October 19, 2006

Meet Me In St. Louis!





I want to thank ya'll for praying and to give you all an update on the progress of the CD. Well, first of all, thank you so much for praying for my throat. The day we flew out, my throat hurt so bad to talk or to swallow. I was very concerned. But I had a strange peace and a determination to sing anyway- the enemy was not going to shut me up! Kent Henry met us at the airport and we were thinking we'd check into our hotel and relax (I'd been up since 4:00). Well, that was not to be! He took us straight to the studio to begin recording right away. It was an interesting process to watch. Everything is done on a computer program. Cool stuff. Stacey was the first in "the booth". After Stacey sang her song, he took us to dinner and then as we were being dropped off at the hotel (we were so glad to see that hotel- we were exhausted!) he said, "Kayla, you and Stephanie are coming back to the studio with me." Seriously? Well, we went. I grabbed my teabags and threw on a sweatshirt (it was FREEZING!) and off we went. Steph went first since I was busy making tea and it turned out that it was so late by the time he finished with Steph (after 11:00) it was time to go to the hotel. But the next day I was put in the booth (fun!) and my voice was FINE! I was so thankful. It would NOT have been fine had I sung Thursday night when I was scheduled. Whew! Thank You Lord! My voice was totally strong and clear the entire time. I did notice on the plane ride home that it began hurting again! haha. I didn't care at that point!

We had a blast! So much fun and laughter. We went to Destiny Church which is Kent's church (he's one of the worship leaders and his son-in-law Jim Stern is pastor) on Saturday night. What a great church! Dynamic worship and a very friendly congregation. (We especially enjoyed the Starbucks coffee bar in the foyer! ;^).

Kent did amazing things with our songs. Those of you who were at the live recording will be surprised when you hear it. He got creative with our songs (This was the source of much of our amusement! Kent's a character to say the least! And some of the things he comes up with... Mercy!) He made a lot of changes. Although we were usually a bit skeptical at first, once we heard it, we were blown away! He truly knows what he's doing! We all came back encouraged and blessed. My son Max was a particular revelation. My goodness. He was so at home in the studio. There was hardly a dry eye in the studio when he did a duet with Mary on "Yearn". Their vocals together were unbelievable! Kent has now claimed Max for his Revolution School :^)! Yes, Mom was proud!

A perfect end to an exciting weekend--On our way home, in the St. Louis airport, as we were in a gift shop buying souvenirs, we saw Joni Eareckson Tada! (For those of you of my generation, you will know who she is! If not visit her website at
http://www.joniandfriends.org/.) She was very gracious and let us take a picture with her. She asked what type of music we sang and we told her worship music. She said she'd been singing "In Christ Alone" and wondered if we'd sing it with her. So right there in the St. Louis airport we sang "In Christ Alone". It was beautiful, if I do say so myself :^). What a blessing and honor to meet her! How kind and thoughtful of the Lord to do this for us! We were all thrilled!

In closing--Please continue to pray for this project to it's completion. There's so much more to making a CD than I ever realized. You'd think that it'd be done right? Wrong! There's still a lot of work to be done, on the technical side and still some creative decisions to be made. There's also some doubt that it will be finished before Christmas. Please pray for Kent. He's been such a tremendous blessing to give us this opportunity. Pray that he'll be led by the Spirit as he completes this CD for us, and that (if it's God's will) it will be ready by Christmas. We just want this CD to fulfill the Lord's purpose, not ours. We want people to be touched by the presence of God as they hear it. That is our desire. Thanks to you all for your prayers. And we ask that you continue to pray for us.

I am including some photos of our time in St. Louis. First one is me and Kent listening to one of my songs after I'd been "in the booth". Second is Max "in the booth". Third is us with Joni Eareckson Tada in the airport!

God bless. Kayla

October 11, 2006

Will We Trust Him?






Kind of puts things in perspective doesn't it? How unbelievably, incredibly, indescribly GREAT is our God! And how amazingly GREAT is His love for us! So why won't we trust Him? Why do we fret and worry and rely on our puny little created selves when we have the Creator as our Father! Do we think He is unable? Or do we think He is unwilling? He is neither. David said in Psalms 62-
"11 One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that You, O God, are strong,
12 and that You, O Lord, are loving. Surely You will reward each person according to what he has done."
We cannot worry and trust at the same time!
Father, we choose to trust in You God. We choose to not rely on man or ourselves or our circumstances. We choose to not worry. We will trust in You. You are awesome and frightening, yet You are loving and good. And we are Yours! Yippee!
Be blessed! Kayla