C3 and a Big Surprise

This week Fellowship Church hosted C3 at our Grapevine Campus. It was an amazing conference filled with gifted speakers that challenged and inspired. The conference convicted me of many areas of my ministry that need to be changed or refocused. I was so blessed to be on staff because we all got to go for free. But the absolute best part of the conference was that my pastor in Alaska's wife, Laura Rud, was in Texas this week and got the opportunity to attend the conference with me. If you don't know Laura, she is an amazing woman of God who is extremely talented and gifted, and she is also my mentor. It was incredible to experience the conference with her and reflect on my church and ministry at home in Alaska. There have been many times at Fellowship that I've wished I had someone from home to experience certain things with me, this week I had Laura! But the fun didn't stop at the conference for Laura and I. She actually came down to Texas to be there for her sister who had surgery. By God's grace, the surgery went great and her sister was out of the hospital in a matter of days. Laura was able to do a lot more than she had originally expected, so we took full advantage of that. I picked her up (after getting completely lost and getting chased by two bulldogs in a sketchy part of Keller) and took her to dinner on Tuesday. She brought her neice and nephew to our youth service at Fellowship (we were combined Jr. and Sr. High this week) and we all had a blast. Then she got to meet Dori on Thursday for dinner after the conference and she stayed with us Friday night before she flew out this morning. We got to go visit one of her old college buddies who is a youth pastor in McKinney, only after getting yelled at by a toll booth guard (only Laura and I!). It was a packed week, but an amazing week and I'm so blessed to have experienced it all with one of my favorite people :)

"Sweet" series at Merge

This weekend I got the tremendous opportunity to speak for my first time at Fellowship Church! I delivered the message for the 6th graders at their service called Merge. I spoke the message 4 times, as the 6th graders meet during the 4 weekend services, 2 Saturday night and 2 Sunday morning. The series we are doing is called Sweet and is based on the verse Psalm 34:8 that says "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him." Trust me, I totally have that verse memorized by now! We pick a different candy each week and connect it to this verse with different spiritual ties. I got to make up my own...so I chose to do Milk Duds. I used Hebrews 5:14 to base my message on. It says "Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God's ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong." I challenged the students to grow in their faith and get past the "Milk Dud" phase of their lives and move onto solid food, growing in their relationship with Jesus. During their small groups they got to eat Milk Duds! Oh, and I used this baby picture of me in my intro...to talk about how I grew physically, past the milk phase. It was super fun and I'm excited because I get to speak at Surge, the 7th and 8th grade service, during Spring Break. God is so good, giving me these opportunities. I'm learning a lot about message prep and creative ways to inspire your audience...it's an exciting time!

David Crowder Band

Today was an amazing day! I woke up early (not the amazing part) and met two of my students, Marissa and Whitney, to head out on an early morning road trip. Why, you ask, would Stephanie wake up so early on a Sunday morning for a road trip? (If you know me, the only thing I usually get up early for is fishing.) For David Crowder, of course! Yes, that's right, the girls and I got the blessing of visiting Crowder at his home church of UBC (University Baptist Church) in Waco. The church was nothing like we expected. As the three of us are used to the mega church feel of Fellowship, the small, artsy, intimate feel of UBC was a welcomed surprise. We loved it! The congregation was probably around 300 and it was mostly college students (as Baylor University is close by). It was so layed back and comfortable. The ambiance of the church was amazing...see pictures. The worship was perfect (led by Crowder and band). And the message was powerful, challenging and energetic. The whole experience was definately worth the early morning and the road trip. There's no question about it, I'll definately be back on my next free Sunday! The only thing that would have made it better is if Kim was with me.

Dallas World Aquarium

Today I got to experience the Dallas World Aquarium in the heart of downtown with some of my students. We saw everything from fish, to manatees, to sharks, to flamingos, to a panther...it was awesome! Moe, Anna, Caroline and Jenny came with and we had a blast. Afterward we went to Uptown for some gelato! I'd rather post a bunch of pictures than a lot of words...so here you go!

The New Phase Of My Internship

As most of you already know, I am now well into the new phase of my internship here at Fellowship Church...Junior High Ministry! I know what you're thinking...she hasn't done junior high ministry since right after high school. God sure does like to keep me on my toes, huh? I've really been enjoying getting to work with the amazingly talented staff in junior high and meeting a brand new group of students. The Junior High Ministry at Fellowship is 6th-8th grade, with 6th grade meeting at their Merge services during each of our four weekend services and 7th-8th grade meeting on Wednesday nights at Surge. Right now I am working with the team to develop both the services for Merge and Surge, although my primary focus is the 7th grade students. They are looking to hire a 7th grade pastor, so I am just filling in until that position gets filled. It's funny, I feel like a celebrity working with the junior high since I have been on stage a lot in the last few weeks. Andy, our junior high pastor, really wanted to introduce me right so the guys made a game so the kids could get to know me (called Meet Stephanie). This picture shows me leading the game for Merge during one of the weekend services. They had a series of facts about me and had to pick one of the two answers given that was the truth. The first one was "I am from this state...a. California or b. Alaska"...you can guess that most of the students thought I was from California! The other ones were: Craziest thing I've ever done is...a. skydiving or b. swimming with sharks (answer is a), Favorite childhood memory is...a. watching my uncle run a marathon or b. building and igloo with my brother (answer is a- they all picked b!), Farthest I've been from home is...a. Europe or b. Texas (answer is a), and the last one was One time I...a. fell from a two-story window or b. caught a salmon with my bare hands (answer is a). It was super fun and now the kids think I'm like the coolest thing since sliced bread! Good times in Junior High :)