Teaching up at Portage Lake

We’ve been kicking around an idea for the last three years, and we’ve finally decided to jump in and give it a try. I love Christmas music – Christmas is my favorite holiday all around, although Easter’s pretty incredible too – and I’ve been wanting to do a Christmas album, but just don’t have the time to make an entire project that will only be used for part of the year. I’ve been thinking of doing a shorter project and putting it in a Christmas card that people could send to friends and family. Then, if it goes well we could possibly do another the following year and then a full album on the third.

So, we’re doing the experiment! I hope it goes smashingly well, but if not, at least I got to do some versions of songs I love. 🙂

Since I hadn’t really planned to squeeze this in, it’s made the last couple of weeks much more interesting. Last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to go back up to Portage Lake Bible Camp in Onekama, MI to teach the life of Peter at their weekend women’s retreat. I’ve been up at this camp a couple of times before, and they are just fabulous. I love that the staff intern I met the first year I was there, Beth, was the program director the second time I came, and is now the assistant director. 🙂 I know why too – she’s amazing.

I really have a special place in my heart for this camp and for the ladies who come. This retreat draws women from about 40 difference churches, and I have been to several of them and have met a lot of the women over the years. It was also one of the first camps to give me a chance when I started speaking years ago. So now when I go there, it feels a little like a homecoming event.

I taught on Peter’s life and how he was transformed by his time with Jesus from an ordinary, uneducated, working class guy, to the head of the church and a force that God used to literally change the world. All along we also looked at how God might want to change and transform us, and how He could use us in the world today right where He’s put us.

After a great weekend, I headed home and then headed back out two days later in the opposite direction to Nashville in order to put together the Christmas project with my producer, Paul Marino. We wrote a new song called “Christmas is Forever” that I am super excited about – it’s a prayer for people at Christmas. We also wrote new arrangements and a new bridge and verse for the songs “What Child Is This?” and “Angels We Have Heard on High.” I am so excited now to see how they will all turn out! Once we have all the songs planned out, I love putting them all together – it’s like painting with sound.

I got back yesterday and have already been talking with my graphic designer about what we would like the card to look like and how to put the whole package together. It’s always shocking how long artwork takes, and since I started this late for a Christmas thing, we can’t afford to lose any time getting the packaging together. Can’t wait to see how it comes out and to share it all with you!

Last weekend, my husband Nathan and I attended a wedding. The groom was a young man from our church named Nate whom I had directed in many VBS plays. I really love Nate and his heart. After he graduated college, though, we kind of lost track, and I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years. I had never met his fiancee and I was looking forward to seeing her for the first time!

The wedding was beautiful and clearly planned so that Nate would not see his bride until she was standing at the top of the aisle. I was torn! It would be my first glimpse of her too and I wanted to see what she looked like, but my favorite thing at weddings is actually to watch the groom when the bride is walking down the aisle. It’s one of the few times you can really catch a guy’s true emotions because they are usually written all over his face. It’s very touching.

So I chose to watch Nate. He’s a manly guy, and he doesn’t show a lot of emotion (unless I’m telling him to in a play!) and yet, I knew the exact moment when his bride stepped into the doorway. The look on his face captured so many things – love, joy, longing, pride, and a sense of, “At last!” Here it was, the day was finally here, and she was walking toward him, ready to start their forever.

As I watched Nate, I had a thought that has never occurred to me before. I know that we as Christ’s Church, people who follow Him, are called the bride of Christ, and that we will be gathered to Him when He comes again. Suddenly, I wondered, if Christ is the groom, will He be looking at us like that? Is He really waiting with that kind of anticipation, longing for the day when we will be united for eternity? Does He really love us like that? Will He look on His church with all that love and longing and pride and say, “At last! Here you are, and we can be together now at last!” I think so. And that thought takes my breath away.

Psalm 8:1a, 3-4
Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!
When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?

And yet, the Bible describes us as His bride. Not someone He’s willing to reluctantly admit into His company if we meet a series of demands, but His bride. Someone He cares deeply for. Someone He loves and longs to be with. How can that be? And yet it is. 1 John 3:1 says “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

I know I can hardly wait to be with Christ, but it’s astounding to think that He might also feel that way about me. And about you. About all of us. Praise God, only He can have that kind of love!

Speaking at Life Point Church's Fall Women's Brunch

Back at First Baptist in Kingsville

Had a pretty busy week again. I have a few weeks off now, and I’m pretty happy about it, really. I love what I do more than I can say, but I’m pretty tired at this point, and it won’t be bad to have a little time to catch up!

The kids had a good first week of school. A couple of bumps, but overall good. However, as mom, I felt the need to worry way too much (I should have Matt. 6:25-27 tattooed on me somewhere). Then this weekend I got to do two events. It was actually good to have some events to prep to take my mind off all the school stuff!

Saturday I was with the women from Life Point Church up in Lewis Center, OH, just north of Columbus. The pastor’s wife was organizing this event, and she and I have talked before – she’s just lovely. We had a great luncheon and I did a program afterward. Nathan came with me to run the tech this time, and it’s always fun to watch him be the only guy in the room. 🙂

Then I went home and repacked and mom and I headed up to Kingsville, OH, about 45 minutes east of Cleveland. We spent the night and then got up in the morning to do the services at First Baptist. This is such a great church. They are one of the first churches to ever have me in, and I’ve been there many times now – they are just special and wonderful people. Their church has a wonderful ministry to people with disabilities which I so appreciate. And mom and I got to stay with Miss Evelyn again, and there is not a kinder hostess anywhere!

Nathan had to fly to Seattle for business that afternoon, so mom and I ran home so the kids would have at least one parent! Sometimes the schedule gets crazy. Now off to prep the women’s retreat I have coming up, but it’s not for a few weeks, so there should be some time to breathe. 🙂

Rinnah fishing on our last morning in Vermont

One of the amazing topiaries - it really was taller than the trees

The service at Rosemount Bible Church in Montreal

With Nick and Tania in Vieux Montreal or the old city

Notre-Dame Cathedral

I just liked the signs - where St. Paul meets John the Baptist

Part of the Olympic complex

Crossing the border at Niagara Falls

We were required to wear these lovely matching shoes for Cave of the Winds

My family getting very wet next to Bridal Veil Falls - this was the closest I could get without wrecking my camera

Sunday morning at Community Church of Columbus, Indiana

It’s the first day of school for my kids, and I might be able to breathe. What a crazy couple of weeks!

We finished up our loop out to the East Coast and back through Canada. After our time in Vermont, we headed straight up to Montreal. I haven’t been to Montreal for years, and the last time I was there, we had torrential rains the entire time. The only part of the city we really saw was underground! And while Montreal’s underground city is really cool, it’s not nearly as interesting as what they have above ground.

We got in on Saturday and realized that the church we were with had put us in a hotel next door to the old Olympic complex – how cool! We were also only two blocks from the Jardin Botanique or Botanical Garden and the Biodome, both of which the kids wanted to see. Rachel is a budding botanist, and she was so excited to see the gardens. We had read rave reviews, so we spent the afternoon there. It was absolutely amazing! And huge! We did a very quick tour and didn’t even see the more wild half of the park. What we did see was a stunning show of topiaries – some of them were more than 40 feet high! They were so cool, and it was really fun to look up close and see how they had “painted” them with all different colors of plants.

Because of my opera days, my French was pretty good at one point, but it’s very rusty now. While I could read all the signs, etc., I really couldn’t understand anything people were saying. The accent is very different than continental French. Toward the end of the day, though, I overhead a woman who was watching a duck walking toward a couple say in French, “Oh, he’s coming to see if you have anything for him to eat!” and I thought, “Yes! It’s not all gone.” 🙂

The next morning we went and met our host church, Rosemount Bible Church. It was a relief to know that they normally do their services in English because I was pretty sure that I’d need more vocabulary than just discussing a duck! Our host and one of the elders there, Nick, told us his first language was actually Italian and he’d learned English when his parents came to Canada as a kid because he was enrolled in an English language school. He’d also learned French because he needs it in Montreal. I’m impressed. And I didn’t worry about my French accent with him as much!

We did two services at Rosemount, first a quiet service of worship and communion, and then another service after coffee hour. I did a few worship songs on the first service and then most of the second service. I was so impressed by the heart of people here for the Gospel and for ministry. As we were talking with people from the church, it became clear that Montreal especially and Canada in general is heading more toward what we had seen in the UK – only 3% of the population of Montreal would consider themselves evangelical Christians. It’s a hard place to do ministry and as a result, the church was very close.

After services, Nick and his wife, Tania, took us out to lunch and to see Old Montreal. What fun! We started by seeing a bagel factory because apparently Montreal is known for bagels – who knew? And as a former NYC resident, I have to say that while they are not the same as NY bagels, they are outstanding! We loved them. Now we’re trying to figure out how to get them in OH! Then we went for smoked meat sandwiches and poutine (french fries with cheese curds and gravy) since those are apparently the other things you must eat in Montreal. Needless to say, it was not our healthiest lunch, but we had a great time.

We went to see Notre-Dame and walked all around the old city and had an enormous crepe (do you see a food theme here?) and really enjoyed getting to know Nick and Tania – they were so kind to us!

The next morning we spent at the Biodome before heading back west. Now we are officially on the way home. We spent the night at a bed and breakfast in Oshawa, about an hour from Toronto and then got up the next morning and drove to Niagara Falls. Originally, we were supposed to do a few things in Toronto, but the kid’s school schedule changed, and we had to get home to the back to school madness. It’s okay – Toronto is only 6 hours from us, so it’s easy to get back to.

The kids went mad for Niagara Falls. They’d never seen it so we stopped to look at it from the Canadian side (much better looking) and then did Maid of the Mist and also the Cave of the Winds walk on the American side. Everyone loved it even if it was weirdly cold from August and we got very wet!

After the falls, we drove the 6 hours home to get up and do hours of meetings and waiting in lines for schedules and pictures and everything that goes into getting the kids back in school. Rinnah’s starting high school this year and I am a wreck. She’s handling it much better than I am!

And to make things a little more frantic, I went to Columbus, IN on the weekend to do Community Church’s services too. I love this church – we were with them last year and had such a great time with the music director, Jill, and her husband! My mom and I headed out there on Saturday night and did their two services in the morning. It’s a big church, but somehow they still seem to feel small and friendly, like family. Love that!

Got home in time to spend a little time with the kids before bed and make sure everyone was ready for the first day of school! I can’t believe how fast the summer has flown. But I also feel so blessed to have gotten to be all the places we were and especially to have met all the amazing people we got to spend time with. The family of God is everywhere, and seeing that is one of my favorite things about what I do.

What's better than chocolate?!

Nathan and our new uke on the beach in NY

Christ UMC in Port Jefferson near our old house

Teaching a new song at Christ UMC

The auditorium at Manhattan School of Music where I gave my master's recital

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glinda descends to the stage in Wicked on Broadway

Near Ground Zero

At Cape Cod Covenant

One of the seals having a great time doing backstroke off of Cape Cod

We met Constance Hopkins at Plimoth!

Watching them burn out a canoe in the Wampanoag village

One of the views in Vermont

Beautiful Federated Church of Castleton during sound check

In Vermont - we didn't even know we had a general store!

Rachel learning to kayak at the cabin in Vermont

I’m sitting in a cabin in Vermont about halfway through what we’re calling our “Family Odyssey 2013.” We have been given such a wonderful opportunity this summer. I have had several churches on the East coast invite me over the past year, but none of them are really big enough to be able to bring me in on their own. In talking to them, we were able to put together a little tour that would get us to all of them and give us room for some vacation as well which is really fun. We’ve been (or will be) in or heading through 10 US states and 2 Canadian provinces, so I’m so excited to show it all to the kids and have the whole family with me.

We started about two weeks ago by driving out through OH and WV (for those counting the states!) to Hershey, PA. Our first “real” stop is NY, but as a total chocoholic who has chocoholic children, when I found out we’d be within a couple of miles of Hershey, we had to stop! We spent the night there, and then about half a day at the factory seeing the ride and the trolley tour and making our own chocolate bars. Since they hand you a small chocolate bar about every 14 seconds when you do anything there, my kids really didn’t know what to make of it. “Wow, we must be on vacation! Mom’s letting us eat chocolate every 14 seconds and it’s not even lunch time!” We also visited the museum – I had no idea Milton Hershey was such a philanthropist. Their school for kids in difficult situations is still there. We had a great time, and it smelled amazing!

Then we drove to NJ to visit my cousins and spend the night there. We don’t get to see this branch of the family much, and it was so good to see them! Unfortunately, my aunt and uncle who also live there were out of town, so I guess we’ll just have to make an excuse to go back. 🙂

The next morning we drove through NYC out onto Long Island where we used to live. We showed the kids our old house and our church, and the port and the restaurant where I used to work during graduate school. We took them to a real NY diner and showed them Nathan’s old school, SUNY at Stony Brook. Then we went to our friends’ house for dinner. They were leaving on vacation the next morning which was so sad, but they were so kind to let us use their house while we were in NY. They were some of our dearest friends while we lived there, and it was so good to see them, even if for a short time!

Saturday we drove down to the beach and it was absolutely packed! We’ve been to a lot of beaches, and I think the population density was what made the kids realize we were in NY. We brought along my new baby, a koa wood ukulele that I got just before the trip (everyone’s been learning, so that will be about 3000 miles of beginner ukulele in our car before we’re done, yep) and got some really amused looks from those around us – hope we weren’t too annoying, but no one moved anyway. 🙂

Sunday morning I was with Christ United Methodist Church in Port Jefferson. This church is a couple of miles from where we used to live, and their music director is my friend who was letting us use her house. They have asked me in a few times, and wanted me to come back, so it just seemed like great timing to have me take the service when my friend would be out of town and needing a sub anyway. They gave me pretty much the whole service, and wow, this was an amazing church! Their heart for worship was just unbelievable, and it’s doubly unexpected here because the culture on Long Island is usually a lot more reserved. My kids just loved the whole congregation and we had a great morning!

We took Monday and Tuesday to go into the city on the train. We showed my kids my old school (Manhattan School of Music) on the upper West side and took them for lunch at Ollie’s Noodle Shop (can’t miss that!). Then we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art looking at entire Egyptian buildings and armor (Toby loved that!) and real Monets and Renoirs. So amazing – you could spend days and days in there. That night we took the kids to see Wicked on Broadway and it was absolutely stunning – the woman playing Elphaba was incredible! So glad we took the plunge for those tickets.

We spent the night in one of those tiny NY hotel rooms (they give a new definition to smart use of space) and then headed down to see the statue of liberty. This was our one bummer in planning – by the time we got there, all the tickets to climb the statue were gone. Should have ordered ahead – I was so sorry. But we headed instead to ground zero and saw the nearly complete memorial. Then we took the train home after some NY pizza and actually ended up sitting with one of the construction workers who was working on the memorial and who had been working ever since the towers came down. He was a “sky walker” and did all the stuff on top needed to get the big equipment up there, so he was walking that high in the air and wasn’t even tied in because there wasn’t anything to tie to yet! Crazy. Chalk that up as a job I don’t ever need to have. I get nervous on a ladder.

Wednesday we took the ferry off the East end of Long Island into CT and then through RI to MA and out onto Cape Cod. I gave a concert Wednesday night at Cape Cod Covenant, a wonderful church who has also hosted me before. They have always been so warm and inviting! Then we got to spend the next day looking around some gorgeous parts of Cape Cod. One of our favorite things was stopping at the fishing pier and seeing all the seals who were drawn there by the fishing boats. They were everywhere! And so cute – like the dogs of the sea. What we didn’t see but heard a lot about are all the great white sharks who have been drawn to Cape Cod because of all the seals. Yikes! We were told they’d already caught and tagged nearly 30 off the beaches that summer alone. So we decided maybe just wading ankle deep was a good idea. 🙂

The next day we realized our route was going to take us right past the Plimoth Plantation (that’s how they spell it), and we couldn’t pass that by, so we spent a really fascinating morning learning all about the pilgrims and the Wampanoag. If you’re ever there, you should definitely stop. And by the way, “Indian Pudding” tastes like uncooked molasses cookie dough made with cornmeal. Just in case that’s useful information for you.

Then we headed up MA, through NH into VT. Man, it’s gorgeous up here. Just stunning! We spent the night at at inn on top of a mountain and the views were absolutely spectacular! We saw all kinds of animals in our backyard too. Amazing.

Saturday night I gave a concert at the Federated Church in Castleton, and I also did some worship and special music on their services the next morning. The church was founded in 1833 and is gorgeous, both inside and out. They were so kind to us, and it was our first time there, so we loved getting to know them! One of the pastors owns the very cabin I’m sitting in right now, and offered it to us for some rest in the middle of this trip.

So after being with them on Sunday, we came up here. And now I’m sitting looking at this lake, listening to the bird calls and seeing their gorgeous flowers – this place is peace itself. And I can’t help but think that there is no better place to remember all the Lord has done. The last couple of weeks have been totally frenzied, but He is our peace in the midst of it all, and it’s not hard to remember that here. What a great place to praise God and regroup and spend some time with our family. I’m so thankful tonight, I can hardly express it. Thank you, Lord!

Rinnah (green shirt, blond hair) in the VBS play

The fatal group jump - hope those fishies like my glasses

Back at Saranac Community Church

With Rachel on a trail ride at family camp

Toby will conquer this cargo net at family camp!

A first for me at camp - just call me Sarah Palin

Back with my friends at Faith Covenant in Detroit

This is a catch up post, but we’ve had so much going on here in the last several weeks! We just got back from doing a loop around most of the state of Michigan!

Before we left, I helped out with the play for Faith Covenant’s VBS again. For years when I was on staff there, I wrote and directed the play, and this was a script that I wrote along with my play-writing partner, Terry about 6 years ago. Terry did the directing this year, and I just came in to give some last minute advice and also led the songs during the week (these are songs that I also wrote for the play). What was so fun for me personally was that my daughter, Rinnah, is finally old enough to be in the cast (she has been waiting forever, she says!) and so we got to do it together. It really is amazing to be a part of something like that and to know that there are kids in that audience who know Christ at the end of the week who didn’t know Him before. It’s such a privilege!

After VBS, I had a week to prep which was so needed since I was speaking for a family camp and had to prepare 5 hours of talks. I also had to prep for the two church services I was doing on either end and pack a family of five for 10 days, so it was a pretty intense week! To make it just a little more interesting, we spent one day up at Lakeside with my whole extended family, and we decided to do one group jump into the lake. Unfortunately, I forgot to remove my glasses first. So that was one expensive jump, and for a pretty blind woman, not the best complication to give myself right before needing to be out of town for an extended period of time!

We left on the weekend and spent a little time with Nathan’s brother’s family on our way up. Nathan’s family is scattered all over Michigan, so no matter where we’re headed up there, there’s usually someone to visit! We managed to see his whole family over the course of this trip.

Sunday morning I was with Saranac Community Church just West of Lansing. This is a smaller church who has had me in before, and they have a very special place in my heart – when I was really feeling led to start speaking and doing more women’s events, they were the organizing church for a large retreat up in Michigan, and were the first to really give me a shot. That’s been years ago, and I’ve been asked back to that retreat several times (I’m going up there again in September!), but it has always meant so much to me that they wanted to help me fulfill what I felt called to do! Things have changed a lot since then, both for them and for me, but I am still so happy to get to be with them and catch up and see all the changes at their church – they are such a sweet congregation! I had a great time there doing most of the service, and am happy I’ll get to see a lot of those women again at the retreat in September – they are the salt of the earth, absolutely.

After the service we kept driving up North of Muskegon to Silver Lake where Grace Adventures Camp is located. I did one of the women’s retreats up there last fall and it was wonderful. During the week, several of the women suggested me as a speaker for the family camp, and I was thrilled when they asked me because I knew my family would love this camp too! I had been told several months ago that the theme would be sort of a castles and kings thing, but a few weeks before they let me know that the kids were learning all about Judean kings, ending with Jesus. That is a pretty challenging subject! But I really felt strongly that the parents and kids should be learning about the same things so they could all be talking about it together, so that’s why the prep was so much more than usual – I don’t just have 5 talks about Judean kings lying around in my office! Well, I guess I do now. 🙂

We had a great time at camp and met so many wonderful families. One of the things I love about summer is that my family gets to come with me and we have such diverse experiences. One of the hard things is that we almost never get to do the same thing twice, and all of my kids wanted to come back here every year – they just fell in love with the camp and made so many friends! I do hope we will be back one of these days, although I’ve already had interest on the West Coast for next summer, so it’s probably not then. It was so great to not only minister, but also have my family ministered to, and I was so impressed by all their staff. Shout out to Vince, our personal helper and techie dude – you were awesome!

After camp we headed to Nathan’s parents across the state on Friday and spent one night with them and also left our younger two kids with them for a few days which we do every summer. Rinnah couldn’t stay this time because we had to take her to camp on our way home. Then on Saturday we drove down to see his other brother’s family near Detroit where I was singing on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning I was back with Faith Covenant Church in Farmington Hills near Detroit. I get to guest lead and do some special music on their service every year – they’ve become a home away from home for us. We also laugh about that because the church I served as music director for years was also named Faith Covenant – I’ve now sung at Faith Covenants in four states! Maybe I should make that a tour. 🙂 But it was so fun to be with them all again. It’s always good to catch up! And I got to share some of the new things we’ve done this year such as the new video for “Your Child” and also our trip to the Dominican Republic with World Vision.

On our way home we dropped Rinnah off for her camp, and now we’re here all by ourselves! What a crazy feeling. We’ll head back up to get Rachel and Toby tomorrow, so it won’t last long, but I’m thinking going out to dinner is in order. Maybe we’ll go do that now. 🙂

With Melandia (in red), her mom, her sister, and her little niece outside their home

With the neighborhood children

World Vision asked me to blog about our trip. This is the piece I wrote for them:

World Vision has been a constant part of our family. When I was little, we always had a sponsored child’s photo up on the refrigerator. At 17, I sponsored my own child for the first time. And now, as part of the World Vision Artist Program, I have been working to find sponsors for World Vision children at my ministry events for years. I was thrilled to be able to go and see their work in Dominican Republic just a few weeks ago.

Before we left, we decided to sponsor a new little girl in Dominican Republic so that my husband, Nathan, and I could meet her while we were down there. Her name is Melandia. We got her picture folder, and wondered who she really was? It’s so easy to see all the pictures and think of needy children as a big group or a problem to be fixed, but they are not – they are individuals, children just like mine, with their own dreams and gifts and potential to make a difference in the world. We were so looking forward to meeting her!

Before we got to Melandia’s neighborhood, we got to see several of the programs run by World Vision in her area, and it was truly amazing. I was expecting the schools and the medical clinic. I was expecting to see children who had access to nutritious food and clean water where there had been none before. What I wasn’t expecting was the realization that when we sponsor a child, it’s not just that child who is sponsored – it’s their whole family, it’s their community, it’s their future.

Melandia’s area is caught in the grip of generational poverty from which there is no escape without help. They are of Haitian descent, people who immigrated here to live in shanty towns and work the sugar cane plantations. There’s nothing else here. If you have nothing, how can you get the start-up funds needed to become educated, or move to a better area, or buy a bike to get your crops to market, or the materials to create something for sale?

I saw World Vision running not just medical clinics and schools which are incredibly important, but also teaching gardening techniques to moms, giving classes at the vocational school such as barbering, baking, and sewing, teaching basic math skills and how to run a business. Perhaps most startling was to see the micro business loans of $100, $200, or $500 which had completely transformed families. These are sums most Americans wouldn’t think much of, but we met a father and son who used that money to buy a grinder. They collect plastic trash from their area, grind it up, and sell it to area companies as recycled plastic. They paid their loan back in 10 months, and now support their entire family with it. They are saving, and plan to expand their business next year.

When we got to Melandia’s house, we met not only her, but her younger sister, her mother, and her little niece. We met her chihuahua and learned that he made her less shy. The first thing she brought to show us was the letter we had written to introduce ourselves. We gave her a picture of our family and letters our children had written to her. We brought her some school supplies and little presents and groceries for her family. And the whole time her mother just beamed at her. She was so proud of her daughter! It was her mother who got to me. What mom doesn’t want to see her child thrive? How difficult it must be to not be able to give your children the future you want for them, and that is what World Vision is addressing.

That was the moment I realized that we are not just sponsoring Melandia. We are sponsoring her family. It costs us so little, and because of our sponsorship they have access to so many resources. Because of our sponsorship we can write and remind them that God loves them and we are praying for them every day, even if we live thousands of miles away. When one sponsored girl we met was asked, “What is your favorite thing you ever received from your sponsor?” she answered with no hesitation. “Every time they write, they send me their love! Every time!”

That incredible gift of love is what World Vision makes possible.

Jennifer Shaw is a World Vision Artist. She is also a speaker, author, singer, and songwriter whose ministry has been featured by Focus on the Family, FamilyLife, Joni and Friends, Autism Speaks, Insight for Living, and many more. She loves glorifying God with her songwriting, and has had five Top 40 Billboard songs. She lives with her husband Nathan and their three children in Columbus, OH. For more information, visit www.jennifershaw.com.

The picture I took before he grabbed my camera

With his siblings and neighbors

I was asked by Autism Speaks to guest blog about special needs issues again. This is the piece I wrote for them:

I was recently on a trip to Dominican Republic with my husband. This wasn’t a vacation, but rather a work trip. I am an artist with World Vision, a poverty relief organization, and we were traveling to a few of the poorest areas of the country to see some of the work being done there. I’ve been on trips like this before, and I knew I would see children in some very difficult circumstances. None of that took me by surprise. But on our first full day, an encounter with a child stopped me in my tracks.

We were meeting a sponsored family, and I was just playing with a group of neighbor kids, handing out stickers and blowing bubbles. I took a few pictures of some of the children and then showed them the picture on my camera. Most of the children we meet love this and want to see the camera. It’s magical to them.

I took a picture of one little boy who was about six years old and turned the camera around to show him his picture. He immediately grabbed the camera and tried to pull it out of my hands, but his hands weren’t strong enough. As I looked down at him, I realized immediately that he wasn’t trying to steal my camera, he just didn’t understand. He was a special needs child.

His mom hurried over and apologized to me, but she was also protecting him. I could tell she was ready to defend her son, and didn’t know how I would react. She didn’t know that I am also a special needs parent. My son is doing so well now, but when he was little, his Sensory Processing Disorder was absolutely debilitating. He couldn’t eat or communicate or play or go outside. We went through years of therapy, specialists, and appointments to get to where we are now.

I got back in the van and cried as we left. That little boy was so sweet, and his mom loved him so much. What chance does he have in that environment? I thought of all the resources we had access to for our son, but in that place, they are just worried about feeding their children.

Suddenly I realized what a responsibility we have in the United States and in other first world countries. We have the resources to help find answers for these children. When we support the research of groups like Autism Speaks, we are not just supporting our own kids or other children we love, we are finding answers for people who will never be able to find answers on their own. We are leading the way to help for children around the world.

I will probably never see that little boy again, but I will never forget him or his mother. They have left a mark on my heart. It will continue to drive me to find ways to help children around the world, and reminds me again that every single child is precious and valuable no matter the struggle they are facing.

Jennifer Shaw is a national speaker, author, and Top 40 Billboard artist and songwriter whose work has been featured by Focus on the Family, FamilyLife, Joni and Friends, World Vision, Insight for Living and many more. Her book “Life Not Typical: How Special Needs Parenting Changed My Faith and My Song” is an Autism Speaks resource. She lives with her husband Nathan and their three children in Columbus, OH. For more information on Jennifer or on sponsoring a special needs child through World Vision, visit www.jennifershaw.com.

It’s been a big week! Insight for Living posted a Skype interview I did with Colleen Swindoll Thompson a couple of months ago. Colleen runs the special needs ministries at Insight for Living, and also has an autistic son. It’s been such a pleasure to talk with her and get to know her over the last year! You can see that interview here.

Also, we’ve added the interviews that aired on FamilyLife Today with Dennis Rainey and Bob Lepine to my media page if you missed them. I really had such a wonderful time with the whole team at their studios – such a heart for God, and they do everything with such excellence. I love how the interviews came out and hope you’ll listen! They aired over two days, and with me on the show was Amy Julia Becker, a great writer who is also the mother of a daughter with Down Syndrome.

Let us know what you think!