Longboards, Ice Cream, and God's Grace...

This is my friend Trysta. She enjoys longboarding and ice cream. 

Trysta travels with me on the blue team as a singer. 

I took these pictures, at our last summit in Porter, Texas. We're actually rooming together this summit, so you might see more of her later. 

So far, this summit has been going really well! It started off not so great when Trysta got sick with a twenty-four hour bug the second day we arrived here. Then a couple days later I got the bug, with a 101. something fever. I'm now just trying to get my voice back to normal. Sometimes throughout the day I have literally sounded like a man. I'm not proud.

Not to mention I had a lesson last night, and well you can imagine how that sounded. There is nothing like having no voice and then trying to be louder so that people can hear you. No seriously, there's nothing. No noise came out of my mouth. Then a co-worker of mine gave me a water bottle, that helped a lot. As well as prayers. I knew it was going to be hard to teach that way, but I prayed for grace and knew that God knew the outcome of the lesson. So even though at the end of my application,   I felt like I was ending one of the worst lessons I had taught all year, as soon as i finished and prayed two of my co-workers ran up to me to tell me that, that was the best I had taught that lesson all year, and that I should lose my voice more often. God is so good! I still don't even feel like it went that well but I have continually been encouraged from people about how well it did go. 

So I'm praising God, who works through his children and uses them when they don't feel useful. 

"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."

Romans 8:28

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Important Announcement

A while ago I told everyone to keep checking in on the blog because I had something important to announce. I’ve had to wait to hear back from some people but after much prayer and thought I am excited to announce that I will be traveling for another year in Life Action! I will continue to be a children’s minister for four year olds through first grade. I am at a lot of peace knowing that God wants me to stay and am excited for another year! I’m asking that you would pray for me, as I now have to start raising support to travel for another year.

Life Action is a support based ministry and requires the team members who travel to also raise support. Last year I had to raise $3,000 in order to travel. Any extra expenses we need, i.e. shampoo, toothpaste, etc. we need to buy on our own. However, if we raise more than the first needed amount ($3,000) we can get a stipend once a month to help pay for those other needed things (shampoo, toothpaste, etc.). The stipend is a certain amount of any extra money we’ve raised. I am asking that you would please pray and ask God if He wants you to help me. If you do not believe He is, or cannot at this time please pray that God would help provide what I need for next year. If you would like to send support then you can email me at marinaconrad94@yahoo.com and I will give you the information you need to donate.

Thank you for your time, prayers, and support!
As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Romans 10:15

As of Late...

I don't know why but I love a good tree. The sun was setting and I couldn't help but get a couple shots of what I saw. I took these while I was in Mississippi. I've been back with my team for a few days now and my time at home went by faster than I hoped for. While I was home my dad blessed me with a new camera lens that I can't wait to use!

I'm currently in a church near Houston, Texas! I haven't been here since the summer and it's good to be back. I think what I like the most about Texas is that it's the furthest west we go. Meaning this is the closest to home I'll get. We started the summit on Sunday morning and since then we've averaged about nineteen kids every service. It's a smaller group but they're pretty rowdy. Last night's lesson was grace. The story is about a boy named Christian who is adopted by the captain of a ship. Christian becomes part of the captains crew and throughout the story he endures several times where he needs grace. Christian has to call out for help from his dad when he needs grace and his adopted father always comes to rescue him. 

Christian's story is an example to us that God is our adopted father, and whenever we need help God will give us grace and come to the rescue when we call on him. "Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I." Isaiah 58:9 

We also teach them the definition of grace.

Grace: The strength and the desire to obey.

Complete with hand motions.

My favorite part about last night was when the lesson was over and we were doing a craft you could hear all the kids talking about how much they loved the story. I even heard one kid tell a helper who had just come in every detail he could remember with great excitement. 

Well, that's just a little something about where I am and what God's doing. 

Quote of the night from a little boy;

"Do you know why birds poop white so much?"

"Why?"

"Because they eat so many marshmallows!"

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Collierville, Tennessee

This is Eddie.

He's my host family's dog. It started to snow on Saturday and he was freaking out a little bit. I was actually also startled by it, seeing snow falling from the sky is such a rare occurrence for me in general but having it in March was quite the rarity. For the rest of the day my roommate and I spent it with our host sisters. We had so much fun just getting to know them, thrift shopping, drinking coffee, basically cruising all around Memphis. It makes me sad that it's almost time to go.

Today was the end of the summit and on Tuesday morning I'll be flying back home to Phoenix for a few days. My team's band is leading worship for a conference next weekend and they don't need any children ministers, so I'm free to go home for a few days. I"m looking forward to being home for a little bit, I miss my bed... and my family. However, I am also going to miss my host family. They've been so much fun to be around and a huge blessing to stay with.

Another blessing this summit was how God brought more children than we've had in any church, as many as over seventy kids on a Sunday morning. At the beginning of the summit we had a little girl named Sarah who was so incredibly shy she wouldn't even come into the room. Tonight Sarah's mom had tears in her eyes as she explained to us that on their drive to church she was talking to Sarah about having a relationship with Jesus. Sarah told her mom that she understood the gospel and was ready to accept Him as her Lord and Savior. Sarah and her mom went into the hall and prayed together and when she came back in as teacher's we rejoiced because we had a new sister in Christ.

So glad to have taught Sarah and many other wonderful children like her these past few weeks.

Here's just a few other things I've been up to while I've been in Collierville, Tennessee.

I went to lunch with some friends. Every summit the four of us go to lunch together. We're the only new girls on the team so we usually try to do something at each summit. We tried a local restaurant, and that's always an adventurous choice because you never really know what you're getting into.

I've also been editing a lot. Here's some fun shots of a shoot I did on Valentines day for two very fun couples.

I still have a lot of packing to do considering I take practically everything I own with me in two suitcases pack and unpack it all every two and a half weeks. I'm becoming a pro at packing though. Once again thanks for reading The Not-So-Secret-Life I greatly appreciate it!

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Oxford, Mississippi

Our last summit was in Oxford, Mississippi. This was by far one of my favorite summits. The church was only a few minutes away from Ole Miss College, so there were several things to do all summit. One of the coolest activities I had the privilege of doing was taking maternity pictures for a couple on my team. They're names are Jen and Dustin, and they will be having a baby boy in just a few weeks! Dustin is our worship leader and Jen is a singer, so we have to move around people a good bit in order to make up for them. Jen already went home to get ready and Dustin will be leaving next Sunday. We are praying that he gets there before the baby comes. 

In Oxford we had more children than we had, had all travel year! God blessed us with fifty kids on a Sunday morning and that was just the first day of the Summit. He continued to bring those kids to the night services and we averaged about thirty or more kids every night. God also blessed me when I did my lesson on sin, when I asked for your prayer. Thank you so much all who prayed for me, it made all the difference in the world. The parents of the church seemed to love the lessons their kids were learning. They would tell us all the time how much they loved having us there and how their child is loving Happy Heart City (the kids club I teach in). As a teacher whose students love coming to the service every night, it just makes me love what I'm doing even more.

Before we left Oxford, we had a combined service with a church that was only a few minutes away. My team did a revival summit at the other church last travel year, so we took the opportunity to come together and praise God for what he had done through the families of both churches. It was a packed Wednesday night in the kids clubs and in the adults service as well. The pastors from both churches got on stage and gave their testimonies of what God had done through them while Life Action was at their church. One pastor had said he realized that he had made an idol in his life. An idol of competition, and being the best church in town, especially between the church we were just at. He apologized to both churches and to the pastor, everyone stood up and told the pastor that they forgave him. It was a very blessed service.

With the blink of an eye it felt like the summit was over and we had to pack up and leave. Now we're in Collierville, Tennessee and this Arizona girl is freezing. The church is beautiful, the kids are great, and I'll tell you all about em soon. So just keep reading, and thank you all so much for taking time to read about what God is doing in this revival ministry and in my life as well. Again thank you for all your support!

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5/5

Part five of five.

Downtown, Charleston.

My friend, Kendra.

A two story Starbucks? Yes.

The church we are currently at estimated that we would have fifty children. Usually the number a church tells us is not accurate and we end up with maybe half the amount expected. This year we've had very low numbers in Happy Heart City. As low as, five kids for a few nights. On Sunday morning we had fifty kids, exactly as the church has estimated, and Sunday night forty of them came back. Last night our numbers stayed high still and forty-two children signed in. God greatly answered prayers, as we had been praying for more kids this summit. I have not yet had the opportunity to teach that many kids, so these past few services, have been a huge blessing. In my last post I asked for prayer about a new lesson I had to teach, and I wanted to thank you all so much for keeping me in your prayers. I felt God's blessing last night as I taught about sin, and how it can so easily creep into our lives if we are not careful. Again, thank you so much, I look forward to writing my next post! I hope you will check in to see what's next. 

4/5 Finally in Oxford, Mississippi

Part four of five.

Downtown Charleston.

These houses have been around since before the Civil War. If you were standing next to one of them, you could see these black circles all around the sides. They were meant to help protect the houses or buildings from earthquakes because they couldn't afford anything else because of the war.

We finally made it to Oxford, Mississippi last night. This has been the most talked about summit since it was put on the schedule some time last summer. I've been here a short time but I can see why. The downtown area is right next to Ole Miss College. The whole area is really great, I can't wait to explore it more. Tomorrow we'll be starting our services at the church and it's going to be a long morning. Then we'll also have the Sunday night service. We've been told there should be about thirty kids, in the age group i teach, I'm getting pretty excited! Monday night I have to teach a lesson I've never done before, so I'm getting prepared for that! Praying that it goes well. The lesson is on sin, and how when we let just a little of it creep into our lives, it can easily take over us and take us to a place we never thought we would end up. You would think this is big concept for a four year old, but majority of the kids have understood the lesson for years. I just hope God will bless me with being able to communicate to the kids the entire story. If you would keep me in your prayers I would greatly appreciate it!