With Chris and Ruth at WEEC
Sitting in with Ron and Kate on the morning show at Moody Radio Florida
Girlfriends in God event at First Baptist Indian Rocks
At Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Orange Park
Back to First Baptist Indian Rocks
First strawberries of the season from my garden when I got back!
Just got back from Florida (again!) for the third time this year. I’ll be back in June and July as well! Good thing I like it down there – I think I sing more there than anywhere in the country.
The day before I left I spent the afternoon over at WEEC in Springfield, OH. They’ve been great to me over there, and Chris, the program director, asked me to come do a live show with them. I sang a song acoustically (they have a piano in one of their studios which is very rare!) and then we talked about the book and the new single, which, by the way, is now in the Top 40 for Billboard. “Life Not Typical” is somewhere in the 20’s now, and we’re hoping it will get on the Top 20 chart soon! Had a great time with Chris and Ruth, and also taped an interview about the book to air later.
The next day I flew down to Florida and did a more intensive interview with Kate Bruington at Moody Radio Florida on the book, and also hung out a bit with Ron and Kate on the morning show. It was great to see them both again!
That night I went to do a Girlfriends in God event at First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks in Largo, Florida. This is an annual event on Mother’s Day weekend, and we had a great concert that night – really enjoyed getting to know some of the women and also working with the Women’s Ministry director, Teresa. It was also nice because I’m doing a few more events with them next week, so I got to meet some of the women I will be working with then.
Afterwards, my mom and I drove about halfway to Jacksonville and spent the night. The next morning we drove the rest of the way because I had a women’s event at Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Orange Park. This was a really interesting church, as it is redesigned mall space. They did a beautiful job, and the coordinator of the Mother’s Day event, Dina, was just lovely. The women’s event went well, and the next morning they had me back to do their service.
On this service, I was about half of it. They gave me the sermon time. They had their worship band do the congregational worship, though, and I am so glad because they were so much fun! I had a great time worshiping with them. There was also an incredibly sweet moment when a woman was called up on stage, and her husband who was in the Army and had been deployed for months surprised her by Skypping into the service and asking her to renew her vows. They put him up on the big screen, and she was just so surprised and touched – it was a beautiful moment for Mother’s Day. I was also touched because so many people at this church sponsored World Vision children. This was a blue collar church, and I am always blown away by people’s sacrificial generosity when a church steps up like that. Thank you!
After that we headed back across the state, stopping to hike a bit in Ocala National Forest as my mom’s Mother’s Day gift. The next morning I did a mom’s event back at First Baptist Indian Rocks, and it was so sweet to get to know those women! Everything that could go wrong on the tech side did – the sound wasn’t working, the video wasn’t working – but God was working. We just rolled with the punches, and the Lord really used the time.
That afternoon my mom and I drove across the state again to visit friends in Vero Beach for a few days before heading back to Largo to do a last women’s event at First Baptist Indian Rocks. We had better luck with the tech this time, and all in all, I had a great time with this church and will look forward to seeing them again! And when I got home, I picked an entire bowl of strawberries from my garden – in May! Who would’ve thought? I had to share.