Wedding Pressure

These are the days of perfectly "Pinterest-ed" parties and succulent spotted soirees. And do you know what this brings for all party planners? Pressure. Try and factor in if you're a first (and only) time bride! All your friends are exasperatedly telling you, Oh if only I had Pinterest back when I was getting married! Ah, pressure! Then there's girls that aren't married or engaged or dating but they're already crafting and drafting these beautiful wedding ideas. Thus the comparison pressure of her wedding will be better than mine.

Okay, I'll back track a bit... I love Pinterest, really! I'm so grateful that I do have it for the day I say, I do! It has some absolutely amazing DIYs and low-budget ideas that I need, all this creativity harnessed onto one consolidated site is revolutionary! Plus all of my wonderful, dedicated and loving bridesmaids, and mom, can post wedding ideas onto a secret board that no one but us can see.

Back to the pressure: it's there! It's alive, it's breathing down my neck and I am scared to face it!

Or at least I was three weeks ago.

Here's what I've concluded. I've got $5,000 (let's just get real) to throw a once in lifetime celebration kick-starting my forever relationship to the man of my dreams, Mr. Kyl Michael Means. After spending $700 on my dress, $600 on a venue, $1,200 on photography, $500 on tables and chairs, $1,000 for cake and food, $300 for flowers and an unknown amount for a DJ we have yet to find - I'm basically down to maybe $500 for mind-blowing decor that will cause all of our guests to be astounded and loquaciously laude Kyl and I for our innovative, out-of-the-box, beautifully adorned wedding genius!

And that is just not going to happen.

This is the day where all of our friends gather around us, witness our union, bless our life together and then celebrate the glory of covenant! And on June 16th, we'll wake up and the day before remains just a memory.

Weddings are not about the approval from your guests about petty things like the decorations. It's so silly. I completely allowed this pressure for approval to overwhelm me, comparison almost swallowed me whole.

I completely left out Jesus. I was planning this wedding all in the flesh, striving for a corruptible goal: approval of man. But this is the constant poking from heaven on humanity, can I lay this down seeing that it's just wood, hay and stubble?

Yes, oh resounding in my spirit - yes, gladly! Even in the most minute of details, He takes those burdens for me. I wasn't meant to bear the weight of a perfectly put together wedding. No one was even putting this on me except my self. I let culture dictate my every move and I was at the beck and call of "tradition."

June 15, 2013 is the day I've been waiting for all my life. For two years of dating Kyl and I have dedicated our relationship to the glories and purposes of Jesus. Our wedding day marks the beginning of walking out our Isaiah 61:3 banner as a couple.

The pressure is relieved and I cannot wait to be Mrs. Means even if my centerpieces aren't perfect or if the colors don't match. It's a beautiful thing to be married, even the engagement process is refining so I am embracing every moment.

Fellow 2013 brides, don't let all the pressure of perfection weigh down on you. Enjoy the engagement and all the attention from family and friends until that momentous, unforgettable day!

And yes, this picture is from Pinterest! :)

Wedding Website

Wedding websites are a glorious invention, saving couples money and time. May I present to you our wedding website for your browsing pleasure:

mywedding.com/kylandcourtney

Beauty on Bourbon Street

This year during the Super Bowl, I went with a team to New Orleans, Louisiana to minister to women in commercial sexual exploitation. With most sporting events, demand for sex rises as tourists flood in. This was statistically proven with our own recording of the number of Internet prostitution site postings increasing as the Super Bowl drew near.

Balconies filled on the French Quarter

Bourbon Street really is beautiful!

Not only did demand for sex rise because of the Super Bowl, but Mardi Gras was the following week. The strip clubs were incredibly busy with new girls being hired to meet the demand of tourists flocking to the French Quarter.

The team from Exodus Cry with Cindy Collins

We partnered with Cindy Collins from SpeakHope and Diane Amos from Dream Center: New Orleans, to bring hope, life and presents to the girls busy working the strip clubs. 

I went into Stilettos twice with Cindy and Diane back into the dressing rooms to give cake and beauty products. We didn't have too much time because of the shift change but I spoke with "Bubbles" and was able to grab her contact info to talk more with her.

The Lord was definitely moving in New Orleans! Hope was rising amidst the drunken party goers and our intercession shift the dark, lustful atmosphere. 

We also held a prayer meeting at the oldest church in the French Quarter, it was one street away from Bourbon, established in the early 1900's it's surrounded by clubs and bars.

Mama Cindy with Michelle and I, passing on her wisdom, knowledge and mama heart to us young ins! Cindy provokes me, I pray that I am a woman of integrity like her when I'm her age!

There was also down time to enjoy the beauty of New Orleans, our hosts Chris and Debbie Whitty took us on a boat ride down the Pearl River in Slidell, so beautiful!

The entire town of New Orleans and surrounding communities celebrate Mardi Gras like it's Christmas! With beautiful wreaths and festive flags adorning homes, cars and people alike!

For more about the trip to New Orleans with Exodus Cry, Michelle our team member wrote an incredible blog! See it here: http://exoduscry.com/blog/beautyonbourbon/

The Call: Belo Horizonte

 The Call in Belo Horizonte was a time of intercession for issues in the culture and church. Lou Engle and Stacey Campbell were both there as leaders. Blaire prayed for the issue of sexuality and human trafficking.

10 Days in Recife, Brazil

Once landing in Recife, Brazil a fresh anointing came upon our team. That night we were given a crash course in church on the streets from Nic Billman from Shores of Grace, the ministering that hosted us.

Nic, Rachael and their team carries such a heavy grace to walk in the Father's heart. Never before had I encountered such joyful, happy hearts walking in the midst of such poverty and generational abuse coupled with astounding healing power.

They host church in the streets every Wednesday night. They're in the most dangerous part of Recife, a park square known for daily murder, rape and abuse. The police are so corrupt in Brazil that in this square there is a police hut, but they never act on atrocities that occur before their eyes, just wait until the victim is dead.

This is Paulo, he was a homeless man with epilepsy.

Paulo was the first man I prayed for. I had never felt the amount of compassion welling up inside of me before that night. I realized that it was the embodiment of God's heart for this beautiful, broken man. In fact, Paulo was homeless, he lived on a cardboard box. Other street people beat him up and made fun of him because of his epilepsy, it left him utterly helpless. While praying for him, he told us that he felt fire shooting throughout his legs.

Meet Jessica, a beautiful and beaming homeless child

Jessica came to church on the streets both nights we hosted it. We drew butterflies together and she let me paint her nails.

The old church across the street from the park, what happens in the spirit reflects in the natural

Okay, so now here's a break in the spiritual side of this trip: Sao Braz coffee! Oh it is delicious and wonderful! There was a Sao Braz coffee shop just a short five minutes from our host home, right on the beach. I spent just about every morning here.

Pao de Quejo (cheese bread)

Old town Recife

 Across from old town Recife is the ocean, but between the city and the rest of the Atlantic is a man-made island full of pagan gods. It was a boat ride across shark infested waters. We had a time of worship and prayer on this demonic island.

Idols on the demonic island

Nic and Blaire on the demonic island

Tiny boats to the demonic island

 The other places we ministered to the broken were to the prostituted men, women and children. Brazil has an incredible number of transgendered prostitutes, most of them underage boys.

A young women prostituting

 The most incredible thing happened, second only to my encounter with Paulo earlier in that week. As a small group of my team and I were ministering to a group of  prostituted women, one of them, Gabrielle, began to prophesy to us. In essence she told us that we must keep coming down to the streets and being a light to the broken! That we could be doing anything else in the world but we decided to spend our money and time to be on the streets with her. She told that we must bring more people to come and minister! It was incredibly powerful!

Then, Gabrielle had a john pull up and she got in his car and left.

An old apartment complex, taken over and now a favela

 At our host home in the back was a small house of prayer. Our team spent 2-4 hours a day crying out for the Lord to visit this city.

Beach in Recife, I miss this!

I'm a Published Writer... Again!

How fun! So many exciting opportunities to write updates and blogs for Exodus Cry, the non-profit I work for that fights to end human trafficking.

Ta-da:
http://exoduscry.com/blog/intervention/team-brazil/

http://exoduscry.com/blog/intervention/israel-2012/

http://exoduscry.com/blog/intervention/brazil-the-world-stage/

10 Days in Fortaleza, Brazil

As I'm processing the five-week trip I took with Exodus Cry, I will post about each city. I present to you the blossoming city of Fortaleza:

Me, Liz, Luke, Meagan, Blaire, Stephanie and Tim

Fortaleza from the plane

Walking through Oitao Preto

In Fortaleza our team connected with Iris Ministries: Herbert and Lorelei Barbutti. Herbert is Brazilian but grew up in the US and moved to Brazil two years ago with his wife. Lorelei leads the outreaches to the Beta Mar, a sex tourism hotspot where children, women and men sell their bodies for sex. With their team, Iris has planted a house of prayer (HOP) in the favela, or slum, Oitao Preto. This particular favela is known as the factory that produces prostitutes to walk up and down the Beta Mar strip, and this contending HOP is in the dead center, a former drug den with a 360 degree lookout.

The view from the house of prayer

Day of prayer and fasting for Fortaleza

While in Fortaleza we hosted two Safety Fairs, designed for children at risk of sexual abuse, teaching them about how to protect their bodies, confide in a trusted adult and the purity that is theirs despite any sort of defamation of their frame.

Girls from the Safety Fair

There were many days that we went to the (HOP) to pray for hours, but we decided to take an entire day to pray and fast for the city of Fortaleza. On this day, a drug war was taking place and it only fueled our intercession. As homes were being torn to mere brick and bits of concrete, we cried out to the Lord for the restoration of Oitao Preto.

One of the destroyed homes

I also went on a house visit with the Iris team to a family living in the favela. I met Marta, a 60-something year old woman who had taken in six children under the age of 12, no relation whatsoever, whose mother had died of cancer. All seven of them were living in a one-room 12x12 shack with a twin-sized bed and sink. Taindra, Alfredo, Vitoria, Jose, Joao Paulo and Marcele were all obviously traumatized because 4 out of the 6 never spoke to anyone. I couldn’t believe how much integrity Marta had, truly a woman who trusted in Jesus for everything. In fact, she told me that she gave away food all the time to the cripples and bed-ridden in that community. Amazing! Pray for this family and the restoration of these children.

Youth With a Mission (YWAM) has a fairly large reach in Brazil. We met up with YWAM Fortaleza, for a three-night conference: screening the film Nefarious: Merchant of Souls, equipping and training them to minister to the prostituted on their streets and the last night taking them with us.

Blaire screening Nefarious at YWAM

By the third time on the Beta Mar, different women that I had spoken to before recognized me coming and would run up to say hello. It was so beautiful! Women that in the first contact had been so hardened and hesitant to enter into simple conversation were excited to talk and pray by the second meeting. One of the girls, Camilla, especially captured my heart. She lived in Amsterdam for four years, working behind the windows. Camilla told me that every night when she finally went home, she would talk to Jesus. She elaborated that His presence would come into her room and when she felt His peace she could finally fall asleep. I love how Jesus is continuing to draw Camilla near Himself, though she is still entangled in sin, He gives her peace instead of shame. It’s a reminder of the gentle process of the Lord to save and sanctify the human soul, and the testimony that will come forth.

Praying on the Beta Mar, that's me in the middle

The Iris Team has such a spirit of humility and integrity. There were many more people and stories from this beloved city. Truly the Lord is turning the hearts of Fortaleza to Himself. The incense of pure worship and adoration is rising from one of the hardest and darkest places in that city. 

The Iris and Exodus Cry Teams