It's finally done!!!

After years of Andy telling me, and his finally getting me started, my new website is done!! Photography and paintings of mine are viewable on it. There's also a link to contact me, if you are interested in purchasing something, or if you just want to say hi. :) I'm including a blog on the site that will cover all things artistic as well as information on upcoming shows, etc. I will probably, however, still keep this blog for random family news and personal stuff. Feel free to switch to my new blog or follow both! Check out the new site, though, and leave a comment on it letting me know what you think! Just click on this post's title and it will take you to it!

Lyrics that STILL move me

You bring peace like the sunset. Here with You, I am content. You bring joy like the sunrise and now I dance and laugh out loud. You’re the giver of every good thing. You make my heart sing. At Your feet is better life, nothing else can satisfy. At Your feet, I know You more. My heart is filled, my faith restored at Your feet. I wanna be like Mary, not Martha. I’m done performing. I’m done performing.
(Andy Day, “At Your Feet”)

I’m so forgetful, but you always remind me You’re the only one who brings me peace….so I come, Lord I come….to tell You I love You, to tell You I need You, to tell You there’s no better place for me than in Your arms. To tell You I’m sorry for running in circles, for placing my focus on the waves, not Your face. You’re the only one who brings me peace.
(United Pursuit Band, “Running in Circles”)

All You ever wanted was my attention. All You ever wanted was love from me. All You ever wanted was my affections, to sit here at Your feet…If all of life comes down to love, then love has to be more than sentiment, more than selfishness and selfish gain….And then I saw Him there, hanging on a tree, looking at me….This is how I know what love is.
(Misty Edwards, “Arms Wide Open”)

Oh love hopes all things. And love believes all things and love it bears all things, oh oh….And Your love, it never fails. It never fails. It never fails my heart. And love endures all things and love is longsuffering and love it never seeks its own gain….And oh, I need Your love. I need Your love. I need Your love….Sweet God, I need You. I need Your love.
(United Pursuit Band, “1 Corinthians 13”)

You called and You shouted. You broke through my deafness. You flashed and you shone; Dispelled all my blindness. You breathed Your fragrance on me. You breathed Your fragrance on me. I drew in Your breath, And I keep on breathing. I’ve tasted I’ve seen And now I want more…Late have I loved You.
(Gungor, “Late Have I Loved You”)

Oh Lord, I need You. Capture me again. Steal me away. Take me deeper into Your heart. Surround me with Your love and hold me close, and never, never let me go. So close that I can feel Your every breath. Until my heart begins to dance with Yours. Never let me go. Won’t You take me to a new place, to a realm of mercy and grace where love, love flows heavy….Like a waterfall of honey, let Your love be poured out on me. Overcome me, overcome me.
(United Pursuit Band, “Waterfall”)

I believe in a light that shines, in a voice that finds me in the darkest place. I believe in an endless love whose everything. He's breath and life to me. I believe God has a son, his only one and He gave him up for me. I believe in the risen one, His kingdom's here, Death's overcome in me. I believe He loves me. I believe He loves me. I believe He loves me and that's all I need to know. I believe in a peace that rules over trials and storms and fear that can be so cruel. I believe in a wind that blows, In a Holy Ghost and His fire is consuming me. I believe He loves me. I believe He loves me. I believe He loves me and that’s all I need to know.
(United Pursuit Band, “Believe”)

A Poem to welcome in the New Year...

Something I wrote this month, and my final entry for 2010:

Guarded with My Name

Breathe upon my lids
With the kiss of creative dreams.
Where what's not becomes
And I feast upon realities,
Intricacies,
Beyond scope or memory.
Unleash upon the senses
A cacophony;
The untold fragrance,
Secret sounds,
Myriad delineations
Of light and hue,
Liquid gold more sweet than honey,
Texturization to stimulate the soul.
Awaken my spirit to the locked treasures
You've guarded with my name;
That I might know, with first light's kiss
A new facet,
An unlocking of you and me
Married in creativity.

That Time again

It’s that time of the year again! Yep, you guessed it: Missions Prep! (Hahaha, you thought I was going to say Christmas, didn’t you? Gotcha! ☺)

As many of you know, for the past two years, I’ve travelled to the UK as part of Bethel’s March Missions students send out. I’ve learned so much during these trips. I’ve made connections with people who are like family to me, I’ve seen amazing miracles and Muslim salvations, I’ve grown in leadership and imparted prophetic arts. And that’s just a little of what happened! For more info, you can look at my archived reports from the trips.

Despite my love for the UK and the trip there, I felt God drawing me away from England for my trip this year. I know. It’s sad. I’m super bummed. My heart aches at the thought that I won’t be there with my friends in March to see the city once again impacted. But I know God has a purpose in it all and will send the right people to bless my friends. I’m going to live vicariously through them!

Instead, I’m excited to go to Tecate, Mexico this year with my intern mentor, Ben Armstrong. I’m going to be helping Ben lead the team, so I know that I’m going to grow and be stretched once again! This trip will be completely different from the last two years! For me, it is revisiting missions as I first experienced it, when I travelled to Honduras in 1994. As with Honduras, I won’t be packing my best clothes. I’ll be getting my hands dirty, taking bucket showers, trying to speak Spanish (yikes!) and loving on the destitute. We will be working with an organization called Rancho De Sus Ninos, which runs an orphanage, and I’m so excited to love on the kids! Love—that’s the one thing I know that translates wherever you go. Maybe what I’m doing isn’t so different as the last two years after all….

I am blessed this year because I’m already paid in full for the trip. Yay! Thank you, Jesus! However, I’m very much in need of prayer partners for the journey! Would you consider praying for us? If you would like to partner with me in this, shoot me an email letting me know. I’d like to thank you personally. I will be posting updates on prayer points as we get closer to our travel date. Any insight you gain as you pray for our team would be greatly appreciated, too.

If you have itchy giving pockets and you are looking for a place to donate, you can still donate to the team fund. There are plenty who will need contributions to make their trip payments. That goes for this trip as well as the other 50 or so trips going out in March. Just contact me if you are interested, and I’ll let you know how you can be a part. ☺

Looking forward to sharing the news of what God does this year as all the students go out!

The Grindstone and Other News

It has been too long since I’ve updated this blog! Where does the time go? Haha, I think you’ll figure that out real soon!

School has been in full swing for a few months now, and I’m swamped! Little did I know just how crazy it would be when Andy and I got back from our UK trip. I’m overdosing on training meetings, one-on-one meetings with kids in our group, and lots of homework grading. And that is just MY school stuff!

Abby is playing basketball this year for the first time. Yay! She is learning and growing in skill with every practice and game. She’s on a “B” team, which means she doesn’t play as much in the real games. But the coach organizes scrimmages for them after the real games, so she always plays in those. Just today, they had a game and she got two rebounds and a steal in two quarters of play! That’s my girl!

Between basketball and dance, Abby stays busy. Plus, the workload in fifth grade is way more intense. Science has become her Achilles’ heel. Pray for her to understand and retain the information, as the whole class is struggling with it. Despite that fact, though, she was able to get on the Principle’s List after the first quarter! I’m so proud of her!

Jonathan, too, made the Principle’s List! Yay!! This is huge for him, as he usually has issues with keeping his grades up. He’s totally smart enough to ace the material, but has problems with listening and organization. So far, though, he’s made a concerted effort to improve in these areas and it looks like it is paying off! Now, he is focusing on raising support for his first ever missions trip! The 8th grade class goes to La Paz, Mexico in May. So exciting!

Becca has been enjoying school so much. She got sick one day and cried because she had to miss class! Hahaha, so cute! Just this past holiday break, she got the privilege of taking home Jolly, the class stuffed pony. Oh, the adventures Jolly got to experience as we celebrated Thanksgiving and decorated for Christmas! Becca is sad to see her go.

Andy and I are still reveling in our trip to the UK. What an amazing time! We LOVED every part of the country and had such fun connecting with old friends. Andy finally got to meet my British family, the Nundy’s. We hung out with them for a few days and laughed hard. I think Andy’s favorite part of the trip, though, was the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It was so gorgeous! Beautiful mountains, crystal blue lochs, sheep dotting the hillside, green grassy cliffs with cascading waterfalls, and the wonderful smell of peat in the air! Ah, perfection! We still have to sort through our photos from the trip, but I’ll post a few favorites once we do!

So now, Andy and I are turning our faces to the future. What comes next? Do we stay in Redding? Do we move? If so, where? What about England? Questions, questions. We are trying to tune into what God is telling us. So, in an effort to do that, we have decided to fast for 20 days. From December 1-20, Andy and I are fasting to know what God has for us. If we are staying here, we need to know soon, as we will have to file applications for Jonathan’s high school. Our deadline to decide is New Year’s. We want to start the new year with a solid direction and game plan. Will you pray for us as we do this fast? Pray for us to jointly hear from God and to make wise decisions. We appreciate it!

Tomorrow is the end of our Thanksgiving break. Ah, back to the grindstone…

Epic excitement

Andy has been working really hard lately. He's got a conference for work next week, and they are trying to finish some things for it. But Andy is not getting worn out. Andy is excited. Me, too. I think it has something to do with the fact that after the conference we are going on vacation!!!!

Andy and I will be headed to Boston over the weekend. We are looking forward to seeing some old friends who live in New Haven, Connecticut, too. After his three day work conference (during which I get to explore Boston and Newburyport, an artsy town), we are flying to the UK! Can you say whoopie? We are going to explore quite a bit of the UK during our stay. We will see Stonehenge, visit friends in Salisbury, visit friends in the Leeds area, go up to the Isle of Skye in Scotland, see Edinburgh, and wrap up in London.

I'm basically taking every single camera I own. Forget the fact that I haven't shot with film in who knows how long. I'll totally go back. I'm even taking my medium format for some fun square pictures. I'm hoping that I have a plethora of beauty to display upon my return.

A friend of ours told me the other day that it sounded like a second or third honeymoon. Forget that. It's way better than our honeymoon! We only went to Ft. Lauderdale for that. This is Andy's first trip to the land I love. This is epic.

A new year

So, I haven't been the best blogger this summer. Oops. Despite the fact that school is out and vacation sets in, I still seem to find plenty to fill the hours. But, it is a new year (for school, anyway. Unless you go by the Jewish calendar. Then it's an actual new year. Their new year just started on the 9th.). It is time for me to rev it up again.

So....
Tomorrow is BSSM's 1st year registration!!

you: Um, Sonya, didn't you already do 1st year?
me: Why, yes. Yes, I have.
you: So, why are you so jazzed about registration?
me: Cause I'm interning in 1st year this year!!

Yep, you heard it. I'm so excited to be interning with one of the revival group pastors in 1st year this fall. God totally orchestrated the whole deal and it all came together at the end of August. I'm eagerly awaiting what He has in store for me, though. I can see how He's worked in this, and why He has placed me where He has. It's going to be a great year!

School starts on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to all the eager faces crowding the halls, tripling the line to Hebrews (the coffee shop), and worshiping with gusto on that day. I'm also excited cause our group has a different schedule this year, so I'll be home earlier twice a week. That's more time with my kiddos. :)

Speaking of the kids, they have already settled into their new school year. Jonathan's in eighth grade! Yikes, he's getting too old! He's thrilled to be on the worship team for chapel as a drummer this year. Even more thrilling, though, is the new worship pastor, Mr. Chadney. Mr. Chadney comes all the way from Scotland and just happens to be the dad of a new friend of Jonathan's from the summer!

Abby's loving the new year, too. She's in fifth grade and finally gets to do one elective each week. She's picked drama class, of course. She's super happy to be in Mrs. Tiffany's class. Mrs. Tiffany created and directed the play that Abby was in last spring. Abby is also still going strong with dance. This year, she gets to be in the "Aspiring" dance class. This is an after school class that is the best of the best at Bethel. She's the only one in her class who is in it. While this makes her a bit sad, she can't deny the honor it gives. She's hoping to build lots of strength in her ankles, as Miss Morken said she might get to go on pointe after her birthday if she's strong enough.

Becca has had enough of the big kids having all the fun, so she's going to pre-k two mornings a week. She was giddy with excitement the first day! Her best friend, Sadie, is also in her class, so Becca lives for the days she's at school. She has two amazing teachers who have already been bragging on her, so I'm thrilled, too. :)

So, I should probably get to bed. It's late. Too late, considering the time my alarm is set for. Early hours of the morning late. I'm not sure if it is the excitement I have for tomorrow or the snoring coming from my bedroom that keeps me up. But it is time to go revisit my pillows and see if dreamland can come at last. Good night, world, and happy new year! :)