Meanwhile while all of this job changing was going on, I was invited to join the worship team at my church. I've been singing since I came out of the womb. I seriously can't remember ever not loving to sing. My mom always sang harmony, so I picked up an uncanny knack for that as a child. I was always the lead harmony person in high school choir and ensembles. I took voice lessons both in high school and college. One voice teacher at IU actually destructed my voice for a 3 month period. I had no idea what he was trying to teach me and it was very frustrated. Then, one day, I got it, and my voice has never been the same...what I mean I had a breakthrough, and my voice became stronger. He taught me some very valuable lessons.
So, when I joined the worship team, I was excited to be singing with a group again, and I approached it as just that--singing. I didn't know how to worship. I came from a Baptist background, and kind of moved away from that after attending Liberty University. But, even there abandoned worship was kind of frowned upon. We were just free to wear pants to church and sing new praise songs, but it was still just singing to me.
Shortly thereafter, I decided to learn guitar. I began learning the basic chords, and within a month, was playing pretty simple songs, and leading worship at womens meetings. Our worship leader was a little skeptical, but suprised when he heard me play. He kind of took me under his wing and began training me to be a worship leader. About a year later, he asked me to start leading worship on Wednesday nights. During this time, I recieved the first prophetic word ever given to me, and it was "Sing, Mandy, sing." I was like "Okay, I'm doing that" and kind of forgot about it. I really loved learning guitar, so I took some summer lessons at IU. Then on a whim, I also took a semester of drums and pedal harp, and piano. I had played piano since I was seven, so that was just an easy credit. My piano skills made it very comfortable to play harp, but thats another post! So, by this time I realized that I love making music and singing. It energized me, and just made me feel great.
My worship leader died in August 2003. This was the first time for me to experience the death of someone who wasn't a distant relative. I continued to lead worship every Wednesday night. In March 2004, I went to an Integrity worship seminar, and saw this band, Desperation. They were singing about intimacy, fasting, urgency, abandonment. I felt like someone lit a fire in me. Almost like there was an impartation as they sang. My spirit was alive, and I realized that I wanted to know Jesus like they did. Upon reflection, I found that I didn't know Him at all, but was just busy doing stuff in the church.
Dan had been asking me to help him out more at home, and between work and chuch I had been swamped. I felt so ashamed that he had to keep asking me, and it took a real wake up call from God. I went home a new person, and within 2 weeks had stepped down from teen ministry, sunday morning worship team, office duties, and a whole host of other church related activities.
Ps 27:4 One thing I have desired from the LORD, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to pray in His temple.(MKJV)
About Me
Name: Mandy Home: United States About Me: I'm Mandy. Wife, mother, worship leader, photographer and lover of Jesus.
I'm here to showcase my work as a beginning photographer and to build a portfolio.
I enjoy photographing children and families. It is a wonderful experience to capture the essence and beauty of a person in an image. See my complete profile
Aaaarrgh! Those blasted cliffhangers!!!
;)
Really though, I am relating quite well and look forward to reading more.