Our view from the concert under the bridge at lunch

Rotating while presenting in the round at North JAX Baptist

The children's choir on the morning service - they were so cute!

Nathan and I flew straight to Jacksonville from the Dominican Republic because I was doing a Mother’s Day event for North Jacksonville Baptist and singing on their morning service. We got in Friday night late and were totally exhausted, so we caught up on sleep and emails and notes and things, and then headed out for just a bit to the Saturday art market which is held under an overpass. We figured we would get lunch there and just have a little downtime. What a cute little art show/ craft fair/ farmer’s market! We looked around, admired all the doggies (apparently there’s a big doggie connection here), got some great food at the booths, and listened to an outdoor concert all while experiencing a beautiful breeze and looking at the JAX skyline over the water. That’s a pretty outstanding lunch!

We then headed over to sound check at the church and spent the afternoon at that. Sunday morning, I spoke and sang for their Mother’s Day brunch. This is a annual tradition here, and they had about 700 women at tables with the stage in the middle, so I did a lot of rotating. 🙂 What a warm group, and the leadership was so kind to us both!

After the women’s event, we went into the service where I was presenting some special music. We also heard from a children’s choir (absolutely adorable!) and the amazing worship team with a choir of over a hundred and a 40 piece orchestra – that will life you right out of your seat! Add to that a great sermon from the pastor, and a service that ends with people coming down to receive the Lord, and you have me in tears. I don’t think I will ever get over the grace of God, and when I see people giving their lives to Him, it just overwhelms and blesses me.

Nathan took me out for a Mother’s Day lunch. For Mother’s Day I got my mom the awesome gift of watching my kids!! Seriously, she is wonderful, and we did something special both with our kids and my mom when we got back.

This was a great weekend, and I hope I’m back here someday! But I’m also super happy to be home and with my kids again – we missed them so much in the Dominican Republic! I’m so glad that they are coming with me on all my travels this summer and we won’t have to be apart again for quite a while.

Back in urban Santo Domingo

The micro-loan recipient showing the recycled plastic he and his son make

Some of the homes built into the cliff down to the river

The trampoline game that wore me out!

Norkelin with her sewing machine

A woman proudly showing her graduation picture from the vocational school

Some of the neighborhood kids on the way home from school

Pony carts in the middle of traffic

The hairdressing class

Bakery school

Across the street from the vocational school

Outside the music school

The students played us Pachelbel's Canon

The team with the students at the music school

The cathedral in the Old City

The Old City

In the Old City

God is over everything here too

Today I am sitting in a hotel room in Jacksonville, Florida. I have an event here this weekend, and I can’t even believe we are already back in the States. We have run so fast the last few days that I have hardly been able to keep up with my notes.

When we got back to Santo Domingo Wednesday night, it was very late. We got another dinner that ended about 10:30 and then went to bed. We had an early morning. We had spent the first couple of days looking at World Vision’s rural work, and in Santo Domingo we were looking at their urban work.

We drove out of the good looking part of Santo Domingo, and across a bridge over an incredibly beautiful river. On either side there was shack housing built all the way up the cliffs. Such a juxtaposition. On the other side of the bridge was basically a different world. So much traffic, with pony carts competing with taxi cabs. Cement block stores with hand spray-painted signs. Loads of pineapples, mangoes, and bananas on the sides of the roads and tons of trash.

We made a quick stop at the center where WV facilitates micro business loans to pick up a WV worker and then headed to our first stop. We pulled off a wildly busy, urban street, into an area of lush greenery that looked like it was miles from any development even though it was right in the middle of the city. The bus was able to navigate about halfway down the dirt roadway before the driver gave up and we walked the rest of the way.

This was another of those inspiring stops for me. We met a man and his sixteen year old son who had started their own plastic recycling company. He had taken basic business classes at World Vision’s vocational center and then they had given him a micro-business loan for $600 to buy a grinder. He and his son gather plastic trash from all over (there is trash everywhere) and grind it up into plastic pellets suitable for recycling. Then they sell it to local companies to make their own products out of it. He paid back his original loan in 10 months, and was now supporting his family. They were saving, and planning to buy a bigger grinder and expand the next year. This to me was just the essence of the power of micro enterprise. We don’t just want to support people, we want to give people the means and opportunity to support themselves. I love it!

After that, we stopped at an urban WV preschool. The elementary school was across the street. We played with the kids for a while, and they completely wore me out on their mini-trampoline. I made the mistake of starting a game where I would jump on the floor next to them four or five times and then squat down. They all mimicked me, falling together when I went down. This was a hilarious game! And one they wanted to repeat about 400 hundred times! And since I am just a tiny bit older than them and it was about 100 degrees, I was done way before they were. My husband was laughing pretty hard at me – he’s so helpful.

After this we visited a couple of other recipients of micro-business loans. One was a woman who had borrowed $150 to buy a sewing machine. Now she supports her family by making bedspreads and curtains. She had taken the sewing classes at the vocational school. The other was a woman who had taken classes in jewelry making at the vocational school. She had taken a small loan to buy materials to start up, and now was very successfully making jewelry as well as doing some sewing. Both had paid back their loans in about 9 months.

I was very excited to see this vocational school, and we learned that they had just completed their new building. Apparently the old building was just two large rooms, and so the classes had to share space which made it hard to hear and concentrate. The new building was beautiful, and had much more traditional classroom space which they told us was a great help. I have to say, this building was new and beautifully clean and well done, but I was again so impressed by the complete lack of waste in anything I have seen. This building was built with quality, but there was nothing unnecessary or fancy about it. Everything we have seen here has seemed to me to show such amazing stewardship, and such an intelligence about what and where they would put funds. Nothing was wasted.

We saw several classes in progress – a sewing class which takes about 9 months for certification, a bakery class, a hairdressing class (which smelled really horrible because they were teaching straightening that day!), and a jewelry making class for girls. We also saw basic classrooms, an art studio, and a daycare where women can bring their children while they take classes. I looked at the class list and it was amazing how many things they were offering; everything from computer and English classes to car repair and farming. All the classes are free for sponsor families, and are also open to the community as space permits.

We ended this day by visiting the music school. As someone who has taught music for years, I do not hesitate to say that the director of this school is an amazing man! He has had literally thousands of kids through his door, and has taught a vast number of them himself. He said there was a tremendous need for worship leaders in their area – one local pastor told us how he had prayed for 6 years for anyone who could play an instrument – and that his heart was to train people to be able to serve in that way and to love music.

Several of his more advanced players got together and played us Pachelbel’s Canon in an arrangement for violins, recorders, and piano. We also played some music for them, and it was so amazing to be reminded again that our God is everyone’s God, no matter the language. Claudia translated for us, and Perry, Joel, and I did some of our music for them.

After this we headed back for yet another really late dinner, this time in a restaurant whose building dated from the 1500’s. There is so much history here. We basically had a debriefing dinner, and took time to share with each other what God was showing each of us on this trip, and how we thought we might use what we now knew when we got home. Even though we’ve only been together a couple of days, it feels like summer camp – we’ve all bonded and aren’t ready to leave.

The next morning we got up early and headed into the old city. Marcia, a singer from California, had already had to leave the night before because she had an event. Perry, Joel and I all have events this weekend as well, so we were scattering soon to all parts of the U.S. Joel had to leave early that morning, but the rest of us looked around the cathedral, build in the early 1500’s and bought a few souvenirs for our families. I had to make sure to get coffee – I realize that’s not the point of this trip, but my goodness, this week had the best coffee of my entire life!

As we headed back to the airport, watching the Caribbean sea on the side of the bus the whole time, I couldn’t believe that the trip was over. Those were some of the most packed days I’ve experienced, and I have a lot to digest.

As an aside, our younger daughter, Rachel, was in the national archery competition in Louisville on Friday while we were traveling – my mom took her. As soon as the plane touched down in Atlanta, I checked her stats – she scored her personal best ever in competition! And as of the morning, she is third in the country for fifth grade girls. We’re so proud! The have another entire day of shooting today, so I don’t know where she’ll end up, but we were so very sad to miss it, and I’m just thrilled that she didn’t let that get her down and did so well! Can’t wait to get home to see our kiddos!

Want to see more pictures? Check out the whole album here!

Heading to the first sponsored child's neighborhood

With the neighborhood kids at the sugar cane plantation housing

Nathan plays thumb wars with some of the boys

The crowd begins to grow

With our sponsored child, Melandia (in red), her mother, younger sister, and niece

Heading back to the ADP

With some of the ADP staff, Jean, and Claudia

Jean with her sponsored girl, Moreli, who really, really really loved her new doll!

One of the nutritional supplements for malnourished kids developed by World Vision

In the waiting room at the clinic

Seeing the pediatrician

Today was a great day. One of my favorite things when traveling is getting to go to real people’s homes – not to be a tourist, but to see and experience a little bit of how people really live. When traveling with World Vision, many times that is a hard experience because people are living in very difficult situations and circumstances, but getting to see the real needs in a country and in people’s homes and lives is what God has used to really wake me up to our responsibility to others in our world. James 1:27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Four of us on this trip chose to sponsor new kids in DR before we came so that we would be able to meet them and start the relationship that way. We spent the morning visiting the families and meeting our kids. When we were at the home of someone else’s sponsored child, we spent the time outside just playing with the neighborhood kids and learning more about what WV was doing in their neighborhoods.

We started at Joel Weldon’s sponsored child’s house. I was again amazed today at the variety of placements we saw. Her family lives in a rural area with very little greenery or ability to grow food. She was so beautiful, and had such a wonderful and supportive family. While he was meeting her, I was outside giving out stickers to the neighbor kids and taking their pictures to show them on my camera. They taught me the Spanish names for the stickers I was handing out, and my Spanish vocabulary basically tripled. 🙂

This was a hard stop stop for me, though, I confess. There was one boy in particular who I noticed quickly was a special needs child. His mother was very protective of him, as were his siblings. He was clearly loved. I kept thinking of all the resources we had had access to when my son, Toby, was little, and what a profound difference they made in his life. This boy really has access to nothing, and it was so clear to me that he was so valued by his mother – it must break her heart. That was the hardest thing I saw personally, and I cried as we left. It’s hard to go back to some of those feelings, and harder to think of the struggle of his family. World Vision has a specific program to support special needs children, and I really want to look into that more. If you are interested in supporting a child, click here.

After Joel’s family we went to a much more packed neighborhood to visit the sponsored child of Barb Christing, an author and speaker. This was also the neighborhood for our sponsored child. These homes are basically barracks built to house the workers on the sugar cane plantations. Nearly all of the people living here now are of Haitian descent. Their families came over a few generations ago to work the plantations, and were never able to leave. These people are held in the grip of generational poverty, and there is really no way without help to get that hand up to get out.

As Barb met her sponsored child, we played with many children in the neighborhood. Word spread, and there were close to 50 by the time we left. We moved on to our sponsored child’s home, but the kids followed the bus and more people joined. By the time we got to our sponsored child, Melandia’s home, there were so many children that they were getting concerned about safety. We missed most of that since we went in to meet her, but it also was sobering to think that there were so many who had so little that a free sticker would draw enough people to be concerned about trampling.

When we got to Melandia’s home, we met her, her younger sister, her mother, and her little niece. Their home was made of cinder block, about 10 feet wide and two rooms deep. Melandia was feeling so shy, which made a lot of sense considering how much attention our group had drawn, and we were able to draw her out a little more by telling her about our kids and how shy they would be, and talking about her dog. We had brought her letters from our children and a picture of our family as well as some school supplies and other presents and the groceries for her family. The first thing she brought out to show us was the first letter we had written her.

It was wonderful to meet her and we are so excited to have a relationship with her, but what really struck me was her mother. Her mom stood to the side and watched everything, such a big smile on her face. She was so proud of her daughter, and even more than that, she was so happy for her. I could tell she was expecting us to realize what an amazing daughter she had, and she was so pleased for her to have the support. It was exactly how I would have felt about my children in her place. I felt very connected with her, and for me, it’s always that connection with the parents’ feelings that make me want to help even more. We aren’t just here for Melandia, but also for her family and for her community. Leaving was hard, but we will write and we will pray, and I know that meeting her and having her meet us will make our relationship so much more real.

We left that neighborhood then to go to a more developed area. Jean’s sponsored child lived down the street from a school and she had stayed home that day to meet Jean. She was such a beautiful little girl with a sparkling personality, and when she was asked what she wanted to do when she grew up, she immediately said, “I will be a doctor, and I love school!” Her story was very sad. Her mother had remarried, and often in that situation, the man will accept his new wife but not her children. Fortunately, she has an aunt her took her in, and also seemed to be extremely loving and proud of her. I give her aunt a lot of credit – she had taken in several other children as well to keep the family together, even though it was hard for us to see how she would ever support them.

After this we went to the ADP office to meet the staff, and then onto the medical clinic World Vision was running in the area. The waiting room was packed, and we learned that was because the shipment of nutritional supplements for malnourished children was in, and many families were waiting to get their new supply. At the clinic they had a pediatrician’s office, an OBGYN, and a blood testing station which they were so thankful for – they told us several times how helpful it had been both for HIV testing and also for all kinds of other diseases. Upstairs there were classrooms, and they do a lot of community education about health issues there.

By this time we were running far behind schedule and had to cancel our last stop at a bakery school. We were all sorry about that! But we still had the 3 hour aka 5 hour trip back to Santo Domingo that night. On the way we heard a couple of other stories from people on the trip. It’s been really fun to hear how God has transformed the lives of the people with us on this trip and how He has put them into ministry.

Checking into the hotel tonight was a serious culture shock. This hotel is completely modern and comfortable, and very nice. There is an area of Santo Domingo that looks wonderful, but we know tomorrow that we will only have to drive a few minutes to see desperate poverty. I am uncomfortable in this very comfortable room. So often, we are immune to our wealth in the U.S. Our family lives a very middle class life in our country, but compared to the world, that still puts us in the top 1%. Our translator, Claudia, told us that when she was growing up, a wealthy person was someone who was able to eat three times a day and who didn’t have to sleep on the floor because they owned a mattress. Right now I’m in a room with two beds and triple sheeting, and if I weren’t where I am, I wouldn’t have given that a second thought. This is hitting me hard tonight.

Want to see more pictures? Check out the whole album here!

Kids welcoming us at the first ADP

Singing with the kids at the preschool

At the electrician training school

A woman showing me her incredible garden

Perry getting a little more hair cut than he expected

The grocery store which was more expensive than mine at home

The street outside the computer lab

The other Jennifer and her friend - notice the Justin Bieber notebook

A passing sugar cane train - we saw this constantly

Perry sharing his story and a little ukulele on the way back to the hotel

A gorgeous view of the beach close to our hotel

My husband and I were invited to go to Dominican Republic with World Vision about a year ago, and we have been so excited to go. It’s hard to believe that the trip is here! This is an artist trip, and it’s meant to give World Vision artists an update on what they are doing and to see the ministry in action. On this trip there were five artists including me, my husband, Nathan, two of our World Vision representatives, our videographer, Heidi, our driver, and Claudia, our translator and guide who has worked with World Vision for years.

Nathan and I got up very early yesterday morning and flew to Atlanta to meet the rest of the team. They were all coming from the West Coast except for Heidi who was coming from Nashville, and we were meeting Claudia and our driver in the DR. I had met Joel Weldon before this trip, and I knew our reps, Jean and Patti, because I’ve worked with them for a long time (and they’re fabulous!), but everyone else was new to us. It’s been fun to see how quickly our group has already bonded. We all have a love for Jesus and a love for World Vision in common, and that helps everything. 🙂

We all left Atlanta together and flew into Santo Domingo, getting in in the afternoon. After getting through customs and immigration and buying visas and changing money and picking up some very late lunch, we immediately got into the bus for a 3 hour trip that turned into a 5 hour trip. Having been to several third world countries before, we were definitely prepared with a “go with the flow” attitude, and there wasn’t any real problem except for bad roads and traffic, but after traveling for 15 hours straight, we were pretty happy to see our hotel that night.

The hotel was the best one in the Barahona district, and it still was very basic with no hot water and fifty year old mattresses, but it was very clean and we realized that we were staying in amazing luxury compared to the people we were visiting – we were thankful. The food was wonderful, though, and we were offered sea bass the first night which was wonderful. We had no idea this was a staple, and we would be offered that for every lunch and dinner the entire time, but since we love sea bass, no hardship there. 🙂 By the time we finished dinner it was after 10, and since we’d gotten up at 3:30 that morning, we went back and collapsed.

We got up this morning and it was a totally non-stop day. This is a very small hotel with about 15 rooms, and we realized at breakfast that the rest of the hotel was taken by a missions group from an American college, and that was fun – we told them what we were doing and they told us what they were doing and we all prayed together and for each other.

We saw several Area Development Programs (ADPs) out here. We started at the most central one at a community center run by WV, and were welcomed by one of their after school groups which teaches traditional Dominican dancing. It was such a beautiful welcome! Afterward, we asked the kids how many of them were sponsored, and it was about 75% of them. I have loved seeing how WV’s involvement in the community is extended to the entire community whether sponsored or not. We heard about the classes and after school help that they were doing at this center and met the staff, and then we headed to a local WV preschool.

I have been amazed all day by the diversity of landscape and of neighborhoods here. This preschool was in a very dry and rocky area, and we had driven through very lush, Caribbean landscape to get there. We spent some time with the children, sang a few songs with them and heard from their teachers and then drove another half hour to see another education project.

I loved this project – it was inspiring to me. They had a semi trailer that was decked out as a school. Half of the trailer had a table, chairs, and a big whiteboard. The other half had all kinds of electrical equipment like junction boxes and switches and things attached to the walls. Young men ages 16-20 could come for a 9 month program to get certified as electricians. They are running three groups, one morning, one afternoon, and one evening, and will train about 60 young men. Then, at the end of the program, they will hitch up the semi trailer and move it to another community and do it again. We asked them what they were going to do with their training, and several of them answered immediately that they would use it to earn money to put themselves through college to become electrical engineers. I love that they are giving these young men the tools to make their own way in life.

After that we saw some very impressive gardening. We went to one woman’s home and saw her garden. World Vision had trained her with growing techniques and had helped her get the materials and build the garden. They also partnered with another relief organization to get the seeds. Now she grows enough food to feed her family and even to share with her neighbors and sell some as well. I like to garden, and this garden was amazing! She was so proud.

Then we went to another ADP and stopped at the headquarters where they had a school for aspiring barbers. A very funny moment for all of us except perhaps Perry, was when Perry Springman, one of the artists on the trip, asked them to trim a little spot on the back of his head he’d missed when he’d cut his own hair before the trip. Fast forward about 45 minutes and there were about 16 people working on his head. It was hilarious. Perry ended up with a lot less hair than he was expecting, and the school ended up with some extra practice that day!

We made a quick stop at a grocery store. Many of us had sponsored new children in DR before this trip and we are going to get to meet them tomorrow. This was an opportunity to pick up some groceries for the families to give to them tomorrow. Claudia helped us to know what would be most appreciated, and we bought rice, beans, cooking oil, powdered milk, anchovies, and some cookies for the kids.

We drove a little farther and saw a computer school. It’s in a very remote area, and from the street, you would never believe it’s in there, but up the stairs is a very impressive little computer center. There were about 20 kids working on learning formatting when we were there, and I met another Jennifer and her friend. Her friend was holding a Justin Bieber notebook which made me laugh. There was also a little classroom area there, and they had been teaching basic bookkeeping to local families.

After that, we drove about an hour back to the hotel. One really neat thing Jean asked us to do was to take turns sharing our stories as we drove since we were spending so much time in transit. Perry told his story tonight which was fascinating, and I am really looking forward to getting to know everyone in this way.

When we got back, we had about an hour before our really late dinner, so Nathan and I took the opportunity to run down to the beach really quickly to see it. Tomorrow is supposed to be another incredibly packed day and then we leave to go back to Santo Domingo, so we didn’t want to miss it. It was an amazing view, and the lava rocks were incredible.

We’ve had so much to digest today, and I’m still forming my opinions, but I have already been so impressed by the variety I’ve seen here in WV’s work. It’s so much more about families and communities than I even realized. We’re praying to have wisdom to know what God would have us share from this trip and how He will use it.

Want to see more pictures? Check out the whole album here!

Bob Lepine, Amy Julia Becker, me, and Dennis Rainey at FamilyLife

The interviews I did last winter with Dennis Rainey and Bob Lepine at FamilyLife aired this week on Thursday and Friday on their syndicated show “FamilyLife Today.” I had such a wonderful time with them, and also with the other guest, Amy Julia Becker, and now to hear how they’ve put it together is so fun. They just do an excellent job!

We’ve posted the interviews on my media page under “Appearances.” Take a listen, and let us know what you think! You can also get them directly from FamilyLife here.

At the Women ACT conference in Tiffin, OH

At Lindsey Trinity UMC

I had such a great and busy weekend this past weekend, and it was so fun to see all the ways God was working, both at the events and in my own heart and expectations.

Friday, I drove up with my mom to Tiffin, OH which is about 2 hours north for me. We checked into the hotel and realized that it was literally steps next door to the conference center where I was going to be speaking and doing the worship for Women ACT, a women’s conference that has been happening in Tiffin for the past 23 years. This is a large conference, but this year the numbers were down, and they were seriously considering how much longer they would continue with the event. For this reason, there was some tension going in, and I could feel it. These women love their event and have worked so hard with such hearts for sharing the Gospel – they really wanted it to succeed.

Friday night we had a dinner together with the entire planning team. I was impressed with the care and time these women have put in. They have met for a year planning this, and their hearts were very much for the women coming. I also got to meet Lisa Sheets Meiners who was speaking, and that was fun – we have friends in common, but I’ve never met her, and it was great to work with her. At the end of the night, the team spent a lot of time together in prayer for the event the next day and had communion together.

The event the next day exceeded expectations! Even though their numbers were down from previous years, they had many women sign up even in the last week, and the room was packed. I was leading worship and also gave my testimony and shared some of my music. Lisa did a great job teaching, and the team had taken so much care in prepping. It was so clear God was there, and in the end, we had so many people tell us it the best one they’d ever done. When we were packing up to leave, the committee came and told us that the feedback was so great, they knew their event would continue, and that year had breathed new life into their conference!

Mom and I drove up to Lindsey, then, a tiny town in northern Ohio. I had done a women’s conference up in this area couple of years ago, and the music director of Lindsey Trinity UMC was there and asked me to coordinate a day with her when I was next in her area. They do a special day each year when they invite someone, and had given me most of the service the next morning.

This was a beautiful old church with amazing stained glass windows and woodwork. It was a very traditional service – one of the things I really appreciate about my ministry is the diversity I get to see in the church. I love having the opportunity to experience so many different styles within the body of Christ! I spoke and did some music, and afterward we had a luncheon for the whole church. It was a great day for mom and me, and I had some wonderful conversations with people about their own journeys with the Lord. He reminded me again that while we all come from different places and backgrounds and hurts and giftings, He is the same God, and His love is for everyone! What a great reminder that I pray I can keep in front of me always.

Yesterday at church, the pastor was talking about Jesus’ question to Peter, “Do you love me more than these?” He was talking about all the things “these” could be in our lives – basically anything that we might love more than Jesus. He asked us to think about what we might be unwilling or unable to let go of for the Lord. He said for most people, the answer is easy – whatever it is, it comes to you quickly. They will be the things you hold most tightly, the things you rely on or think you can’t live without.

I knew immediately what I held most tightly. It’s my family. All my greatest fears are wound up in the idea of something happening to any of them. What would I do if one of my kids was terminally ill, or if my husband was killed by a drunk driver?

I also noticed that my answer has changed over time. That was interesting. My family has always topped my list, but there used to be other things in there as well, things that I don’t care as much about as I once did, but certainly remember holding very tightly. Financial security. Status and reputation among my peers. Material comforts.

I can see where God has been working on my heart in many areas. I used to dream of the huge house I would buy someday where everything would be new and beautiful. It made me very discontented with my home. Frankly, I needed to get over myself. I started praying about that years ago, and now it’s amazing how much affection I have for my house. I love it here! Sure, the kitchen is as old as me, and we wish we had a bigger yard, but now instead of seeing what I don’t have, I am grateful for what I do have. How many people in the world would love to have a home, any home? Mine is a palatial mansion compared to so many places I have been. What a gift to be happy and grateful where you are.

But would God ask me to go further? Not just to be content with my house and grateful for it, but to be willing to let it go? What if we lost this house, or we were called to sell everything and move to a place where we knew no one? What if we were told to give everything away and go on the mission field? Could I do that with a grateful heart? Would that stop me from trusting God or from obeying Him? I don’t think so. I’m not saying I would love it, but I also don’t think I would hold onto that. I know who God is, and He’s got that. He’s got our financial security, our comfort.

But my family. That’s the sticking point, isn’t it? I can test all kinds of theories in my head and God comes out the winner. But could I give up my family and still say “He gives and takes away – blessed be the name of the Lord?”

Well, I have experienced a piece of that with the loss of my dad to Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It was not easy. It was incredibly painful. And yet, God was faithful. God is good, and I know I will see my dad again. God reminds me of what He’s already done.

It’s clear to me. Holding loosely to things doesn’t mean we don’t love them. It doesn’t mean we don’t treasure them or even that we wouldn’t be willing to die for them. Holding loosely just means that we acknowledge that God is God. That nothing comes before Him. That it really is His decision how He wants to use us, and if we are going to be obedient, there will be sacrifice and cost to that. God loves us, and He promises that He will use all things for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28). So holding loosely is being grateful for the things He’s given us to hold, while trusting Him to do what’s best for us and for them and letting Him do it.

What do you need to work on holding more loosely?

Teaching at Powell UMC

This weekend I got to do a one-day women’s retreat for Powell United Methodist Church. We were talking about being transformed to be usable by God, and we really had a beautiful day. This event was only about 20 minutes from my house, and that is always a blessing for me to be so close to home. It had the added bonus of meaning that I knew several of the women there, which is always fun. One special thing for me was that it was organized by Nancy Grandstaff, who just happens to be the psychologist who qualified Toby for services when he was 3, and also is the grandmother of Reese, one of the kids who’s featured in my “Your Child” video. Theirs is a very special family!

Thanks for having me, God did great things that day, and I am looking forward to hearing all of them someday when I get to heaven. 🙂

With Mark Lamb and Mark Edwards at Victory FM

Toby deciding if he's brave enough to talk on the air

The view from our balcony in the outer banks - beautiful

At Kitty Hawk

Getting ready for worship at Hickory Ridge Community Church

Snow in Virginia - view out our back window on Monday

Some of the ships at Jamestown

One of the coasters the kids conquered from the skyride at Busch Gardens

Fife and Drums Corp at Williamsburg

Okay, this is a serious catch up blog. We have been traveling and I have not kept up, but it’s been a pretty amazing couple of weeks. We just got back from a 10 day trip to NC and VA with a lot of ministry, a lot of history, and a lot of family time.

The Tuesday before we left I was live on Greg Bullen’s show, Off the Bookshelf, on WMPC. I’ve done this show with Greg several times now, and it’s always great to be on there. I love his heart for ministry!

Then we packed up our whole family of five with all the stuff we would need for 10 days of traveling and all the gear needed to do multiple events, and somehow squeezed all of that and all of us into one minivan. My husband is a packing genius, that’s all I have to say!

We left Thursday morning and drove straight to Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA, the home of WRVL, Victory FM. This is a great station. They cover the whole state of VA and also quite a bit of NC and some other surrounding areas. They have supported my ministry for a long time, and I was so glad we were finally going to be close enough to them to stop in! We got there for the afternoon show with Mark Lamb, and he even put my kids on the air for a bit, which was so kind of him. Had a great time visiting with Mark Edwards, the music and production manager, as well, and I just want to thank them for making the visit such a great one both for me and my family!

Then we drove on a couple more hours to stay in Charlottesville that night. We got up early because we had a couple of extra hours, and we wanted to take the opportunity to see Monticello. The kids loved it, which was a good sign considering the plans for our off time that week, and then we headed four hours south to the Outer Banks where I was doing a women’s retreat in Kill Devil Hills, NC.

The church we were working with for the rest of this trip was Hickory Ridge Community Church and they were just amazing. By the time we left, we felt like family! What a sweet church. It was such a fun God story too. The women’s director called me to see if I would do their women’s retreat on Palm Sunday weekend. Then the next day, the pastor called to see if I would do a concert and their worship services on Easter Sunday one week later. Neither of them knew the other had called me! I was trying to think of how to make that work since I don’t like to leave my family that long, but I hated to have them pay the travel twice when we realized it was exactly the same dates as my kids’ spring break. Voila! They can come with me, and we have a great excuse to check out VA while getting to do everything the church wanted us to do!

So that first weekend we did the women’s retreat. I was teaching on the life of Peter, and we had a wonderful time with all the women! The kids ended up babysitting the sound guy’s 3 little girls, so they had a ministry themselves. 🙂 We had a couple of hours to check out Kitty Hawk which was really cool, and then we headed back north to Chesapeake where I did the worship on the Palm Sunday services.

After those services, we went out to lunch with a few of our new friends from church – did I mention this was a friendly congregation!?! They were wonderful. Then we headed up to Williamsburg where we planned to spend our week days.

My husband, Nathan, had to work a couple of the days, and Sunday night it snowed 4 inches. Yes, on spring break in VA. So not fair. It also rained all day Monday and we were all exhausted by then, so Nathan worked and I worked about a half day, and the kids just sat and read and played games and watched movies, and it was a great down day. The next day Nathan worked, and the kids and I checked out Jamestown (which was fabulous! Don’t miss that if you’re ever there).

Wednesday we went to Busch Gardens where Toby shocked us all by turning out to be a coaster freak. I am not so much. Nope. I can do a couple, but I’d rather watch any day. Dad and sisters came to the rescue, and he got to ride almost enough coasters even for him.

Then we spent two days at Colonial Williamsburg which was also fabulous! I feel like they have improved this so much since we last went. There was a lot more interactive stuff which the kids loved. They even had a spy quest the kids could do, and we had to find the identity of a loyalist spy and then warn our own revolutionary spy. Pretty fun stuff!

Saturday we went back to Hickory Ridge and I rehearsed with the band for Sunday, and also gave a concert that night as part of their Easter weekend. Then the next morning I led the worship with the band on the Easter services, and we drove all the way home so everyone could be back at school and work the next day.

We are exhausted, but had so much fun, both as a family, and with the larger family of God. We’re already talking to Hickory Ridge about doing it again next year, and I hope we do, because I can’t wait to see them again!

Teaching on brokenness at the Wesleyan women's retreat

Speaking and singing at First Covenant Youngstown

The cookies they made for the reception were so sweet! My book is called Life Not Typical and they made these for me. 🙂

This was such a great weekend! Totally exhausting, but so much fun to see God moving!

On Friday and Saturday, I was with the Greater Ohio District of the Wesleyan Church for their women’s retreat. I think there were delegates from over 90 churches there, but it was such a warm and friendly group – it seemed like everyone knew everyone else!

Friday night I did a concert and ministry event, and then Saturday I led worship and taught on “The Art of Godly Brokenness.” It was a very interesting event for me because I’ve taught on brokenness many times before, but I just couldn’t get comfortable with what I had planned. I kept praying over it and praying over it and rearranging it in the two weeks prior. Then suddenly at 5am on Friday morning (and I am not a morning person!) bam! My eyes popped open, and I knew exactly what God wanted me to say. So I wrote for about 7 hours that morning and changed the whole thing. I was so touched by the feedback – one woman told me that she had been stuck for two years and that God gave her exactly what she needed to come out of her “pit” in my talk that morning. He is so good!

Then, we went home and re-packed everything and drove up to Youngstown, getting in around 11. The next morning we went to First Covenant in Youngstown where I gave the sermon and did a little special music. I also gave a concert that afternoon. The whole point of their invitation was to kick off their Covenant Kids Congo with World Vision campaign. I have been a World Vision artist for years, and this is a specific initiative the Evangelical Covenant is doing with World Vision to impact the Congo.

This is not a huge church, and the area is somewhat economically depressed. Statistically, I would have expected to get 12 or maybe 15 kids sponsored this weekend. I had brought 30 with me. Would you believe my surprise when we ran out of kids and actually had people signing up to wait for more? We ended up sponsoring 34 kids out of that church – I was so touched! And the pastor had tears in his eyes, he was so moved by the response of his people. So, way to go, Youngstown Covenant!

Two totally special and wonderful groups, and what a blessing for me! I came home totally exhausted, but also completely excited by all the ways God was moving this weekend. Sometimes I can’t believe that I get to do this, and meet and work with the people I do. Pretty incredible.