What I've been learning from the Lord lately

I got up early and reflected today over my Bible Study's verses this week.  I really felt connection with the Lord and I feel like he's answering my prayer to grow my affection for Him.  This verse came to my mind as I was praying:

Philippians 2:14-18

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁴ Do all things without complaining and disputing, ¹⁵ that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, ¹⁶ holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.¹⁷ Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. ¹⁸ For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.

Strangely enough, I was convicted over verse 17...being willing to be "poured out" without expecting anything in return.  I will have to mull and pray over that verse.  That picture should directly affect how I approach work each day and when we travel. I want my purest motivation for working and pursuing concerts to be that people will be able to hear the good news and lives will be changed.  We've already seen that happening with multiple people surrendering their lives to Christ this year, I'm excited!  

I do thank the Lord that we are getting to experience his literal provision each month.  I know our faith wouldn't be tested in that area or strengthened if we both had traditional jobs.  I can view it as a blessing that God gets to teach us first hand about providing work each month for us to complete.

April in Overall Review

Things are going well.  All our concerts this past month were at the end so we tightened our belts and tried to eat cheaply until our concerts arrived!  We went to all new places and it was incredible the response that Blake received and the response the people made towards the Lord.  Underestimating, we counted at least 3 salvations this month.  I say underestimating because I think more decisions to accept the Lord were made, but at this one particular gospel-sing, there was not a minister present to receive the people who wanted to make decisions.  Blake led the people who raised their hands in the plan of salvation and encouraged them to tell someone immediately and come back to that particular church on Sunday.  We also had the privilege of leading a revival in Carnegie OK this month.  I think we left as encouraged as the people we ministered to were!  Blake got to even share a small children's concert and 109 children from grades 1-5 were present as he sang songs like I Go to the Rock, I Catch 'Em and Moses.  They were GLUED as he sang Moses.  Between each song Blake shared a moment of Truth from God's word and really tried to make each song a visual example of a memory the kids could take with them.  After he sang, the church workers (without our knowing it) had the kids write us thank you notes for singing to them.  We have a whole sack full of thank you notes!  We went through them and were so blessed to see the children had illustrated their notes with items from the songs he sang about---there were a lot of fish drawn, rocks, stick figures singing in a microphone, and snakes from Blake's Moses song.  One girl wrote that because Blake sang and told her about how each person is given a special talent/gift by God that she feels so special now and she didn't feel special before.  We were really blessed by those kids.  Here's a video of them clapping while Blake sang:

Another neat thing we were exposed to is a ministry from Alaska who spoke a day we sang in Branson, Mo.  A lady named Brenda Crim, who has been with the NAMB until just recently because the NAMB made some cuts, spoke about her incredibly difficult ministry in Alaska and how most of the natives are incredibly prejudiced toward White people.  She explained about the astronomical rate of incest, rape, and suicide Alaskan natives battle.  Her ministry is reaching out to them and breaking down racial barriers so she can provide grief counseling and eventually sharing the gospel one by one with them.  She is an incredibly motivated and busy lady!  Our hearts went out to her mission and here is her information: http://akmissions.webs.com/staff.htm  She has no official funding no except for individual donations I believe.

I need to get back to booking, so I hope to document later some of the beautiful experiences we had in the past couple weeks.

Gospel Log March 2012

I have such a bad memory that the recording of important events along the way is going to be "a must" for me.  I can easily remember what time my doctor's appointment next week, exactly where Blake placed his keys, and even the exact email address of a random pastor in Roanoke TX...but I can't remember life events as they come and go.  Special words and stories will be lost for all time if I don't record them.  So here is my attempt to start logging our lives as "Gospel Singers".  If only just for myself.  Since I am sure to forget it by tomorrow.

This month we traveled to churches we have been to before, and some we have not.  This month (March 2012) is a miracle month.  In January, I had not a single event scheduled and we braced ourselves for the impending 31 days of being "sticks in the mud", saying no to hanging out with friends, and eating popcorn for dinner.  But low and behold, 6 events ended up being scheduled for which I can take no credit.  The Lord provided and we were able to pay our necessary bills and even have frivolous fun.  *Gasp!*  This month was a month of sticky situations and unexpected blessings; words of gold and words of great discouragement; feelings of warmth toward children...and feelings of horror!

I will try to keep my recaps as anonymous as possible.  Who knows who will ever discover my little writing pad here.  I have to say, we have been mightily sheltered from the strangeness that populate the Gospel circuit.  Just the other day I saw on Facebook a fellow soloist to his "stalker".  I giggled as I read his post:

Things have been much better with my "stalker" this month. But today, she sent me an email with an attachment about Inflammatory Bowel Disease. "Because you travel so much.... Please take good care of yourself." How thoughtful.

This is especially entertaining to me as we continue to travel and have repeat events.  We will have people come up to us who apparently follow us online and will comment about what we had for dinner two nights previous...it's pretty disconcerting until you realize they only know this since you, yourself, have divulged it. 

Now, for some stories.  The beginning of this month began with a big event: Blake sang with Greater Vision and the Mark Trammell Quartet in Decatur TX!  He was just an opener, but it proved to be a wonderful opportunity.  He gained many fans and also the respect from these groups as a valid performer.  He sang flawlessly and delivered with sincerity and anointing.  One friend, D, from the MTQ did comment though that he was frightened when Blake began to sing "Moses".  As any singer should be when they see another stand full front, grab the microphone and hiss "Oh Mosessssss..." as their opening line.

But some wonderful things that happened this month were the kind words from the original tenor of The Kingsman, Johnny Parrack.  He attended our concert in Van Buren at his home church.  He and his wife after the concert told Blake, looking back over their years of travel and children and singing, that it was "all worth it, every bit of it."  To hear a wife say that after living the "gospel singer wife life" was priceless for me.  That was really neat.  Especially when we are often told we must give up our itinerant lifestyle if/when we decide to have children.  I can easily get caught up in the fact we can't put away as much savings as we'd like and that we can't contribute regularly to a 401k or the like...it can be daunting to look at the future.  But her comment reminds me that the Lord's work is sweet and we are to do what He's told us to do.  Right now, He's told us to travel and sing full time.  Who knows how long it will last, but while it does I will be grateful that we get to do something we love.

I still have to document one event, the jewel of March, our spur of the moment, unadvertised and greatly regretful gospel sing I committed Blake to be a part of.  But, that hopefully will be tomorrow.  I'm sleepy and Jay Leno is calling my name.  And the cats are wrestling in the back bedroom.

But one picture:

This was handed to us right before Blake sang at FBC Jolly TX, drawn by the Pastor's granddaughter I believe.  Note that Blake is the one with the flowing locks of curls.