An Appointment with God in Seattle - part 2

Part 1

After I spent a fabulous afternoon with the Jones family, I headed to the airport to pick up Leslie.
We had spoken on the phone a few times, but had never actually met in person.
She was one of those gifts from God to get me to this workshop.
I had no idea where I would stay in Tacoma.
The hotel that the workshop was being held at was way too expensive for me - even at the special rate we would get. I still had to make reservations at a hotel when we got our first email with instructions to introduce ourselves. After a couple of email exchanges, Leslie had offered to share her room with me and I would be her transportation for the weekend. God is so good.
(And what's even cooler (and I believe another God thing) about that set up is that a couple of weeks before we actually met in Seattle and after we had made our arrangements, Leslie called me to tell me she just realized that I was the Rhonda from Exposing Grace - a blog she had been following for awhile because she saw one of my posts at I Heart Faces. She had even been considering joining us at Through The Lens of Worship.)

Ok - back to the story...
I picked up Leslie, and after driving for an hour and a half for what should have been 30 minutes, we were already have a fun adventure and getting to know each other. (Seattle and Tacoma aren't the easiest cities to drive in. If you miss your turn-off there may not be a way to turn around for quite awhile, especially in rush hour traffic.) We checked in to the hotel and headed out to the meet and greet at MeRa's house.
And that began the appointments with people that God really took me to Seattle for.
Some of those appointments were so that I could minister to others and some of those appointments were so that others could minister to me. God showed me in no uncertain terms, many ways that He has been using me in the lives of some of these women that I hadn't ever met. One of the ladies wasn't even someone I knew of by name from the internet, but she knew me and God had used me in her life.
Can I just tell you what a gift that is?
God didn't have to do that.
Yet he chose to bless me and encourage me.
I am overwhelmed with gratitude.

We left MeRa's house already filled and our workshop hadn't even begun yet.
Leslie and I shared a little more adventure finding a drug store so she didn't have to pay $15 for the hotel toothbrush, because she broke hers that morning. Then we got to the hotel to try to get some sleep and be ready for the morning.
Saturday morning started off with some worship music (there was an ipod player in our hotel room), a cup of Starbucks and an eagerness for what the day would hold.
Really, it doesn't get much better than that!

MeRa and her husband, Brian, are amazing.
They are gifted as photographers and teachers.
They are funny.
And they are humble.
The things they taught about the camera were basic things I mostly already knew, but what they taught in the in-between moments about who God made me as a photographer and dare I say, artist, was priceless.
God used them to teach me to trust Him and let go in these areas.
Don't get me wrong here. This was a photography workshop, not a Christian conference of some kind.
MeRa and Brian didn't talk about God, but God used them to teach me and help me grow as an artist.
Another aspect of my appointment with God.

I just LOVE how God works.
He brings me to Seattle to a photography workshop that focused on a lot of stuff I already know, to teach me things that weren't even the focus of this workshop so that He could get the glory.
Does that make sense to you the way it does to me?
He does things in such a way (if we will let Him) that He will be glorified.
He is showing me this a lot lately.
When I applied for the Soar scholarship and didn't win, God told me that He didn't ever want anyone to say that my opportunities as a photographer were because of that Scholarship.
He wants and deserves all the glory for anything He works in and through me.
And even if I would always point to Him, others wouldn't on my behalf.

So after our morning session on Satuday, we got to actually photograph some beautiful models.
My favorite part of the photo sessions we did was watching MeRa at work -
Watching her see light and work with the model, posing them and interacting with them in such a way that they relax and enjoy their time.

Here she is at work, along with many of the girls I shared the weekend with.

And once she showed us how she goes about setting up the shot, she set us off to take some pictures ourselves.

We finished up the day with a fabulous lunch and some more learning and then headed off to dinner at a fabulous Thai food restaurant, where God had yet another appointment for me.

But that is for another day, as I must get my tired body into bed. 

You can see the Mommy & baby shots I took here.

Part 3
The End