Dr. Pulei before Journey to Jamaa
One of the worship sessions
With Ian Morgan Cron after his amazing reading
With Nicole Johnson
With JJ Heller - her baby was so cute!
Ricky Skaggs at the Grand Ole Opry
Well, it’s been another couple of crazy weeks here. I’ve started doing some publicity for the release of the book, so after the video was done I did a few radio shows and then got ready to go back to Nashville. I spent last week there again, and it was an amazing time.
I flew in on Sunday and Monday and Tuesday I did some more songwriting for the new album with Paul Marino, and Jeremy Johnson joined us for a session as well. I’m really getting excited about this new album – we’ve got some really good worship songs on here as well as several songs I know will be so useful to me in my ministry. I’m saving a couple of spots for after we return from Thailand since I know I’ll want to write a song or two about that, so with all that and the songs we wrote before Christmas, we’re in really good shape.
On Wednesday, Donna flew down to join me and we went out for some strategy and lunch with my publicist, Gina, whom I also just happen to like. 🙂 Then we checked in for the World Vision Artists’ Conference downtown. This is an annual event for the artists signed with World Vision, and it was inspiring.
Our first night we heard from Dr. Moses Pulei who was one of the first children sponsored in a very remote part of Kenya, and who now oversees World Vision in several East African countries. It was amazing to hear how God has used sponsorship in his life, and especially touching for me personally because I have been in the area where he grew up, and I know the poverty he came out of. Then we saw a presentation of World Vision’s brand new event called Journey to Jamaa.
The next couple of days had awesome speakers, wonderful worship, and lots of time to get to know other World Vision artists. It also had a really fun night at The Grand Ole Opry – something I have never done, and was so glad I got to. I don’t follow country music much, but that was the best live show I may have ever seen! The production was fabulous and for live sound, that is amazing.
We finished out on Saturday morning so everyone could get home to their respective churches (many of us are also worship leaders and pastors) and Donna and I were both so sorry to leave! We even got to hang out with another World Vision couple from California in the airport while we all waited for our planes – felt like we’d all been to summer camp together. Now I’m fired up more than ever about getting kids sponsored! Let me know if you want to help me – it’s amazing what they can do!