Special needs moms’ brunch at First Evangelical Free in Fullerton, CA

First time for our kids to touch the Pacific!

Presenting on the worship services at PazNaz

The awesome “sensory” Sunday School room for special needs kids at PazNaz

The floating chapel in the heart of Joni and Friends International Headquarters

A mama bear encouraging her baby up on a log in Sequoia National Park

One of the amazing sequoias – this wasn’t even one of the big ones that got a name!!

Temperature on the dashboard of our car driving through the Mojave Desert at night

Well, we are home, and what a wild trip that was! So, so happy we went, and so, so glad to sit still for a bit.

After the Joni and Friends Family Retreat in Murrietta, CA, we drove up to Fullerton near Los Angeles and I did a mom’s brunch at First Evangelical Free Church for mom’s of special needs children. Connie Hutchinson, the director of special needs ministry at the church, had read my book about a year ago and contacted me to see if we’d ever be out that way to do a ministry event with her moms. God is so good, and we had just been booked for the Joni and Friends Retreat when Connie called and they are only an hour apart – God is always working things together!

They do an amazing ministry there to the disabled, and we had over 100 moms attend. It was a wonderful time, and included a performance by a group of disabled adults at the church which was so special! I loved getting to spend time with Connie and her husband and daughter, and I sure hope we get to see them next time we’re in California!

After the brunch we went out to the beach. Even though it was too cold to want to swim, our kids had never touched the Pacific Ocean so we needed to check that off! I told them they are the only American kids I know who touched the Indian Ocean before they got to the Pacific! Then we drove up to Pasadena to get ready for the worship services the next day.

On Sunday I got to be at the First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena, affectionately called PazNaz by the congregation. They’ve also got a spectacular special needs ministry headed by Julie Keith, but what made them really special to us was that a number of the families at the church, Julie’s included, had been at the Joni and Friends Retreat with us the week before. This was wonderful for us because there were several families we’d had a hard time saying goodbye to, and we got to see them again that morning! I sang on all the morning services and Julie gave us a tour of some of their incredible kids wing and special needs programs, and then we got to go out to lunch with several of the families from Retreat. What a blessing! It made it harder to say goodbye, but we were so grateful for the time!

After that we drove south again to Disneyland. Come one, you knew I couldn’t bring my family our for their first visit to Southern California and miss that, didn’t you? We have visited Disney World in Florida a number of times over the years – we love it and we have family down there – but I had to show them the California version. We had a great time, and if you’re ever there, do not miss the new Radiator Springs Racers – what a cute ride!!

After two lovely days there we headed up north. We visited a friend we’d met while in the Dominican Republic for lunch and it was so good to catch up with her and her family! Afterward we had the amazing privilege to visit the national headquarters for Joni and Friends in Augora Hills, CA. They gave us a tour and while we were there I was invited to sing in the famous “floating chapel” that is the heart of the building. The acoustics are absolutely stunning in there, and apparently if you sing in there the whole building hears it. What a privilege! Joni is a childhood hero of mine, and she sings there almost every day – what a fun moment for me.

The last stop of our Western adventure was Sequoia National Park. We got in late that night and collapsed. The next morning we got in and within 15 minutes we saw our first black bear! We were hoping to see one, although I was hoping to be in my car, and this one was right behind us, but we couldn’t believe it! We did a lot of hiking and were just again overwhelmed by God’s creation! By the end of the day we had seen 3 different groups of bears for a total of 6, and if I didn’t have the pictures, I wouldn’t believe it either. We had several park service people tell us that was unheard of, and one couple we met who’d been hiking there for 2 weeks each summer for the past 28 years said 6 bears in a day was their record!

Driving back to Vegas through the Mojave Desert was crazy – 104 degrees at night in the dark. And we drove the kids through the lights when we got there and took a little time to explore the more kid friendly aspects in the morning before our flight. I have to say, though, after all the splendor of God’s creation we’d seen that week, Vegas didn’t have much to offer, and we were all happy that we’d spent our time elsewhere.

It’s good to be home, and I’m also sad it’s over. So many wonderful people, so much fun ministry, so many unbelievable sights from God alone, and such great memories for our family!

How you know you’re in Vegas – this was in the airport. The airport has a gun store?!?!

View of the Colorado River from the top of the Hoover Dam

Riding in Bryce Canyon

Beautiful view from the Emerald Loop in Zion National Park

Some of the otherworldly rocks at Zion National Park

One of the amazing views of the Grand Canyon

Outreach event at Prescott Christian Church in AZ

With the Burtons and Armstrongs, coordinators of the event at Prescott Christian Church

Beautiful Calvary Chapel Bible College where the Joni and Friends Family Retreat was held

People dancing during the family concert at the Joni and Friends Family Retreat

Rinnah (Juliet) with her friend Alex at Joni and Friends Family Retreat

We’ve been planning this tour so long, it’s hard to believe that I’m sitting here over half-way through, trying to put into words all that we’ve already experienced! Our whole family is out in the Western US for about 3 weeks. I was invited for several ministry events and we decided to combine it with family vacation as well so we could show the kids some of the national parks. Who am I kidding?! I haven’t seen most of the national parks either, so I was more excited than they were!

We flew out from Columbus and landed in Las Vegas, NV. It was like landing on another planet for my kids. We’ve been to rainforests and jungles and African plains and snow filled forests with them, but they’d never seen the desert, and it was like landing on Mars. They kept commenting about how there was no color and how hot it was (103 that morning) and I told them that that was just their Ohio eyes which always see green – if they gave it a few hours, they would start to see all the colors in the desert and they did. I never cease to marvel at the absolute wonder of the creativity of God! It’s a constant theme in my head as I’m traveling – what an artist!!

We immediately drove out to tour the Hoover Dam which is a pretty incredible marvel of engineering. It was so unbelievably hot, but we all had a good time, and after getting some lunch, we drove several hours north to Utah. We’d come a few days ahead of my first ministry event in order to have some time hiking. We drove through Zion National Park on our way to our cabin, and it was truly jaw dropping. Couldn’t wait to get back there!

The next morning we rode horses through Bryce Canyon. This was absolutely spectacular and something I’ve always wanted to do! I had heard there may be steep drops, but I had no idea how insane some of that would feel. Add to that the fact that Toby had never been on a horse and that all the horses seemed to really like the edge of the cliffs, and there were really quite a few times I had to use Lamaze breathing to not have a panic attack! Still, (considering we all lived!) I am so, so happy we did it – the experience of a lifetime really. Everyone loved it, and it’s so spectacular in there that you just can’t help praising God! If we needed a reminder that He is bigger than anything we’ve ever thought of, we had it that day.

The next day we went down and hiked in Zion National Park. I so wished we’d had a couple more days here! What an amazing place. It was so varied and every hike was something new. Our biggest disappointment was that the day we were there there were flash flood warnings, so we weren’t allowed to hike The Narrows which is a trail where you actually hike up a river bed as the canyon slowly closes in around you – you can imagine why that would be a bad place to be in a flash flood. We did the bottom part of it and I almost wish we hadn’t because it made me want to do the rest! If we’re ever back anywhere near there, you know what we’ll be doing!

After that we drove down for my first event in Prescott, AZ. It sounds stupid to say that we saw the Grand Canyon on our way there, but we did. 🙂 We stopped and hiked just a bit – only had about 3 hours there – but I am glad we saw it at least. It’s so huge, you really can’t even get your mind around it.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from Prescott, but it wasn’t at all what I was picturing. It’s beautiful out there with mountains and green right next to desert and rock formations that look like Mars again. We stayed with friends of friends, the Armstrongs, who, by the end of our trip were just friends. I did an outreach event on Saturday that was so much fun, and the best part for me was working with Melva, the coordinator, and the people at the church! They made us feel so at home, and even had us out for a barbecue afterward. I tell my kids all the time that doing ministry the way we do really gives us a little glimpse of what heaven will be like, because we really meet the most amazing people! And, in a fun this-doesn’t-happen-everyday moment, at the end of the concert, a woman who lives at a Christian camp up the hill invited us all up to do some ziplining, and so we did. Thanks, Sandra!!

The next day we went to church with the Armstrongs and then did some sightseeing in Prescott, especially enjoying the Native American art exhibition going on. Then, Monday we headed out to California and stopped on our way to see Joshua Tree National Forest. The Joshua trees were beautiful, but that is a seriously inhospitable land! Wow, it’s harsh.

We made it to Murrietta, CA late that night and checked in at Calvary Chapel Bible College where the Joni and Friends Family Retreat was being held. Founded by Joni Eareckson Tada who was paralyzed in her teens in a diving accident, Joni and Friends is an international ministry serving people with disabilities. I’d been asked to do some ministry at the camp that week and our whole family was able to experience it.

What a blessing we’ve had this week! This family camp experience is almost impossible to describe in just a few paragraphs. We’ve been so blessed to work with the Joni and Friends organizers here – Cheryl and Dave and Pam have been absolutely wonderful! We were assigned an STM (short term missionary) named KT who was such an impressive and amazing young woman. Every family gets an STM to help with any disabled person or child under the age of 9. KT was still in high school, but she’d had such a challenging life already and still approached us with such a sweet servant’s heart – we felt like we’d gained another daughter.

We have met so many incredible families who are dealing with very difficult situations, but this is a time for them to relax and have fun as families, and it was so great to see. Our daughter, Rinnah, made one really good friend named Alex who has cerebral palsy and they were so cute together. He kept calling her “his Juliet”, and we loved getting to know his parents. It was amazing to hear all the stories here.

On the opening night, I presented some music as an opening, and while we were here I also did an event just for the moms which was lovely and then a whole camp concert. That night was just rocking! Everyone was singing along and we had wheelchair dancing and nearly a mosh-pit up front! How fun! Truly an amazing night. And then tonight there was a talent show, and to see all these beautiful people get up to share what God has given them was so touching. Two of them even used my songs from the week – it made me teary!

And now we’re looking at leaving early in the morning. We can’t stay for the final breakfast because I have another event up near Los Angeles, but I know we will be talking to many of these people again. We came to serve, but we gained so much more than I feel we gave, and that is often the case in the family of God!