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!

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!

Going into Wright-Patterson Airforce Base

Speaking to the ladies of the East Central District Missionary Churches

This weekend I was the speaker for the East Central District Women’s Retreat – it was women from all of the churches in the East Central District of the Missionary Church. What a wonderful weekend! I was speaking on the life of Esther, and these women were wonderful. They had told me the conference center was near Wright-Pat Airforce Base, but I was thinking it would be across the street or something. Nope, it’s inside the base. That would be the first time I’ve ever needed to ask directions to a women’s event from a man in uniform with a beret and a gun.

My mom and I were there together, and just had a blast getting to know all the women. I especially enjoyed meeting a missionary from Spain and hearing her story. It’s always such a treat for me to finally get to meet and spend time with the people at a retreat – we spend months corresponding and talking by phone as we plan, and when we finally get to meet them, it’s such a pleasure. Thanks so much! I hope I get to be with you all again soon. 🙂

Since I posted the new choral arrangement of “God Loved the World” I realized I never posted Phillip Keveren’s arrangement. Phillip is an absolutely amazing arranger and composer who has done work for some very, very big names. He’s also with Lifeway, and I was so privileged to have him write and conduct the string parts on my last album – don’t know how I got that lucky, really (okay, I do, that would be God’s grace). Anyway, Phillip had written the string parts for “God Loved the World” and when he wrote this musical, he made a beautiful choral version of it. I was so honored to have it included!

One funny little story – I met Phillip at the string sessions for my album since he was conducting. When I got home, the next day my daughter picked up one of her piano books to head to her lesson, and whose face was on the back cover but Phillip’s! Apparently he’s also written a lot of teaching music for piano, who knew? My son and I played a duet by him just last week. When I told the kid’s piano teacher that I’d worked with him, she was very excited. Small world, this.

A new arrangement of my song for choir through Lifeway

Look what I found in the Lifeway Worship packet this quarter – they didn’t even tell me there was a new arrangement. That’s pretty fun!

The Generations Ministry of Old Fort Church

This morning I was the keynote speaker and presenter for a really cool annual event up near Toledo. It’s hosted by Old Fort Church and held at Heidelberg University every year. They’ve basically put together a mini Women of Faith idea – they have a full day event with multiple speakers and even comedians from all over. It was really a fun day – the women had put so much time and effort into getting this all together!

One really touching thing about the event was that they were having a cancer focus during it, and the organizer, Carol (hi, Carol!) had a cancer scare the very week of the event. Praise God, she found out only a couple days before that they do not think she has it, but she told the story and it added a new depth. We also heard an incredibly moving testimony from a cancer survivor. I was with Donna, my assistant, and she is a two time cancer survivor, so we were both pretty teary. It was so wonderful to hear someone else share truths that I know so well from my own life: God is faithful, God is good, God gives us what we need when we need it. It was a great day!

I spent several days down in Nashville this week. I was mostly songwriting (I have a couple of songwriting partners down there who I love to work with), and also figuring out the distribution deal for my book. I am happy to say that it was a great week all around! The deal is done (yea!) so while it pushes off the release date a bit, it’s all for a good cause – we’ll have national distribution starting in January!

We also wrote two songs while I was down there that I really like. One of them is called “Life Not Typical” just like my book, and we will be releasing that as a radio single in January. I had a great idea for a video on the drive home – wonder if I can make that happen too? So many ideas, so little time…

Well, we were just offered a national distribution deal for my book through STL, the largest distributor of Christian books in the world. We haven’t hammered out all the details yet, but that is pretty cool! I’m headed down to Nashville in a couple of days to do some songwriting, and I will meet with them then and see where God takes it!

Last night I went up to Christ Community Chapel in Hudson, OH to help out with their Operation Christmas Child fundraiser. It was great to hear more about this ministry that we have personally supported for years, and to get to help them with my songs as well. Every year each of my kids makes a shoebox for someone just like them, and we love seeing where it goes. If you haven’t made a shoebox, check it out – it’s a great ministry.

Forest Park Covenant Church in Muskegon

Beginning of Chapel at Portage Lake Bible Camp

Well, I am absolutely exhausted, but this was one amazing and wonderful weekend in Michigan! Apparently I pretty much forgot my camera, though, which is so unlike me. So only a few pictures, but that is no reflection on the weekend.

On Thursday, my mom and I drove up to Muskegon and we got to stay with Wally and Donna Coots. Wally is one of the pastors at Forest Park Covenant Church in Muskegon, which is where I did a concert on Thursday night, BUT the reason I was so excited to see them again is that Wally and Donna were missionaries to Kenya for many years, and they are the reason we got to go, AND they were our hosts for about half our time in Kenya. They are amazing, and it was so, so good to see them again and to hear about their ministry in the US now, and catch up on their lives.

That night I did a concert at Forest Park, which is a great church. I was with them about three years ago for their worship service as well. We had a great time hanging out with the music pastor, Chris, afterward as well (hi, Chris!).

The next morning, mom and I got up and drove to the big, bustling metropolis of Onekama, Michigan. We got a little lost in there, but eventually we found Portage Lake Bible Camp where I was speaking on Esther for their women’s retreat and also leading worship for the weekend. I was also up here three years ago when I did a retreat with Ruth Hill, the women’s ministries director for the Evangelical Covenant denomination – she was the speaker, and I was the worship leader. These were some of the coolest ladies I have met anywhere, and I was just psyched to be back with them!

The weekend did not disappoint. There were women there from churches all over Michigan, many of whom I had met at concerts I’d done at their home churches. We talked about God’s plan to use us wherever He has placed us as we looked at the book of Esther. The staff of that camp is awesome, and they just bent over backwards to make sure everyone had a wonderful weekend. I loved every minute! And we got a ton of World Vision kids sponsored which always just touches my heart.

Thanks, Forest Park and Portage Lake! I hope we’re seeing you again soon. 🙂