Friends and Family,

            “Welcome to: the future, to the adventure, to the city that never gets boring, to my heart that is unbalanced yet satisfied, to a job that I love, to a school that I am ready to be done with yet still want to hold onto, to a prayer that I can't say out loud because I know He will answer, to so many desires that I honestly wonder when they will come to pass….to the beat of my heart that since I met the Living God has cried to not live a mundane and complacent life, to someone who loves to encourage, and to someone who loves people,”  I wrote this about four months ago when I was really wondering where my life would be headed after graduation. 

            Each of you has had a significant impact on the next stage of my life and I am eternally grateful for that.  It has been a rough, exciting, and mysterious past seven months as I have journeyed with the Lord within this conversation about the future.  Erwin talks about how the future can either paralyze us or excite us as we step into the mysterious.  For so long I have been paralyzed by May.  There was no security in it and my body, soul and mind has walked in so much fear.   I have finally decided what I am going to do after I graduate, I am moving to Charlotte, NC to be part of a new church plant called Mosaic.  Some of you may we wondering how in the world did this happen. Read on to hear about the journey!

            Back in September I went to a conference in Atlanta working for Erwin and ended up meeting some amazingly wonderful people.  I met Gil Gatch, Amy Gartside and Naeem Fazal who are the staff at Mosaic Charlotte.  As I have gotten to know each of these people over the past couple of months, We share a huge passion for the body of Christ and the Lord has really taught me a lot through my friendships with them and has used each of them to open my heart to the option of leaving LA.   Mosaic launched on January 22, 2005 and I was able to make it out there for the launch.  I entered into something that I had been dreaming about for a long time; it was a group of young people who have given up everything that is familiar and moved to give their life away to the city that they live in.  It was a group of people who look past the natural and walk in the supernatural and understand that God is beyond our comprehension.  They understand that life is to be lived with urgency within their hearts and that the time is now for salvation to come. They understand that the invisible is scary and full of risk but are jumping into the unknown.  They have a passion for the name and renown of Jesus to be returned to the city of Charlotte.  Naeem is an incredible example of what needs to take place in order for ethnic diversity to happen within a church; a lead pastor who is not white and like everyone else around him.  I was blessed to meet with Naeem and filter out some thoughts while I was in Charlotte and really felt the leading of the Holy Spirit to move there. 

            I went back home after my trip to Charlotte and was confused beyond my wildest measures about God’s voice.  I sought it from everyone and everything that I could possibly hear.  It was not until I got back to L.A. when I got really silent before the Lord that I felt Him.  The lesson that God has taught me this year is that He is moving everywhere; His heart is for humanity to be reconciled back to Him.  If I am moving towards this goal and pursuing humanity than I am doing His will.  I will say that there is not a huge audible voice in my head saying move to Charlotte.  But I will tell you that I am excited and at peace about going there.  It is a huge risk.  I am leaving behind an amazing movement here in L.A.  God will have to act on my behalf in order for me not to fail in Charlotte because I know that I can not reach and love people without His hand being involved.  The Lord has really given me so much hope in the future.  I know that the things spoken over me my sophomore year about going to the nations will also come to pass.  I am hoping to plant churches and create community all over the world.  London may be next after Charlotte!  God has ignited something within my soul over the past few days that I can not explain but I know He is good and has huge plans for my life. A huge lesson that I have learned through a trial of my friend’s Candi and Jonathan is that life is short; we have no idea when our last day is and we need to risk.  Something Candi said while leading worship is what I am taking with me to Charlotte, “No matter what the circumstance is the right response is to always worship God.”  

            As my time is coming to an end in Los Angeles beauty awaits me in Charlotte.  The bride is being gathered and the city is being taken over.  My heart is beating faster and faster.  My heart’s cry is for the name and renown of Jesus to be returned in all cities and all nations in the world. So here I go, I begin my journey to help this happen.  I pray and beg with God that I will go many places and catalyze amazing environments for life change.   

            I leave you with this: “He tells you to take courage. You are inspired and overwhelmed to go where no one has gone before.  You enter an experience only possible when you are moving towards Jesus.  Then it happens. You see the invisible. Peter walked on water, and that’s strange enough. But then he saw the wind!  Not the waves. Not the effects of the wind.  He saw the wind! And then he was afraid. To follow Jesus is to engage the invisible. To lead the church is to advance the invisible kingdom. And so much becomes visible. You begin to see the gates of hell. You begin to see the wind that rages against any who dare to follow Christ. Who will not shrink back? Who will become an unstoppable force? Only those who see the invisible!” –Erwin McManus, Unstoppable Force.

For His Renown,

Laura