Hi, everybody, we had a great review come out yesterday on the upcoming album. Check it out here!
I’m also really excited to see how the Lord is moving things along for the new release. I’m on 5 television shows this month, as well as visiting several radio stations and doing some concerts and guest worship in the Southeast, and it’s just fun to watch God open doors. 🙂
Just for fun – these came out this week, and include some of my picks, as well as favorite movies, songs, and albums from many Christian artists. Check them out!
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We did, although we drive pretty much all over the state of Michigan visiting my husband’s family, and after just coming home from the last trip, and leaving again for this one, I’m getting pretty sick of my suitcase.
This trip had a great advantage, though. I did three shows up near my friend Tia, so I got to stay with her, and we had such a wonderful time – she is truly a blessing! So I got to look forward to the ministry, and to time with a dear friend too – a double blessing after getting to spend the last trip with Chris!
Tia’s been in music ministry for a long time herself, and it’s so great to talk with her since we totally “get” what the other one is doing. You can check out her ministry at her website, and say hi from me!
I drove up on Monday morning, and Tia and I went to St. Cyril’s where I did a concert for their women’s group. This is the first event like that they’ve ever done, and it was such a beautiful evening – just wonderful people, and we had several sponsorships for World Vision which always makes me really happy. Thanks, Chris, for having me!
Then Tia and went back to her place and stayed up too late. 🙂 But it was so fun to catch up a little!
The next morning I went to Northmar church in Warren, OH, and I did the program for their Christmas brunch. Tia had her own ministry that morning, so her daughter, Julia, came with me to help with the tech and the table – she does a lot of ministry with Tia, so she’s great at that. These women also made me feel like I’ve known them forever – what a joy to realize that the family of God really is everywhere!
Tia and I had a bunch of time then to talk, and time is such a gift. We’re both really busy, and we live 3 hours apart, so this is rare. We drank pots of tea, and hashed out solutions to every ministry difficulty there is, or tried to anyway. Stayed up too late again, but got to sleep in, which never happens. It was great.
Wednesday night we headed up to Southington, and I did a concert at Southington Christian Church. What a cool, unusual church! They really have a heart for teens and kids, and I had a lot of them at my concert, so there were some last minute changes as I tried to make sure the show would connect with everyone!
After the show, I can honestly say I had a first. Pastor Randall, (who, just randomly has broken ribs surfing AND run a midnight marathon in Alaska – the man has stories!), saw the giant slide from the movie Princess Diaries II, thought it looked fun, and built it in his fellowship hall. Now, that is cool!! Who does that?! You slide down it on mattresses. And I got to go – face first, on my stomach. Very dignified, I tell you. 🙂
Not sure I can top that, although he said next time I’m up he’ll take me bungie jumping off the steeple. Hmmm. I should probably tell him heights aren’t my thing.
Well, that was a little crazy. 🙂
My awesome friend Chris decided to come with me out to the East coast to help me with my shows on the weekend, and also so we could hang out – we don’t get to do that much since she’s from North Dakota. Yes, that’s what I said. ND.
So, on Wednesday, Chris drove 2 hours to Grand Forks, flew to Minneapolis, then flew to Columbus, and got to my house at 11:30pm. Then we got up at 5, flew to Baltimore, then flew to Providence, RI, rented a car, and drove 2.5 hours to Cape Cod, MA, dropped off our stuff, and went to sound check for a concert. We were a little tired. 🙂
Had a really fun time with the people at Cape Cod Covenant, although we couldn’t see anything because it was dark by the time we got there, and when it’s dark on Cape Cod, it’s really dark! But we met some great people, and they just made us feel at home. After the show, we got to hang out and eat pizza with some folks from the church, and the next morning our great host Steve (thanks Steve and Betsy!) gave us a whirlwind tour of Cape Cod, but alas, in the rain. My favorite was probably the old ship’s captain house with the garden gate made from a whale jawbone – now that is cool.
Chris and I headed out then to drive up to Pilgrim Pines Conference Center in New Hampshire. Beautiful drive! Why does the rain always clear up when you’re NOT sightseeing? Got up there late afternoon just in time to, you guessed it, drop off our stuff and go sound check. Then we headed to dinner and I gave a concert that night.
The weekend was really fun, and a little bit of a departure for me. I do a lot of women’s retreats, but this was a mother/daughter retreat for several churches combined, and it was so neat to see the moms and daughters interacting. Made me miss my kids even more than usual!
The retreat was on the theme of “The Amazing Race”. On Saturday I gave two talks. The first was on our need for Christ (signing up for the race) and the second was on the ways God trains us to run with him. In between, Chris and I took a much needed break, I studied, and we enjoyed the gorgeous view.
Sunday morning we had worship and I gave the last talk – running for victory, as Paul says in Hebrews, “Let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.”
I really love how a retreat gives you the luxury of time with people. We really bonded with several of the girls and moms – it was so fun.
After lunch we headed back out for Springfield, MA, to Evangelical Covenant Church and pulled in, you guessed it, in time to sound check. This church was just an awesome host church – their people were wonderful, and made us feel at home right away! Loved the people, loved the food, loved the acoustics, loved the building, would love to come back! That about sums it up. 🙂
Then on to a beautiful host home (a fact we couldn’t really appreciate until the morning because it was dark) with a wonderful woman named Pam. Pam, we loved being with you! Thanks for your hospitality.
Then up early, drive two more hours to Providence, fly to Baltimore, fly to Columbus, then get up the next day to take poor Chris back to the airport so she could fly to Minneapolis and then to Grand Forks and then drive home. Are you tired yet? That Chris is a trooper!
All in all, we were exhausted, but it was such a great weekend, and we really felt like God did great things through the ministry. I was feeling so thankful to Him, which was good since we were heading into Thanksgiving. 🙂
We’ve been working like crazy to get all the new music ready for the CD preview concert, and it all paid off – we had it last Friday night, and it went great. 🙂 The new CD, Love Broke Through, won’t be available nationally until January, but we were able to do a preview concert (and sell preview copies!!) at our church.
(PSSTT! If you go to our store NOW, you will notice that it’s available on our site only – this is new. And exciting. Go get one now – no one else can until January!!)
I prayed a ton about how to structure the show, and God really answered that prayer – I presented the gospel, and just felt the Holy Spirit over the whole event. Thanks to all who came – we had a great time!!
Okay, so I’m finally on twitter. 🙂 Follow me at www.twitter.com/shawjennifer – we can tweet at each other.
You can also find me on facebook, and I’d love to see you there! www.facebook.com/jennifershawfans
Okay, back to your social networking, people!!
Last night I got to give a concert in my hometown – something I love, because it’s such a luxury to drive home afterwards. It was a somewhat difficult night, though. The church had just lost a 14 year old boy to the flu the week before, and there was a lot of grief there. I prayed so much about what God would have me share. As many of you know, I have several songs written in times and about times of grief, and most of the time they are helpful. Sometimes, though, when grief is fresh, I worry they will hurt more than help. God is always good, and I really felt that He directed the concert, and many people told me how helpful it was, so praise God!
Do you have a place that you go to every year? And it starts to feel like home? Welcome to my Kingsville. I’ve been to First Baptist Church in Kingsville, OH for three years now, and they are just sweet people. Yes, this was the site of the famous outdoor concert where my car broke down a mile from the venue, so we hiked it in July heat and 3 inch heels, and as I was singing the words, “Goodbye, goodbye!” I saw my own car being towed past the park where the concert was! Mmm, hmm. We can’t make these things up! And then, those lovely people found me a ride back to Columbus, 3 hours away. And THEN, when I went back a week later to collect my car (broken upper ball joint, glad that didn’t happen on the freeway!!!), those same lovely people had paid for the repair. Really, you can’t get much better than my friends in Kingsville.
This time, I got to stay with Evelyn. You see, Kingsville doesn’t really have a hotel, so Evelyn offered to put us up, and she is just fabulous. And her house was literally an incredible museum and auction house rolled into one – so many interesting things to look at! I was really glad the kids weren’t there, though – so many interesting things to break. 🙂
Love you, Kingsville.
I just had such a fun morning – I got to sing for a pastor appreciation breakfast up in Lima, OH. It’s an annual event put on by WTLW, the local Christian TV station, and WTGN, the local Christian radio station. It’s such a privilege to get to say, “thank you” to pastors – their job is very hard, and often solitary, and I so appreciate what they do!
After the morning, my mom and I went over to WTGN and did some interviews, me about the new music, and mom about her book. We had an awesome time with Scott and Bob!
Sheri Ketner, from WTGN invited us up to do her TV show later in the fall, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing them again. 🙂
Well, we are finishing up this album, which is so exciting to me. I’ve been down in Nashville several times since my last post.
We had a string session which was just amazing – David Davidson and David Angell on violin, Monisa Angell on viola, and Anthony LaMarchina on cello, with Philip Keveren (who did the string arrangements) conducting and playing some piano tracks as well. Just incredible players, and I was really emotional the whole morning. It just kept making me think of how good God is to bring me here, and also kept me thinking about how proud my dad would be, which kept me on the verge of weepy all day. Note to self, weepy women make men nervous. 🙂 I’m so happy with how it went – it adds an incredible dimension to the songs.
Back down to Nashville for some vocal sessions and a final photo shoot for the cover and meetings with the graphic artist and publicist, and here we are. I’m going over final mixes, and we should be printing soon. How can I tell you how exited I am to share this? I feel like the Lord just gave me a gift, and it will be so good for the ministry! We just have great songs that really point to Him.
Can’t wait for you to hear it!
And, in other news, “Your Great Name” has been in the top ten on the radio worship chart for the past 6 weeks, and this week it climbed to #3. Go, little song, go!!!