On the jumbo-tron

My kids watching, who have no clue that the president and one of the owners are right behind them.

Even the parrot removed his hat.

Watching from the outdoor seats at the owner's box

Last Tuesday I got such a fun opportunity – I got to take my family to Pittsburgh so that I could sing the National Anthem for the Pirates/Reds games at PNC Park.

What you probably don’t know is that my parents met at the University of Pittsburgh, and my dad grew up outside of Pittsburgh in Mt. Lebanon. His neighbor and best friend was the son of the former owner of the Pirates, and he spent many, many games watching from the owners box. Pittsburgh sports were huge for my dad – to the point that the stats for the Steelers and the Pirates are an appendix in his book! In my house growing up, not rooting for the Pirates or Steelers was going to get you beaten up by your brothers. So this had a great family connection for me.

We got in that afternoon and did a sound check. Before the game we all got field passes, and my family got to come down on the field to watch me sing. Afterwards, we met the president of the Pirates, Frank Coonelly, and we had dinner with one of the owners, Robert Brooks. After dinner, Robert and his wife, Sue, gave us a tour of the stadium and we got to see the owner’s box and club – the kids had a fabulous time. The game was also rain-delayed, so by the time we got back to our seats, we hadn’t even missed much!

What a great night. The only problem was missing my dad, and my mom and I were both commenting how much he would have loved being there and seeing that. Miss you, Dad.

They’ve asked me back for next year, and I say, hey, take me out to the ballgame!

The women of the worship team

The keys station that I spent most of the weekend in.

Opening night

Backstage with Natalie Grant after her concert Saturday night.

Triennial was this past weekend, and it was a wonderful time. I don’t really remember when I’ve ever been this tired, but it was exhilarating to watch God work! I got to D.C. on Wednesday, had a tough time checking in, and then dove in head first – I think I slept 15 hours from Wednesday to Sunday.

We were leading worship with a team of eight women from all over the country. I was on vocals and keys. Also, several of us were featured on different worship services, so I got to share a sneak peak of the new video on Friday morning’s service, and share some of my own music Friday night which was a blessing.

There were women there from all over the world, and I was especially touched to talk with many of them and hear about the challenges they face as Christians in their home countries. Another highlight for me was just getting to know the women on my team – they are all serving God in such different places and ways and in such different circumstances, that was fun to hear about.

Difficult but rewarding. Exhausting but fun. We can sum up so much of the Christian experience this way, can’t we? Glad I’m part of the adventure.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks. We finished up the video shoot and I immediately left for Chicago for the final rehearsal for Triennial, the national women’s conference held every three years. We practiced all weekend and then led worship together at New Community Covenant Church in Chicago. It’s a great group of women, and I’m really looking forward to the conference.

We also found out this week that “God Loved the World” is on the “Inspirational on the Verge” chart on Christian Music Weekly, so that’s very cool! Keep calling those radio stations – I really appreciate it!

I also got another blog review this week – you can check it out here.

I’m leaving in a few days for Washington DC to do Triennial – we’d love your prayers!

Some of the people from our world

Some more of our world

Shooting at Hocking Hills

Me with Jeff Kubach, the director

Well, my song “God Loved the World” has had a lot going on lately. It just came out in a musical from Lifeway, and was recently released to radio nationwide where it was the most added song on the Billboard Chart! This week we shot a music video for the song. I worked with Jeff Kubach who used to work on Survivor (he has very cool stories!) and we hit it off immediately – it was a lot of fun to do the project with him.

I really was surprised by how much work this was. We had a ton of prep scouting locations and coming up with the story, actors, props. There’s a lot of planning since we shot in 6 locations over 3 days and had over 30 people to coordinate. My goal, though, was to make a video that showed visually the message of the song, and I’m really excited to see it come together. I can’t wait to see how God will use it.

We are exhausted, though! The first day was so crazy (shooting for 15 hours straight!) with so many people to coordinate that I totally forgot to take pictures – that is very unlike me. Jeff took 2 just to remember an order for shots out of sequence, and that’s all we have until the last day. Bummer! I guess you’ll all just have to watch the video to see where we were.

My song, God Loved the World, has been included in a new Christmas musical from Lifeway – I’m very excited about this! It’s interesting to hear your song interpreted in a new way. Philip Keveren did the arrangement, and it’s a choral version. You can check it out and hear a sample here.

Me with Mike Weaver of Big Daddy Weave

Opening with worship

Big Daddy Weave

As promised, here are some pictures of the night. I had a great time! LeAnne and I went down and had some time to just talk to the guys before the event. They were all really nice, and so focused on ministry – it was great to meet them.

I opened with about a half hour set, and then LeAnne and I had an awesome time watching their concert. What a blessing this week has been.

Also, I’m so very touched to report that we had so many kids meet the Lord for the first time today at Adventure Week. It just touches my heart! I had a little girl come up after the play today to tell me, and she was just grinning from ear to ear, holding her new Bible. God is good!

I am so excited! We just found out that my new single, “God Loved the World” was the most added on Billboard’s national chart this week!! We tied with Sanctus Real. I’m just amazed! This song is the gospel, and I am so excited to see God getting it out there. Praise God!

Add to that that I was asked to open for Big Daddy Weave tomorrow night, and it’s turning out to be a pretty exciting week! I’ll post picture of that ASAP.

Bad Bart!!

Sheriff Taco Bill and Miss Lilly

Bad Bart becomes Good Bart

We had our first day of Adventure Week today, and there were record numbers for us – we maxed out on the first day. I’m really excited about how the Lord is going to move this week, and so grateful that He’s given us this many kids!!

Every year we do a play that I write with my playwrite partner, Terry Rippl. This year we’re in the Old West learning to Go With Jesus! My cast has been fantastic – just a joy to work with. It’s so fun to watch the kids respond too – they think they are rock stars, all asking for autographs. Some of the kids are really worried about Bad Bart, but other than that, it’s going fine. And we just tell them – we trust in Jesus!

Well, we’ve decided to make a music video for the radio single, “God Loved the World”. This is new territory for me – we’ve done some other videos, but always editing stuff together from existing footage or pictures. This is actually going to be produced by a former producer on “Survivor”, Jeff Kubach (I know what you’re thinking, and no, I don’t think there will be ANY tiki torches in the video).

We’ll shoot it the first full week of July, and there’s a lot to do to prep it, but I’m looking forward to it. Should be fun.

I’m so tired right now. Last week my husband was gone on a business trip all week, it was the last week of school, so the kid’s stuff was nuts, I had to go to Cincinnati on Monday, Nathan came back on Thursday and then I left on Friday for Chicago.

We had rehearsal for a women’s conference I’m doing this summer called Triennial. It’s a pretty big deal, and they only hold one every 3 years, so there’s a good bit of prep. The team is from all over, so we all met in Chicago and planned on Friday night, then rehearsed on Saturday all day long. Then I caught a late flight home, which also got delayed in all the storms. So I got home at about 2 in the morning (in the rain, lots of fun), went to bed for a couple of hours and got up to lead worship at my church.

I’m super tired, but I’m also thankful. Triennial’s going to be a lot of fun. And I got home! There were lots of people stranded for a lot longer than I was in O’Hare, so I’m very thankful to have made it back.

If you want more info on Triennial, check out the website. It’s in July in Washington D.C., and I’d love to see you there!