Archive for November, 2011

Back on the East Coast

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

Linda's husband, Jon, getting some help from Ava with the sound check

Our old house! The new owners have clearly put a lot more money into it than we did

Cars getting ready to drive off the ferry

Some of the tornado damage in Masachusetts

Prepping for the concert at Evangelical Covenant Church

Linda and Pam with the famous golden tennis shoe - it's a long story

This past weekend, I got to go back to my old stomping grounds in New York. It was so fun – I flew into Islip, Long Island, and my dear friend, Linda met me at the airport. I haven’t seen her in years, and it was just wonderful to have some time with her! I was doing a concert at her church the next night and then she came with me to Massachusetts to be my roadie for the weekend so we could spend more time together. We had a blast!

I did a concert Friday night at her church and met an incredible mom and daughter, Jodi and Kyli. Please keep them in your prayers. Kyli is 9 and can’t talk or move much, she’s on a feeding tube, and yet, no one has been able to diagnose what the problem is. They are just not sure.. Her mom is the most patient and persevering person I may have ever met, and she just loved her little girl. You can tell that Kyli is very bright, though, and she loves music, so she enjoyed the concert. My heart just goes out to them – we lived in uncertainty for our son’s diagnosis for quite a long time, but I can’t imagine 9 years. Please pray for their doctors to have wisdom!

Linda and headed out on Saturday morning and took the ferry across the L.I. Sound to Connecticut. I took a bunch of picture for the kids – they thought is was so cool that the cars could drive right onto a boat! Then we drove up to Massachusetts where I was leading worship on Sunday morning and singing a concert on Sunday night at the Evangelical Covenant Church there.

That area has simply been rocked this fall by crazy weather – they’ve had a tornado (in Massachusetts!!), a hurricane, and a microburst. We were just astonished at the level of destruction. I was there about two years ago, and it was really shocking. Our host, Pam Pearson (hey, Pam!) had been lucky with very little damage to her actual house, but the microburst did flood much of her bedroom because she had left her windows open a few inches to normalize the pressure and the rain was blowing sideways – through a couple inches of window, it flooded half her room! Just crazy.

Because of all this bad weather, a missionary family who had been scheduled for the church earlier was rescheduled to the week I was there – they had canceled church when it lost power before. They were also staying with Pam, so it was a full and very interesting house! They have 5 kids, the oldest is 11, and they live in Papua, Indonesia, in a remote jungle village that is a three day hike to the nearest road. Yup, you heard me – three days to a road! Just incredible. They were wonderful and had amazing stories. What an interesting couple of days! For me, it is one of the coolest blessings of what I do, that God connects me with His people all over the place.

After the concert, which was wonderful (ECC, you are some of the best hosts out there!) and one more night in MA, Linda and I drove back to Connecticut, took the ferry to NY, drove across the Island (stopping to buy a sock monkey – can’t leave a good friend without a sock monkey to remember you by!) to the airport, and I headed home. So tired, but so exhilarated at the same time. And so much to tell my family!

Scouting locations…

Friday, November 4th, 2011

New Hope Church

Long Street Studio front

My intern, Julie, checking out the stage - I'm interested in the bricks!

My intern, Julie, and I headed out this morning to scout some locations for the video for the new song to send to Jeff, the director. He’s in Philadelphia, so rather than bring him in, I’m just emailing him photos to give him a better idea of what we’re working with. I’m psyched that we’re going to make this video happen! I had such a cute idea on the way home from the writing session in Nashville for this song, “Life Not Typical” and I really hope we can make it work on the screen. My good friends, Dustin, of Long Street Studio, and Christine, of New Hope Church, are so kindly letting us use their spaces. Thanks! We’re filming it in January, so hoping to have it out before we leave for Thailand. Yea!

Going to Thailand

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011

Well, it’s official. We’ve known for a while now, but the dates are set, the tickets are bought, and Nathan and I are heading to Thailand on February 15th! We may also go to Cambodia or Myanmar, and right now we are just waiting a bit to see if the situations in those countries calm down a bit. Could happen, we’ll see.

I’m so excited about this trip! It’s being sponsored by an incredible organization called Remember Nhu – a group that is working to rescue children from child trafficking. I got to meet Nhu – she is the first girl who was rescued and the inspiration for the ministry. Now they have homes all over Southeast Asia, and they are bringing us over to see the work.

Please pray for this trip, for their ministry, for our ministry and safety while we’re there, and that God will really be clear with us about how He wants to use us in this fight. Thanks!