I just got back from a week in Orange County, California, leading worship at Mariners Church. They are an amazing community, and the whole visit was fantastic.
Here are a couple of videos above, shot by the church (thanks Traci Tyson!). The first is the song that I co-wrote with Steve Fee (Glory To God Forever) and the second is Hungry, featuring my good old harmonica :)
If you’ve never been there, here are a few pictures so you get the feel for the church and it’s campus…
If you watch the videos of me leading, you’ll see a guy singing next to me on stage. He is a fantastic worship leader and songwriter called Tim Timmons. He’s become a great friend already. Check out his music here.
I also loved spending time with Kyle Zimmerman, who is the Mariners Worship Pastor, LV Hanson from Catalyst, the great Mariners band (Chris, Frank, Russell, Jared, and T), Todd who created the stage set, Jay on monitors, Steve on FOH, Cathi Workman, Hilary, Holiday, Erica, Sandy, Traci ‘the video legend Tyson’, Liz, Dana, and every single one of the staff (too many names to fit here, but every one of you know who you are, and how much you blessed me during my visit!).
Thanks SO much to everyone at Mariners for the warm welcome. I was really impressed by the Church’s passion for God’s word, and for sung worship, and for genuine community. I love their values…after every service the team debriefs and asks whether they hit their goals…
Here is the debrief meeting, as we work through the values on the poster above. It was really helpful and something I think other churches should adopt!
I also spent time with my photographer and friend, Mr Daley Hake, who’s photos you’ve seen on my latest album cover (Eternity Invades). He introduced me to Andy Prickett (an amazing Producer who used to be in the Prayer Chain, Violet Burning, and who has recently produced One Republic among many other bands). Here’s a shot of me, Wendy Beech-Ward, Daley and Andy in Andy’s studio…
Having my best friend and manager, Wendy Beech-Ward, on the trip made it even more fantastic…we had lots of fun and laughs, as well as working hard, so it was brilliant :) I introduced her to my favorite Californian sushi place (although she’s a vegetarian and only ate veggie tempura!) and to Rubios tacos and Baja Fresh burritos (we need to get all those chains here in England!)
As Wendy and I drove from OC to San Diego, to fly home, here are a couple of the amazing views we saw. Wow.
It was a wonderful week, and I hope to be back at Mariners again soon!
- Vicky
