Approved!

This morning I finally got an email from Beth at the national office...I got final approval! I am officially a registered missionary with my own shiny new account number and packet in the mail. I am so excited about this transition!

Now I just have to raise my monthly support (ugh!) and I can begin serving in creative arts full time!!!!

Emily B! I can't find your email address! But this is my cry for help and advice! <3

Hope everyone has a great week! More updates later :)

Wanderings....

Since the weather has been so nice, I have been taking Sam & Scarlett out for walks during the day. Sam hitches a ride in his Baby Bjorn and we get our daily dose of Vitamin D. He seems to like walking in the sunshine, and needless to say our supremely ignored beagle is relishing in her daily afternoon adventure.

I love our neighborhood in the early afternoon - tulips are my new favorite flower, I appreciate how friendly our neighbors are, and....I am turning into a totally boring Christian mom!!!

On the ministry side of things, my final board approval was to happen this Tuesday. When I emailed to check in, I got an automated vacation response from Beth - dang it! So it sounds like I have to wait till April 1 to find out! But at least we are in the home stretch!! :)

Project 365 is only a handful of weeks away. This performance has been a casting nightmare, but I know God will work it out so it's exactly what he wants it to be. But....my heart is still totally broken for those who have made huge sacrifices to take part in this, and for those who have had no choice but to leave us because of life stuff....I just wish we had the time to do it all - life is so short!

I went on a shopping spree with Nichole today at Babies R Us....I am beginning to loathe that place. It's like Wal Mart....I am starting to become a slave to it, forced to go there because it has the best prices for the stuff I need......anyway, Sam got a new spring/summer wardrobe and some sweet new toys thanks to Nonna Hassinger and Brad & Rawan, both of which gave him gift cards to his favorite store. Looks like we'll be learning to play the baby xylophone tomorrow! :)

Much love to all <3

First, of all, I'm taking a one month fast from facebook (and fast food). I might die.
So in case I do, I loved you all and thank you for making my life rich with picture comments and french fries.

Assuming I survive, you can reach me at tamara dot warta at gmail dot com or you can say hi to me by commenting on this pretty new springtime blog :)

Project 365 is exactly one month from today. Hence the fast...I am committed to spending more time with God and less time with stuff that isn't necessarily good for me sometimes.

I ask that you please pray for us. Everyone is working hard, and we have had some struggles, but God is totally providing.

Thank you so much to everyone who has responded to my support letters. I still need to raise a tremendous amount of money to go into full time missionary status. If you can be a monthly supporter - even if it is $5 a month - please let me know somehow, and I will send you the information you need.

Your support goes toward missions trips, dance supplies, gas for touring dates, encouraging items to show love to both dancers and audience members, Project 365 needs, and also will help support our family as I slowly phase out of the majority of my commercial writing jobs and work toward full time ministry.

I want to make a difference in this world, and I thank you in advance for helping me do it!

Anyway, every Wednesday I am going to try to update this blog, and also post up some praises. So here is list 1!!! :)

1. I love spring. I started gardening and my flowers started to break through today, little green shoots of ambition :)

2. Sam had a whole string of doctor appointments today, and at his NICU follow up he was a total rockstar. Despite our fear and worry, he is exactly where he needs to be developmentally except needing a bit of physical therapy which is easy peasy.

3. We have the best dance team we have EVER had. I pray that they are enjoying themselves as much as I enjoy being with them.

4. Frank still has a job. I know that is a huge thing to be grateful for in this world right now.

5. Did I mention it's spring? :)

I love this photo:

It reminds me of being refreshed and restored. Being sprinkled with rewened hope.

Thank you for reading my blog <3

How This All Started

As most of you know, I’ve been involved in dancing and acting since I was little, and have been involved in Christian creative arts since 2003. The past seven years have been the greatest and most challenging of my life, and since this is supposed to be a blog chronicling a year devoted to ministry, I’d love to share with you all a little bit about how God has worked in my life in this area, and how I believe it has blessed others and can continue to do so. I apologize for the length of this blog, but I do hope you’ll read it and continue to pray for me as I go through my final approval steps, raise my monthly support and devote more time to the arts ministry than ever before!

So here ya go – a Tam creative arts autobiography condensed to a few screens:

My mom stuck me in a 4-6 year old ballet and tap class when I wasn’t 4 yet, which I think spawned not only a love of dance, but also a continual feeling of “smallness”, inadequacy, inability to keep up, etc. etc. I still look back on that first dance class as being in a room full of giants (aka the 6 year olds), and I can still picture arms and pink leotards towering over me. And then there was the one time I wet my pants during across the floor time, and then my hair ribbon fell in the pee puddle as some sort of horrific grand finale (see mom, this is probably why they had the minimum age requirement…..)

I danced there until I was about 9 (not in the same class, I wasn’t COMPLETELY inept), and then I discovered horses and ice skating, and left dancing in the dust. When I was 11, I decided I was going to be a famous actress (AND figure skater, mind you), and thanked my family for the last eleven and a half years, it was great, but I was moving to Hollywood. I think they panicked a little, because I was sneaky, resourceful, and actually did have a bachelor uncle who lived in the Hollywood area, so I was pretty convinced he could use an adorable child around to help him out with this or that.

Needless to say, my parents didn’t jump at the idea, and so there was a compromise – audition rounds in nearby San Francisco, and involvement in the local children’s theatre. In San Francisco, I went to a modeling and “career” center, where they drained our family’s finances and told me I was too scraggly, too awkward, too ugly, and not talented. An agent promised to call and never did, and a casting agency tore me apart and left me in pieces on Market Street.

My father was a smart cookie – the other half of the deal – Santa Clara Junior Theatre, was a much better option. We acted, sang, danced, and built/painted our own sets. I paper mache’d myself to a faux house for one play, was cast as a singing and dancing moth queen in another, and basically continued my trail of thespian disaster until the end of high school.

One of the worst plays ever. But it was so fun and taught me a lot.

College brought me back to my love of dancing – first at De Anza, where our classes danced at Flint Center, and then at UC Davis, where I was chosen for the Grenada Artist in Residence program that only accepted a dozen or so of those who auditioned. I was thrilled, and then all he** broke loose….the artist in residence for this season was Nigel Charnock, a deliciously brilliant Englishman who loved to create dance pieces featuring limber, sweating college bodies writhing together on stage in the name of art. The costume requirement for all the girls – anything from Victoria’s Secret, and a little splash of nudity here and there should we choose. After hours of rehearsals (and tears), I finally gave up my part in the performance, knowing it was far from in sync with my Christian morals and beliefs. I was blessed to maintain a good relationship with Nigel and the cast despite quitting only a month before opening, but was devastated in knowing that dance was pretty much no longer an option for me if I was going to follow Jesus.

That was when Rose came to UC Davis and started CityGate Dance, where she invited a few girls to dance with her in the first production. I was awful. I was beyond awful. I was far below the technique level necessary, and she lovingly fired me. That spring she let some of the university students choreograph, and I created a human video with some friends. It turned out pretty sweet, and when Rose got a job in another city, she (in a moment of weakness/insanity?) asked me to take over as CityGate’s director. I went from the worst dancer to the one in charge during one school year, and my self esteem was shot.

I prayed and prayed, and God brought lots of dancers that next year. We produced two full length shows, and to this day, they are still my absolute favorite thing I’ve ever done.

The funny and serious sides of CityGate

The next summer, I went to YWAM Montana for their 2 month summer of dance program, and our outreach phase was to Taiwan. During my time away from home I was (again) one of the weakest dancers on the team, but it was pretty obvious God did not have me there just to dance – I learned self worth, confidence, and VALUE in the Lord while I was with YWAM. I wish every day that I had seized more opportunities during this amazing summer, and if I could go back in time, I would have done anything with YWAM that God would have for me. It was incredible. If you were a YWAM leader/participant that summer…..I love you. Thank you for changing my life.

Dancing in Taiwan

So then I went home, got married, went back and guest choreographed one last CityGate show, and then Frank and I started “church shopping.” Through the amazing Todd Johnson, we visited a church in Roseville, and then through some weird turn of events I don’t really even remember, I somehow got permission to start a performing arts ministry. We called it Turning Point Dance. We were new to the church, the first rehearsals were a total disaster, and I cried every single Sunday.

But then, again through prayer and others praying for us, things came together and we had our first couple of shows during Sunday morning service. In 2007 we did our first full-length production – Alice in Wonderland….Reimagined. Then last year we did Blue Sky Savior, and then this year we are doing Project 365!

We’re about to leave for our second dance missions trip to the island of Trinidad & Tobago, and we’ve toured to different places around here. We were just asked to audition for Rock the Block California, and we’re rapidly moving forward toward more expansion.

In other words, we are blessed. And we (and any other ministry) cannot survive or thrive without the support and prayer of loved ones. So thank you for giving me a fun 7 years. I am so excited about the future.

P.S…..My final MAPS decision will be made by the AG on Tuesday…..wheeeeeee! <3

P.P.S – I am still not the greatest dancer. I’ve gotten better, but I’ve learned that isn’t what ministry is about. Dancing from the heart is so much better….thank you Jesus for that.

Finding Renewal in the Little Things

I've been a pretty inconsistent blogger lately, which can be credited to Sam's ever growing personality which involves entire days of giving me wide eyed grins and reaching little hands that seem to say "show me, mommy!" when it comes to everything I do. Wherever I go, wherever I put him, when I turn to look at him he is smiling up at me...and this mutual admiration for life with each other has majorly cut into my down time. But that's okay :)

My life is so fast paced and so hectic, that I've found myself instinctively finding joy in tiny things I never would have thought about or considered before. Sleeping in past 7am and snuggling under the covers with Frank on a rainy Saturday morning. Making the kitchen my new "lab" as I experiment with recipes and dream up new cupcake ideas. Having lunch out and enjoying a good chat with a friend. Feeling suddenly motivated to conquer our big, overgrown backyard and make it a sweet garden by summertime.

Have I become a nerdy Christian mom or what?! But I've never been happier. When it comes to my dreams and ambitions, some of the biggies are becoming reality, while I am learning to find new dreams and pieces of happiness in little things I never acknowledged before.

Life is good to me. Thanks, God!

Dance ministry is running at a chaotic pace. I've mailed out all of my support letters, so if you haven't received one and would like to, then please let me know. And if you have received one, thank you so much for taking the time to read it and consider supporting a ministry that has just flourished and continues to be blessed!

Our dance "academy" has started with four classes that have gone very well. We now offer jazz/lyrical, hip hop, ballet, and "baby ballet" for our littlest "dancers". We're starting a kids' hip hop class soon too.

Project 365 is only 5 weeks away, which both excites and terrifies me! A lot of you are coming to see it, so thank you so much for your support ahead of time. It's always fun to have friends and family in the audience....it's just better that way! :)

I got to see Debbie a couple of weekends ago, and as always, she totally lit up my life. Here we are in Nevada...I love this shot, even though we definitely look like an "alternative family." ;) Frank was there too, but you know how he is about photos.




Nichole is officially Sam's favorite person, as you can see here from a recent Mongolian BBQ outing.



A happy dance teacher moment, before the stress began to mount ;)






The rehearsals continue!




Sunny day Sam.