asheville

hello good folks of blog land! i write you today from the wonderfully interesting town of asheville, NC! my friends jessie & justin and i drove out here on thursday & we head back home today... a nice long 17 hour drive :)

we're visiting our friends sarah & johnny. they've been living here for quite a bit now and they love it. beautiful mountains everywhere, quirky shops & quirky people to fill them. i love asheville too! this is my second time out & each time proves to be fun, stretching, and encouraging all at once. this is jessie and justin's first time here & they've had a really good time from what i can tell. they've become dear friends of mine over this last year. i grew up with jessie at our church's youth ministry & we've always been able to have such great conversations about life & the lord. she ended up moving out to canada to attend university. that's where she met justin, her husband. this guy is definitely the coolest guy i've ever met! haha.. his style is so unique and his personality is really chill & laid back and he has a cool perspective of the world that i really appreciate. basically i have a big man crush on him. i suppose it's a similar story with sarah & johnny. minus the man crush. sorry johnny... no offense. sarah and i grew up together. she's been a huge influence in my life over the years. i feel like she played a significant role in "tuning" my musical talents... i guess you could say she was an inspiration of sorts. she met her husband johnny at a conference called "one thing". it was love at first sight! if my memory serves me, i believe they got married less than a year later. johnny is one of those guys that is really easy to get along with. it's like he's on a mission to have a good time & make sure everyone else is having a good time too.

so here i am. surrounded by people that i love in a beautiful little town. and i can't wait to get home.

don't get me wrong. i'm soaking it in. and i'm truly enjoying myself here. but there's a girl back home.

more on that later :)

yesterday we got to visit sarah & johnny's church. i got to lead worship with them which was such a joy to do!!! definitely a highlight of the trip for me. i love being able to connect with folks following jesus in other places in the world. after the service we got to sit down with the leadership of the church & they told us about their plans to move to a different building, stop having "services" and start being a community together in a neighborhood. this all sounded strangely familiar.

it was such an honor to be a part of the conversation... they wanted to hear all about what we were doing back home with thirdway & if we had any advice to extend to them about their community. it just felt like the kingdom. different faith communities trying to figure out how to live together & sharing stories. it seems like we share the same heart, which makes it so much easier to understand the idea of "the body".

well... in a few hours we'll take off for hot springs to spend the afternoon enjoying each other & creation.

then it's home sweet home.