Our California Weekend

We were in Laguna Niguel, CA. this last weekend for a Onething conference. It was a great time in the beautiful southern California sun. Unfortunately for me I spent the majority of the weekend sick with my endometriosis and a stomach bug on top of that. I am still recovering a few days later and hope to be able to eat a solid meal soon.

The Onething Regional conference are always a lot of hard work and a lot of fun. The crew carries a mini version of the Forerunner Bookstore with them that has music and teaching cd's, books, and apparel. The are so fast a setting it up and tearing down since they do it every month at least once or twice. The musicians know just what to do when they get there. They go straight for the stage and start figuring out where everything should go. They meet the sound person and start unpacking their gear. It is amazing how they just all know who is doing what and with in about three hours the whole thing is set up. Now that doesn't take into account all the labor that the host church has already put into it. The host church spends an enormous amount of time putting together sound systems and supplies for the Onething crew so that all they have to do is plug in. They also make the crew a "green room" loaded with all sorts of refreshments and make it a relaxing atmosphere for them to chill in. Some churches are able to make that area a fabulous retreat, but in the end all the crew wants, is a quiet place to recharge before they go out again.The Vineyard church in Laguna is an amazing host church. The food is always first rate and the green room is continually stocked with the crews favorite chocolates and drinks.

The conference kicked off Friday night and the crowd was loving the worship and how Corey Russell laid down the message. The two worship leaders for the weekend were Justin Rizzo and Luke Wood. They share the one band and take turns leading sessions. This can make for a very tired band at the end of the day.

Each day the worship was so captivating and the presence of God was definitely there. Dwayne and Corey really inspired and challenged the young adults attending to go hard after the Lord and to never look back. There were also three breakout sessions on Saturday with Corey, Jennifer Roberts, and Justin Rizzo. I am sure that they were each amazing and powerful. I have to say though, that Jen is one of my favorite speakers.

The Sunday service was divided into and early and late service with only a five minute break in the middle. Justin Rizzo lead the first service and the majesty of the Lord in worship was very heavy in the room. Corey taught on how everything must flow from the place of prayer or in the end it will fizzle out and you will burn out. Luke Wood lead worship for the second service and it was rich. Again Corey got up, but this time it was a little different. Holy Spirit came on Corey in a very strong way and he became drunk in the spirit. It started to overflow onto the congregation and the power of God was there for deliverance. Ministry time was powerful as well and it ended up turning on the team as the leadership of the Vineyard Church began praying for the Onething team. The whole weekend was packed with just the sweetness of the Lord. I was so glad to have gone though I wasn't feeling 100%.

We were able to see the sites around Laguna a bit. I was a little more free to roam and spent an hour with my friend Joy Maves on the beach just outside the Ritz Carlton. It was beautiful and the sand felt like a soft pillow. The surf was up and the surfers were out in force. I enjoy watching the surfers catch and sometimes miss the waves. I had a short season where I learned a little of how to surf in Hawaii while I was with YWAM in Kona. It is a technically difficult sport that is a lot harder than it looks. We have a friend who is a surfer that took us to lunch the last day. We had a great time with he and his wife talking about KC and also their ministry. She travels and writes reports on the miracles that follow the showings of the Jesus film and he leads worship and ministers in the market place. They are a great couple and we hope that we can spend more time with them in the future. We also stayed with some friends of our, Eric and Beth Wilkinson. They are the best host family in the world. Their home is very inviting and they also have a 20 month old son that is very entertaining. Beth carted me around one afternoon looking for baby bedding material. Look for pictures of that coming soon. We love staying with them during conferences, but hope to go visit them for a vacation when Steven isn't running around with a tight conference schedule.

So that was our trip in a nut shell. It was a blast and we look forward to this coming weekend when we are in Northwest Arkansas with Corey Russell. Corey host a regional conference with prophetic times as well and teaching sessions to equip the body of Christ in that area. Check out our traveling schedule for updates on where we will be next.