So today is the first day of my big adventure. Sounds exciting huh? It is - and its pretty scarey!
So whats the haps I hear you ask? Well.............
You may have seen from the previous post I have recently been in Tonga on a missions trip. It was an incredibly impacting time for me - and not just from what I saw and experienced, but in the way that God spoke to me so clearly and challenged me.
My heart has always been to live a life of reckless abandonment for God. A life that is glorifying to God and impacts those around me. Well to be honest that wasn't really happening. It was more like a life of coasting through on a treadmill - repeating the steps and going nowhere. I had gotten comfortable. There was nothing wrong with my life - in fact I liked it. I was doing my thing, loving God, family and church. BUT God has more than that for me. He knows the potential within me - and YOU. He wants the best for us.
My dream for as long as I can remember has to be a photographer - to take amazing images that inspire people, challenge their worldview and change the world. I wanted to reach a generation of young people and see them become the person that God created them and designed them to be. To preach the gospel and see lives, cities and nations changed. As a young (yes I consider myself young!) mum with 2 small children that was kind of put in the "one day" basket. The place where I'll return to when its the right time, when the kids are grown and I have the resources to fund that kind of ministry. So in the meantime I opened a photography studio and started doing weddings and portraits as a way to "keep the dream alive" until I figured out how to make it work.
Well I have not been designed as an administrative type person in anyway! So the day to day stuff of running business did not come naturally to me in any way shape or form and was more stressful in ways I cannot express. Dont get me wrong, I love taking photographs of people, letting them express the beauty and uniqueness in the way God created them and capturing special occasions - it was a privilege and a fantastic creative outlet. But it wasn't the best that God has designed me for.
When in Tonga God breathed life into those dreams that I had put aside, that I didn't know how to make happen or how it would work with the family and stuff. And He just said to me "Come on Shannon, lets do this thing................................."
Come on lets do this thing. Crap.
"This thing" was to close down my photography studio and to come and volunteer at my church full time doing the creative design stuff - graphics, web, photography etc and build the young adults ministry, Resonate - which is you guys! God was calling me, giving me permission to step into the things that He has for me, to live the BEST life designed by Him and just saying "its now. Don't put it off, lets just do this together. Lets make it happen and change your world."
So here I am. Recklessly abandoning the path I have known in favour of one where I can only see a few steps ahead. Its scarey because my safety net is gone. I can no longer tell people I am "a photographer and have my own studio". The worlds idea of success and identity can no longer matter because I am living a life on the edge for Jesus, standing in the place He has designed for me. And to be honest, theres nowhere else I would rather be.
Come on lets do this thing.................
Cam rapping it up - BOOM! Worship was off the hook!
Worship was so powerful!
Shanan our illustrious MC
Tim from Timaru!! Tim is the youth pastor at the Elim Church there and boosted down to Invers after his own youth on friday night. They saw over 50 young people give their hearts to God, AMAZING!! Hes a young guy but we learned so much from his servant heart in the time he hung out with us.
Ps Caleb Murdoch preaching at Fuel. He carries an amazing message!
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