Mostly empty first service during a Level Two Snow Emergency

Well, there’s a first time for everything, and this weekend was the first time I’ve ever tried to do a full weekend of ministry in the middle of a Level Two snow emergency.

Now, for those of you down south who may not know about this whole snow thing, a Level One means “try to stay of the roads, now, it’s getting slick!” Level Two = “stay off the roads unless you have a darn good reason for needing to be out there and call your boss and make sure they’re going to make you come in.” Level Three means “the police will arrest you if you’re out in this unless you are trying to get to the hospital because you’re missing a limb or something.” I may be paraphrasing. But they really will arrest you at Level 3 – no joke.

So, this past weekend I drove out to St. Clairsville, OH on Friday. I was going to be back with the Evangelical Friends Church there, a wonderful church I was with last year as well. It’s on the far east side of the state, next stop, WV, and that is where all the lovely Appalachian mountains start which also means hills and turns and lots of drop-offs next to the roadsides. Friday was completely clear. I did a sound check and headed to the hotel. We had a bright and early start the next day when I would be doing a full three-session retreat for the women and then speaking and leading worship on the Saturday night worship service. Sunday I was doing the sermon and some special music on all three worship services.

Well, we knew it was supposed to start snowing so we gave ourselves extra time to drive back to the church. Boy did we need it. It was crazy when we woke up. We got to the church and about 1/3 of the women registered were there – the rest simply couldn’t get in and I couldn’t blame them. We went on with it anyway, and it snowed all day long. The church is full of windows and I felt like we were in a snow globe. By about 2, we were at a Level 2 snow emergency, and they were debating a 3. We finished the women’s event, and then the big question was whether they would still have Saturday night’s service. In the end, they cancelled, for which I was truly grateful. If it had turned into a 3 while we were there, we were all sleeping on the floor at the church, and I was so happy to drive those unfamiliar roads back to the hotel in the daylight!

It took us about 45 minutes to drive 5 miles to the hotel. We parked, walked across the street to have dinner and went to bed early so we could make sure to be back at church in the morning before it was over. This church normally has about 600 people at each of their three services every Sunday. At the first service I think we had 40 or 50. I couldn’t believe we got there ourselves!

In the end, I was so glad to be back at this church which has such an amazing heart for the Lord, and they were so kind to me. Even if we didn’t have many people, God’s Word still went out and we know that never returns void! But I will be super happy for spring to come – this has been a crazy winter!!

So excited to see my video for special needs families featured by Faith.com! That could explain why the numbers were climbing so much in the last week – the video passed the 40,000 view mark, which was so fun for us over here! We love to hear from the families who have been touched by this video. You can see it on faith.com here!

At Cypress Wesleyan

Last night I had such a wonderful time at Cypress Wesleyan Church in Hilliard, OH. This church is only about 30 or 40 minutes from my house, and I met their women’s leader, Paula, at another women’s retreat where I was speaking. They asked me to come back and do some events with them this winter, and it has been such a pleasure to work with her and her team!

They asked me to do something a little unusual because they said it was hard for their women to commit to an entire weekend. So last night I did a concert ministry event. Then, in a couple of weeks, I will go back and do a one day retreat on the book of Esther.

This church was so welcoming and wonderful to us. They are a very large church, but somehow still retain that small church feel, which is a wonderful gift. Her team did a fabulous job, and the tech here is outstanding which just makes it a pleasure to sing. I had some really beautiful conversations with women afterward telling me about how God was working in their lives and it was just a great time. Really can’t wait to be back with them in a few weeks and dig into Esther!

Merry Christmas! Just in time for Christmas, CCM Magazine is giving away my new Christmas song, “Christmas is Forever” – you can get that here.

We also have big news – just found out that we have officially gotten over 500 kids sponsored through World Vision through this ministry! So excited about this. I am so passionate about helping kids and the poor around the world, and it’s pretty incredible to think that we’ve had a part in helping change the lives of 500 kids and families. That’s bigger than my kids’ school! We are so thankful to God.

And, one more link came out last week. I was asked for a few thoughts about Christmas music and how it can help us prepare for the coming of Christ. You can check that out here!

Merry Christmas, and I am praying that everyone everywhere know the peace and love that comes with life lived with Jesus. Thank you, God!

A Night of Hope at Chino Valley

View in San Diego - beat the snow back home!

Christmas, San Diego style

It’s been a very crazy couple weeks. Not only is it Christmas, but we had an experience of God’s sovereignty in a new way lately. Without going into all the details (perhaps I will share them in an event sometime!) God moved our family. We had no intention of moving, but He made it very clear to us that he had a new house for us and even sold ours when we weren’t on the market and weren’t asking anyone to buy. So. Now we’re moving, and we are sad to be leaving the only house our kids have known, but also looking forward to what God has for us in a new home. We’re still in Columbus, and actually just around the corner from where we were before.

At the same time, my husband has been out of town and in another weird coincidence, I got booked to do a church just a few miles from where he was on business. This wouldn’t be so unusual if they were local, but these are both in southern California! My husband’s company is actually in the LA area and he just works remotely. I was booked to do a Christmas event for Chino Valley Community Church the same weekend he was on his annual work retreat, so I got to see him and meet a lot of his co-workers that I usually only hear about, which was fun!

I flew into LA a day early and my husband and I had a nice date night. Then on Friday we headed over to Chino Valley to do an outreach event we called “A Night of Hope.” The room was decorated beautifully, and I had such a great time with their staff and the ladies who were there. They also had so many vendors, so women could do some Christmas shopping as well, and it was fun to look at everything that had been brought in. I spoke on God as Emmanuel – that He is with us, that He is our hope, and that He came as the greatest gift ever given to the world at Christmas. We had a really wonderful response, and I am praying for several of the women who talked with me afterward.

Immediately after the event, my husband and I drove down to San Diego where his staff retreat was being held. By the time we got in, it was almost 4 in the morning for my body clock since I was still on East Coast time, and I don’t think I was particularly coherent with the hotel clerk! Just get me in bed, please!! Spent the weekend with so many brilliant techie people (my husband included), and frankly, didn’t understand a lot of the conversation. But hey, I got a free hoodie! And the view out my window was a little nicer than what I would have seen in winter in Ohio. Just saying. It was great to get the extra time with my husband, even though we had to fly home separately since he had to visit another job site in Seattle.

Now we’re trying to plan Christmas while packing an entire house and family of five – we move right after Christmas. We will welcome your prayers! 🙂

I was asked to write a guest blog this week, and thought I’d share it here:

Question: I know Christmas songs are plentiful, but what three or four songs do you recommend to help us welcome Christmas?

Christmas is my favorite holiday, and the songs have so much to do with that. It’s really hard to pick just a few! But I would say that I always come back to the classics. I just made a new version of “What Child is This?” that I truly love to sing because the words are so profound and the melody is simply gorgeous. I also love “Joy to the World,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” and “Silent Night.” Recently, I wrote a new song about the true meaning of God’s gift to the world called “Christmas is Forever” and of course, I think that would be a great one to help welcome Christmas!

Questions: I often have a hard time describing the sacred power of music, so maybe you can try? What is it about music that reaches into our hearts and moves us? How can music help us push aside our busyness and prepare to celebrate Christ?

You know, in our culture, music is so often background sound. They pipe it into shopping malls and play it on elevators. You really can’t go many places at Christmas without hearing music. And so many of the songs are just part of our cultural DNA. We’ve heard these songs since we were little, and we associate them with Christmas which also usually means we associate them with strong emotions and memories. But if you really stop and listen to the words of the classic Christian Christmas songs, so many of them are absolutely amazing. They really help to keep me focused on the meaning of the season.

I’m not sure why music moves people the way it does, but the truth is that we were wired by God to respond. No one is unaffected by music. Even people who don’t think they care are influenced with different emotions by the score in a movie, or by hearing the song that was playing when their heart got broken in high school. The reason Christmas music is so profound is that it couples that basic human capacity to be moved by music with cultural and family traditions and experiences. Add to that lyrics that proclaim to the world that God has sent His Son to us as the greatest gift ever given, and you have something with the power to move people deeply.

With all that said, how would I tell people to let music help them slow down and prepare for the coming of Christ? I would tell them to stop and actually listen to the words. Think about them. Don’t let it be background noise – let it be the prayer of your heart. Make it a time of worship. You’ll be surprised how quickly it brings you out of the busyness and into the profound.

Apparently this was posted a while ago, but I just found it and wanted to put it up here. The Evangelical Covenant Church has a long history of helping with poverty and Christian growth in Congo, the poorest nation in the world. About a year ago, they partnered with World Vision to start Covenant Kids Congo. As most of you know, I am seriously passionate about the work of World Vision, and have been so honored to support Covenant Kids Congo in many churches now. They featured my work with them on their blog last month. I hope anyone reading this will consider sponsoring a child, either in the Congo, or in one of the many, many areas of the world where World Vision serves kids who are in desperate need. We are the ones who make a difference!

The packaging for the new Christmas Card CD, Christmas is Forever

I can’t believe how smoothly this project has gone, but because it has (thank you, Lord!) I’m happy to say that the new Christmas project is almost here. It’s a Christmas card with a CD tucked inside that has three songs – “Angels We Have Heard on High,” “What Child is This?” and “Christmas is Forever.” It’s in manufacturing as we speak, and I should be able to ship copies sometime between Nov. 15-20. We’ve added the pro-order to our store, and you can also hear clips there now, so check it out and we hope we put you in the Christmas mood here in November. 🙂

Here’s a piece I wrote about the songwriting process for our new song “Christmas is Forever:”

People ask me often what the songwriting process is like. It’s different every time. But I wanted to share how we came up with “Christmas is Forever” because it represents what happens to me so often – I try to do my own thing, I end up coming to the place of asking God what He would like me to say, and He takes it in a completely different direction to become something I never would have thought of on my own.

I wrote my first two albums all by myself. After that, though, I started working with a new producer, Paul Marino, and we started co-writing. We’ve done most of the songwriting on my last two albums together, and now this new Christmas project as well. Working with someone else really has that iron-sharpens-iron effect, and it doesn’t hurt that Paul’s an award winning songwriting and producer. We have a similar esthetic and the same heart for ministry, so it’s been a great partnership.

We decided to do this kind of last minute, so I went down to Nashville to write an original song and do arrangements of two other traditional songs with Paul in early September. I had brought a couple of ideas with me, but I wasn’t necessarily sold on either of them – the most difficult thing about writing a new song for a 2000 year old tradition is finding an idea that hasn’t been done yet. And the concept is absolutely the hardest and most important part of songwriting in my opinion.

We tried my ideas first, but they weren’t clicking. Then we started throwing out ideas, phrases, things that might spark a visual, just brainstorming. I take notes the entire time on my laptop, and it’s always amazing at the end of the session to see how pages of chaotic notes become one clean and small set of lyrics. I think lyrics should always give you a mental picture, and should say as much as they can in the fewest words possible.

I had started by saying that it always made me sad at Christmas to see how many people missed the point entirely. Christmas isn’t about Santa, it isn’t about stuff. It’s about the greatest gift even given to the world, Christ Jesus, and what He offers us. People are so busy and so unwilling sometimes to hear that that they rush through the season and miss the whole thing.

We were liking some of our melodic ideas, but the lyrics were coming out very cynical, almost preachy. They were poignant, but I was starting to feel like we were trying to hit people over the head with the frying pan of Christianity.

Finally, Paul said, “We’ve got a point, but what are we really trying to say to people? If there was one thing we’d want them to hear or know at Christmas, what is it?” We’d already written some lyrics about the seasonal display of a stable, and how it would be gone again in just a few weeks. I said, “I’d want them to know this isn’t just a seasonal thing we do out of tradition. It’s something that changed the world, that changed history. It’s for everyone all the time.”

Paul said, “We need to make it a prayer.”

It totally changed the direction of the session, and within about an hour we had the majority of it laid out. We still hammered away on minor details of word choice and little changes in the melody over the next two days, but it was amazing to see it come together. I’ve never written anything quite like it, but it says exactly what I’d want to say to people at Christmas: Jesus’ coming has changed everything for all time. Here’s one of the verses:

I pray you know what wise men knew:
That Jesus is the Savior.
God’s eternal love is true
And Christmas is Forever.

I pray you know it too! Christmas will be here before we know it, but when we know Christ, it’s been here all along.

Just a quick note – I just found out that my book, “Life Not Typical: How Special Needs Parenting Changed My Faith and My Song” was named in the Top 10 Books on Sensory Processing Disorder by Special Needs Book Review. You can see the list here – we’re always praying that the book will help so many families dealing with difficulties and with special needs!

Sweet Kyli

I heard on Monday that Kyli, the girl whose family was my original inspiration for the song “Your Child” was ill and in the hospital’s PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). Kyli is 11, and severely impaired in many ways. She uses a wheelchair and a feeding tube and doesn’t talk, and she is often in a lot of pain. But she is also absolutely sweet, and her parents are so devoted and loving. I met them a few years ago in New York at a concert, and I was so deeply touched and moved by their devotion to their child that I wrote the song.

Later we made it into a music video and have been astonished to see that take off and be used by so many organizations. It’s been on Focus on the Family, Joni and Friends, Autism Speaks, Insight for Living, and many others. It’s been incredible to hear from families how much the song has meant to them.

This past summer I had the wonderful opportunity to go back to New York and sing again at Kyli’s family’s church. Kyli was too ill to come that day and stayed home with her dad, Andy, but I was able to spend some time with her mom, Jodi, after the service, and I was also able to share how God had used the video and their devotion to inspire and encourage so many other families. Sometimes when you are serving faithfully and quietly at home, you have no idea how God can multiply that. It was so good to thank her.

Back to this week. I heard Kyli was in the PICU and sent her mom a message telling her we were praying. Kyli had gotten a cold, and her breathing was impaired. She had been put on a vent and then taken off twice. They’d had to do it a third time and every time she got weaker. They tried to extubate her one more time and it seemed to be going well for the first afternoon, but then it became clear that she was working too hard to breathe on her own. Sweet Kyli went home to be with the Lord this morning.

My heart is just broken for the family. I know their life has been very hard, but they wouldn’t have traded a moment with Kyli – she was such a blessing to them. Their faith has been incredible throughout, as has their church family. It has been something to behold, and the best picture of what it really means to be the family of God.

Thank you for your witness, Jodi and Andy. And thank you for what you gave to this earth, Kyli. We will miss you.