Made To Create || Tacoma Photographer

A couple weekends ago marked the completion of a huge, huge personal project. I co-hosted a photography workshop with another local photographer, Chelle Nicole Photography.  From the moment this was dreamt up last fall to the morning it actually arrived I had this odd mixture of calm excitement that it would all come together... and a fear that it would all fall apart somehow.  As we started to meet about  Made to Create || Pacific Northwest people came on board with us, sponsors helped support us and we started to formulate the kinds of relationships we wanted our attendee's to build.  We prayed over who we would invite to speak and we had a WONDERFUL crew of speakers whose heart was to invest in each and every attendee who came.  Above everything else our  desire was to walk away with new relationships...and I sincerely feel like I did.   I was so proud of each attendee that overcame their fear and challenged themselves to step outside of what they are comfortable doing.

And, if I can be completely honest I felt like there were moments that I would go crazy in the planning.  I would wake up with lists of things that needed to come together...and I wouldn't be able to focus on simple things like washing the dishes until I got that list out of my head.  I had to keep reminding myself that its about RELATIONSHIP above all else.   It didn't matter if we had three people or thirty...the Lord was calling us to invest in those whose hearts he led at that moment.   Before it all kicked off the speakers gathered to pray...and we asked that the Lord be there.  That he would move in the relationships and that there would be a peace that settles into Anthem Coffee as our attendee's began to arrive.

From that moment until now, as I sit to try and articulate my thoughts, its all a blur.  I have tried to sit down and make sense of my thoughts for nearly two weeks now and all I can see are little snippets.  Of those awkward first conversations, the taste of the lemon bars & the coffee that Bryan made, walking around to the breakouts to make sure they were running smoothly, hugging old friends and greeting new ones.  I remember the laughter at dinner at Indochine...and the intimacy I felt as we all gathered for our final goodbyes.

At the end of the day, I am still in a daze that it really happened.  That photographers for all over the state (and from other states too!) gathered, laughed, cried, learned, shared themselves and hopefully walked away feeling encouraged and fulfilled.  And as people are back in their community's my hope is that they will carry that message that we are in this together, and continue to encourage and support one another.

EPHESIANS 2:10

Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

I didn't take too many photos...I was so consumed by remembering to interact with everyone who came!  I wanted to be 110% present as much as possible.  But here are a couple behind the scenes from Saturday morning!  PS.  Those amazing flowers were done by Taylor Pinkham Floral Designs and those yummy treats were made by Sweet Things by EH.