Jess Hover: Sweetness from fashion week NYC.

And oh how sweet it was!

I returned home from Fashion Week and have so much to share with you about what God did during those 7 days in New York City. I will do my best to encourage you with my favorite stories and then hopefully other volunteers from the week will share their stories too- so you can get the bigger picture of what the Lord has done!

Favorite story number 1!
As I told you in my blogpost from NYC I had an awesome experience reconnecting with a precious model I met last year! She is a redheaded beauty from Germany that I had been praying for lots over the last year, hoping that Id be able to see her again. Day 2 of this fashion week I was not only able to work backstage at a show she was modeling in, I was assigned to dress her! Just to help you understand how awesome that is- there are lots of shows running during the day, at multiple venues, with between 10 and 30 models working each show. The chance of me being randomly assigned to dress my friend was not high! But God did it!

Actually to make things even better- I was assigned to dress another model for that show as well, and she was also a girl we had ministered to last year! She was a Chinese model who had never heard of Jesus until she spent an hour with my friend Mckenzie backstage before a show last September! After the show she told Kenzie, "I think God had me model in this show just so that you could tell me about Jesus."

So as I am waiting for my German model to get done with her hair and makeup I begin a conversation with the girl who is assigned to dress the models with me. She is a confident African American woman who works full time in business but hopes to one day work as a professional stylist. I encouraged her to trust God with that desire and shared about what He had been teaching me about being faithful with what He had put right in front of me... Knowing that one day He will be able to trust me with more because of my faithfulness. She loved it and opened up with me that she too was a Christian and that it was her faith in God that kept her strong. As soon as I found out she loved Jesus I excitedly told her what God had done in letting me dress my German & Chinese model friends. She was thrilled and offered to work extra hard to dress the Chinese model so that I could have more time to talk to my German model!

When my German friend did finally arrive, she hugged me as if I was her best friend! She opened up immediately about the last year of her life- sharing high points and successes as well as her very low, heartbreaking moments.

While backstage I was able to introduce her to Eve, my good friend from YWAM LA who joined me for this outreach. Eve is also from Germany and had been looking forward to meeting this model because I had told her all about her.

After the show Eve and I invited our German model friend for a "date" later in the week. So two days later she was able to spare 30 minutes before meeting with her booker and asked to meet us for coffee...

2 and a half hours later we were still sitting together because she wanted to know everything she could possibly know about God!!! She had literally never heard of Him! We explained everything we could- from Adam & Eve to prophecies & hearing God's voice! She was so curious! After we shared the gospel with her she expressed that she really wanted to read the story herself. That's when Eve pulled a pocket-sized German Bible from her purse in the easiest German translation! She said that in the morning she put the Bible in her bag, not really knowing why, but feeling strongly that she needed to do it. Now she knew why! Our model friend was so grateful for the Bible! She was thrilled! We encouraged her to start reading in the gospel of John. We finished our time together by praying.. This was the first time our friend had ever prayed!

We have remained in touch with our friend and are looking forward to our next visit with her. She has also connected with Models for Christ in New York which we hope will provide her with continued love and support.