This past summer our church hosted the Vineyard Global Conference. For the first time in the Vineyard’s history, pastors and church leaders from all over the world came together in ONE place to worship and learn from each other. There were many powerful moments throughout the week. Leo and I were honored to lead the kids in worship and in a mission experience as the week went on.
We were also honored to host 6 pastors from Peru and Chile for the week.
We would come home absolutely exhausted from working 12 hour days, to sit around our living room sharing invigorating stories of ministry until the early morning hours.
Honestly, the months leading up to this conference weren’t our best as a couple. We were both so immersed in our own separate worlds that we hadn’t truly served together in a long time. Yes, Leo supported me in the things I did at church, and I would come alongside him, but we hadn’t felt like we had done anything that was “ours” in a very long time.
Leo would come home with amazing stories of conversations and moments he would have while installing sound and training up media teams in a variety of churches and mosques around the city. I would beam about all the things the Lord was doing in the kids’ hearts and lives… but we deeply missed walking alongside each other, taking part in each others’ moments.
That all changed at the conference.
We were finally together, for an entire week, serving alongside each other. Watching the other come alive as we were “in our element”.
We started to dream again.
Our conversations with these amazing, church-planting pastors ended with “you need to come down and partner with us… train up our people in what you’re doing. Come serve alongside us for a few weeks!”.
So, we started planning.
We intentionally started saving.
Then, about 2 months ago, we hosted a Spanish worship night with La Viña. Leo finally found all the members of the band who understood how to play all styles of music, and who deeply desired to honor Jesus with their musical talents and lead others into worship… and we put together an incredible set infused with some of our original tunes.
That night, something powerful happened inside of us. We trusted the band to follow us, and we intently listened to Jesus. There was absolute freedom. New words and melodies poured out of us. Leo and I led together like a tree-climbing rope being woven together… I would play something and he would wrap his own style and words around it. He would sing just a few words, and I would come around with more. We had never truly experienced anything like it before. No competition, no tug of war, just pure unity as we truly led together for the very first time.
We came home and songs continued to spill out of us. OUR songs… not Leo changing or translating my songs, or me putting words to his melodies… we were writing together for the first time in our lives.
Which gave us an idea: is it time to finally finish the Spanish worship album we’ve been working on (ie frustrated with, fighting about, giving up on yet hoping for)?
We started working on it. We invited all the musicians from the worship night over to record together… our studio was filled with beautiful music! The best part about it was that every single member of the band was from a different country… Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Portugal, Colombia, Mexico. There was great excitement as they heard these new songs for the first time and put all their hearts into recording their best. My heart was soaring as I heard what was being made in our humble basement.
This week, we are ending the recording stage with just a few more things to go, and Leo is already working hard on mixing.
We hope to have a digital release in December, with an official “release concert” sometime in February/March.
We leave for Peru, Chile and Argentina in January for a 5-6 week trip (yes… this is still the Morales’ we’re talking about… we don’t nail down specifics until last minute! lol!).
We will be partnering with church planters and leaders to train in Children’s ministry, Worship ministry and recording. We are even going to be doing a kids and youth camp alongside the leaders so that they can put into practice the ideas we will be working on together.
To say we are pumped is an understatement.
To say we are overwhelmed is also an understatement.
Please pray for us. There are a lot of things that need to come through for us to be able to follow what we feel like the Lord has laid out.
Pray for these last weeks of finalizing our cd.
Pray for the details to come together for the trip.
Pray for all the things we already had on our plate before we took on these 2 huge projects… Worship club, Christmas activities, Leo’s retail work, family visiting from Colombia, etc.
We want to savor each day, and not get caught up in “getting somewhere”… but also keep the balance of needing to plan and dream. It is a fun tight-rope to walk on.
Thanks!
colombiatotheworld 