Phoenix: The City Without Books

Have you ever wondered what it would look like to watch me speak from a church baptistry?

Me neither. But there it is —>

It’s Monday afternoon and I’m awake and a productive member of society. I slept in today a bit, feeling like a No Alarm Monday was somewhat deserved. After traveling from Scotland to Phoenix and then to Nashville via a delayed flight out of Dallas, the math of time zones traveled and hours slept and flights taken is more than I care to calculate.

But was it all worth it?

TOTALLY.

Man, what a BLAST Girls of Grace was! Y’all. I’m not kidding. We had the BEST time all day. Super fun crowd of girls, awesome moms, all the other speakers were so so good and the bands? Y’all. If you’ve never seen Group 1 Crew live, might I suggest you do it, like, NOW. They were insanely fun to watch. And I pretty much want Blanca to be my new best friend because she is funny and smart and hilarious and yeah, I adore her.

Side note: two years ago I spoke at a camp while Meredith Andrews led worship at a connected retreat center. We decided that day we met to be friends and hoped to get to work together in the future. And then Saturday as she led the girls in song minutes before I walked out to speak, it was all I could do not to cry because the Lord knew two years ago what would be happening that day in Phoenix.

Here’s another thing the Lord knew would happen in Phoenix: my books never showed up. Not a one of ’em.

Yep, Zondervan worked hard to get them ready early and then somewhere in the shipping process, they got covered in an invisibility cloak [Harry Potter joke]. So there I was, at my first Girls of Grace event, with an empty merchandise table.

And you know what?

It was good for my soul.

It was good for me to be able to focus on speaking and not pitching my book. It was good for me to watch the other merch tables be busy and mine be less than busy because I got to remember that God is my provider. It was good for me meet the girls, hug necks, speak to mamas, and make friends and not really worry about the table.

[We did end up taking orders, so some of those beautiful Phoenixians (?) will be getting books in the mail as soon as, you know, Zondervan finds them.]

I loved the day. I still can’t believe this is my job, that I get to meet teen girls and stand up and talk about Jesus and travel around the USA. And I got to wear a Britney Spears kind of microphone, so that made me laugh to myself.

So thank you for your prayers. I hope hope hope that if you are close to one of our events in the next few months, you will join us.

And I hope that whoever locates my boxes of books will have a lovely time reading all those copies. Or at least use them wisely, like as fans for those hot Phoenix days.

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