Some of the people from our world

Some more of our world

Shooting at Hocking Hills

Me with Jeff Kubach, the director

Well, my song “God Loved the World” has had a lot going on lately. It just came out in a musical from Lifeway, and was recently released to radio nationwide where it was the most added song on the Billboard Chart! This week we shot a music video for the song. I worked with Jeff Kubach who used to work on Survivor (he has very cool stories!) and we hit it off immediately – it was a lot of fun to do the project with him.

I really was surprised by how much work this was. We had a ton of prep scouting locations and coming up with the story, actors, props. There’s a lot of planning since we shot in 6 locations over 3 days and had over 30 people to coordinate. My goal, though, was to make a video that showed visually the message of the song, and I’m really excited to see it come together. I can’t wait to see how God will use it.

We are exhausted, though! The first day was so crazy (shooting for 15 hours straight!) with so many people to coordinate that I totally forgot to take pictures – that is very unlike me. Jeff took 2 just to remember an order for shots out of sequence, and that’s all we have until the last day. Bummer! I guess you’ll all just have to watch the video to see where we were. 🙂

My song, God Loved the World, has been included in a new Christmas musical from Lifeway – I’m very excited about this! It’s interesting to hear your song interpreted in a new way. Philip Keveren did the arrangement, and it’s a choral version. You can check it out and hear a sample here.

Me with Mike Weaver of Big Daddy Weave

Opening with worship

Big Daddy Weave

As promised, here are some pictures of the night. I had a great time! LeAnne and I went down and had some time to just talk to the guys before the event. They were all really nice, and so focused on ministry – it was great to meet them.

I opened with about a half hour set, and then LeAnne and I had an awesome time watching their concert. What a blessing this week has been.

Also, I’m so very touched to report that we had so many kids meet the Lord for the first time today at Adventure Week. It just touches my heart! I had a little girl come up after the play today to tell me, and she was just grinning from ear to ear, holding her new Bible. God is good!

I am so excited! We just found out that my new single, “God Loved the World” was the most added on Billboard’s national chart this week!! We tied with Sanctus Real. I’m just amazed! This song is the gospel, and I am so excited to see God getting it out there. Praise God!

Add to that that I was asked to open for Big Daddy Weave tomorrow night, and it’s turning out to be a pretty exciting week! I’ll post picture of that ASAP.

Bad Bart!!

Sheriff Taco Bill and Miss Lilly

Bad Bart becomes Good Bart

We had our first day of Adventure Week today, and there were record numbers for us – we maxed out on the first day. I’m really excited about how the Lord is going to move this week, and so grateful that He’s given us this many kids!!

Every year we do a play that I write with my playwrite partner, Terry Rippl. This year we’re in the Old West learning to Go With Jesus! My cast has been fantastic – just a joy to work with. It’s so fun to watch the kids respond too – they think they are rock stars, all asking for autographs. Some of the kids are really worried about Bad Bart, but other than that, it’s going fine. And we just tell them – we trust in Jesus!

Well, we’ve decided to make a music video for the radio single, “God Loved the World”. This is new territory for me – we’ve done some other videos, but always editing stuff together from existing footage or pictures. This is actually going to be produced by a former producer on “Survivor”, Jeff Kubach (I know what you’re thinking, and no, I don’t think there will be ANY tiki torches in the video).

We’ll shoot it the first full week of July, and there’s a lot to do to prep it, but I’m looking forward to it. Should be fun. 🙂

I’m so tired right now. Last week my husband was gone on a business trip all week, it was the last week of school, so the kid’s stuff was nuts, I had to go to Cincinnati on Monday, Nathan came back on Thursday and then I left on Friday for Chicago.

We had rehearsal for a women’s conference I’m doing this summer called Triennial. It’s a pretty big deal, and they only hold one every 3 years, so there’s a good bit of prep. The team is from all over, so we all met in Chicago and planned on Friday night, then rehearsed on Saturday all day long. Then I caught a late flight home, which also got delayed in all the storms. So I got home at about 2 in the morning (in the rain, lots of fun), went to bed for a couple of hours and got up to lead worship at my church.

I’m super tired, but I’m also thankful. Triennial’s going to be a lot of fun. And I got home! There were lots of people stranded for a lot longer than I was in O’Hare, so I’m very thankful to have made it back.

If you want more info on Triennial, check out the website. It’s in July in Washington D.C., and I’d love to see you there!

Players tunnel onto the field

Bengals field

The players came out for practice while we were on the field

Today I drove down to Cincinnati with LeAnne to audition for the national anthem at a Bengals game. We had a great time on the drive, and when we got there, it was fun to go through the tunnel they use for the team at the games. A little surreal to walk out on the field (very springy, by the way), and when I tried to sing, it was really hard because the delay was more than a full second. I couldn’t hear myself at all – just the delay so that was really distracting, but I thought I did a good job.

When I finished, people cheered which surprised me since I thought it was just me, LeAnne, and the person doing the audition, but no, the whole team had come out while I was singing to practice. Call me observant! It was really loud, but I’m still surprised I didn’t notice. That was fun too. Short, but very cool.

My new single “God Loved the World” is being released nationally next Friday. Whitney and I were killing ourselves today trying to get everything organized for the release – sending singles and postcards and interview segments, etc. It’s kind of nuts around here.

I am so excited to see what God will do with this single! Already God has been opening doors, and I am excited to see where He will take this. It’s the Gospel in 4 minutes, and I want that message out there!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17

That’s the message I want everyone to know. Do you know that today? And have you responded?

You can hear a clip of the song in the store, and check out the lyrics here.

My mom and Bev with my dad on the screen

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.