A Year in Review 2015

It’s hard to believe that this year is finally drawing to a close. But then again, I find myself saying that at the end of every year! There have been a lot of good things that have happened this year. But what interesting about many of these good and awesome things as I look back on them is that I didn’t expect most of them to happen. If you had told me a year before that some of this stuff was going to happen, especially the things I became in charge of, I might have laughed at you or been uncertain that I could. But I am so grateful for each and every one of these experiences, as I know that many of them are shaping me into the person I am becoming.
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Although I originally planned to do a “Top Ten” sort of list, what I discovered is that there were a couple of categories of events that repeated itself in different ways throughout the year. So this list contains ten of these categories, but under these categories there may be several different events listed. There are also some events that I have written about in more detail on different blog posts, so I will link those posts after I describe the event. This will give those of you that haven’t caught all of these stories a chance to catch up. This will also give details to a few events that I wanted to write about, but I either ran out of time or didn’t think there was enough detail to write a whole post about it. There are also not in any exact order or ranking. I hope that you are able to see how blessed this last year of my life has been. Here we go:

1) Writing and Directing The Door (An Easter Drama)

​In January of last year, my dad (aka my church’s senior minister) asked me if I was interested in writing and directing an Easter drama for my church to be performed on Easter Sunday. I had only worked on writing small skits and hadn’t directed anything other than kid’s musicals, but I knew it was something I really wanted to do. When we started working on the script and trying to find a different angle for the Easter Story, it turned out to be about the resurrection appearances of Jesus that happened on the Sunday after He rose. We titled it The Door, which is referring to the fact that when Jesus first appeared among his disciples, he got into the room despite the fact the doors were locked. Although my dad did guide me and assisted some in writing the script, the rest of responsibility or delegation was left on me.

First Scene, the women telling Peter, James, and John what they saw at the tomb

Second Scene, after Jesus proved it was him, he explained that he predicted this would happen

There were so many things about doing this drama that I enjoyed. Writing and researching for the script was one of my favorites. It was awesome to get into the accounts of the resurrection of Jesus and translate it into dialogue. I also enjoyed working with the actors. They were an enjoyable group of people to work with. They were also patient and understanding as I was trying to learn how to direct and block scenes properly. I also had a few people that helped with behind the scenes work that were awesome. I think I may write a little more detail about it around Easter this coming year, but this drama was such a great ministry opportunity that I enjoyed so much.

The Door. Aren't we so clever with our titles, lol

An example of the nail scar makeup I did for Jesus' hands and feet. I had a lot of fun doing it

A funny picture of all but one of the cast members and a few crew members for The Door. lol

2) Summer Ministry Opportunities

I had two main ministry opportunities over this summer. The first was to work on worship planning with my friend Sarah. My dad approached us about planning worship services at the beginning of the summer, because it would give him a break from doing it and give us an opportunity to use our talents in that area. We loved the idea and enjoyed working with each other. I had worked with planning services with my dad as well as on my internship, but it was nice to work on planning with someone else. Plus, out of all the things I’ve been trained to do in music ministry, the planning of worship services is one of my favorite things to do.
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The second opportunity was to be the music leader for our VBS program. For many years, it was my mom doing music with me as her assistant. But since my mom was Assistant Director this year, I was chosen to be in charge of music for the first time. I had the opportunity to work with a few junior high age girls as my helpers and we had a lot of fun. It was another great opportunity I was blessed to have.

Leading songs during VBS was fun!

Had so much fun with these girls

​I also had the chance to be involved in honoring my dad for his 15th anniversary at the church. They had a potluck for him and there were some notes and letters people had written to my dad that we had the chance to read out loud. It was a blessing to know how much my dad’s ministry has touched others’ lives. That’s part of my motivation for wanting to make ministry into a vocation someday. It was a very special day.

The cake for my dad at anniversary potluck

3) Event Planning

​I was also given the opportunity to be in charge of two events at my church over this last year. The first was a free screening of the movie Ragamuffin, the film about the life of Rich Mullins. Although we didn’t have a ton of people come to this screening, it was a lot of fun to get to show a movie that not only impacted me, but has also impacted the lives of many others who have seen it. I was so blessed to be able to share it in this way.

[To read my review of the movie, click here]

​I also got to be in charge of coordinating the Anima Series Tour. You may have already heard me talk about this event, but it was awesome that my church’s leadership not only granted permission for this event to happen at our building, but they trusted me to cover all the other details like advertising. It was much more involved than the movie screening and it was great challenge to put everything together and support one of my favorite YouTube channels in the process.

4) Being in Mary Poppins the Musical

​I had the blessing of getting to be in the KVTA production of Mary Poppins this fall as a member of the adult ensemble in October. It was so much fun! I hadn’t had the chance to be in a theatrical production of that scale since college. It was also a Disney musical I've loved since I was a little girl. It was great production with such a fantastic cast. Everyone encouraged and supported each other in a special way. Being in Mary Poppins was an experience I won’t forget.

My favorite costume

[To read more about my experience in Mary Poppins, click here]

5) Christmas Unwrapped

I also had the chance to be involved in my church’s Christmas production. In the past, we did a program we called Bethlehem Walk, in which we recreated a first-century marketplace and had a short nativity presentation. We decided that we needed to make some changes, so we created a new program called Christmas Unwrapped. We basically made the nativity presentation longer and more detailed, and then condensed the marketplace to just a few booths. We also inverted their locations in the building. We wanted the focus to be on the story of Jesus, and we felt this was a better way to do this.

My costume

​In addition to being the youngest person on the leadership team, I was part of the nativity drama as singer in costume. I sang the song “Mary Did You Know?” just after they reveal the baby. Aside from enjoying the opportunity to perform this powerful song, it was also a small dream come true. You see, I’d watched my mom sing in the nativity presentation for Bethlehem Walk for years, which made me want to do the same. But I had not had the chance. It was either that someone was more qualified than me to sing, or I was away at college and couldn’t come home that weekend. I was so excited when it was finally decided that I would sing one of the two songs we had in the drama for Christmas Unwrapped. It was such a great experience.

Cast picture for Christmas Unwrapped

6) Befriending Angela

​Over this last year, I’ve had the privilege of making a close friend. At the time and stage I’m at in life, it’s hard to find friends that you are able to hang out with consistently. But I had the chance to get to know Angela over this last year and it has been such an awesome blessing to my life. Aside from our shared love of Disney, we also are at a similar place in our lives and have been able to encourage one another as we figure out what God wants for our futures. 

​[To read the story of how I met Angela, along with other funny stories of how other friendship started, click here]

7) Social Media Teams

​Something I got to experience for the first time this year was being involved with social media teams. It was awesome to be involved with using social media for something constructive and getting to connect with new people along the way. Throughout the year, I was a part of three teams, all of which have blessed me in different ways.

​Pulling Back the Shades Book Team 

This team was not only to promote this book, but also to bring awareness to the issues related to the use of erotica and the Fifty Shades of Grey series. Pulling Back the Shades had been out for a few years, but Authentic Intimacy wanted to have a book team help them around the time the Fifty Shades of Grey movie came out (Valentine’s Day). I was so blessed to connect with this group of over 300 women from all over the world that united in order to declare the truth about the way that God designed intimacy. Something else that I appreciated was that it brought awareness to a social issue that I really didn’t know anything about until I read the Pulling Back the Shades, and helped me find a passion to declare the truth about God’s plan for intimacy. It also helped me get into writing more, both on this blog and in writing spoken word poetry.

[To read my review of Pulling Back the Shades, click here]
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[To read my post debunking the arguments in favor of the Fifty Shades series, click here]

​It’s Not What You Think Book Launch Team ​

This team is promoting the launch of a book from one of a favorite authors and YouTubers, Jefferson Bethke. This book is meant to help Christians view traditional understandings of our faith from a new perspective, taking much of what we understand about Christianity and turning it on its head. I found this book to be so challenging and inspiring.

​Aside from the fun of connecting with Jeff (the author) on social media, it has been a blessing to connect with others on this book team. I also got to read the book before its release and review it by the day it came out. Jeff even read my review and liked it! It was pretty awesome to be involved in spreading the message of such a powerful book. Everyone should read this book if they haven't!

[To read my review of It’s Not What You Think, click here]

​Ragamuffins Street Team

This team was a little different from the other ones. Our primary purpose was to support and promote the upcoming film Brennan, about the life of Brennan Manning. This film is coming from the same people that made the film Ragamuffin that I mentioned earlier. In fact, that screening was done in promotion of the next film. It has been awesome to see what God has been doing as the filmmakers have been working on the movie Brennan. I can’t wait to see what will happen when this movie releases this year.

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8) Meeting/Connecting With Famous People I Admire

​As I have been looking back through this year, I have been surprised about how many people that I admire that I have met or connected with over this last year. I would consider them famous in my book, but then again I guess it depends on how you define fame. Anyway, here’s some of the stories of how it happened:

Bob Goff

Bob is the author of the bestselling book, Love Does. I got to hear him speak at Parkview Christian Church on December 4, and had such a great time listening to him. He's very engaging speaker and laughs at his own stories in an amusing way. Then, I got to meet him and have him sign my book. He gave me a hug, as he does with everyone he meets. Although our meeting was brief, I found him to be one of the most joyful people I’ve ever met. I would even say his joy was contagious. He has a million stories to tell and a heart full of Christ’s love. Although I have not read his book yet, I am looking forward to doing so this year. I enjoyed meeting him so much.

Dave Mullins

Dave is the youngest brother of late Christian artist Rich Mullins. Not only has he carried on much of his brother’s work, but he was also one of the producers of the Ragamuffin film and is involved in the Brennan film too. What was so crazy about meeting him was that it was totally unexpected! I was at Christian convention in Cincinnati in June when my parents and I ended up going to a dinner on the campus of Cincinnati Christian University, where Rich Mullins attended college. As I was eating, I was looking at the crowd when I noticed him walking around. After looking at him for a minute, I was sure it was him and I told my parents, “That’s Rich Mullins little brother!” When I saw where he sat down, I took the opportunity to introduce myself and to thank for carrying on the work of his brother. It was pretty awesome.

[To read more about the impact Dave's brother Rich Mullins has had on my life, click here]

Jefferson Bethke

Jeff is the author of the book It’s Not What You Think that I mentioned earlier, but he’s also one of my favorite YouTubers and spoken word poets. I initially connected with him by being on his book team. But then I got hear him speak in two chapel services at Olivet Nazarene University on his book tour. I met him after the first chapel service on October 27th. It was kind of crazy to think that he knew who I was when I told him my name. He also signed my books. He’s such a great guy whose passionate about his faith and wise beyond his years. I was so blessed to have gotten to meet him after being a fan for about three years.

[To read more about meeting Jeff, click here] ​​

Jon Jorgenson

Jon is another author, YouTuber, and spoken word poet that I admire. Not only did I get to meet Jon and his wife Erin, but they came to my home church to do a show on the first tour of Jon’s YouTube channel, The Anima Series (which I mentioned earlier), on October 13th. Although I had connected online with Jon about a year and a half before, this was the first time we met in person. It was almost surreal to finally meeting him after talking with him online for so long. He’s such an awesome guy who’s real with everyone he knows, passionate about declaring God’s truth, and faithful with the opportunities he’s been given. I’ve learned so much from his example. Out of all the people I met this year, I probably enjoyed meeting Jon the most.

[To read more about the story of how I met Jon, click here]

Dannah Gresh & Dr. Juli Slattery

Although I have still not met these ladies in person, I was blessed to connect with them through the book team for their book, Pulling Back the Shades. I’ve been a huge fan of Dannah’s books for a while, but I didn’t know much about Juli until I read the book. What I love about them both is that they are passionate about declaring God’s truth about sexuality and encouraging women to pursue God’s best through His plan for their sexuality. As part of the book team, I got to participate in two Google chats with them. I also interacted with them some on social media. A few weeks after our commitment on the book team was finished, my mom when to the Hearts at Home Convention where she not only met these two ladies, but she actually got to be Dannah’s speaker assistant! Although I was kind of bummed I didn’t get to meet them in person, I did get a few autographs out of the deal.

9) Writing More Spoken Word Poetry

Although I did publish my first spoken word poem on YouTube in 2014, I have had the opportunity to develop my skills as a spoken word poet with the release of two more poems in 2015. At the beginning of the year, I wouldn’t have called myself a spoken word poet. Aside from my one poem, I never intended to write another one. But when I found myself on the book team for Pulling Back the Shades, I felt the conviction to use this ability to bring awareness to the topics discussed in the book. As it turns out, it has been my most popular poem I’ve released so far, thanks to some of the members of the book team sharing it.

​After this I still went several months without writing another one, until I remember a topic I was passionate about – modesty. I had done so much research on the subject and knew it so well that I knew I wanted to write a poem about it. It took me a few months to get around to filming it even after I wrote it, but it was so worth it to me. Although it still hasn’t gotten very many views, I know that for now, it’s important for me to be faithful in the little things.

​After all this, I have started to think of myself as a spoken word poet. I hope and pray that God will be able to use this talent I’ve discovered for His glory in the future as I figure out the best way to use it for Him.

10) Blogging

​It’s hard to me to believe that I have been writing on this blog for a year now, and have written about 35 posts. Blogging and writing is something I’d wanted to do for a long time, but just never got around to doing it. But I finally came across a website builder I was happy with, I decided to start writing when I felt led to write. When I became a member of the Pulling Back the Shades book team last January, I started trying to publish a post every Friday. Although I haven’t always kept up with that, this did at least get me into some sort of routine. Now, I’m getting to the point where it feels like something is off if I go too long without writing something. This is something that I hope to keep doing for a long time to come.

Final Thoughts

​There you have it. These were some of the highlights of my year. Of course there were other good things that have happened as well as bad things that have come to pass in 2015. But through it all, the Lord has been there with me, either blessing me directly or blessing me by being present in the difficult times. I hope this will be the same next year, and for every year as long as I live. I hope that all of you are able to find the same thing. I also hope that you might continue to share in my journey through life by reading my future blog posts or subscribing to my YouTube channel. I appreciate those of you that have. There are some good things to come in this next year, so stay tuned!

Happy New Year!

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