One of the things I've learned while being on the road is that I'm hated for my ministry, a lot. Not by the people around me but by the devil, because I'm in a path where I'm serving God with all I've got and he wants to do everything he can to stop me. He also hates the rest of my team and tries every once and a while to make us angry at each other or to hurt us through our families. He doesn't play fair, so all we can do is fight back.
This month was crazy in all that we did. As I wrote in my blog last time we were at a camp with a lot of kids from troubled homes. It was a great week, tiring but so rewarding. And the week after that Final Greetings was joining with Andy Ziesemer to become The New Divide once again for a camp at Biola university called Zona. It was a camp of about 1,400 people from churches all across the state of Arizona. And unlike most camps, this one had 4 full days of camp activities. #jampacked
For most of camp I was running around like crazy to be there for all the events that we were asked to be a part of. We had worship in the mornings and evenings, afternoon rehearsals, two Q&A sessions, a rock concert and more. Plus the meals were in a cafeteria where they served four different styles of food every night, and I had an ice cream cone after every lunch and dinner. Needless to say, it was a pretty awesome camp. #icecream
We also got to judge a lip-sync battle and be a part of a Celebrity Familiar Feud, where we teamed up with the camp speaker and destroyed the other team! We got the fake mustaches as our prize for winning, but Kyle wanted to make his a unibrow. #imustacheyouaquestion
I got to know a few of the students there, but I was so busy I forgot to take photos with them. There was a group of three girls I would occasionally sit with at meals named Farah, Christelle and Destiny. They were so sweet, and I also got to know a few others who came to our Q&A's and stopped me every once in a while. One of the female campers even stopped me in the street and asked me to marry her with a flower. #adorable
Then there's this lovely little lady named Cheyenne. While Zona camp was fun, it was also a very hard week for me. But Cheyenne was there for me. She gave me lots of hugs and made sure the last few days of camp that I wasn't alone during meal times. We were able to ask about each others' lives and connect over the possibility of her becoming a part of A Jesus Mission in the future. She was super cool, and I'm glad I now have her as a friend. #campbuddy
But back to why the week was hard, Garrett had flown to Georgia to be with some of his old friends who were going through difficult times. He wanted to be there to encourage them and reconnect, because he hadn't been back since he had moved to Utah about six years ago. His time there was good but also difficult because he missed his friends and wished he could be there for more than a week to help them. I could hear it in his voice whenever he called me and told me about how he was doing. He loved them, but it was also killing me to be away from him during an extremely busy summer camp.
But we were making it. We were within 24 hours of seeing each other again, and it was the last night of camp. God had already been working like crazy in a lot of the students, and we were excited to see what else was going to happen. Garrett was having a great time with his friends and enjoying the last day to spend with them. #lastday
I was about to start music rehearsal when Garrett called me. Someone from his past was messaging him and saying that they were going to tell me that he cheated on me while we were dating. He was uncomfortable with it but knew it wasn't true, so he wanted to warn me in case they did message me. I thought it was ridiculous that they were even trying, so I kept going with a chipper attitude and brushed it off.
My stomach started bothering me so I went to use the restroom and checked my phone again. I had missed a phone call from Garrett, and I saw that I had a new message on Facebook. The person had messaged me, and the things they were saying really disturbed me. Garrett quickly called me and we talked. I had no doubt that Garrett was telling me the truth, but the person attacking us was so vehement towards him.
Both of us were confused why they were coming after us. Though things had been tough for them in the past he had reconciled that relationship, so when they reached out it was without warning and unsolicited. All they wanted to do was attack us, cause us pain and ruin our marriage. #why
Both of us knew the truth and knew the foundation of our relationship was build on God, so we didn't fear for our marriage. But we became worried that the false rumor might spread and take us off the path we were on. So after a quick conversation and prayer with Andy(the president of A Jesus Mission) we continued on. It was hard. I kept crying on and off most of the evening, but I wouldn't let it stop me from leading worship with Andy that night. I wouldn't let the devil win.
During worship that night, we were singing an original The New Divide song called Hope Restored, and though I'd sung it dozens of times a few lines stood out to me that night. "Hope is restored, we've been renewed... Victory's found in only You." I started to declare that to God, but as the song went on I broke down. "Brokenness and shame were carried to the grave... The power of the cross, the enemy has lost. Every debt was paid, we're alive in Him today."
The lesson I had learned the past year is the devil keeps us broken by keeping us in shame of the sins of our past. He throws them in our face and threatens to expose our mistakes if we don't lay down. But we don't have be ashamed anymore, we can bring our past to the light and know that we have been renewed by the victory of Christ. We are bought and paid for. #impacted
Those words left me feeling uplifted. Even though I was still struggling to see the bright side in the attacking messages and the bitter spirit, I was confident that we were okay. God brought us into our ministry, and He wouldn't let anything take us out of it. Nor would He let anything get in the way of our marriage.
And once I got my husband back, we grew even closer together because of our struggle.