Saturday, January 30, 2010

How Beautiful Is The Body of Christ! Part 2

Warning: Lots of pictures and very long post!

So, last weekend I had the awesome privilige to attend the Scripture Memory Team Celebration in Houston Tx. If you read my last post, you understand how I was able to attend this event. If you did not read it...I suggest that you do so now....just too much info to put back into this post (it'll be long enough anyway!!!).
When I left off on the last post, I was telling you how wonderful it was to travel with my new sweet friend Yvonne and how we got settled into our humble abode at the Omni Hotel in Houston. Yeah...that was such a wonderful blessing!!!!

I also told you how God had caused our paths to cross with our new sister in the Lord, Tami from South Dakota. Well, here is a picture of Tami, Yvonne, and I....aren't these gals just beautiful....they shine with the love of Christ :)

Yvonne, Tami, and I
On Friday afternoon, Y, T, and I were hanging out in the lobby of the Omni Hotel and who do we run smack dab into??? Of course it was Travis (our resident Miesta on the blog and incredible worship leader) and Georgia Jan (I love this gal!!!!). I am so glad that we got to meet and hug each others necks! The body of Christ just never ceases to amaze me. I am incredibly blessed.
Me and Travis.

Sweet, beautiful Georgia Jan....

After we had chatted with Jan, Twinkle (for the life of me, I can't remember her name), Wendy and Emmy we ran into this lovely group of ladies. Here we have Tracy, Heather, and Deidre.
Heather, Yvonne, Traci, Deidre, Beth, Tami
In God's perfect plan and timing, He caused Yvonne, Tami, and I to meet these gals. I had seen a post on the LPM blog a month or so back that Deidre posted that caused my heart to bleed for her. I emailed her to offer condolances and a bit of encouragement. She responded and my heart was so full, but as life would have it, I got busy and forgot about my sweet siesta and whether she would come to the event.
So when we met in the lobby of the hotel it clicked with me who Deidre was and how awesome our God is that He brought her right smack dab into our midst.
He is good...yes, He is!
Quick little bit of humor: Deidre was not too keen on eating Mexican food that night (neither was I!) but she was a trooper and we got through it together (with the help of her tums...thanks siesta!). She even tried avocado! Totally foreign to Yvonne and I who, probably from being native to CA, eat a ton of them. Just was not Deidre's thing :)
The girls at Houston's First Baptist....I was so excited to hear what the Lord would speak to me!

Little photo collage of the weekend at the celebration.

Top left picture is a scripture verse that I found in the bathroom of all places! I was so excited to see it because it was one of my verses for the year. I had to go back out to the lobby to get my camera to take a pic of it! I'm pathetic I know...but I have this insatiable need to document my life via photos!!!
Another God Story from the weekend is this one:

About a year ago, I stumbled across a blog written by a sweet gal named Katie from Tennessee. She writes so intimately from her heart about her life and her relationship with the Lord. We've been bloggie friends for the past year and in the course of that year, Katie became pregnant with her little miracle girl. Because she was due with "little girl" right around the time of the celebration, she was not going to be able to attend. About a week prior to the trip, Katie had posted a comment on my blog saying that her sister was going to the celebration and asked if I was going. As life would have it, I became so super busy that I was unable to respond to Katie. Then on Friday night after the 1st session, a group of siestas were hanging out in the presidential suite in the hotel. 2 gals walked in and I went over to say hello. We introduced ourselves (I think) and within a few minutes, I realized that I was speaking to Katie's sister Matia!!!! Our God is so good! Matia and I were so excited to meet each other because of our bond with Katie but as we talked into the night hours we found that we had a bond as sisters in the Lord....it was wonderful!!!!!
Me and my sweet friend Yvonne....I love her!

Another collage of the weekend during the celebration: beth, melissa, travis, amanda and us....so much fun!

The hotel had this pond out in the front where there were black swans swimming. I just had to get a picture but I had been told that they were aggressive. I found that they were quite pleasant. While photographing the swans, I saw a family of turtles....this little guy was the only one brave enough to stay on the embankment when I came near.

Little lone turtle....need I say more?!

Melissa with the lone turtle....


The pretty black swan...


My new friends hanging out in the lobby of the hotel. I think that we were getting ready to go to the Galleria.

Our little group. These gals will forever occupy a special place in my heart. Girls, I hope to spend time with you again :)
A larger group of Siestas that went out to dinner after the event on Saturday. Here we have Yvonne, Audrey, Tracy, Bridgette, Tami, Beth, Melissa, and Traci.
I was so excited to meet Audrey and Bridgette. Audrey was the gal who organized and orchestrated all of the siestas wearing a pink boa and the various places for us to get food. You know food is always a part of fellowship and it is just wonderful! (although this weekend, I was having terrible tummy issues so satan was trying to sabotage my joy. He worked hard but did not succeed!!!) One of the fun things that I got to do was go to The Chocolate Bar with Audrey and Bridgette. Chocolate covered everything! I bought a chocolate covered strawberry for myself and brought one back for Yvonne (who decided to stay back at the hotel).
Because I was so blessed to stay the entire weekend, I was able to attend church at HFBC. We ran into Amanda in the lobby of the church that morning and decided to join her and others in the chapel for the contemporary style of worship and watched Pastor Gregg Matte on the video screen. I loved it! It was a great experience and remided me very much of being at BVG.

Siesta, Melana, Adrienne, Tracy, Yvonne, and I in the chapel after the service.


Dropping Traci off at her air terminal
Meeting Traci was another blessing that God dropped into my lap! She is such a sweet siesta and I really enjoyed getting to spend special time with her. Traci: thank you for your love and kindness and thank you for your prayer for my illness on Saturday. Love you sister!
Beth, Melana, Miesta Moose, and Tracy

On the way home. Tracy and I met up with Melana (Moose Mama) and Miesta Moose. She is such a sweet gal. Really enjoyed getting to spend a little time with her in the airport.
I was so blessed to be able to travel from Houston to Dallas with Tracy and wait in the airport with her until her flight and mine departed. God is sooo sooo good to provide me with exactly what I needed because, truth be told, I was a little frightened to be in the airport by myself for the first leg of the trip home (Yvonne and I met up in Dallas).
This trip was amazing! God really spoke truths into my heart about his body, about His word and about my life. I will fill you in on what Beth taught in the next post.

9 comments:

Marla Taviano said...

I love this, Bethany! I'm so, so happy God allowed me to meet you and Matia on the balcony Friday night. Isn't He good??

Sandy said...

Great pictures and post! I wish my friend Debbi and I could have gotten some pictures. I really like the ones of Melissa!
I think you might have been behind me when I fell walking from the hotel to the parking garage. . .not sure.
Thank you for your posts!

twinkle said...

I adored meeting you two at the OMNI and being there when we had the Travis Spotting! He is the sweetest thing letting us take pictures like that!
Much love to you!
Deborah

Jen said...

Again- I feel blessed just by reading your experience! Awesome, awesome, awesome! So glad to hear that the Lord really ministered to you directly during the trip-like there was any doubt He would, but still! Let's meet for coffee soon!

Wonder Woman said...

Bethany: It was so wonderful to meet you and to spend time with you. Especially on the way home at the airport.

Lora said...

I love your warnings at the top of your posts about the SSMTC! Ha! I should have done the same thing! I too feel like pictures are a must for documenting my life. My teens showed me how to use Picknic this last week and my oh my, I've been like a kid in a candy shop!

Blessings to you dear Siesta!

katiegfromtennessee said...

Hey Miss Bethany, I wanted to let you know that I have had Baby Girl!! Makenna Marie!:)

I have pics on my blog too, gotta go, have to feed her now:)

Blessings,

katiegfromtennessee

Ina said...

Bethany,
Your pictures and recap are great! We met briefly at the SMT on Saturday morning and it is fun to find out a little more about you here. Wasn't God just sooo good to us!?!

Melissa Ens said...

Hey Bethany!!! Makes my heart sing to see the pictures and read your post!!! I just this afternoon FINALLY finished my last blog post about the trip. Feels like I'm reliving it all a bit today. So sweet. : ) I LOVED every minute I got to spend with you and the other girls. The Body of Christ is indeed the most beautiful thing.