Best Birthday Ever.

A lot of great things are happening lately. I'm beginning to see the love of God in a way like never before, I'm learning to love like never before, and I'm just enjoying every minute here.
This week is a heavy week, and God is preparing me and my team for some major healing and restoration.
I'm really excited.
Not to mention, it's my 20th birthday. I woke up this morning feeling confident that this birthday would be one of the best. I'm in London. Who doesn't want to be in London for their birthday?
Although I'm missing my family back home, I do have to say that the people here are just as close as family.
Everyone has been blessing me with their love and joy all day, and I couldn't have picked a better place to call home for this season of my life.
Not only do I have an incredible support system here, but as most of you know, I'm probably the biggest Coldplay fan in Colorado.
Their music has been a big inspiration in my life, and I was planning at some point while I was here to make a stop by their studio. So I figured my birthday would be the perfect occasion.
And it was definitely more than perfect. It was perfectly perfect.
I was fortunate enough to meet both Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland today.
And I also received a lovely Birthday present from them. A Viva La Vida shirt, an autographed copy of their live cd, "Left Right Left Right Left", and also a very rare copy of "Mince Spies", a Christmas release from 2002. There were only 1,000 copies ever made, and I am a proud owner of one of them.
I couldn't be more thankful.
God really poured out his love on me today and was definitely in the midst of it all.
For those of you wondering how I managed to meet my favorite band, well it was simple.
I invited Valerie, my pal from Georgia to tag along. She loves Coldplay too.
We mapped out how we would get there and headed out for the journey just shortly after our morning lesson.
It only took us just over 20 minutes to arrive in Hampstead Heath, where we would soon find Coldplay.
We enjoyed our walk talking and were hoping that we'd get lucky and perhaps see them.
Sure enough, right as we are approaching their studio, I see Jonny Buckland (guitarist) across the street.
Valerie didn't quite know what the band members looked like aside from Chris Martin, so when I quietly told her, "Hey, there's Jonny", she didn't believe me at first until I shouted, "Hey Jonny! What's up?"
He smiled from across the street and waved as he crossed over to come have a chat.
We told him what we were doing in London, and I mentioned how great it was to be here for my birthday.
He was incredibly friendly and overall just a nice guy.
I asked him how the new album was coming along and he said they are still organizing it and that it should be out around sometime next year.
He told us that the whole band was inside and we'd most likely see them if we stuck around. So me and Val thanked him and he went back to work.
We took a seat on the bench just right outside of their place and were pretty excited about how the day was going.
Just a few minutes later, a woman came crossing the street with a bag and handed it to me, and said "This is for you." and smiled.
I opened it up to find the gifts from the band.
I was ecstatic!
Jonny must have went inside and called to have them bring out some gifts.
I was overjoyed.
Then after a while just hanging out with Valerie, I noticed Coldplay's manager came out. He looked over and saw me and Val sitting on the bench and smiled. I waved and he came over and asked, "Are you waiting to meet the band?" I said, "We already met Jonny!"
He said, "Oh! great!" And then walks up Chris Martin behind him.
"Oh, well, there's Chris!" I said. haha.
Then he turned and had a brief talk with him before he came to greet us.
He offered out his hand for a nice,firm British handshake, and asked our names and where we were from.
He also asked what we were doing in London and we told him about YWAM and our mission while we're here.
He was incredibly interested and told us that he thought what we were doing was great.
"You're reaching people in a practical way, and that's how it should be done."
He wished me a Happy Birthday and a good luck with the journey, and that was that.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet Guy (the bassist) and Will ( the drummer), but I did see them. I didn't want to be a bother or overstay my
welcome. I had already just met Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland. AND received a very special gift from them. I was more than satisfied.
So thanks God, for the best Birthday yet!
:)
And thank you, Coldplay!









God Bless!
Love,Makayla