Beautiful Interpretation May 22, 2008

Here is my entry for Creative Chaos over at Carlos’ blog.

Imagine you are deaf. Now imagine that the first sound you ever hear is the Lord, Creator of all things, saying “Depart from me. I did not know you.”

For Amy Ballard, that thought is what drives her commitment as sign language interpreter. Every week at Heart of Worship, during the 11:00 service, Amy is on the platform at HOW, interpreting the music service. Soon, she will be interpreting the message as well. So if you are hearing impaired and looking for a church in Central Louisiana, we invite you to visit us at HOW!

Amy is also planning to offer a sign language class at HOW, starting very soon. This is an invaluable service that will touch many lives. I will absolutely attend that class! I cannot sign and this limits my opportunities to make new friends. And y’all know how much I love to meet new people!

One thing that has surprised me is how beautiful sign language is. I was excited about offering this ministry at HOW, but never expected it to be a creative element that would add so much to the music. This week, when we sang “How He Loves,” I was astounded by how beautiful the sign interpretation was. Just beautiful!

I am convinced that this ministry is going to reach people that we couldn’t reach before. For the deaf community in CenLa, they are very limited in their options on where to attend church services. To my knowlege, there are no other churches in Pineville that have this ministry. So if you know anyone who is hearing impaired, please invite them to HOW.

Also, if you sign and want to join us in this ministry, please let me know! My contact information is on the back of every church bulletin (Worship Leader, Becky Adams), or you can leave a comment here and I’ll get in touch with you.

Please Pray Now May 21, 2008

Just saw this on Los’ blog….

Stephen Curtis Chapman’s youngest daughter died tonight in a tragic accident in their driveway.

Please pray right now for Stephen Curtis Chapman’s family. Please continue to pray for them as they grieve their beautiful girl.

My heart groans for them. I just cannot imagine losing one of my children.

When Dads Watch Kids May 21, 2008

This is what I found when I walked outside.

Rodney still doesn’t understand why I was so upset. Are you kidding me?!

It’s Home to Me May 20, 2008

Los posted something this afternoon on his blog that reminded me of why I love my home.

I live in Louisiana. Big deal, right? Well, yeah, to me it is a big deal.

I grew up here in CenLa (Central Louisiana) and spent years dreaming of how much better my life would be if I could just get out of here. And then I moved…first moved to Texas and then Oklahoma. I was gone for more years than I care to remember. Both places were ok, but they weren’t home. I always felt like I didn’t belong, like I just didn’t fit there. Not that I didn’t “fit in.” I just didn’t fit.

I said if I ever got back home, I was going to nail my feet to the ground.

So now I’m back home, have been for a few years, and it still feels good. I’m back in my element, among my people, where I belong. But for your amusement, here are ten things I noticed while I was gone:

1. Moss doesn’t grow on trees everywhere else. Seriously. I never knew that.
2. “Fixing to” means nothing elsewhere. Here it means “getting ready to.” Duh.
3. “Coke” is not a generic term for all soft drinks. Yeah, that one surprised me. Here’s how the conversation goes: ME: You wanna coke? THEM: Sure. ME: What kind? THEM: *blank stare* ME: What kind of coke do you want? I have Dr. Pepper, Diet Coke, Sprite, etc. THEM: But you asked if I wanted a Coke. ….. you get the idea.
4. People think we have to sweep the gators off our front porch before we can jump in our air boat to go to work. You think I’m kidding? Sadly, I’m not.
5. “Oil” is pronounced with more than one syllable everywhere except Louisiana, apparently.
6. People constantly ask you to talk. Here’s how that one goes: THEM: Say something. ME: Huh? THEM: Just say something. ME: What do you want me to say? THEM: Anything. I just want to hear you talk. ….. huh?
7. People don’t want you to tell where you’re from….they want to guess. My favorite guesses were Australia and Jamaica.
8. My hair isn’t naturally frizzy. As it turns out, it’s just really humid here.
9. It’s easier to breathe in the summertime when you’re above sea level. That was one of my favorite things about OKC.
10. People don’t look you in the eye. In fact, it seems like they’ll do almost anything to avoid looking you in the eye. Here, you’re mamma would slap the fool out of you if you didn’t acknowlege someone passing you on the street…whether you knew them or not.

Poor Rodney went into complete culture shock when we first moved here. He was amazed that the pine trees were so big you couldn’t wrap your arms around them. He said he’d never seen them so tall either. He’d never heard an authentic Cajun accent before. He’d never been to Mardi Gras. He’d never seen an alligator outside of a zoo and he’d certainly never seen them so big. And he’d never seen so many people be so nice all the time.

That’s one thing about the deep South, people sure can be respectful. I remember having to politely ask people in other states not to tell my children “Don’t call me ma’am.” It’s just good manners for them to do that. Even as little babies, we’re taught to say “ma’am and sir.” And gentility (is that even a word?) counts for a lot down here. I was often asked, when we lived away, how I got my children to be so polite. The answer was simple….I expected it of them. And there really was no avoiding it since every kid in the South is expected to behave that way. It’s easy to be polite when everybody else is too.

I know I’m rambling. Actually, I could go on all day about this subject. But I should probably stop. Thanks for listening to my random thoughts.

Worship Confessional – How He Loves May 18, 2008

Wow!!!!! I just got home from church and WOW!!! Yeah, I know I already said that, but WOW!!!! If you were there this morning, you know what I mean.

It all started before walking into the building. The door facings have been painted black, which really gives them a totally different look. That project actually took all week. Who knew painting door facings was such a big job? I certainly didn’t. Also, the windows have been tinted and they look really great.

And then, when you walked in, you entered a whole new world. The entire foyer was decorated like we were all on vacation. It was so incredibly cool. From the banner to the t-shirts, the purser’s desk to the mural, it was all very tropical. SO cool! Oh, and the “Are You Ready?” bulletin board was something I got to help with. Fun!

For those who don’t know, we’re going to be going on a “Journey of Change” very soon. That’s what all the new decor was for today.

And then church started.

The music was just plain fun today. I’ll go into that a bit more in a minute. Bro. Keith’s message was about something very close to my heart….reaching the lost. He’s using the fishing theme, which really resonates with our congregation. After all, Louisiana isn’t called “Sportsman’s Paradise” for nothing. The whole message spoke directly to my heart today. He even gave us homework. He encouraged us to write a “thank you” letter to the person who led us to the Lord. Why didn’t I ever think to do that?! I am totally doing that this week.

Okay, now on to the confessional……

Here’s our set list:
Let it Rise
Sing a Song
Come Thou Fount
How He Loves
No One Like You

And here’s who we had this morning:
Bryant on electric guitar & vocals
Zack on bass guitar
Adam (woohoo!) on acoustic guitar
Josh on drums
Jennifer & Shalyian on vocals
Ensemble on vocals

How fantastic was it to see Adam on acoustic guitar this morning?! He is so super talented and of course did a fantastic job. Adam, thank you so much for joining us. You are welcome back any time!

Another creative element added to our service this morning was sign language interpretation. We did that for one song last week, but this week Amy interpreted the entire music service at 11:00. I am convinced that this is something our community is in desperate need of and am so glad that Amy is ministering this way. Thank you, Amy!

In the 9:30 service, there was a horrible popping noise coming from somebody’s cable. I was convinced it was my mic cord, so I grabbed hold the cord to make it stop. I spent the entire service holding that cord and trying to stay still (I normally move around a lot). It wasn’t mine. It was the bass guitar’s chord. We ended up with no bass for the rest of the 9:30 service. Disappointing, but okay. Immediately after the service, our amazing media team fixed the problem and we were good to go for 11:00. Good thing, since we really needed that bass.

The first song was totally rockin’ and the congregation was all smiles. “Sing a Song” was a new one we introduced this week. Our congregation really seemed to like it and got involved with it. One of my favorite parts was when we sang accapella and could hear the congregation singing with us. Loved that!

For “Come Thou Fount,” we did the Gateway version which has the added chorus. Very moving.

And then we did our other new song, “How He Loves.” Ummm….WOW! If you’ve never heard this song before, go to my VodPod in the menu bar over there ——> and click the link for it. Fantastic song! So I wasn’t sure how our congregation would respond to it, because not only is it new, but it’s also very different from anything we’ve ever done before. At first, I thought I had scared them when we first went into the powerful chorus. lol But when I sang “I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way….” that’s when I knew for sure that they were worshiping. That one line resonated so deep with the congregation. It was an awesome sight the way they responded.

For my worship leader friends who read this blog, here’s how we did “How He Loves.” We actually did it almost exactly the same as the original version with only two changes. We dropped the “sloppy wet kiss” for “Heaven meets earth like no words can express.” Thank you, Fred McKinnon , for that idea! We also ended the song with the pre-chorus. That made for a smoother transition.

Then we closed with “No One Like You.” This is a happy, exciting song that makes you want to jump out of your seat to praise Him. Our congregation always has big, happy smiles when they sing that song. I love it!

So that’s about it. Overall, we just rocked out and worshiped like crazy this morning!

I realize this was incredibly long post, so thanks for sticking around to read it all.

Worship Confessional May 17, 2008

I just got home from worship team practice. All I can say is….you better get ready! Tomorrow is going to be an incredible time of worship at HOW.

Fun news! We have a guest guitarist who is super talented…and a familiar face that y’all will be thrilled to see again. So y’all be sure to give him some love tomorrow.

All our musicians and vocalists really “brought it” to practice today. We were all looking at each other with big, stupid smiles because it’s sounds so good. And the set list is a ton of fun.

You know, I love being part of the creative process, building a set list that really creates an atmosphere for worship. A lot of prayer, time, effort & love went into the service this week (from all departments) and I am thrilled to begin seeing it all come together. So, as Bro. Keith says, you better “strap on your spiritual seatbelts” ’cause we’re going on a journey tomorrow! I can hardly wait to worship with all of you!

Worst Album Cover Ever May 15, 2008

Found this at Steve Carter’s site.

There are no words.

Extreme Makeover – Church Edition May 15, 2008

So here’s my entry for this week’s Creative Chaos over at Carlos’ blog.

Remember earlier in the week I told you about our extreme church makeover? Well, I’m back with pics!

This is what the congregation saw last week as they entered the church….


So that was last week.

Here’s what they saw this week…..

What’s impressive about this…..

* It’s more our “style.”
* Every single bit of the work was done by skilled members of our church.
* This was all done in one week!

What you can’t tell….the silver on the middle of the walls has lighting behind it. It’s just hard to tell in these pics. Also, I couldn’t get a shot of the entire stage, but it’s pretty big. Finally, the screens are missing. We’ve ordered new, larger screens and they’re not hung yet.

There are still a few changes to come, but this was so major that everyone was shocked and thrilled.

And now just for fun…..

My groupies. They follow me everywhere.

Change Lives Today! May 14, 2008

I just found a revolutionary new way to change lives.  It’s called Kiva.  This is from their website:

1) Lenders like you browse profiles of entrepreneurs in need, and choose someone to lend to. When they lend, using PayPal or their credit cards, Kiva collects the funds and then passes them along to one of our microfinance partners worldwide.

2) Kiva’s microfinance partners distribute the loan funds to the selected entrepreneur. Often, our partners also provide training and other assistance to maximize the entrepreneur’s chances of success.

3) Over time, the entrepreneur repays their loan. Repayment and other updates are posted on Kiva and emailed to lenders who wish to receive them.

4) When lenders get their money back, they can re-lend to someone else in need, donate their funds to Kiva (to cover operational expenses), or withdraw their funds.

I’m really impressed by this for a lot of reasons.  These are my top two:

*  I can make an immediate investment in someone’s life.

*  It’s the gift that keeps on giving.  Once the loan is repaid, I can re-invest that money into someone else’s life.

I’m doing my best to get a link added into my sidebar over there —–> but until then, click here to go to Kiva’s website.  Check it out!

Better yet, make a loan! You can lend as little as $25. The one I chose is the Banda B7 B Group. They’re at only 56% funding for their loan and could really use your help! Click their name to lend them a hand.

Walking with a Limp May 13, 2008

I’m walking with a limp this week.  Not fun.

Monday afternoon, I was fussing at my little Jack (2yrs old) for taking a canvas folding chair out of the closet.  I was walking toward him, telling him to put it back, when he tossed it at my feet.  One foot hit the chair, the other foot landed in a flower pot.  I hit the floor doing the splits.  I hadn’t ever done the splits before that day.

It hurt like crazy.  I cried out in pain and Jack went running in the opposite direction.  I looked down at my left leg and discovered that it was turned funny.  I prayed, “Lord, please don’t let my leg be broken & heal it if it is.  I just don’t have time for a broken leg.”  How stupid is that?  lol

When I looked closer though, I saw that my leg was not broken.  Instead, my kneecap had been knocked out of place.  Ouch!  I was able to get it back in place and the pain eased up considerably. 

Jack must have thought it was safe then because he came over to me and said, “I sorry, Mommy.”  I knew I couldn’t get up off the floor yet, so I told him to go sit on the couch.  Can you believe he actually did?!  I was shocked!  I eventually got off the floor.

So today my leg is stiff, sore & swolen, but not broken.  Hopefully, the swelling will go down soon and I’ll lose the limp.  But hey, Jack’s being super sweet right now, so I’m grateful for that.