ARCHIVE GALLERY
January 2010
January 31, 2010
For those of you that read our journal, you know that we haven't put an entry in for quite some time. For that we truly apologize. We know that a lot of you that stay connected with us by reading our journal pray for us on a consistent basis, and we are appreciative!
We left Michigan on January 15th and we had lots of work ahead of us before our first concert in Cincinnati, Ohio. As many of you know, we had very cold temperatures in Michigan in late December and early January. We had to completely move out of the house we were using as well as get the RV ready for our next three and a half month tour. That consisted of putting all our Christmas things away as well as making a couple trips to our storage unit, which was 45 minutes away. We were praying earnestly that God would provide us with a day or two of mild weather when we finally packed up the RV and started heading south. Although many of the days leading up to that week were closer to zero degrees, God provided us with a sunny 35 degree day when we packed up and left.
Our first stop was to Columbus, Ohio to visit Randy's brother and his family to celebrate Christmas together. Even though we celebrated Christmas a couple weeks late, at that point a lot of the pressure was off and we truly enjoyed one another as we opened gifts and shared a great meal together. The next morning we were on our way to Cincinnati, Ohio to sing at Christ Community Church pastored by George Hart. We had led worship at a conference in the Cincinnati area a couple years ago and got to know a lot of their wonderful people at that time. We had an awesome time of worship that morning and two men stood to their feet to accept Jesus as their Savior for the first time. What a wonderful way to start off our new concert year.
The next morning we started to make our slow trek to Greenville, Texas. The Crossroads Church in Greenville, pastored by Larry Allgood, offered their furnished apartment to us for a couple of days. That proved to be a great time of rest and fellowship with Pastor Larry and his wife Barbara. We also made some necessary repairs to the toilet and water-damaged floor that could not go another day. Even though, just a couple days earlier, the weather was a cold forty degrees and rainy, Greenville welcomed us with sunny seventy degrees.
Our next stop was Arlington, Texas, where we were scheduled for the Sunday morning concert at Arlington First Church of The Nazarene. This is a wonderful church that we've sung at many times and where we have dear friends. The concert again went very well and people were challenged to trust God in fresh ways even though the future is uncertain.
The day before this concert we'd gotten the call from our CD company, which was just nine miles away from the church, to come and pick up our new CD which is called Rain. We of course had planned this out, but you never know what type of scheduling changes might happen, so we were at their mercy. The timing proved to be absolutely perfect! We are very pleased how the songs turned out, and we are thrilled how God is already using the songs in people's lives. Our goal was to write songs of intimacy to God that people could use as tools for worship. We have already received requests from people to obtain the chord charts to these songs so that they could sing them at home and with their worship teams at church. What an honor.
We chose to take the next day just to do laundry and to have a good day of homeschooling. Randy was also able to watch the football playoffs Sunday afternoon and evening on a TV at the church. What a blessing! We started out early Tuesday morning for that long West-Texas stretch of road. Many people don't realize that from Arlington, which is the center of Texas, to El Paso, which is the western edge of Texas, still takes about nine hours to drive. So, El Paso would be our goal to stop and sleep that night. We ended up sleeping at a Wal-Mart just across the border into New Mexico. The kids didn't wake up until a couple hours after I had started out early Wednesday morning. Their first words were, “Dad, are we out of Texas yet?”
That night we traveled through Tucson, Arizona and stayed the night in the south part of Chandler. That next day we simply had to drive the last forty minutes to the Family Life Assembly of God Church where we will spend the night in their parking lot for the next three weeks. Our first concert in Arizona was at the Family Life Church this morning. Like many churches, Family Life has gone through some tough times economically. They have lost some of their families and they have lost a big part of their consistent giving. We felt that God used our songs and our words to encourage them to stay faithful and be confident of better days in the near future. The people, in turn, encouraged us with their words, fellowship and a generous love offering. Please keep this dear church family in your prayers.
Well, that's our trip out west in a nutshell. And other than needing to purchase $1200 worth of tires in Dallas, the trip went very smooth. We thank God for His safety on the roads and for His provision. We look forward to the next couple weeks of ministry here in Arizona before heading back to the Dallas area for another three weeks of concerts. Thank you so much for reading, and thank you so much for your prayers. God bless!