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…