Amber goes to Haiti...

Hello friends,

I am so excited to tell you all about my upcoming trip to Jacmel, Haiti this December 16th-21st.
There is a team of about 10 of us who will be taking a trip to visit our project in Haiti!

We will be taking Christmas presents to all of the kids who are sponsored by Restore Haiti and Conduit Mission. This is also a celebration of 5 years that we have been doing work there along with planning for the future. I'm so excited to be serving these wonderful people and finally meeting my sponsor child, Paola!

This is a special trip for me, I've been helping support our friends in Jacmel for five years from here in the States, and while my sister and husband have been able to go and see firsthand the difference we're making, I've always had to hear about it from everyone else, and I'm excited to finally go and see and love on our Hatian brothers and sisters in person.

I'm still raising funds to cover my trip of $1200 and so many of you have been supporting us in our cause for Haiti, if you want to donate to getting me there, you can DONATE right here!!

I would love mostly for your prayers as well! Most of you know about the cholera epidemic torturing Haiti right now, as well as the political unrest.. It basically comes down to getting things as basic as clean water and honest, caring people. All of us at Conduit Mission and Restore Haiti are trying to be just a small part of that.

Check out conduitmission.org and restorehaiti.com to check out what all we are involved in the US and internationally! If you have any questions, feel free to email me at Amber@everlifeonline.com!

Thanks for making a difference with us...

Truly, Amber

p.s. I WILL be blogging about my trip after Christmas, so stay tuned!



complete surrender. (blog by Sarah)

This year has been one of “complete surrender” to what God has been whispering in my ear. 

It has been a year of changes. 

My sisters and I have been able to travel all around the world with our career in music.  We have used the gift of music to entertain and minister to many.  We have also traveled to many countries on mission trips early in our lives with our family to serve with our hearts and hands.  Even serving here at home in Nashville during the flood gave me a bird’s eye view, once again, that two hands can do something, but lots of hands can do more.  I feel called once again to go into that ‘all the world’ place. 

This time it is called HAITI.

            I will be going to serve the people of Haiti with an organization called The Conduit. The Conduit is a Christian non-profit organization based out of Franklin, TN. It is also my home church. 

The Conduit partners with organizations that are providing basic living needs such as food, clothing, shelter and medical care who share in their goal to ‘live simply that others may simply live.’

Our trip is from October 19-24 and we will be working with Restoration Ministries, a local church body that seeks to serve their community and provide both spiritual instruction and stability as well as provide practical assistance with the needs of day to day life. Our team with be working alongside the church leadership to feed the children in the community, assist with tasks in the building projects in progress and encourage the people in the community through both individual conversation and corporate gatherings.

I am very excited to be a part of this trip to Haiti! It has been almost 10 years since I was able to go outside of the country and serve with a team like this, to be able to do something outside of my everyday life and truly serve others.

Please be thinking and praying for me as I’m off in another land! I can’t wait to tell you all the awesome stories that I have when I come home.

Thanks always for your support! 

-Sarah

snapshots.

It's funny how we take photos these days. I was thinking about how stoic and serious photographs seemed to be a hundred years ago..

It was a lot harder back then to tell what the in between moments were than it is now.. we are a culture that tries to capture every moment.. Sometimes I think it stops us from living continuously and makes us constantly aware of stopping every few seconds to document our lives. I don't think that's a bad thing, just so very different.

Anyway, there's no deep philisophical reason for me writing this. I just wanted to share some snapshots with you from our trip! :)

Lots of love -Amber



silence

Have you ever felt alone?

Like the kind where you can hear and smell memories in unintentional silence?

It's odd. But I like odd. I have an idea….

Some people say it really isn't healthy to spend too much time by yourself, but I think that if you are uncomfortable with hanging out with yourself, you know, one on one, then something is wrong. So here it is…

I'm not saying go build a hut in the middle of nowhere and chill out for two years with only worms and an empty backpack. (I still think Into The Wild was a terrible idea.) I mean, take a day or two and spend it alone. Write something weird and funny, see a movie, go eat dinner somewhere. it's exhilaratingly awkward.  You might hate it… that's a part of it. but it's healthy…

So I've been in California now for 2 weeks now and I'm not gonna lie, i really miss my family. I'm on a journey. I don't know all the details but thats simply what it feels like.. I've had a lot of time in silence and I'm painfully learning to accept it. To embrace it like a new friend. To drive alone without my GPS. To have a moment that is really funny and turn to share it with my empty passenger seat.

We've always been moving moving hustle hustle since we were really young so it's like I'm not "trained" to sit down and watch a movie and not feel an odd sense of guilt. I don't even know where that guilt came from but its always been there. Sarah and I used to get jealous of our friends when they were sitting and we felt like we needed to wash the dishes or throw away pop cans when the middle of the movie hit.

That was our fault.

Its ok to let go and chill out. Dance like nobody is looking. ( I did that yesterday) :) 

I am learning that, to live in the moment is the best way to live. In no way do i mean without discernment and safety and brains. I mean, breathe in the air that is surrounding you this very second. Wave your arms around and watch them move, they're working. Right now it's all working. God just planned for that tree to sway that way. In THIS moment. Every flap of a birds wing in a part of the big story... We forget sometimes and regret. Like a bride on her wedding day says" It all went by so fast, I wish I would've slowed down to see it more clearly and enjoy it" … or right after a big show " I was so nervous I couldn't think about anything and then it was over so fast! I didn't get to do it like i wanted to!" …. 

I wrote something the other day in my journal. It went something like this. "Remember and accept the past for what it is… prepare yourself for the future…. but live in the moment because it is just as important as all the rest."  I've been living by this and I like it.

It's hard. I like a challenge.

So I challenge you to do the same. 

That is my idea. Let me know how it goes and tell me on twitter. @Juliaallynn. I love you all.

- Jewels

the journey.

Hello all!

So, as most of you may already know, the girls and I just completed our trek from Nashville to Los Angeles.

To be honest, it wasn’t the most thought out thing we’ve ever done. We just decided one day that all three of us were going to drive there together, and we went for it. We didn’t really map anything out along the way, (aside from visiting my boyfriend's family in Oklahoma) we just jumped in Julia’s 4runner and started to drive.

Before we left, the realization hit that it was the first time just the three of us had taken a road trip for something other than music. Seemed kind of sad at first, that we have never had the time, or taken the time, really, to just enjoy the trips instead of driving through to get to a show or interview or what not. I think we always felt like we weren’t allowed to just take that much time for ourselves. So anyway, we set off, and in record time, after a day and a half, we were over halfway through our trip! How did that even happen?

As the girls were sleeping in our hotel room somewhere in Arizona, a thought hit me so hard. ‘why are we treating this like a band trip? Rushing to get somewhere because we had a deadline and a schedule, when we don’t??’ I started getting upset at ourselves because we were missing the entire point of this journey together. Instead of enjoying every moment, living in each moment, if you will, we were trekking through, trying to prove a point to ourselves that we could drive that far and not die of exhaustion! Haha.

So I decided, while I was doing pushups, that I would tell the girls what I was feeling…when they woke up, of course. So as we sat and enjoyed our eggs at Denny’s, I explained it all to them. It came out a little more frustrated sounding than I had planned, but what can I say, I was tired! As I was saying ‘when’s the next time we will be driving across our country, just us three, with no schedule or plan, just an adventure ahead of us?’ I saw the lightbulbs go off over their heads and they got it. So…we decided to drive about 70 miles out of our way to the Grand Canyon.

That was quite possibly the best last minute idea we have ever had.

If you have never been there, please go. It is a breathtaking, humbling site. Makes you realize how small we are, and how huge our God, the Creator of it all, truly is.

What a beautiful sight.

As we stood staring over the edge, with Julia’s dog fella tagging along, I started to see the point of this trip. It was about us letting go of everything we have always known, letting go of having to get somewhere quickly, letting go of being kids and embracing the fact that we are now young women who are learning more about ourselves and the ones we love everyday!

The trip was about the journey as much as it was about the destination.

Feeling fulfilled in the small moments, instead of always waiting for the big moments to hit.

As I stood on that edge and stared down, (a little too close for Amber’s comfort) I felt like one of the most blessed people on earth. I was on a trip with my two bestest friends in the universe, being able to enjoy the beauty of our world and the beauty of the girls' hearts as well.

After the canyon, we drove on to Los Angeles, and on the way stopped off somewhere in the desert to gaze up at the stars and watch a meteor shower, while singing songs to our God and thanking Him for such an amazing journey, and that we realized before it was too late that we are allowed to slow down and enjoy the ride.

All that to say, I challenge you all to stop today and look around.

What are you most focused on? Are you missing the small moments that God has placed in your everyday lives for you to stop and enjoy what you have, to stop and be thankful and to find those things that truly make you come alive?

Please, for your own sake, make sure you don’t miss out on those things, make sure you stop and visit the Grand Canyon, if you will. Don’t let life pass you by as you try to fit things into your agenda and complain that you don’t have enough time to enjoy what you want to enjoy.

That is just an excuse. We all are capable to stop and watch and listen and learn.

So take a moment everyday to do that. Make it a part of your everyday routine and soon it will be second nature.

You don’t want to miss the journey folks. It’s what makes us who we are, and gives us the strength to understand the destination when we finally get there.

Thank God for that stop to the Grand Canyon, and for such an amazing trip with my two soul mates :) Forever together ladies. Together forever.

-Sarah