Archive for May, 2010

Seminar at Xenos Institute

Thursday, May 27th, 2010
mom and Bev

My mom and Bev with my dad on the screen

seminar at Xenos

The seminar at Xenos

My mom does a seminar on faith in hard times called “Life in the Valley” based on my parent’s book, No One Tells a Dying Guy to Shut Up. She does it with Bev Delashmutt, who was one of her editing partners, and is one of the leaders at Xenos here in Columbus.

My mom did the seminar this week, and I went to hear her and close it with a song. It’s such a powerful seminar – they use the Bible, the book, and video of my dad’s speaking before he died.

I was pretty unprepared for how hard it would be for me. We had Dad’s funeral at Xenos, and the room where we had the seminar was the same room we had used for calling hours. I hadn’t been there since my dad died, and it really hit me. The videos are also really hard for me to watch. He was just incredible, and I miss him a lot. It was so good to see God using it, though. Dad would love that. And I’m so proud of my mom.

You can see some of my dad’s videos on my media page if you’re interested – he was pretty awesome.

Welcome LeAnne and Whitney

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Well, some fun things are happening around here.

My husband and I both work from home. He does software architecture in the dining room, and I sit across from him and pretend to be a music mogul. 🙂 We do not have a big house. We were thinking, you know, we really need more people in this dining room!!

Enter LeAnne and Whitney. I’m very excited about them both – LeAnne is going to be my new assistant and help me with booking, travel, etc., and Whitney is a college student who is interning for us this summer. God has so supplied us with two people who really see this as a ministry and love the Lord. It’s going to be a great summer, but a little crazy. LeAnne will primarily work at home, but Whitney’s already had a good dose of how nuts our house can be, and the kids aren’t even out of school yet. Welcome to the madness. 🙂

Another fun review!

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Another blogger review came out today – check it out here!

Show in SC

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
McWhinnies

My mom with our hosts Jim and Louise at the concert

SC view

Probably the best looking 18th green anywhere - SC is beautiful!

Last Friday I headed down to SC to sing at Crossgate Church in Seneca. They’ve just completed their new building, and they had a concert to celebrate. What a wonderful congregation! They were so warm, and I had a wonderful time celebrating with them.

I was also so incredibly touched by their heart for missions. They give over a third of their budget annually to missions! I am just amazed by that. Our hosts are very involved in many missions, and had just gotten back from visiting their daughter and her family in Bolivia where they are missionaries. So exciting to hear what God is doing around the world. We loved our visit, and are so excited to return – I will be doing their women’s retreat in the spring!

My song in Lifeway’s Christmas musical

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Got my advance copy of Lifeway’s new Christmas musical The Journey today. So excited to see it! My song “God Loved the World” is in there, and Phillip Keveren did a beautiful string background to a spoken intro that really sets up the Gospel message that we have in the song. It was so fun for me, and also cool to see it set in a choral version. Can’t wait to see what God will do with it!

New podcast on being a special needs parent

Monday, May 17th, 2010

I was featured on a podcast by “The Need Project”. They are doing wonderful work helping to connect special needs parents with resources and help – they were awesome to work with. We talked about my son Toby’s struggle with Sensory Integration Dysfunction and early intervention. You can listen to the podcast and download it here. Thanks for listening!

Young Life at the Zoo

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

Today I went to sing for the finish of the 5K Young Life race at the zoo to help kids raise money for their camp trips. I was last on the line-up – first Chris Graham, then Ryan Wilkins, then me. Holy cow, it was the coldest day I can remember for this time of year in forever! It was 85 degrees yesterday! The stage was right on the water and the wind was totally whipping through there. Chris and Ryan both play the guitar and were having a hard time feeling their fingers. I was not sure how I was going to play the piano, and stuff kept flying through the space with all the wind.

The runners and walkers were troopers and everyone finished, but there was not a lot of celebrating at the end. Mostly people ran for the snacks since they were inside! We were all trying to decide if it was even worth setting up because we didn’t think people would stick around. In the end, I just decided to start a dance party for Ryan and we called it a day. 🙂 Seemed the better part of valor, and hey, the dancing kept us warm!

Another really kind blogger review

Friday, May 7th, 2010

Got another blogger review today – very sweet! Check it out here!

Such a sweet review!

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

This review really touched my heart – thanks you so much!

Check it out here!

New York, NY, baby!

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010
With Dino and Cheryl on TBN

With Dino and Cheryl at the TBN studio, NY, NY

Taking over NY!!

Noodle bowl

Awesome noodle bowl at Ollie's

Union Square

Union Square from the top of Filene's Basement

I was asked to be on the Dino Show on TBN, and I was excited both to do the show, and to get to go back to New York. I went to graduate school there, and we lived there for about 5 years, so it was fun to have a great reason to return!

I was not excited though, that the day before I was really not feeling well. That day was going to need a lot of stamina – flying out early to make sure I would make the taping, getting from La Guardia in Queens to lower Manhattan with all my stuff on public transit (only way to go!!), killing time if my flight was on time (it was), doing the taping, then back to La Guardia and a late flight home. I was feeling very crummy, and also worried that it would affect my singing. Not good.

God is good, though, and He definitely got me through the day. Not only that, but it was fun too! I was totally sick afterwards, but hey, I had the weekend off anyway. Well, mostly. As much as a mom has anyway!!

I loved being back in NY and even got to have one of my favorite lunches at Ollie’s – soup is awesome when you don’t feel good, even if I could never have eaten it all! I took a picture to share. 🙂

One very NY story. Anyone who has been there knows that finding a public restroom is almost impossible (there weren’t even bathrooms in the public library – no joke!). I was told to come camera-ready since the schedule was pretty nuts on their filming days and they didn’t know what the makeup situation would be. Okay, no problem!! Obviously I can fly from Columbus, take an hour of public transit, kill time on the streets of NY, not have access to restrooms, and still look beautifully camera-ready when I arrive. Sure.

So I killed myself and finally found a bathroom on the 6th floor of a Filene’s Basement in Union Square where I hid my flatiron behind my bag hoping no one would kick me out and that I wouldn’t set my bag on fire, doing a curl and then flinging it back behind the bag every time someone came in. Did crazy ridiculous make-up that looks right at home in a TV studio with big lighting, but looks a bit freakish and street-walker-y on a person in Filene’s Basement. Went into a stall to wave the flat iron around and around trying to cool it off so I could put it in my bag and not melt all my stuff. Went down the 6 flights, and across Union Square to the studios where they showed me into… a big makeup room that I had to myself for more than an hour. Mmm, hmm. Welcome to NY!!