a bit of paper, yarn & paint

So as stated in my earlier post this year, I've dedicated to at least creating something once a week. If it wasn't for my work environment, being exposed to arts and crafts of all mediums, I'd be screwed.

How many times have I gone on Pinterest and pinned endless amounts of pins for my [board]...and have done nothing?

A coworker of mine gave me the extra push to set out and just create.

Here's a look of what I've been creating thus far:

I helped my sister-in-laws and mother-in-law throw a beautiful, retro-style baby shower for my sister-in-law, Tamara. The theme was Mustache Bash, a popular favorite on Pinterest. Though it was post acid trauma, I still managed the energy to help out with decorations. Creating the banners were especially my favorites!

For one of my upcoming issues, Haute Handbags, I asked some of the editors and photographers to with me in creating altered totes for an upcoming challenge. I was super super nervous and stressed, afraid of what the outcome would look like. Despite the disadvantage of time, I was able to create this guy. Hopefully sometime in the future, I'll add some other embellishments before I can comfortably walk around with it.

My friend Bri aka Big Bri had her birthday a couple of weeks ago. Also her and her friend Dannah started a new wedding consultation company called Cafe I Do. So to celebrate her 23rd year of birth and her new endeavor, I made these little guys. I bought most of this stuff from my company's Shoppe at Somerset. 

I've been getting into calligraphy and doodling lately. Maybe I'll put some more on here. Eek.

Yesu Wakanaka (Jesus is very Good)

Dear Family & Friends,

This coming July, we are amazingly blessed to return to Mozambique. We have the opportunity to lead a team of Vanguard University students to serve on a three-week mission trip. As you probably know, God has placed Mozambique on our hearts for the past seven years. Through our trips there, God has revealed so much of His presence to and love for us in ways that still resonate today. We have been praying for the past two years for God to provide an opportunity to return to this beautiful place we’ve called our second home. We are so excited to obey God’s call to mission in a place that has already been such a blessing to us.

Throughout Scripture, we see that God’s heart is broken for those who need Him the most — the poor and the forgotten. He has called His followers to be His hands and feet to reach the orphans and widows of our world. This trip to Mozambique provides us the opportunity to play a part in God’s story by partnering with a ministry that is dedicated to caring for and nurturing orphans.

We will be working with Iris Ministries at the Centro Arco-Iris Machava located outside of the capitol city, Maputo. They are steadfastly committed to living our greatest commandment: love God with everything by loving all people. They have over 10 centers across Mozambique that provide homes for orphans, healthcare for the sick, and food for the hungry, all while spreading the Good News (They are affiliated with over 10,000 churches!). For more information about Iris, click here. The center in Machava is first and foremost an orphanage. They currently house and support over 80 children from the ages 4 to 18. Secondly, the center is the church for the surrounding community and has lived out the Gospel there in life-changing ways for the last 15 years. Lastly, the center is a community school that is currently educating over 400 students. The heart of the center is to be a blessing to a poverty-stricken community. God truly has His hand on this place.

As a team, we will be involved in the following aspects:

• Church. There will be opportunities to share testimonies, take part in leading worship, share the Word, and perform skits.
• Outreach. Several times during the week, we will be visiting the community through prayer walks and local church outreaches. We will be participating in the monthly service called Som do Céu (Sound of Heaven) in Maputo. We will visit the site of a future center located in Catembe, an area where they are laying the ground work for a church/orphanage plant.
• Education. We will be a resource to the school on a daily basis ranging from teaching Bible lessons to assisting the teachers in any way.  
• Children. Our most common action will be spending time with the kids. Our goal is to build relationships and to love them unconditionally as Christ would have us do. 

In order to go, we each need to raise approximately $3,800. This amount will cover ground transportation, food, supply costs, and ministry expenses. We will need both prayerful and financial support throughout this process, and we are writing to ask you to prayerfully consider whether or not God would have you be one such supporter. We would greatly appreciate your financial assistance, and hope you would consider contributing towards the necessary funds. However, we covet your prayers even more so. We truly believe in the power of prayer, and would ask that you would partner with us in that aspect of the trip.

We look forward to what God is going to do in and through us on this journey. We trust that He’s going to use us for His ends, and we are excited that you get to be a part of it. God has called all of us to play a part in His Story, and we look forward to sharing what He is doing in Machava, Mozambique.

For His Glory,

Brian & Christine Stephens

If you do choose to financially support us, you may do so in one of the following ways: 

***Write a check, payable to Vanguard University, add a note with our names in it, and mail it to the following address:

Vanguard University

Attn: Outreach Ministries

55 Fair Dr.

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

OR

***Contribute to our team online by filling out our 3-step online secure form on Vanguard University's website.

All donations to our team are tax-deductible as allowed by law, and to aide in the issuance of receipts, please do not write our names anywhere on the check, if you choose this payment method. If you choose to pay online, please type our names in the box labeled “Team Member Name.”

fishers of men

As I mentioned before on my post here, Brian & I will be returning to Mozambique in the summer leading a team of amazing Vanguard college students and alumni. Last weekend we camped out in the beautiful area of Lake Cachuma located in Santa Barbara. Despite the oh-so-cold/freezing weather, it was a weekend filled with team bonding, ministry, and observing God's creation.

There were times during the weekend that I stood back and watched our team. My heart filled with joy as I tried to hold back tears. I feel blessed to be a part of this team that God put together. I now see why He made us wait...

It was to take these amazing people on this journey, to walk with them through trials and joys, and to celebrate what God is doing in our lives.

From Left to Right
Alex & Camille McClure, Maggie Carranza, Korynn Whitaker, Naomi Rivas, Liz Guevara,  me & the hubs

thoughts on a quarter of a century.

A few weeks ago, I turned 25.

For once I almost forgot it was my birthday. The week prior to turning a quarter of a century, I was balancing two jobs, preparing for our Mozambique team meeting, involved with church, etc. I knew the day was coming; I just didn't have time to "enjoy" my final days as 24.

I've also come to a realization that I'm not a fan of my birthday. Maybe it's because of age. Or maybe I'm just realizing how silly of an idea that is. We invite people to spend the day with us, to spend money going out with us, to buy presents for us ... to celebrate the day of our birth. Pretty selfish right? I was almost tempted to not have a birthday dinner; a part of me just wanted to rest and do nothing.

But as many people reminded me, 25 is big deal. It is one of those monumental markers. So, despite my original plans, I had a dinner; I kept it simple, had some of my favorite people with me, and, of course, had some grub.

Despite how January started off crazy, I have a good feeling about this year. 25, get ready for this one!

(And yes, after two years of begging my hubs finally bought me a banjo.)

here's to 2013.

So this year kicked off to rocky start.

Woke up around 4am with pretty intense stomach pains/pressure...only to find out 6 hours later that my stomach acid was burning the lining of my stomach (sorry, tmi).

But nonetheless, I'm looking positive towards this year.

I wrote goals for myself at the beginning of last year (for me goals sound better than resolutions). All of the goals I wrote down were health-related (eat more fruits & veggies, run a 5k, exercise every week, etc). That seems to be the constant theme everyone has. 

This year, I want to try something different. Instead a list of a bunch of things to check off in 2013, I want to be more intentional on several goals and make it a part of my everyday way of living.

Jesus time.

Obvious one. I haven't done a good job at this for a while. This is my main priority, specifically with prayer. I want to spend more time in prayer, more focused on God's guidance in my life & more sensitive to the Holy Spirit. It's easy to just get through the day, be stuck in routines, and forget/ignore about what God is doing. I'm going to start a prayer training course with my husband this month at RockHarbor. I think a part of a reason why I don't pray as much as I should is because I'm not comfortable. It's hard for me to share & admit, but it's true. And I really think this course will help me grow & challenge me in my prayer walk. 

Create one thing every week for yourself or someone you love.

I borrowed this one from Apple Blue, and I actually encourage anyone out there to do this as well. I love arts & crafts. I love all things handmade. I have bins filled with twine, patterned paper, puffy paint, die-cuts, etc.; I admit, I'm an avid craft hoarder :( I figured since I work for an arts & crafts publication, it's time for me to grow a pair and start creating with the goodies I've bought over the years. Maybe I'll have the courage to post it on this thing.

Me time.

I'm a pretty busy person. You can always find me writing in my planner. If I'm not doing anything, I'll find something to do...ask my roomies. Even if I'm sick, I'll still have the energy to wash the dishes or clean/fix something in the apartment. I've been this way since high school; it all started with being involved in so many extracurricular activities and has now worked its way to bringing work home, planning some event, and being more involved in church these days. There's been several times this year that I went to meltdown/panic mode because I was constantly doing something right after the other. Whether it's going to Barnes & Noble and sifting through magazines, being by myself at home than finding friends to hang out, or even taking a nap once in a while, I'm going to work hard to find that time for me.

Read books.

In high school, I actually LOVED reading. Not so much these days. You can easily find me collecting books from family & friends saying that I would "read" them ("read" is also code word for "sitting on the shelf collecting dust") or even reading a chapter from different books. I'm inspired by my husband. Brian loves books...like really LOVES books. We have a library in our living room...and it keeps on growing. It would be nice to read at my own leisure instead of watching TV or spending three hours on Pinterest. 

inadequate

inadequate (adj)

not adequate; lacking the quality or quantity required; insufficient for a purpose 

[synonyms: inapt, incompetent, defective, imperfect, incomplete]

I've been feeling like this for the past month and a half. I'm only 24 years old, and I've been given the biggest responsibility: a Managing Editor for three magazine titles. When I was given the position, I was TERRIFIED. Me? Editor? No way....what? I had to learn things along the way, how the process went. For two weeks straight, I worked non-stop just trying to catch up and learning the ins and outs. Instead of celebrating this promotion, I was stressed, stressed, stressed. I wanted everything to be perfect; but instead, there was always something wrong or something that needed to be fixed.

I kept reminding myself of the story of Gideon, how God used an unlikely person to further His Kingdom. In the case of Gideon, he was just a farmer who had no intentions to do more than he was comfortable doing. But then one day, God called him to defeat the Midianites. Gideon was straight up scared and unprepared for the task that was given to him. Without any experience in an army, how was a small, young farmer going to defeat this group of people? God was with him along the way. Even when Gideon was left to lead an army of 300 people, his faith didn't shatter. He followed everything that God told him to do, and in the end God's army won.

God uses our weaknesses to show how great and powerful He is. Our faiths are tested when we solely rely on His strength. And when we allow him to use us, we are forever transformed. Gideon is one of many amazing stories where God uses ordinary people for extraordinary things.

As I noted in my "Letter from the Editor," we just need a little faith and dive right in. I think about all the things God has thrown into my life where I thought, "Why me?" When I was given this promotion, the same question ran through my head. Why me? Why give this role to someone who graduated from a small university? Why now?

Because it's part of God's story. This is part of my journey. Just need a little faith.

our next adventure

God has been revealing a lot to us…especially within the last month. Before I begin to tell you what He’s done, let’s back track a bit…

Since we've been married, we really haven't been living out the Gospel. Not to say we have been straying away from our faith, but to be quite honest, we have not been pursuing God in an intentional way. It’s very easy for us to live life filled with routines; Routines are not bad at all – it's when we've become defined by them and allow them to dictate how we carry on life versus asking God for guidance. Within the last year, we decided it needed to change: we got more involved with church, viewed our jobs as ministries not as identities, and viewed these pauses/delays in our lives as God's way of preparing us something beyond what we know.

Over a month ago, Brian and I were asked if we wanted to lead a team to Mozambique through Vanguard University. Obviously, my desire is to go back, and I would've said yes right away. But since Brian and I have been in this season of waiting on God, we knew we needed to pray about it. Not only did we pray about the trip, but prayed about where God is leading us. During those same weeks, Brian and I had really tough conversations about next summer; we knew we wanted to go on a missions trip, but we both had conflicting hearts when it came to it: I wanted to go back to Mozambique (leading or not leading), and Brian felt more opened to going on a missions trip outside Mozambique via ROCKHARBOR (rockharbor.org), but still had Mozambique in the back of his mind. There was the possibility that if Brian didn't felt called to go, I could lead the team by myself…or we go somewhere else. There was also the stress of requesting three weeks off; it’s not often that companies would allow for an extended vacation. So imagine two weeks filled with lots of praying, crying (well just me, of course), talking and talking…and you get the gist of it all.

At the end of those two weeks, God answered. He called us back to Mozambique; He called us to lead a team there; and He called us to do it together.

By God’s will, we were able to take off 18 days; the conversations we had with our bosses were filled with ease, and not so much of what he had predicted would happen. We both felt that even though the idea of going somewhere else was something we were opened to, we knew that God was opening a door for us to return back to Mozambique this upcoming summer. Since we’ve been together, I had always imagined both of us doing missions together. VBS, in a way, was the stepping stone we needed to get back into ministry. It definitely reawakened our desire to do God's work in our community, but also reawakened our heart for ministry overseas.

So for the next nine months, we will be preparing for this adventure. Excited? Yes. Anxious? Yes. Nervous? Absolutely. But we know that this is where God is calling us; He wouldn’t have given us something that we couldn’t handle.

We don't know how involved in missions we will be – be a missionary, help send people to missions, or lead small trips. Either way, we are confident that ministry is a huge part in our lives, and we want to obey God in all of it.

For now, this is where He has us.

We're heading back home.