CSM Team!

It is officially April 1st 2009… April Fool’s Day… and the day our magazine hits the streets of Jacksonville. CultureShock, however, is no joke… and our launch party this past Saturday was proof enough of THAT I must say!

It has taken me 3 days to fully recover from this weekend (or should I say from the massive preparation that led up to this very day). Now that I think about it, three days just doesn’t seem to be enough after a year and a half of work. To be honest, the last three days I have been rather sad.

Postpartum depression usually occurs in women after giving birth. Biologically, their body produces such high amounts of various hormones to sustain the life inside of them, that quickly return to normal 24 hours after giving birth. Hmmm.. This rapid change in hormone levels often react with the brain in a way that causes depression in some women. Ironically enough, this is really the only way I can describe how I have been feeling the past few days. I call it my “postproject depression” phase. It seems that I have spent soooo much time birthing this idea, learning about how to care for it, recruiting a family for it, nurturing it and helping it grow into something so special… and now that I have given birth to it… allowed it to leave my hands and my heart… it now belongs to the world. How will they treat it? Will they embrace it? Will it have an opportunity to grow? Who will love it? Who will hate it? What the heck do I do now?? I don’t know how to take care of this? What if I make a mistake and do something wrong? What if it goes in a complete opposite direction? What if I can’t control it? What if someone tries to hurt it or manipulate it? It is no longer completely protected by my “womb!”

Crazy it must sound to you, I know… but this is really how I feel! Funny, you can laugh if you want… but it’s true! Now I must accept that my baby belongs to the world, and all I can do is help love and guide it the best way I know how… and pray that our “family” will always be here to protect it and support it no matter what!

So for those of you who were not at the launch party, it was a HUGE success! We had about 350 attendees including our team, and our friends. We had amazing (and crazy) live performances from Patrick Bass, Amen the Animal, Doubting Benefit, The Abandoned, and Second Thief, 14 year-old beat box artist Rafael Alves, not to mention spoken word artists and writers Kent Mitchell, Amber Bruce, and Ashley Nowlin who delivered some pretty powerful words from the stage. In order to keep the suspense for the magazine, and the attention on the bands and speakers, we put together goodie bags full of coupons from various businesses in Jacksonville, along with a copy of our first issue of CultureShock Magazine… handing them out as they left at the end of the night. We had CD’s and all kinds of other prizes to give away donated to us from various businesses, and ultimately made about a third of what we needed to pay back our “printing cost” loan… which we are all pretty happy about!

Though all of the excited teens, congratulations from random people, and amazing raw footage that I was able to see last night from the videographer, it still seems a bit “unreal” to me. It doesn’t feel like this really was my doing at all! (Probably because it really wasn’t)! But I pray that soon, and as we progress, God will at least give me the joy that I long for to keep me focused and give me a SMALL sense of confidence and pride with what I (with His help) have accomplished. I don’t care if anyone else knows it was me… I just want to feel good about how far I’ve come, and how great my God is… not just a zombie that keeps going with no sense of accomplishment, feeling, or peace. I know the feeling of struggle, I know the feeling of pain, I know the feeling of hard work… but I also want to know the feeling of satisfaction, perseverance, success, and peace of mind. I long for the day I can at least pay off my debt. I long for the day that I can live off of 10% and give back 90%. I long for the day I can have my family and my cozy home, while traveling the country spreading the Word of God and inspiring youth all over the world to be empowered and live outward (not inward). I want a simple life… but a great life… full of love, joy, peace, challenges, accomplishments, and wisdom. I long for the days I can share it with someone too!

Kent Mitchell

Designer, Anna, Writer, Amanda & 1st Reader!

Patrick Bass

Also, I am pretty proud of our very first radio interview that I did last week promoting the launch party and our ministry. Please visit our MySpace Page at http://www.myspace.com/cultureshock2008 to view the video/audio clip of the radio spot.

I just want to say thank you to all of my team (some are not shown in the photos) for believing in this vision… in this project and being obedient to God’s calling. You are all absolutely amazing and I am so blessed to have you in my life! Thank you also to Service Printing, Jesus Life Apparel, Words 2 Works Ministries, Murray Hill Theatre, Celebration Church, Game Stop, Chick Fil A, Movie Stop, Inland Ocean Surf Shop, Moe’s, Mellow Mushroom, Bare Minerals, Bath & Body Works, Subway, Patrick Bass & his friends, Doubting Benefit, Amen the Animal, The Abandoned, Second Thief, Rafael Alves, Alex Sanfillipo, Josh Turner, Tim Brown, Joyce Jones of Segovia Studios, Thomas Lester Photography, Anita Levy Photography, Chris Simons, “Uncle” Dave Vartanian, Julie and Mick Richards from “Building A Difference” (for filming and interviewing the entire night), Jason Dunn of Hawk Nelson, Jennie Blaylock, Lisa Kradik of 105.7 FM Progressive Talk Radio, & all the others who made this day and this magazine possible. May you be eternally rewarded for your servant’s heart!