ROUND 2

You think you know but you have no idea...

This is the diary of Elevate...



These are the people I spend every day with. And they're the greatest people on the planet!

Boom Goes the Dynamite

this is humorous. and painful. worst sports announcer ever.



he gets the rebound, passes it out, annddd boom goes the dynamite.

Sisters and Nephews

My sister, Laura, flew in from Washington DC where she lives to spend the weekend with us. It was great to see her. She's 10 weeks pregnant so we're all really excited about it. Her husband Bill wasn't able to come in because of some business but having Laura in town was great. It's funny how you can forget how much you really miss someone until you actually see them and spend time with them.
Sunday came so quickly and it was off to St. Francisville. I love Sundays because I love St. Francisville and I love to see the girls and spend time at the Howards with the crew. Church was awesome and then Sunday night we had our first ever, Refuge at the MAG!!! It was a huge win for St. Francisville and most importantly, the Kingdom! We had about 36 kids which was quite a crowd for what we're used to. And about 7 or 8 kids went down to make a decision for Christ. I can't even begin to explain how excited I am. I think it's the beginning of something really great. I know that revival is coming in that community and it's our responsibility to usher it in. I can't wait to see what God will do!!!


Then on Monday, me and Laura went over to my other sister's house to visit our two nephews. They are the cutest things ever! Henry Nathan is a few months old and Cameron Luke is a little over 2 years old. Cameron is at the age where he pretty much just repeats everything you say. So one time my mom was helping him put together a puzzle and was amazed at how good he was at it so she said, "Cameron is so smart!" and then Cameron mimicked her by saying "Cameron is soooo smart!" He said it for the rest of the day. How cute. Henry's mo-hawk is my favorite.



God has blessed me with a great family.

Garage Sale

Yea I'm in a leotard.

Used Underwear For Sale! All Proceeds Go to Africa!

A Garage Sale, some used underwear, michael jackson, and a whole lot of fun....

Where to begin...as elevate gets closer and closer to the end, the weekends seem to get longer and longer. We just keep getting pushed more and more. But we all survive.

This weekend, Elevate hosted a Garage Sale at the church to raise money so we can go to Africa. (Props to Natalie and everybody who donated stuff for making it happen) Well, we were hoping that people would donate some stuff but we had no idea how much stuff would actually get donated. We got a little bit more than we hoped for haha. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We got the church around 3:30 to start organizing stuff and as one person after the other dropped stuff off, the monster that was our garage sale just kept growing and growing. It looked like Katrina all over again!




We were way in over our heads and we knew we were in for a long night. But God is good and sent us some awesome volunteers to help us sort through the massive piles of clothes and random knick knacks. We had some cool girls from Mrs. Connie's Pathfinders group Sparkle come and help us out and they definitely added some life to the party. Thanks Mrs. Connie and the girls! And then of course I have to just go ahead and say that Mrs. Sheila is the biggest servant in the entire world. She served her heart out, showed up even when we hadn't asked her, and stayed with us all night and then all day Saturday. She's awesome! She's up there along with Mother Teresa and Mary.



I just want to thank all of the people who helped us out. We really honestly couldn't have done it without you and you know that's true. (You saw all the stuff) We had some people donate some awesome stuff. Even an Acordian!!!




One thing I don't understand is why people would donate their underwear...



I just don't know what else to say about that...

Check this picture out...

Yes that is Katie with a gun. Scariest thing ever? Probably so. Not to mention she has lady bug wings on her back.

More pictures and maybe even videos to come. Keep checking. You really don't wana miss the video of Kaycee dancing.

How Great is Our God

Wednesday night, me and DJ got to go to the How Great Is Our God Concert to see Chris Tomlin and Matt Redmon lead worship and Louis Giglio deliver a short but great message about how great our God is. It was pretty amazing. We also had awesome seats and the best part about it was that it was all a blessing. We had the tickets given to us by a friend in St. Francisville. Louis Giglio (I think thats how his name is spelled) talked about all the galaxies and the stars and how big they are and, in reality, how small we are. It was eye-opening. The best part was when he started to talk about this really small molecule called Laminin. This molecule was recently discovered and its purpose is basically "the glue" of our body. It holds our skin together, holds our muscles and bones together. Without it, we'd fall apart. There are millions and millions of tiny little Laminins holding us together. The coolest part about it? Its genetic structure is shaped like a cross.

How awesome is that? God is so cool. We have a millions and millions of tiny crosses holding us together! How true is that? Without the cross, we'd all fall apart. I would love to expound on that even more (is expound a word?) but I have to go review my notes because we have to preach today. Wish me luck! Here are two pictures from the concert...

So I Have This Friend Named Sarah...

So I have this friend named Sarah and one time she went to the dentist...

A House is Not a Home Without Corn

So today I went and ate lunch at Serop's with DJ, Griffis, Brad Dupey Pants, and Jason Really Tall Ryder. Me, DJ, and Griffis ate at one table and Brad, Jason, and JP ate at another since they have the tables bolted down to the ground in case some one wanted to steal it so I guess they could be considered part of our meal. I ate some mac and cheese and we had a good conversation with Griffis about how his house is not a home without peanut butter or corn. For all of you Griffis is my Homeboy People out there - if you ever want Griffis to consider liking you, give him some corn. As we were eating we noticed that there is an awesome painting of a tiger/bear on the wall. Do you think it looks more like a tiger or a bear? Let me know.




Overall, it was enjoyable. The highlight of the lunch outing was seeing Jonathan Menck working at the Starbucks that just opened. He made me a Passion Iced Tea Lemonade sweetened with Classic Syrup and it was probably the best one I've ever had. Lunch time was pretty good today. At least it wasn't leftovers.

Amplified Weekend

So this weekend was amplified and it was incredible. As much as this weekend was for the students it was definately for me as well. To see so many students fired up about God and to witness them serving their hearts out for the community was a huge wake up call for me. Before Amplified, I was kind've in a slump, not a big one, but just pretty tired from our busy schedule. But Thursday night, I decided I was going to be expectant to see God move. And He definately showed up. I got to stay in a house with Sarah Haviland and Jill Griffis and NINETEEN other girls! Wow, can you say "Thats alot of girls." Yeah I know. We had some girls from Franny and then the rest were freshmen from Dutchtown and Parkview. A few of the girls were even friends with my little sister which was really cool. Two girls in our house committed their lives to Christ for the first time and a bunch of them even got water baptized! Praise God! I got to spend alot of time with these girls this weekend and seeing their hearts and watching them get closer to God was an awesome thing for me. Their passion rubbed off on me. It brought me back to the first time I really truly committed my life to Christ. Feeling that way really renewed me. The feeling was indescribable.

And then as if the weekend couldn't get any better, Sarah Haviland, Jill Griffis, and I led our St. Francisville Girl's Bible Study on Sunday night. We had Katie Fontenot come play guitar and lead some worship. We all interceeded for each of the girls there and for the St Francisville Campus and then we prayed individually for every girl who wanted prayer. Then, one of the sweet girls from St. Franny raised her hand and on the verge of tears begin to explain how she felt really distant from God and it was because she was the one backing away from God and church and her friends. She said that it's so easy to just decide not to go to church in the morning because she'd rather sleep in or how easy it is not to come to Bible Study cause she has "homework" or whatever it may be. But she knew that God wanted more of her heart and more of her life. She said, "I want to come back." Those words stuck with me the rest of the night and still do right now. We prayed for her and encouraged her and thanked God for her heart and honesty. As I saw a bunch of young girls surround her and love on her and pray for her as God moved on heart wiht her head in her hands - I saw God that night. I saw him move. I saw that while we can have these huge events and have a ton of people touched by God, its still all about that one - the one person thats not there yet, the one person that couldn't be there yet, the one person that can only be reached through a more personal way. Yea I saw a ton of people touched by God from a distance but being right there, face to face, heart to heart, with someone who God is touching and hearing the overflow of their heart to get right with God was something I wouldn't trade for the world. I saw God move. And as He moved in someone else's life he moved in mine. He reminded me that this is what its all about. It's all about that one. And its all about THE ONE. It's all about Him. Without Him, none of this is possible.

Monday Monday

Soooo, monday time. Yeaaahhhhhhhhh.

The Million Dollar Question

"Sooooo....what are you doing after Elevate?"

That is the million dollar question. Which makes me wonder if anybody else knows the answer to that question people ask us all the time and they wont tell us the answer because they just wana keep the million dollars all to themselves. How rude. Please share. We would all like to know. I wish I knew the answer to that question for several reasons. Number One: I would know what I was doing after Elevate and I could know what to prepare myself for. Number Two: I wouldn't have to think about it all the time. Number Three: I wouldn't be left speechless and dumbfounded everytime someone asks me that question. and Reason Number Four: I'D HAVE A MILLION DOLLARS! those are pretty good reasons. I think from now on everytime someone asks me what I'm doing after Elevate I'm going to turn it back around on them and say, "Well what are YOU doing after Elevate?" This will confuse them and put a confused look on their faces and not know what to say and maybe make an awkward noise as a result of an effort to say something when they didn't know what to say. Then maybe, they would know how we Elevaters feel. But it's all good. I just have to keep reminding myself that God has it under control and that His plan is WAY better than mine. Thank goodness. And when I truly think about it, He has always been so good to me. Given me more than I deserve. So I really don't have anything to worry about. Because He is good and his plans for me are good. I can't wait to see what He has in store.