??-2009: in loving memory, i will miss you and your crazy ways!
you were the best dog EVER!!!
Monday, September 28, 2009
in memory...
??-2009: in loving memory, i will miss you and your crazy ways!
you were the best dog EVER!!!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
first week of tour is completed!!
welp, week one is finished. i am exhausted, but it has been great!! just wanted to let you all in on the adventures that have been had on the first stretch of the journey!!
Here are both teams on the day we pulled out of the PWA driveway as both teams headed out to Memphis to do our first screenings together!
Left to Right: Emily, Kevin, Seth, Chris, KatJo, Me, and Robin.
After Memphis, kevin, chris, robin and i headed to louisville, kentucky. i had the privilege of driving the van, which was odd, only because i had only driven a few times since june and i have never driven anything that size but i handled her well. Our van is called "the white stallion" and the southeast team's van is called "white lightning" and when we drive together it is "thunder horse!" we thought we were brilliant :)
In Louisville, we did screenings at the University of Louisville, Bellarmine University, the Kentucky conference office of the UMC...then we hit the road and drove to Asbury College in good ole Wilmore, KY. i LOVED being there and getting to meet up with Jordan (who i spent the summer with in Tanzania) and i LOVED the students we met!! they were all so great and took us on a late night extravaganza of the wonders of wilmore! we went and saw the water tower with a cross on it, went to the reservoir, star tripped, climbed the train trestle over the train tracks and waited for a train (which sadly didn't come), went to the north pole, put our feet in the fountain on the seminary and hula hooped with john wesley. and of course, went to clucker's to get an Ale-8!
we spent a couple days in lexington and visited a couple churches before heading on to Virginia Tech and did a screening for the Wesley Foundation, they were fun too!
We then moved on to Richmond Virginia...my teammate chris is from there and so we are staying at his house. we did a screening with his home church yesterday and went to williamsburg to do a screening at William and Mary. After our screening one of the students walked us around colonial williamsburg which was really cool and also gave us a "ghost tour" of the haunted houses in the area. and of course which we are making a habit, hula hooped with thomas jefferson!
I am really loving being on the road and being able to share the stories of our friends in the film, but also to learn the stories of those we are meeting along the way and getting to share our own stories as well. i know this journey has only just begun and i am already amazed at God's work and i really believe that this movement with PrayWithAfrica can and WILL change the world, and knowing that I am a part of that is so humbling!
I would love to hear from you all!!! also, please visit praywithafrica.com and see how you can join our prayer community and begin to pray with others!
Here are both teams on the day we pulled out of the PWA driveway as both teams headed out to Memphis to do our first screenings together!
Left to Right: Emily, Kevin, Seth, Chris, KatJo, Me, and Robin.
After Memphis, kevin, chris, robin and i headed to louisville, kentucky. i had the privilege of driving the van, which was odd, only because i had only driven a few times since june and i have never driven anything that size but i handled her well. Our van is called "the white stallion" and the southeast team's van is called "white lightning" and when we drive together it is "thunder horse!" we thought we were brilliant :)
In Louisville, we did screenings at the University of Louisville, Bellarmine University, the Kentucky conference office of the UMC...then we hit the road and drove to Asbury College in good ole Wilmore, KY. i LOVED being there and getting to meet up with Jordan (who i spent the summer with in Tanzania) and i LOVED the students we met!! they were all so great and took us on a late night extravaganza of the wonders of wilmore! we went and saw the water tower with a cross on it, went to the reservoir, star tripped, climbed the train trestle over the train tracks and waited for a train (which sadly didn't come), went to the north pole, put our feet in the fountain on the seminary and hula hooped with john wesley. and of course, went to clucker's to get an Ale-8!
we spent a couple days in lexington and visited a couple churches before heading on to Virginia Tech and did a screening for the Wesley Foundation, they were fun too!
We then moved on to Richmond Virginia...my teammate chris is from there and so we are staying at his house. we did a screening with his home church yesterday and went to williamsburg to do a screening at William and Mary. After our screening one of the students walked us around colonial williamsburg which was really cool and also gave us a "ghost tour" of the haunted houses in the area. and of course which we are making a habit, hula hooped with thomas jefferson!
I am really loving being on the road and being able to share the stories of our friends in the film, but also to learn the stories of those we are meeting along the way and getting to share our own stories as well. i know this journey has only just begun and i am already amazed at God's work and i really believe that this movement with PrayWithAfrica can and WILL change the world, and knowing that I am a part of that is so humbling!
I would love to hear from you all!!! also, please visit praywithafrica.com and see how you can join our prayer community and begin to pray with others!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
pray with us...
the best part of booking is, hands down, meeting people either by phone or email. i am constantly amazed at the connections being made. this one in particular...
it started just like any other day since we started booking, well, maybe a little different than most because our air conditioner had been on the fritz for a few days and i remember being a little on the warm side. i was sitting at my desk, browsing google for churches, schools, coffeeshops, any cool place that might be interested in having us. sending out a plethora of emails and hitting refresh on my browser way too often, praying that i would have at least one reply and be able to put someone on our calendar. in the midst of all that, the phone rings. we have become accustomed to yelling out the area code from the caller id, because we are all responsible for different cities and we know our respective area codes. chris looked at me and said "410," and i sat up straight and said "oh! that's me!" we adjusted the phone to face me and I picked up the receiver with hopes of speaking with a potential contact and screening.
"pray with africa, this is nicole"...
on the other end of the line was Paul, from Baltimore, MD. he got my information from a gentleman, carlos, who is a youth pastor i had emailed the previous week. their church holds a ministry there called "Africa Needs U" and carlos gave him my name and number. awesome! so paul and i chatted about his ministry and i couldn't help but notice his accent, it's one i know very well and love the sound, i could tell he was from Africa...if his accent didn't give it away, his speech and depth of biblical knowledge and reference to at least a dozen scripture verses did.
He told me about a part of his ministry called "Africa Prays," which is held at carlos' church, and people meet to pray about issues and things on the news about the continent and it's people. luckily, we will be in Baltimore for their october meeting, and i pray that we will be able to hold a screening after their meeting and be a part of it. We talked more about Pray With Africa and each other as well.
He asked me if i had been to africa and i said yes, i have been to kenya, tanzania, and egypt. He responded with "asante sana" (swahili for thank you) and said that was great. i asked him where he was from (because he's been in the states for 24 years), and he asked me where i thought he was from. based on his use of swahili, i guessed kenya, and was wrong. he is from nigeria. we exchanged phone numbers and emails and spoke of hearing from each other soon, then just when i thought we were ready to say our goodbyes, he asked if he could just pray with me for a minute before we parted ways, so to speak. my heart swelled and i answered with an appreciative "yes." so, we spent the end of our 25min conversation in prayer. he prayed beautifully, the way i have only heard africans pray, and i was so humbled and thankful to God for allowing our stories and lives to connect and share in something so small, but so powerful.
i look forward to meeting paul in october and sharing our film and philosophy, but more importantly, i hope to share more of those intimate moments when believers drop their guards, and don't let barriers such as distance, culture, background, etc, keep them from being in community and lifting their voices in unison to the one who crafts such a beautiful tapestry of life, love, people and prayer.
it started just like any other day since we started booking, well, maybe a little different than most because our air conditioner had been on the fritz for a few days and i remember being a little on the warm side. i was sitting at my desk, browsing google for churches, schools, coffeeshops, any cool place that might be interested in having us. sending out a plethora of emails and hitting refresh on my browser way too often, praying that i would have at least one reply and be able to put someone on our calendar. in the midst of all that, the phone rings. we have become accustomed to yelling out the area code from the caller id, because we are all responsible for different cities and we know our respective area codes. chris looked at me and said "410," and i sat up straight and said "oh! that's me!" we adjusted the phone to face me and I picked up the receiver with hopes of speaking with a potential contact and screening.
"pray with africa, this is nicole"...
on the other end of the line was Paul, from Baltimore, MD. he got my information from a gentleman, carlos, who is a youth pastor i had emailed the previous week. their church holds a ministry there called "Africa Needs U" and carlos gave him my name and number. awesome! so paul and i chatted about his ministry and i couldn't help but notice his accent, it's one i know very well and love the sound, i could tell he was from Africa...if his accent didn't give it away, his speech and depth of biblical knowledge and reference to at least a dozen scripture verses did.
He told me about a part of his ministry called "Africa Prays," which is held at carlos' church, and people meet to pray about issues and things on the news about the continent and it's people. luckily, we will be in Baltimore for their october meeting, and i pray that we will be able to hold a screening after their meeting and be a part of it. We talked more about Pray With Africa and each other as well.
He asked me if i had been to africa and i said yes, i have been to kenya, tanzania, and egypt. He responded with "asante sana" (swahili for thank you) and said that was great. i asked him where he was from (because he's been in the states for 24 years), and he asked me where i thought he was from. based on his use of swahili, i guessed kenya, and was wrong. he is from nigeria. we exchanged phone numbers and emails and spoke of hearing from each other soon, then just when i thought we were ready to say our goodbyes, he asked if he could just pray with me for a minute before we parted ways, so to speak. my heart swelled and i answered with an appreciative "yes." so, we spent the end of our 25min conversation in prayer. he prayed beautifully, the way i have only heard africans pray, and i was so humbled and thankful to God for allowing our stories and lives to connect and share in something so small, but so powerful.
i look forward to meeting paul in october and sharing our film and philosophy, but more importantly, i hope to share more of those intimate moments when believers drop their guards, and don't let barriers such as distance, culture, background, etc, keep them from being in community and lifting their voices in unison to the one who crafts such a beautiful tapestry of life, love, people and prayer.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
hit the road...
greetings friends!
this next week is crunch week..all hands on deck week, if you will. the week where our days will most likely feel like they'll never end, but i am excited for it! our days will consist of booking our tour, continuing to get folks onto our calendar and building relationships with our contacts, rejoicing when we receive screening agreements. our evenings will consist of trainings. training on Audio/Visual equipment, individual roles and responsibilities on our teams, and any other last minute info we might need, and perfecting our speaking portions of a screening.
i am ready to be on the road and share this incredible film, philosophy, and movement with young people and adults alike. i really believe that Pray With Africa can and WILL change the world. i am almost moved to tears every time i remember how incredibly blessed i am to be a part of this, and help build the foundations of something i feel so passionate about.
please take a minute to watch the trailer to our film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Jl_Ez7_RI
it's amazing and i know i speak for all of us PWA'ers when i say how thankful we are to have Austin Flack (filmmaker, editor, and all around crazy fun guy) as a part of our community. We have had the great privilege to meet him this week and spend time getting to know him. today we spent a little time shooting some promotional videos, never really been filmed before but it was a lot of fun!
i am excited to get on the road and begin this journey, we leave in exactly one week...i would ask you all to pray that all the last minute details come together as they are supposed to and that stress levels will be low, and we will make the most of being together before we split up in teams. and pray that our journeys will be safe and life changing, not only for ourselves but for those we will meet as well.
this next week is crunch week..all hands on deck week, if you will. the week where our days will most likely feel like they'll never end, but i am excited for it! our days will consist of booking our tour, continuing to get folks onto our calendar and building relationships with our contacts, rejoicing when we receive screening agreements. our evenings will consist of trainings. training on Audio/Visual equipment, individual roles and responsibilities on our teams, and any other last minute info we might need, and perfecting our speaking portions of a screening.
i am ready to be on the road and share this incredible film, philosophy, and movement with young people and adults alike. i really believe that Pray With Africa can and WILL change the world. i am almost moved to tears every time i remember how incredibly blessed i am to be a part of this, and help build the foundations of something i feel so passionate about.
please take a minute to watch the trailer to our film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Jl_Ez7_RI
it's amazing and i know i speak for all of us PWA'ers when i say how thankful we are to have Austin Flack (filmmaker, editor, and all around crazy fun guy) as a part of our community. We have had the great privilege to meet him this week and spend time getting to know him. today we spent a little time shooting some promotional videos, never really been filmed before but it was a lot of fun!
i am excited to get on the road and begin this journey, we leave in exactly one week...i would ask you all to pray that all the last minute details come together as they are supposed to and that stress levels will be low, and we will make the most of being together before we split up in teams. and pray that our journeys will be safe and life changing, not only for ourselves but for those we will meet as well.
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