Triennial and Natalie Grant

Worship

Flags of just a few of the many nations represented at the conference
Woman from India speaking about sharing Christ through a sexual abuse recovery ministry
The international market - women from around the world hand-make all of these things and Covenant missionaries brought them over to sell
Our good friend Liz - She and her husband are missionaries in Mongolia

Miss America 2008 - Kirten Haglund. I attended her and her mom's powerful seminar on how God sees us vs. how the world sees us as women

Tiffany! Natalie's back-up singer. This girl is awesome!

The boys of the band. Funny, awesome guys!

with my sis, Natalie and my mom

My mom and sister flew out last week for the Triennial Covenant Women's Conference (amazing, by the way) which happened to be in DC this year and our guest concert artist was Natalie Grant. The three of us had the priviledge of spending a day with Natalie and her band. Natalie is actually from Seattle, so it was fun being in DC with another PNW native. If you haven't heard any of her music, definitely do it. She has an incredible voice, but more importantly a huge heart for Jesus. One major thing that Natalie and the Evangelical Covenant Churches have in common is that we're all very passionate about ending human trafficking in the US as well as around the world. Her new song "Human" was written after a trip to India where she saw 5 and 6 year old girls being subjected to prostitution. She also looked up at a tall building to see a young girl caged in the window. The song is all about how we're not just a bunch of empty beings roaming the earth without souls, but we're human beings, designed to have hearts and a passion for the suffering and lives of others.

Also, Paul and Kathy Wilson, friends of my in-laws who pastor a church in nothern California, started an organization called A New Day for Children which is a safe-house for girls forced into prostitution. It's projected that within just a few short years, human trafficking will surpass drug trafficking in popularity around the US because it's much easier, tougher to track and makes more money. If this doesn't lead us to action, I don't know what does because the truth is that this isn't just an "over there, overseas" kind of problem, it's happening in our own communities around the US. If you click on the link above, you can watch two powerful videos from the New Day for Children web site.

I love that the Covenant empowers women through Jesus Christ and very strongly supports women's ministries because we truly have the power to tackle the terrible violence against women around the world.

Texas Twenty-Four

This past week we spent a whirlwind twenty-four hours in San Antonio for Aaron's company meeting. His boss was so gracious to fly all of the families out, too! We stayed at a beautiful resort and enjoyed every second of our quick stay. I'm amazed by all the fun things we packed into such a short period of time. After everyone arrived on Wednesday evening, we had a great meal and we all chatted for a while. Afterwards, Aaron and I spent time exploring the resort and quite a while in the hot tub. The next morning, Aaron had a meeting and I had a long workout in the gym (a 3 mile treadmill run is FANTASTIC when your machine has its own television!!) Then Aaron and I enjoyed some Starbucks, packed up our stuff, went hot tubbing again (WITH our Starbucks!) and then the whole crew made our way over to the movie theater and we watched Toy Story 3 in 3-D. Let me just say that I think the Toy Story series is the best Disney has ever made! They're absolutely hilarious! After the movie, we trecked over to Red Robin and had lunch. Following lunch, we drove as fast as we could (through the wind and rain and everything else in the wake of the hurricane blowing through the south) and made it to our gate about 20 minutes before we boarded.

Like I said, it was a whirlwind trip, but absolutely wonderful! It taught me how important it is to be spontaneous and to make the most of a small amount of time.