LA Style Fashion Week. (Episode 2.)

The other day I attended a memorial service of an elderly man that I love dearly.

At the memorial I met a model.

She has been in the industry for a while and we realised that we have several mutual friends. She was a sweetheart and we talked about possibly grabbing coffee sometime soon, but I wasn't sure if it would actually happen because we are both so busy.

I hoped I would see her again.
She stayed on my mind for several days.
In fact she was on my mind pretty much daily....

until I ran into her again! Completely unplanned! Backstage at fashion week LA!

It was really amazing too because she actually wasn't supposed to be there. She hasn't worked this event in 6 years and was even afraid that she might get in trouble with her agency for doing this particular show.

It was a gift.

I was able to sit and talk with her backstage for almost an hour. We shared life stories and talked through our different experiences with God. The whole thing was so obviously orchestrated by Him. She was raised to love Jesus but throughout the last few years she had gotten really hurt by some of the most important people in her life. These people are all followers of Christ. Their rejection of her had led her into a bad depression and she began to question Jesus. She had hoped that everything she experienced with God before was really true, but in the chaos of her life as a professional model, and in the brokenness of the world around her... she was having some serious doubts about His love for her.... and ultimately about His existence.

I ministered to her heart the best I could and by the end of our conversation we were able to pray together. She was blown away that out of all places Christ could have shown Himself to her again... He would choose backstage at a Fashion Show. For her, there was no better place for Him to do that because it showed her that He sees her, He loves her, and He understands her....
all things she had questioned.

When Jesus walked the earth, He hung out with people who had hearts that ached. He didn't just hang out with them when they arrived to the synagogue. In fact He spent most of His time away from the synagogue. He would eat with them and drink with them. Meeting them right where they were. Talking to them using analogies of things they would understand. Even the religious people of His time questioned who He was hanging out with... because it was so "un-godly" in their eyes.

Now Jesus sits at the right hand of God in heaven, and He has given His Spirit to us as believers in Him. And He calls to do as He did.

I find that aching hearts are everywhere. And rather than just staying quiet, if we will just open our mouths and tell our stories of Christ at work in us, we will see the same Jesus of the Bible moving through us in the same way He moved when He walked around on earth. He will meet people right where they are. And talk to them in a way that they will understand.

That's why I can be the perfect candidate for Him to use to minister to this model.
I understand her world.
I am familiar with her lifestyle.
I get the struggles... I face them myself.
And mostly... I have a Savior named Jesus who longs for her to know Him intimately.

It doesn't take much to be used by God. Just like He meets us right where we are. He uses us right where we are too. All it takes is a willing heart.

So look around beloved... what aching heart near you could use a touch from the living God?

But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Matthew 9:11-13 (NLT)

Like these little ones on the runway... we are all a little scared, but if we stick together we will be okay. 

LA Style Fashion Week. (Episode 1.)

It came and it went! But not without AMAZING stories!

I arrived to the venue Monday afternoon and walked into a room of at least 50 volunteers. I was standing towards the back as Sarah, the woman in charge, began briefing us all. Within a few minutes she announced "Jessica Hover will be our Dressing Team Supervisor this season, so all dressers please report to her now."

It took everything for me not to burst out laughing.

If you know my story with fashion at all, then you know it has always been like this. I take a step in the direction I feel like God is leading, and somehow I get put into a place of authority.... beginning in fall 2011 when I first volunteered myself to be a "dresser" for Fashion Week in NYC. I had no training or experience, and no natural reason why I should be welcomed backstage... but ultimately it didn't matter. Because when God calls us somewhere, He makes a way for it to go down. So He opened a door, His favor was apparent, and now 6 seasons of Fashion Week later, I am promoted to supervisor here in LA.

And so it began.

Well actually it began the night before...
when my first team member arrived from Mexico. That's right. Mexico.

I had been wondering who would help me with this season's Fashion Week outreach because so many of my Beauty Arise girls were still out doing other incredible things in other places. Dorothea is in Switzerland, Eve and Carrie are still in China, Alissa had been in Arizona because of health issues, Nova is in Norway and Anna is busy getting ready to take a team to Thailand!

I was thinking.... who could possibly come help me at Fashion Week when my team is all over the world?

Silly Jessica. "Is anything to hard for God?"(Genesis 18:14)

How about God brings me a new team? How about He brings them from all over the world? How about He scoops them up and brings them to me from..
 Mexico (Lizbeth),
Venezuela (Lauren),
Canada (Charity),
Michigan (Lauren T.),
and NorCal (Shannon)?

And how about He heals Alissa so she can come be with us?
And what about giving Anna a few evenings to join us too?
And now throw some passionate volunteers from YWAM LA...
and I had a team. Better than I could have asked for or imagined.

And that was Day 1.
We worked Style Fashion Week as the supervisers of the backstage volunteers.
Right from the start we were able to speak into the lives of others who were present backstage.
Praying with models, sharing with other dressers about how our lives had been transformed by Christ, encouraging nervous designers... it goes on and on.

The Spirit of Christ was moving in people's hearts.

What a beautiful thing to be a part of.
More beautiful than any fashion show.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, 
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

2 Corinthians 3:17 (NIV)

A day at the beach. (a word about anxiety)

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed that you wanted to hide? 

I was having some pretty terrible anxiety recently. In trying to explain it to Shaun, all I could say was that it was like a storm inside of me that I couldn't calm down. Eventually, after praying and talking it through, Shaun and I recognized that a huge part of my stress was simply due to lack of rest. 

I went from China to New York, to then come home & engage in some pretty emotionally strenuous activities- like planning 2 events, helping a loved one through the loss of her husband, and welcoming my second God-daughter into the world. Not to mention the return of my Calling All Skaters family from China... and their graduation, and departure from Youth With a Mission this past weekend. 

There has been A LOT going on. 

(This would explain why I've been lacking in the blog department!) 

Soooo... the obvous answer to my dilemma was to rest. 

And that's exactly what I did on Sunday. 

I woke up Sunday morning and drove to Manhattan Beach, where a sweet friend of mine allowed me to make use of her apartment while she was out of town. 

My schedule looked something like this:

(1 rule- no facebook or instagram)

Long walk on the beach

Eat yummy food at the apartment

Take a nap

Lay on the beach & read a book (I picked a book by a great Christian psychologist.. haha looking for better ways to take care of myself... so I don't die on overload) 

Walk to a cafe 

Drink a honey latte & read my Bible

Drive to Hermosa Beach to watch the sunset on the pier

Drive back to the apartment to make dinner & enjoy a glass of wine

Pray & shower

Drive home refreshed

It's amazing how refreshed I really felt. I was praying all throughout the day and could really feel the Lord reminding me that He is enough for me. I felt Him showing me the need to slow down and soak up the gifts of life- like my relationships with others. As I allowed my mind & body to slow down, the "storm" in me was calmed. My anxiety dissolved & my stress seemed to melt away. 

At the end of the night I watched the sunset on the Hermosa Beach pier. Aside from being breathtakingly beautiful- it was so fun to see people literally running down the pier to catch a glimpse of the sun going down. Its amazing how much we, as humans, love sunsets. It doesn't matter if we believe in God or not- we are all struck by the glory of the sun-setting. The beauty & wonder of it all causes people to stand shivering over the cold ocean waiting for the moment when the gorgeous light disappears beneath the water. 

It was a great picture to me of what happens when we allow God to make beautiful things out of our lives. It will always draw people. Whether they recognize Him in it or not, they will naturally be drawn to the glory that is revealed by His work. 

That's what I am praying for as we venture forward into Fashion Week LA. I pray that the glory of Christ is revealed through us as we allow Him to be King of our time backstage. 

So beauties, if any of you are feeling "stormy" in your heart, be encouraged that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, has authority to calm any storms you may encounter. It may just require you to rest:

^{(From Mark chapter 4, in the Bible.)} 

³⁵ On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” 

³⁶ Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. 

³⁷ And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. 

³⁸ But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

³⁹ Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. 

⁴⁰ But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”

⁴¹ And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”