October 20 – CCV Women’s Retreat

A Band Member's Perspective  (by Jay Horvath)

 Where was the band?? We were set up and ready to go!  Where were Tammy and Travis was the question!  But let's back up a few weeks first. . . .

 Tammy had taken on the task of providing the praise and worship for the CCV Women's Retreat.  I had never met Tammy before.  A mutual friend of ours, aware that Tammy was looking for Christian musicians with which to work, put us in contact with each other in August.    Tammy had laid the whole thing at the Lord's feet – from who would play, what songs we would play, and how it would all come together.  In our first couple of conversations I tried to extract from her exactly what she was looking for. She kept saying she was open and just leaving it to the guidance of the Lord.  This was my first look into the incredible walk of faith this woman has with the Lord. 

 Our first practice consisted of Tammy, her brother singing and playing guitar, and myself playing guitar and keyboard (but definitely not singing!).  At some point, talk began about trying to acquire some other musicians, but we weren't sure who or how.  Back to the Lord we went.  In the meantime, Tammy had to head back to Ohio for some engagements and would be unable to practice for at least a month.  We kept in contact through email bouncing ideas off each other.  It felt as though we were supposed to pick up some other musicians and God provided!  Here are some examples of how God came through for us…

• Jim Hurley, a sound man from Pure Heart, agreed to be our sound man. 
• One of the drummers at Pure Heart, Eddie Castillo,  had been suggested to me. When I called Eddie explaining to him our need for a drummer for a praise and worship event at another church, to my very pleasant surprise there was absolutely no hesitation on his part. He gave a very enthusiastic yes!  Awesome! 
• When I tried to recruit a young lady singer that I had played with in the past to add to our vocals, she wasn't able to do it because of other commitments, but about a week later her mother called me up and said that SHE sang and would love to do it if the position was still open.  God's hand was so in this because he gave to our worship team Nancy Barto, someone whom I had never heard sing before but did a fantastic job as vocalist.  Things were coming together! 
• All we needed was a bass player to complete the group.  Tammy finally made it back to Arizona - wanting to stay back east for her sister's child birth, but knowing she had commitments out here needing attention.  Shortly after she got back, she found herself at a church event sitting next to, you guessed it, a bass player. Her friend, Ken Hodges, was happy to join up, and our worship team was complete!  Isn’t God awesome???

 Now, we needed to get everyone together for a few practices!  We only had about 2 and a half weeks to put together our songs, learn them, and practice them. And it all came together so beautifully.  We were able to have about four or five practices, mostly in my living room, before the event.  But there was one more issue to tackle.  Tammy's friends, Toby and Jennifer, were getting married on Friday, the 20th.  Not only was Tammy invited to the wedding, and not only was she IN the wedding, she was also SINGING in the wedding.  This was a conflict because the leaders of the CCV Retreat had requested that we play a few songs on Friday evening as well as the main worship on Saturday morning.  Tammy was in a real fix.  Was the group strong enough to play without her, and possibly her brother, who was also attending the wedding?  For the two weeks prior to the CCV retreat, she was troubled about what to do.  She sought advice and prayed.  She could still make the wedding, sing, and then high-tail it to Prescott for the retreat, but she'd be missing out on the reception of her dear friends.  I believe the Lord spoke to her through the confirmation of her friends Toby and Jennifer. When told of her dilemma, they whole-heartedly told her to "Go! Help minister to people!"  I think this gave Tammy the peace she needed to partake in both activities that Friday. A huge thank you goes out to Toby and Jennifer for joyfully sacrificing their friend that night for the good of the Kingdom of God.   And a huge thank you goes to Tammy for her sacrifice of not attending a special wedding reception.

 So on Friday, I arrived at the Retreat at about 3pm with all the equipment and instruments.  Things went smoothly as far as setting everything up.  I wondered how Tammy was doing.  I wondered if the other musicians would run into traffic along the way. I wondered when exactly we would be expected to start playing. And would Tammy and Travis be there on time? 

 Yes things would once again fall together.  Three members of the team rolled in around 6pm.  The retreat got under way. Eight thirty rolled around. I was standing off to the side with Eddie, listening in on the speaker who was talking about things most likely NOT meant for male ears! Then about 9pm, Tammy and Travis arrived, with Nancy, whom they had picked up on the way in Phoenix.  Praise God for no traffic jams, working vehicles, and very understanding friends.  We took the stage about 9:30pm and led the group of close to 300 women through 5 songs of praise and worship.  The songs all went well.  The women were blessed by the music and we were blessed by the worship of the women.  We were so happy and honored that God allowed us to serve in this way, and that things went so smoothly. 

 After the short worship time, we were all on a high.  Just excited that things had worked out.  All the equipment functioned, the vocalists were right on, and the musicians were tight.  After a time of fellowship, everyone headed off to their cabins for some sleep. A special thank you goes out to the CCV leaders as we men found baskets of goodies in our cabins for munching purposes. Thank you CCV! 

 We had to be up and playing early in the morning and it was already past midnight by the time we all got to bed.  After killing a large looking spider above my bed, I tried to catch some zzzz’s.  But I didn’t sleep too well myself, still pretty keyed up from playing and looking forward to the morning.  I would find out the next day that no one on the team got good sleep that night! 

 The morning worship time also went smoothly.  We played about eight songs.  We were so blessed in the morning worship time, because the women were even louder than the previous evening.  Many in the back were standing on their chairs, hands raised to the sky, worshiping the Lord with all their might… their sound was one of angels singing.  It was a great thing to witness and be a part of.

 … and now for the rest of the story…

We were all done now, except for Tammy.  She was scheduled after lunch to give her testimony and sing some songs off of her CD.  I had never seen her do her testimony, nor heard her sing songs from her CD (to an accompaniment CD).  She asked me to take the video of her testimony because she was gonna try something a little different this time and wanted to be able to critique it later.  That’s right up my creative alley, so I said I’d be glad to. 

 Well, Tammy started out her testimony in a most definitely different way.  She had on some sort of outfit, very hard to describe!  She looked like someone from the Caribbean who had put on a raincoat.  Complete with dreadlocks, goofy glasses, a colorful hat, fake buck teeth, and a shiny long black coat.  Her character then proceeded to break out in a Caribbean type accent. I didn’t even recognize this woman.  At first it was fun and comical. There was audience interaction with the character, and the whole thing was “jammin’ mon”! But then her character talked about how she just didn’t fit in anywhere.  She tried all these different ways to carve out her identity, and was always let down. But after a while, the character realized that what she really needed was not hairdos, hats, and accents, but rather something much higher, something not of this earth. 

 At this point Tammy changed clothes right before our eyes – right into her business suit.  Right on stage. I still haven’t quite figured out how she pulled this off (no pun intended), but she did (the long raincoat helped quite a bit!)  Tammy was back to Tammy, and proceeded to explain how we can’t try to become someone else to fit in, that we have our own God-given identity.   She then started into her personal testimony that I hope all of you have seen or can see at some point.  I won’t write about it too much here because I couldn’t give it justice.  But it’s a neat story to listen to, how God took her from a lowly place in her life, surrounded her with loving and encouraging people, and proceeded to use her as a great witness through the years all over this globe.  At many points her testimony was very touching, causing this videographer’s eyepiece to mist up.  Intertwined with her testimony were several songs off her CD, which she worked in beautifully with her testimony.  I could see first hand how God was using her to touch the lives of these women.

 Her time of ministry lasted about an hour.  She was the last person on the docket, so at the close of her time, the retreat was over.  There was evidence that she touched many women, because she sold out of nearly all the CDs and tapes she had with her.  For a good half an hour after she was done speaking and singing, her table was surrounded by women wanting to speak with her or buy her music. 

 Tammy is truly a humble servant of God and I was honored to be part of a team with Tammy used by the Lord to help minister to the women of the CCV!

Tammy Campbell
20229 N. 67th Avenue
PMB 177, Suite C4
Glendale, Arizona  85308
Phone: 602/321.5497
tammy@tammycampbell.com