Not rain, nor hail, nor sleet, nor snow

I live in South Florida and earnestly prayed for several days for a tropical storm day (don't judge me). Well, God blessed me with tropical storm Isaac and in turn a Monday off from work and the best part of it all was despite a lot of rain and wind we basically got by unscathed. But that was Monday afternoon rewind 24hrs to Sunday when the meteorologist still was giving conflicting reports on the severity of the storm and the estimated arrival of the most inclement weather bands. Although some ministries had cancelled morning service my church had not, and honestly I was quite apprehensive about our church's decision to have service because according to the weatherman the most inclement of weather would arrive as service let out. Honestly, I would have loved to go to 7:30am service go home and bunkered down for the rest of the day but as the coordinator for the dance ministry with a dancer on program for the day I knew I needed to be present, so off to 10:30 service I headed...and boy was I glad I did! Not only was the young lady's dance AWESOME, the weather held up ALLLLLLLL the way until Sunday night! I know I've said it before but I really do think sometimes God just waits for us to step out on faith and trust Him so He can show out in our lives and our situations.
Now on to the fashion!
I wasn't exaggerating when I said I had some reservations about heading out to service in potentially inclement weather. My outfit definitely reflected my sentiment for the day. I kept it really simple and went with wedge booties because I HATE getting my feet wet. I also have a guest in my picture, "button", my niece, but since her mom dressed her I won't go into details about her outfit ; )

Yellow cotton safari shirt: Apostrophe (British clothing line)
Drab skinny fit cargos: The Limited
Brown ultra suede wedge boots: Wild Diva

Planes, trains and automobiles!

Yaaaay! God is really awesome! This picture was taken less than 24hrs after I'd just gotten off the plane from London. I'd just spent the last week in England, Manchester and London, enjoying the Olympics, English culture, history and ramen...because the food there is gross.
Now I'll be the first to admit getting to church was a struggle. Changes in time zone and 12 hours in the air is no joke...but I felt that we press our way through to so many other places and for so many other reasons, how could my walk with Christ come any lower on the list? So I went and was it worth it? Yes! And did I go home and sleep the rest of the afternoon and evening? Oh yes!!
On to the fashion...
I kept it remarkably simple: black pants with a hot pink flutter crepe blouse. I was supposed to get my hair done two hours after arriving back in the states but as I took my phone off of airplane mode for the first time in 8 days I was greeted by a voicemail informing me that the young lady who does my hair would be coming to town the FOLLOWING week. Well I did what any tired fashionable naturalista would do...reached in my stash of scarves and tied my hair up.

Pink crepe top: Pretty Good
Black pants: Mossimo
Black platform Mary Janes: Steve Madden
Pink and orange scarf: Versace for H&M
Orange braided belt: H&M
Fuchsia hobo bag: Coach

Ministry matters

As the director and a member of the dance ministry I minister regularly in dance at church. This Sunday was women's Sunday and the minister asked my god sister and me to minister in dance and mime to a specific song. Marvin Sapp's testimony. While I felt that this was a good mime song I wasn't entirely convinced this was a dance song. However, ministry isn't always about what WE think as much as what the holy spirit wants. The reality of it all goes further than ministry though because much of our Christian walk isn't necessarily about what we want as much as how God desires to use and whether we're ready to be used.

On to the fashion:
5th Sunday means women's Sunday at my church and as a member of the choir I am required to wear women's ministry purple and/or pink. Keeping with the casual summer theme the choir has been doing I paired a knit sundress with a cardigan and platform sandals and called it a day : )

Dress: Fang
Cardigan: The Limited
Multicolor striped platform sandals: Shoe Republic
Plum woven fold over clutch: unknown
Bangles: F21

Internationally known!

It was international day at our church and we had a guest speaker who spoke on child abuse. As a former abuse survivor, she shares her story to help raise awareness amongst parents and children regarding the dangers our children our exposed to. It was a insightful presentation for many of the parents who didn't realize how many dangers they had unintentionally exposed their child to. It's a conversation I frequently have with close friends because as a teacher I often see how parents good intentions go awry. Children who use their phones and computers to contact people without their parents knowledge. Well meaning parents who allow children to spend large amounts of time unsupervised or extend freedoms to children who are not necessarily emotionally or mentally prepared for them. I guess the take home message is that parents and adults need to not just be aware but actively participate in the everyday undertakings of their child and young people in general. As Christians were admonished to train up a child in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it (prov 22:6). It's our goal and responsibility to not only lay the foundation but also provide the framework and oversee the construction for the next generation.
Now on to the fashion!
We're clearly still keeping it casual and I helped serve lunch after service. Everyone cooked dishes that were a part of their cultural heritage. I made chicken souse and Johnny cake...nom nom nom, and yes I served in those shoes ; )

The prodigal son's brother?

Sunday's message was about the prodigal son. If you grew up 'in the church' or attend services regularly now it's probably a parable you've heard before. The prodigal son centers on the willfulness of a younger son who gets his inheritance early wastes it ending up homeless and hungry. He returns home broken with hopes of just being a servant so he can have meals and a roof over his head. Instead of putting him to work in the fields the father welcomes him with open arms and has a party for the son who's returned, safe and sound (kinda like how God forgives us and loves us despite our faults ; ) All is not well at the house however...the older son ISPs because the father just let the younger son waltz back in their lives like nothing happened. That gave me pause because I wondered how often do we play the older son role so caught up in our jealousy, anger and self righteousness we can't rejoice for and with others when they are blessed despite their past or mistakes they've made? Much like the father had lost a son he too had lost a brother but was so caught up in himself he couldn't see or appreciate the bigger picture. Just some food for thought.
On to the fashion!

It's still casual Sunday at my church so this yet another take on my casual. I've also come to the realization that while my favorite color is white I like pairing my brights together...especially blue and green. Maybe it's because of my Caribbean roots and the blue and green mimic the colors of the ocean or maybe it's just because it looks nice against my skin : )

White Smooth Tank: H&M

Blue Pleated Maxi Skirt: Impression

Green Belt: Walmart (Clean-up asile 9 ; )

Blue Turnlock Purse: Coach

Earrings: Unknown

Ring: ForLove

Green Sandals: Steve Madden

Ye have not...

On Sunday one of the older women at the church had to be rushed to the hospital during service because her blood pressure was high. Ridiculously high. Like 220 over 100-something high. So my mother, whose a nurse, called 911, who in turn dispatched fire rescue. Once they arrived they quickly made the decision to rush her to the hospital and begin lowering her blood pressure in order to avert a stroke. The older woman had several grandchildren at the church and she asked to see them before the ambulance took her away. After saying a few words to each, the ambulance pulled off with her and her niece leaving us with several distraught children. The first thing that came to mind was to have the children pray for their grandmother, problem was one of the grandchildren refused to do so. After we prayed with the other children I took the grandchild to the side to speak with her. I asked why she didn't want to pray for her grandmother, didn't she believe God could heal her? She said she knew God was going to heal her...so she didn't want to pray. Hmmmmm. I explained to her that while God can do everything the bible tells us that we are to ASK him for what we need... ask and it shall be given unto you (Matt 7:7). We're also reminded that we sometimes don't have things because we haven't asked for them (James 4:2b). Eventually she prayed but I was reminded of how often we neglect prayer and circumvent our blessings as well. If we're to pray without ceasing then we constantly have opportunities to ask God for what we need.
Now on to the fashion!
We're still in dress down mode at church, but I've never really been a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers kind of girl...or at least not all three together, so this is my idea of dress down. The neon shirt is my homage to summer ; )

Neon top:

Jeans: Forever 21

Shoes: Rck Bella

Clutch: Express

Blast from the (not so distant) past

This week I was road tripping again, it's summertime what can I say? My most recent destination was Orlando via plane with a one year old. My god sister and I went to Orlando to with her daughter, my niece, to visit her daughter's god-mother who's also a good friend of mine and meet up with my sister, who came over from Tampa. I'll pause for a second so you can review all the relational patterns going on in the last sentence ; )
It was a nice relaxing weekend spent with family, friends and loved ones. While loitering on Saturday my god sister jokingly suggested she might be pregnant again. Well never one to let something that major slide, we promptly woke her at 7am the next morning to as we so delicately put it 'make her pee on the stick!!'. Within 60 seconds the stick turned blue, or the plus sign appeared or it said pregnant I don't remember what it said all I know is I'm gonna be an auntie again!! God is constantly in the business of renewing and rebuilding. Like the author of Lamentations says in the 3rd chapter verses 22 and 23 God's mercies are new every morning. It's encouraging that daily He blesses us in new ways...sometimes ways we didn't even think of
On to the fashion!
Because we were out of town and our host doesn't have a home church we streamed church live in her living room from the iPad (technology isn't the devil ; ) therefore this weeks fashion offering is a throwback to first Sunday a few months ago.

Gray print wrap dress: Old Navy

Grey Patent Leather Peep Toe Pumps: Nine West

Gray Patent Leather Clutch: Nine West