Beginning of an AWESOME Fall at FRC!

This past weekend at Flamingo Road Church was awesome! God is so good and I am always honored to be a part and be able to witness HIS goodness. Here are some highlights:

• My friend, Kim, came to service with me!
• Fall Family Fun Night + cotton candy/snocones = FUN and LOTS of people! Come back this coming weekend for more of that on Saturday night (5pm or 6:30pm)
• Pastor Troy holding hands with those choosing to follow Christ - glimpse of heaven!
• Loads and loads of food and water donated to Help Us Help Haiti (see pics below)

• TheRUSH Student Ministry rockin as we added back the 2nd service on Saturday night
• Meeting tons of new parents and students as they came to TheRUSH - 47 visitors
• Watching Jake, Patti, Nate and Corey get antiqued by Scot each hour (see pic below)
  
  

And drum roll, please - TheRUSH Cooper City hitting a high of 571 students!

Can't wait til next weekend, it only gets better!

Takes Courage

Most of the time in pop culture, freedom of speech is an accepted freedom by the masses when one speaks. Especially speaking about controversial issues or those of moral decay. But the second someone tries to speak in favor of having boundaries or standing up for a value that is followed by the minority, those words seem to get edited. Not this time. The great thing about MTV award shows is that they are usually live and most of what they say goes unedited. At the VMA's, Jordin Sparks, was not edited and was able to make a statement in favor of having standards.

What did she say?
"It's not bad to wear a promise ring, because not everybody, guy or girl, wants to be a slut,"

Why did she say it?:
In response to the host, Russell Brand about his jokes made toward the Jonas brothers for their choice to save sex for marriage and wear promise rings.

She did later admit, that she felt bad for using the word, slut and she did not intend to come off as being judgmental. Those were not her intentions. BUT, most of the time, even if a young person is thinking or feeling that what they believe in is being challenged or made fun of, it takes courage to stand up and speak out.

3 Summer Highlights

At Middle School summer camp - my niece (on the right)attended her first camp and this is a moment after Scot shared the salvation message when the students went outside with leaders to discuss their decisions. Patti, (in the middle) had the girls, lay down to observe God's majesty in the stars and talk about their step. Patti was once here, over 5 years ago, when she attended a winter camp and made that move towards the cross, and now she leads. Can I just say how proud I am of both of them! Love you girls, LOTS!!!!!


It was great to hang with my sister(2nd on right) when she came down for our niece's wedding. Cool thing about this, our niece Diana, (the bride) and niece Megan (1st on right) are our 2 stepsister's daughters. My father was only married to their mother for 6 years and she didn't care too much for my sister and I, but out of the journey God was able to give us relationships with our stepsister's daughters. My sister actually raised Megan until she was 8 years old. Megan considers her Aunt Wendy like a mom. Sometimes marriages may end, but the journey and who we meet on the way, can be intentionally set up by God to test our ability to forgive and love our enemies. A lot of forgiveness had to come out of those 6 years, but what an opportunity I would have missed if I had chosen not to forgive, thank God He gives me the strength and example to do this.




Amber turned 17!!!! I am very proud of her! She is a Senior, Class of '09! And I am hoping this year goes by slow...yeah, right! Like I have told her, she is going to one day be one of my best friends!!!

Room Reveal

Words can't even express how excited we all were on Saturday night...we locked the doors and the students were not allowed in until service began. I felt like it was Christmas morning and the kids were about to open "the gift"! The students ran in ohhing and ahhing with excitement. The WOW factor had taken affect! We had shown them through our hard work, how special they are to Jesus, how much He loves them! We were His hands and feet, His heart with our gift of a REALLY cool new room (Thank you Pastor Scot for your vision and for stirring creativity among the team) This past weekend we hit 500, we had 43 first time guests, 30 students accepted Christ, and 5 or 6 that were baptized. Today, I had a volunteer call all the others, inviting them to take the plunge at our next Beach Baptism, September 28. Here are the after photos, pics really don't do it justice...



A close-up of the walls: the design and skateboard walls. To the left of this is our new 1st time guest room/decision room.

Remember that baptistry wall, here it is complete with the skateboards...
From the back of the room, the columns even got a facelift
The entire stage, from the back of the room, how many TV do you see?
Front of the stage - metal and top of skateboards

Besides the room makeover, the energy in each service is off the charts, students are not sure which way to look, but as Pastor Scot says, We do all this to earn the respect to speak into their lives. I once had a thought how cool it would be to do camp style services each weekend, instead of waiting for that one week in the summer, we are the church, let's make it cool to come to the church, not just the camp, and now God has created and sent the visionary to lead this! Try and come by and check it out and if you are a parent - get your kids here, seriously!!!!

Busy Summer ended with a Bang!

The last 10 days have been spent renovating the Student Ministry Building, having a Grand Opening Weekend, and celebrating God's gift to us for hard work, briefly as we began again getting ready for this coming weekend! Summer will officially end this coming weekend and what a summer it has been for me personally and professionally. There have been highs and lows, but God has got the glory and this past weekend, words and pictures can not even do it justice. The next few entries will be some of the highlights! I will try and tell the story with more photos, less words (so you will stay engaged!) I want to get them all in before September 1, so I can begin the Fall looking ahead and not feeling like I missed sharing an exciting God moment in my life. Below are pics of BEFORE and DURING the renovation. We had over 15-20 volunteers come up each day last week and help out, despite Tropical Storm Fay potentially hitting us. No students were allowed to help or see the room! Thank you to everyone who prayed, gave, painted, taped, lost sleep, etc!

The walls were primed and designed with stencil art! The top will be designs inspired by a pair of Quiksilver boardshorts and the bottom is metal paint (cheaper than real metal)!

Some of the guys enclosing the old baptistry (My son was baptized there, ahhh!)Nestor and Josh putting metal on the front of the stagePastor Scot spackling the enclosure that will become black and hold lots of cool skateboards!!
Next post - AFTER PICS!!