Lighthouse Covenant

We’re in Georgia now!

Sheila, Jennifer, and Bill at WAFT

The sign that saved our interview

We had a beautiful time with Lighthouse Covenant Church on Saturday. What a warm and friendly congregation! I serve a Covenant church, and there’s always connections, so that was really fun. There were also a lot of retired missionaries in the congregation, and it was so fun to talk with them about their adventures, and our upcoming trip. They have promised to pray for us while we’re gone, and I know they will, so thank you!

Sunday morning I went to Christ Church in Vero Beach for their morning services and shared a little of my story and some music. We have dear friends in Vero, and have been privileged to have many opportunities to sing in that area. I love seeing how the Lord makes connections within His family, and I had the opportunity to meet for the first time personally several people I’ve known on email, and also to reconnect with others I’ve met before.

We crossed the border into Georgia last night, and it was an odd feeling – I’ve been in Florida (it seems, in every part of it, twice!!) for the last 3 weeks, so it’s strange that that time is over. I’m coming back in March, though (again to Vero Beach!) so it wasn’t too sad.

This morning I was on the morning show at WAFT in Valdosta, Georgia. A big shout-out to Sheila and Bill – it was great meeting you! Thanks for having me, I had a great time.

A funny story, though, about getting to WAFT. I couldn’t get my GPS to map it, so I tried googlemaps – it didn’t work. Then mapquest – no luck. What in the world? So we got to Valdosta and started asking people. We had one woman who was sure she knew, but we checked it out the night before, and it was actually a TV station – so glad we checked! So I pulled over and called them. What I got was a very mumbly man, who seemed to have never heard of I-75. Odd, since he was supposed to be right next to that. He kept trying to give me directions from I-77. What?! And I couldn’t understand him, and kept asking him to spell street names. I got off the phone really frustrated, and said to my mom, who’s traveling with me, “Wow, that was the most unhelpful person, and I can’t believe he’s in radio – I couldn’t understand a word he said!!” I checked the names of the streets he gave me, and my GPS couldn’t find any of them. And there was no I-77 anywhere.

We got to the hotel. I thought, I’ll ask them, and then I’ll call my radio promoter – someone has to know where this is!! As I’m asking the front desk person (a big shout-out to Thomas – you rock and you saved our interview!!), it dawns on me. I-77 is in Ohio – I’ve driven it many times. I called a number with a 330 area code, and now I’m thinking, wait, that’s up near Akron, OH. Oh my goodness! I called some poor man in Akron who was probably watching the superbowl, and made him spell every street near him, while saying, “No, you must help me, I’m meeting Sheila there at 7 in the morning!” He must have thought I was nuts! “Who’s Sheila, and why are you meeting at my house at 7? Oh, well, whatever will get this woman off the phone so I can watch the game – that’s B-E-L-D-E-N Avenue…” My mom and I just died laughing, I think poor Thomas the hotel guy thought we were insane.

Well, somehow Thomas got something to map it, although in the end it wasn’t right either! But it did take us by a big sign for WAFT, and we followed that – interview saved. And I won’t forget the area code for Akron any time soon. 🙂

The Sanibels at Sanibel Community Church

First Presbyterian Church, Lakeland

Private event

Joe Scoggins at WJYO

Andrea Stephens, Jennifer, and Supervisor Molly at the Juvenile Detention Center in Fort Myers

Well, we had a beautiful, but very cold week of hanging out. My poor kiddos came down here thinking they were going to escape our Ohio cold and be swimming, but we were in our winter coats some of the time. Still beats the 8 degrees we were having at home!

Last Sunday I sang on 3 services at Sanibel Community Church in Sanibel, Florida. Sanibel is a beautiful little island in the gulf, and I had to be there pretty early to sound check. I drove most of the way in the dark, and then, just as I was crossing over the water on the causeway, the sun broke out over the horizon – amazing. It silhouetted palm trees against the sky, and threw red and orange streaks across the dark blue of the water. I keep saying the same thing on this tour, but whenever I travel and see all the different ways God has shown His creativity, I can’t even fathom what an artist He is. I want to capture it in some small part in a song, and it reminds me how small I am.

The church was wonderful, great people, and I really enjoyed meeting the staff – I’m looking forward to working with them again! And between services, the bell choir came out into the courtyard and played, and it was just gorgeous.

On Monday morning, I had a wonderful time with the ladies at First Presbyterian Church in Lakeland, FL. I keep meeting such wonderful people – it really makes me realize how fortunate we are to be the family of God! Somehow I didn’t get a picture inside, but here’s the front of their lovely church.

Monday night we were with the CBS class in Lakeland. I was there last year and it was fun to see them again!

Tuesday we had the fun of singing to my grandmother’s 101 year old cousin, Nick. He wanted to hear an old hymn, “In the Garden”, that his mother used to sing. My mom sang the harmony with me, and when we got to the chorus, he jumped right in! It was great to see how the music hides God’s word in hearts.

That night we had a private event with some friends. We had an extra night on the calendar, and they decided to invite a few people over to hear me. They don’t know how to do anything small! We had about 60 people crammed in the party room at their building – it was a lot of fun.

Wednesday morning I was on the morning show on WJYO, Kingdom FM, in Fort Myers, Florida. I had an awesome time with Joe Scoggins – thanks for being so much fun! I look forward to being back down there, and visiting again!

Yesterday was a hard day for me. I visited the girls at the Juvenile Detention Center in Fort Myers. They gave me about an hour to talk to them, and I sang a few songs too. My heart really goes out to these girls – I made some really bad decisions when I was a teenager, and when I finally did turn to God, I was sure that I was so messed up, He could never use me. God has been so faithful to me, teaching me about His grace, and about His ability to use everything for good. I really wanted to give these girls the gift of knowing that they are valuable to God, and that His grace is real. I know that I don’t have much to give, but God certainly does, and I prayed like crazy before going, and have been ever since. If you have a minute – say a prayer for these girls. They are going through some very tough stuff.

I think it was Bob Pierce (the founder of World Vision) who prayed that God would let his heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God. I want that too – I don’t ever want to get stuck in my insular little world, not looking outside myself, not seeing the pain and the places where we can be God’s hands.

I feel like God keeps putting me in places that break my heart, just as I know He will in Africa, and I keep praying that He will show me what He wants to do with that, and how we can help. Let yourself see something today you might want to pretend isn’t there, and then ask God, “How can You use me in it?”

Well, I’m sitting here on the most beautiful day I’ve seen in a while in Florida. It’s very cold for here – 56 degrees – but the most beautiful sunshine and an incredible blue sky. It just amazes me to see what God has thought up, and the beauty He creates.

We had an incredible time at First Presbyterian Church in Bonita Springs. Their congregation was so incredibly warm and wonderful to me – they really made me feel welcome and at home! Add to that wonderful pastors and music pastors, great tech people, awesome acoustics, and a fabulous piano, and you had one very happy Jennifer on Sunday. Thank you so much for having me – it truly was a blessing to me!

I’m taking a couple of days off to hang out with my family and some friends down here, but we’ll be back at it next weekend. I’m also writing a song right now about God’s wondrous creation and how He makes things I can’t even fathom, and yet knows the smallest detail. Isn’t He amazing?! I hope you are amazed by Him today!

Chris and Edie at WJLU

Robin at WHIF

Pastor Robin at WHIF

Well, we made it down to Florida just in time to avoid the worst of the winter cold snap – people here are freezing because it's 60, but it's definitely sounding better than the 8 degrees we're having at home!

We had a great radio interview at WJLU in Port Orange on Wednesday – a big shout out to Chris and Edie! Thanks for having me!

Yesterday I had a precious morning with the ladies of First Church of God in Vero Beach. What amazing women we met! I’m so excited to come back here in March to do their women’s retreat.

This morning started off way too early for me with a three hour drive up to Palatka, but it was worth it when I got to do a very cool show with a couple of very cool Robins at WHIF. I loved every minute of it – thanks you guys!

I have to say that this tour is starting off pretty great – I have met people with such a heart for sharing their love for God, and how fun to get to connect with and work with them!

Tomorrow we head down to Bonita Springs to First Pres. – can't wait to see what the Lord will do!

I am so excited to announce that I’ve been invited to tour in the UK and Kenya this May! In the UK, we’re partnering with Young Life UK, and in Kenya, we are partnering with Africa Inland Mission. The Lord is just opening doors in amazing ways! My family will go with me as well, which is such an incredible blessing.

We’re posting a page this weekend with all the details, but a quick overview is that we will spend a week in the UK touring to support Young Life UK, and then we will go to Kenya for three weeks. In Kenya, we’ll be hosted by the Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe, which is a school for children whose parents are serving with Africa Inland Mission. We will also get to do concert ministry in Nairobi and Mombasa, and work with AIDS orphans in a day school in Kijabe (many of you know that this is a cause the Lord has really laid on my heart). We will also get to minister with the Maasai tribe.

If that weren’t enough, as many of you know, I am a World Vision artist, and I have been sponsoring children through them since I was 17. We sponsor several children in East Africa, and one of them, Abassa, lives near where we are touring in Kenya, and we will get to meet him! This is a child we have been sponsoring and praying for for 8 years or more. I never thought I would have an opportunity to meet one of our WV children, and I’m just overwhelmed with how good God is!

We’ll put up a page with links to all these sites in the next couple of days. Make sure to sign up for our email newsletter – we’ll be blogging on the progress of the trip, and also from the UK and Kenya, so you can keep up with what the Lord is doing!

Many of you have been asking how my appearance on the Canadian television show, 100 Huntley Street went. We are still working on getting it up here on the site – it’s a very long segment – but I’m happy to report that it went really well, and thank you for praying for me! I was quite nervous that morning, and I never get nervous! But the Lord is good, and He calmed me down before the segment. By the time I got to makeup, I was feeling good, and the people on the show were just wonderful. It was very obvious to me that they are so sincere in their desire to see people come to Christ. That was such a blessing to me! I did two songs and a fifteen minute or so interview, and we’ll probably have that up here in the next couple of weeks.

In other news, we’ve been booking a lot lately, the Florida tour in January, many women’s speaking and singing events and Christmas shows, concerts, it’s been so fun to see the Lord opening many doors for us. I also have a new single out right now in the US, “Hands to the Sky”, and would love for you to call your local station and ask for it! In Canada, we have two singles out to stations right now – “Flowers of the Field” and “Hands to the Sky”.

I did two retreats this week up in Michigan, and also did guest worship at a church there, and am still so struck by the beauty of God’s people. We met incredible people who just love our Lord. I am so, so grateful to be in this family!

Hey, guys, I feel like there’s been a lot of good news lately, and I’m excited to share it! Just found out that I’ve been in the top 20 for the last several weeks on the Top Indie Chart for radio play on the national chart in Christian Radio Weekly. I don’t even know how to thank God for what He’s doing – sometimes life is a little surreal.

Just wanted to share with you. Praise God! He’s awesome, and all the glory to Him!

Hi, all, just excited to let you know that my new album is being featured in the March issue of CCM magazine in their Buzz Factor column. I was so excited to hear that! So rejoice with me, and check it out, God is amazing!

The new CD is out and has really been going well – thanks to all of you who have contacted us to tell us what it’s meant to you!

We are very excited to have partnered with Creative Promotions who will be handling our US radio promotion, and with Phoenix 5, who will be handling our Canadian radio promotion. The US promotion starts this week, and the Canadian promotion has begun and is going well, so listen for “Beauty from Pain” or “Be His Hands” on a station near you!

I’m leaving on Saturday to do a Florida tour, and can’t wait to see some sunshine – it’s been really cold here in Ohio. I’m praying that God will really use the time to His glory!

We are so excited to let you know that the new CD is on its way! There will be a release concert and party at Faith Covenant Church on December 1st in Columbus, Ohio at 7 pm, and if you’re around there, it’ll be the place to be!

We’ve added some clips from the new music to the player, and you can also hear clips of everything in the store here. As well, we’re running a pre-order sale, and I’d be happy to sign anything – just send us a little note with the order.

This really has been the most fun to make, and I’m so happy with the result. God is so good!