i honestly started this blog post right after i got home in february from for the love workshop.. it's one of those experiences that you feel like your words will be inadequate if you try to explain it (so it's incredibly long!), so i've put off posting this.. it's time to get this out of my "drafts" so that it can be shared and hopefully be an inspiration to others to go to this workshop!! (ps.. it's full of run on sentences- because i kind of wrote this "messy art journal" style. thanks for your patience with me :)
back in october, i saw a post on Lauren Clark's blog advertising a christian photography workshop in the smoky mountains of tennessee, and i wanted to go SO bad. i immediately went to the for the love workshop's website- read the description, checked out erik's stinking awesome website and the verse that (the fabulous) Ginny Corbett wrote on the workshop's home page was, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." Matthew 11:28-30. rest, jesus and photography for an entire week sounded like something i had been desperately needing... so, i entered the contest for a free spot at the retreat and after that, i just kind of put it in the back of my mind- because i work full time and do ministry on the side of that.. so there was kind of no way i thought i could take an entire week off of everything to go.. (i know... debbie downer, right?) so, january 4th was the day of the drawing for the free spot.. and i got an e-mail from ginny telling me that i had won!
sunday night before i left to go to knoxville i was so nervous, anxious and excited. i had never done ANYTHING like this before.. i
am certainly game for all kinds of adventure, but never have i done something like this alone!!!
so
monday i was packed up and ready to leave for the airport- and the
airline called me to say that my flight had been canceled. i was
bummed, but they rescheduled me and i was supposed to be in knoxville
that evening around 9 or 10. so.. my flight from midland left at 4:30-
we were supposed to get into houston an hour before my knoxville flight
at 6 something.. turns out houston was having bad weather and they
couldn't land- so we went to austin to fill up with gas and had to sit
on the plane for about 2 hours (i felt alone and miserable! i was going
crazy because we couldn't get off the plane.. i seriously wanted to call my cousin lauri and tell her i would
bribe them with a nice fancy dinner anywhere
if she came to pick me up!!!) about 30 minutes into sitting there, i
started doing my beth moore bible study and God brought me this.. "times of aloneness with God are required.. God reserves the right to withhold others and to pull you aside with Him so that you can experience what david did in 1 samuel 30:6, "david found strength in the Lord his God." i know that's a little intense for this situation- but it just stuck out at me that i needed to be relying on His strength right now. taking this trip alone and not knowing what to do all by myself scared me. that was such an awesome way for God to reassure me, especially at the beginning of this trip.
anyway- weather cleared then we were on our way to houston again.. made it to houston- and i figured i had already missed my flight to knoxville because it had been a few hours. when we were sitting in austin, i had already looked up flights for the next day and i would have had to fly from houston to CHICAGO to knoxville and lost ANOTHER day at the workshop... i was standing in line at customer service and i was feeling kinda sassy- by thinking these people REALLY needed to arrange a hotel room for me.. (you would think my friends nicknamed me sassafrass or something.. :) while in line, i heard my name on the intercom to come to the gate for my next flight, so i didn't miss my knoxville flight after all! i ran across the airport to get to it- and i got to knoxville at about 12:45.. i was so exhausted and the last thing i wanted to do was try to figure out where i was going to stay for the night. luckily my sweet dad had e-mailed me all the close (and non-scary) places to stay by the airport and i called 4 on the list and i would have had to find a cab to take me.. and the last one i called said they were actually ATTACHED to the airport.. i was SO excited. i finally got to my hotel room at 1:45.. that was the very first night i've ever had to stay by myself in a hotel... it was kind of scary and fun at the same time. i got to use every towel and pillow in the place and order room service and it eat it right there in my big huge bed as i was propped up by all of my pillows while i watched a movie..
the next morning, i called ginny and told her where i was- and crossed my fingers that she still wanted to pick me up! (the drive
to come get me was 45 minutes!) when i was waiting, i called my dad and
i told him i decided this was all just a bad idea because obviously it
wasn't going too well this far... but when ginny walked in and we gave each other a huge
hug i seriously felt sooo relieved at that moment- God just gave me
an overwhelming sense of peace about everything. when i got in the car,
ginny's assistant friend allison dameron
and her sweet baby were in the car. we all got to talking, and i instantly clicked with them and we had great conversation all the
way up the mountain (and found the best little coffee shop where we all
got a peppermint mocha coffee... YUM.)
we finally got to the cabin and EVERYONE was so overwhelmingly warm and friendly. one of the first people i met was lauren clark- i have followed her work for years.. i don't follow celebrities or anything at all, so lauren is kind of my version of a celeb :) i ate lunch and dinner sitting next to her- and i seriously went to my room and called my sister to brag and to also tell her how awesome and down to earth Lauren was.. as dumb as i feel to admit that, i'm pretty confident lauren won't think i'm a weirdo now.
everyone at the workshop just
seemed to click.. there were 25 of us and everyone was from all over
the place. north carolina, florida, lots from texas (houston, dallas,
paris, odessa, lubbock, snyder), ohio, minnesota, missouri, CANADA.... it was
like everyone was hand picked to be there. ginny's mom and aunts cooked
some AMAZING meals for us every day. a few days into the workshop- her mom pointed out to us that she
thought it was so neat how God hand picked each one of us - from the
north, south, east and west to meet up and be at the same place and
learn from each other. the thought of that blows my mind!!! God is so huge!! (when i was talking to ginny about the contest i won later- she told me that i had 3 chances of winning out of i think over 600 entries.. seriously. it is SUCH a God thing that i was picked.. and the only reason i added that was to prove He's got His mighty hand in this workshop.. i hate numbers, so we will say statistically- there was NO way i was winning this. He hand picked each one of us.
God moved so much over
the week. He moved through EACH one of us. hand picked. geeky photogs. in this really
ginormous cabin. we learned so much.. of course about photography.. lauren and erik claussen were SO awesome and answered every single question we had and presented it to us in a way that made sense and opened our eyes a little more. (i am
STILL trying to digest everything that we learned and different ideas
they both threw out at us..) um, also.. you pretty much feel cool when you get to shoot along side of lauren and erik. but most importantly- it was incredibly refreshing being surrounded by people who genuinely had a heart for our creator and didn't mind letting their guard down and opening up to complete strangers by sharing testimonies, prayer and awesome awesome worship. God's peace and presence was totally there.
i feel very connected to each of the people who were on the trip and i am so thankful that i have this community now. i think it's rad that we STILL e-mail each other. to get business advice, to bounce ideas back and forth, to keep up with each other's lives.. i met megan greathouse at FTL- who has become SO dear to me. she lives in odessa, so we get to meet for lunch and help each other shoot, talk business, and her sweet hubby has even cooked us dinner- while i got to have REAL conversation with them and play with their precious son, cade. if i would have never met megan, i would forever be the weird girl to all of my friends who don't get my passion like she does..
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." Matthew 11:28-30
i left refreshed. spiritually and physically. i went away with Him. not at all alone like i had initially thought. i learned how He wants things to be run around here. i watched how my new friends had already given their businesses to God- He used their lives and testimonies as examples of how business should really be done. i learned to walk away with confidence in Him. and to know that if i get 1 client- or 100, it is completely in His hands, and i have no worries.
For the Love Workshop 02-10 Recap from Ginny Corbett on Vimeo.
check out our video of the week.. also, check out these awesome people i met....chelsea giles, rebekah hood, allison davis, andrea crosswhite, kelly hornberger, clary pfeiffer, glendon tang, chris luk, megan greathouse, kimberly chau, nicki smith, jason mize, leslie harris, sharon chin, jenny beck, larae russell, kasey boatright, Christina Peters, Maria Traut
Recent Comments