01.03.10

I am excited for today!! Today is the first Sunday of the new year! It is the beginning of a new start for many and a new start for my church in particular!!! I am excited because it is new start for my husband as well, especially since today my husband preached a sermon at our church for the first time. The first Sunday of the year, first Sunday he preaches!!! I am so proud of him and so thankful to God for giving him the opportunity to be used!!! I know God has great an amazing things in store for him and for our church! I can already see God moving at Relevant!!! Bring on 2010...All Things New!!!

Sofia's Baptism

Let me just say that this little lady is one very LOVED little lady! Today is important day in little Sofia's life, today her Parents, Godparents, Grandparents, Family & Friends presented her before God. Today Sofia got baptized! Baptism is the first step towards discipleship, and I pray that she always seek the will of God! Thankfully she has an amazing family to guide her along the way!

Sofia with the Priest, Godparents and Parents

Everyone who came to see Sofia get Baptized...well almost everyone!!!

Sofia and her Great Grandmother's

The Cake

Sofia and I

A Relevant Christmas

I love Christmas!!! What I love most about Christmas is all the holiday parties that take place in the month of December and how there is always an excuse for people to gather!!! I love how someone will always volunteer to dress up as Santa for the kids, or that person who will offer there home or those who cook and bake for the masses, oh and how can I forget the decorations. Who doesn't love Christmas decorations? It just seems to me that people are most cheerful around Christmas time; except for the occasional scrooge and we know who they are. Heck they know who they are!!! Speaking of parties I have to say that this year's Relevant Christmas Party (my church) has been the best one I have been to yet!!! The Collazo family did a great job dressing up as Mr. and Mrs. Clause along with their Elves, they are such a great family!!! May God bless them always!!! Our leaders did a phenomenal job with the food, games, decorations, portraits, and the list goes. I can't forget how thankful we are to IBB for allowing us to use there facilities. They bless us so we in turn can bless others!!!

Here are just a few pictures of our gathering!

The Collazo Family

They were so gracious to take pictures with everyone, in order to have a wonderful holiday picture to take home!

The i-Heart Revolution

Where do I begin? It seems that every time I have witnessed or experienced something of substance I never know where to being. I love Hillsong United... not for the music or the band that they are, but for the message they are trying to communicate to the world. Tonight the i-heart film premiered in select theaters, and I hope that they (Hillsong) decide to have a second screening of this film, but obviously that is up to there discretion. This film has been four years in the making, and I believe was created to inspire people to make a difference in this world. We do not realize the power that we have! As I watched this film Annie Garratt is talking about all the poverty she has encountered visiting different parts of the world and she asks herself "Why is this not my life?" I think to myself really why are we so blessed and others aren't? I think we take for granted that we live in the western civilization that we forget about the rest of the world. We live in a civilization that is selfish, and we lack the ONE thing. LOVE!!!!

HILLSONG UNITED // TEASER I-HEART REVOLUTION from mateusrocha on Vimeo.

Connect Weekend 2009 Video Recap

Connect Weekend 2009

Where do I begin? All I can say is what an awesome weekend! I love my church, and I can clearly see God really doing something here at Relevant. What I love about connect weekend is how people connect (hence the name connect weekend..lol), the silly games and pranks everyone is involved in, the worship, the lessons learned, the friendships created, God moving, and the list can go on and on. Connect weekend is all about connecting to God and to others and that is exactly what happened in Bradenton, Florida this past weekend. I am hoping to have a video recap by the end of the week from Bryan Lobos so stay tuned for that.

Here are a few pics my dear husband (DH) and I took of Relevants awesome weekend.

The Welcome Bags

Everyone

Green Team

Some of the Blue Team

Yellow Team

Red Team

The Little Boy Who Stole My Heart

The Worship

The Moon

Hillsong Conference 2009 - Encounter

This weekend several friends and I attended the Hillsong Encounter Conference 2009 at the University of Miami. I don't even know where to begin in describing the past two days!!! I pray that those who attended were truly blessed, I know I was!!! This was not a concert, but if it was it was the best one I have ever been to. I have never seen or encountered so many people worshiping God in my life! I pray that God do great things in this city that we live in, and open our eyes to things unseen and to hurting world that needs us!

Day 1

Day 2

Hillsong in Miami!!!

They are here, our Hillsong Conference 2009 tickets!! We ordered them several months ago and today we finally got them!!! I am so excited!!! I can't wait 'till Friday!!! I have been listening to them all week, morning, noon, and night!!

RCM

Last night was such a fun night! RCM Band was asked to play at another local church for there annual youth week, and we happily agreed. It was such a blessing and great to see such young people excited for God. I pray that God may continue to use us!!!

Make new friends, but keep the old!

I believe that aside form family friends are an essential part of life. I was lucky enough to spend some quality time with some special ladies last night for a potluck dinner!! I met some of these ladies several years ago at the church I attended. We shared our lives, our tears, our joys, and countless other things with one another at our weekly Tuesday night meetings. We don't get to spend time togther much anymore due to our busy lives, but its always nice to stop from the craziness of life and find time to spend together as we used to. These young ladies will always have a special place in my heart!!!

Baby Elyse!

The Egipciaco family, Justamante family, and Relevant Kids has a new addition. Baby Elyse was born today, and she is absolutely beautiful, she has brown hair and weighs approximately 6lbs 10 ozs. Karina spent 30 minutes in labor, and she did not even have time to mess up her hair. I hope that the day I am blessed with children my labor will be just as short.

That little boy stole my heart and I am sure his little sister will steal it too!!

Easter Sunday

This past Sunday, the Easter Bunny came to Relevant Church. It is the first time ever that Mr. Bunny visits our church, and the kids really seemed to enjoy having him around. The parents also seemed to love having a family picture taken with him, and I must admit I was a little skeptical about having Mr. Bunny around. I thought to myself if I was a kid I think I would be a little terrified of a giant size bunny coming at me, but to my surprise none of the kids cried. Below are a few pictures of our Easter Sunday, Vanessa Alves did a great job taking pictures!

http://www.alvesphotos.com/

Worship Night

After many years Relevant Church of Miami is finally going to have it's very first worship night! This is going to be a great event and we would love for everyone to join us on April 4, 2009, at IBB (17701 NW 57 Avenue Miami, FL 33055). Doors open @ 6:45 hope to see you there!

Thanksgiving Sunrise

First let me start out by saying Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I woke up rather early this morning, and I am so glad I forced myself out of bed on this chilly November day. My Church had decided to hold some beach baptisms on Thanksgiving morning along with a short sunrise service. The idea of having to wake up at 5am to be at the beach by 5:30am did not really sound all that appealing to me, and it was freezing at least for a Floridian it's freezing. Once we finally arrived it was so peaceful and serene to see the sunrise that morning with some hot cocoa and close friends, I couldn't have had better morning. I would love to wake up every morning to a view like that. So before the baptisms began my pastor asked if any of us wanted to share anything we were thankful for this year. I really wanted to share my thoughts, but just the thought of sharing what was on my mind brought tears to my eyes, since I did not share my thoughts on the beach, I will share what I am most thankful for here on my blog. I am thankful to God that in October my father made 13 years of being a sober man. I am thankful that He (God) is with him (my father) today and everyday so that he remains a sober a man. In January my father is going to walk me down an aisle and give me away, and I am thankful to God for that, and the for the many blessings He has given to me, and to my family. I recently read a book by Mitch Albom entitle "For One More Day" without spoiling the book to much it talks about a man who had a drinking problem and because of it, missed out on his daughters wedding. His daughter refused to invite him because he was not in the right state of mind. Several weeks later my father rented the movie not knowing that I had read the book and we sat in our living room and watched it together. That afternoon my father told me as he has told me countless times before, when I have shared life's problems with him, that he was so thankful to God that he was able to have a relationship with me, and that he was able to give me good and Godly advice, because he was not longer a slave to alcoholism as he once was.

The Book

Movie Poster of the Book

The Sunrise

The Fantastic 4 - Rise of the Silver Surfer

I had made other plans, plans to go out dancing and to meet Ami the tattoo artist from Miami Ink on Friday night, but instead I chose to do something else. I really did not feel like doing anything, I did not want to get all dressed up only to come home late and have to be up by 6:00 am on a Saturday. Ugh!! It was a choice we made to do something that others might have thought was not so fun compared to our original plans for the evening; we chose to go to the movies. We decided to see The Fantastic 4, what can I say I love all those marvel comic movies. Who would have thought that a simple comic book would later become a major motion picture? I always tend to find these movies very insightful because they are all about sacrifices, choices and heroes. The scene that stood out to me, is the one in which the invisible girl tells the silver surfer "you always have a choice", at first you do not think much of what she says to him until the movie progresses to the point where the surfer tells her husband to be, Mr. Fantastic that "she is right, you do have a choice". The Silver Surfer then chooses to save the world from what is about to consume and destroy it. He had a choice and he chose to do something, he chose to save the world. He sacrificed himself to save everyone else; he was the ultimate sacrifice in the movie. I guess with some choices comes scarifies, and with sacrifice may come opportunities, or at least that is what I would like to think. Opportunities that can be positive and sometimes even negative, but I guess that would depend on the choices we make preceding the sacrifice. What choices are we making and are we willing to sacrifice anything for it? Is it even really worth it? Today was Relevant Church's first day at Country Club Middle School, the church made a choice to leave the small yet comfortable Courtyard Marriott where we have met every Sunday for a year and a half, or leave and step into the unknown to sacrifice our time, energy, and sleep so that an opportunity can arise. An opportunity for others to come to know God!!! Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY!!!