Well, to provide an answer that gives any justice, there is no alternative to being completely transparent with you. It is not comfortable sharing the more vulnerable moments of life, but I’d rather do this than compromise sincere fellowship. Masks we sometimes wear restrict the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit … so I’m genuine… what you see is what you get. Come along with me on a journey… a journey whose course only God could have mastered.

A thought I journaled the evening of Aug 30: 
I feel as though the rim of my world has met with the rim of another whole world… and I lay hold of it for a brief moment in time.

Monday morning, August 30, 10 AM. I arrived at the studio, just prior to my producers and shortly after all the musicians. I entered through the back door and began cautiously surveying this new territory that would soon become very familiar. Slowly passing through the unoccupied control room, I headed down the hall to the room where all the participants were gabbing. I shyly entered the room hoping not to be noticed and found an inconspicuous place to "hold up the wall." It was sheer entertainment, as I observed these 5 men gabbing and joking around as though they were long-time friends. I was glad to see this natural camaraderie and giggled a little myself at their brotherly chiding. "I think this is going to be fun!" was my passing thought.

My comfort zone was suddenly jostled when one of the guys looked at me and said, "Are you the artist?"

"ARTIST?" I thought… I had to stop myself from looking over my shoulder to see who he was addressing. Me, an artist? Singer, I hope… but artist? What planet had I landed on?

Just about then, the producers, Toni & Vic Clay arrived, and needless to say, things began to roll. But not before we all assembled in a circle, held hands, and prayed. I thanked each of them in advance for the contribution they would be making to this calling God had given me. I told them that, considering all the prayer that had gone before this day, I felt they had each been hand-picked by God, and I was confident of the outcome. Then I led out in prayer for God’s hand to be all over our efforts… that many people would be restored to Him… and He be lifted up!

The objective of this day was to track each instrument for each song, which in layman’s terms means to record the music portion of the CD. Since I know many of you are as clueless as I was when I entered into this venture, I’ll describe the process as best as I can.

Each participant had their own room from which they would play (or in my case, sing). I’d like to introduce each of these phenomenally talented individuals. On Keyboards: Jason; Bass: Mark; Electric guitar: Danny; Acoustic guitar: Vic; Drums: Jerry; Sound Engineer: Randy.

We each had headsets so we could hear one another, and this was fed to the control room where each instrument was recorded on its own track of a 32-track tape. Prior to recording, we would all gather in the piano room where Toni passed out the song chart for a particular song. Each player reviewed his chart while Toni played on the piano and I sang. They would get the general feel of the song, and we would point out any ideas we had… then we disassembled to our designated rooms… and the playing began. Normally, they would tinker with it for 5-10 minutes… then we would begin recording. This was incredible to me! Free-form & fun-loving is the best way I can describe the format. Each player was allowed the opportunity to be creative in their efforts. It was exhiliarating to hear the songs come together!

I would go in my vocal room, put on my headset and just listen to the parts come together. This may not sound like much to be thrilled about, but for months I had been practicing these songs to a rough keyboard track… and it was a challenge sometimes to get excited about how they were going to sound. But now it was becoming REAL, and "Excited" doesn’t even describe how I felt.

I remember as we went through the first song – Father’s Party. I was in my own little room singing along with this newly birthed music… the excitement was overwhelming to me! I felt like I could jump right out of my skin. I just kept praising the Lord in between songs!! The vision He had given me so long ago was becoming reality before my very ears and eyes!! What a faithful God He is!!

That day will go down as one of the TOP 10 days of my life. The guys were so much fun to work with that it didn’t feel much like work at all… but we did work hard and had plenty of laughter to go with it. I even pulled out my mini-super-soaker and went a few rounds with them (my clients reading, know what this little squirt gun can do!!) They adopted me right into their musical family… each player -- encouraging, supportive, and treating me like I was someone special – I will never forget the love they gave me -- a true gift.

I had the opportunity to get to know each of them better when we went to lunch. I about choked on my salad when I learned of their accomplishments. The talent working for this project included players for Christian artists: Phil Keaggy, Twila Paris, Janet Paschal, Susan Ashton, Clay Cross… country artists: Alabama, Reba, Willie Nelson, Ronnie Millsap, Keith Whitley, George Strait, Steve Warner… the list goes on and on.

All I could think was, ‘Hello!!! What are these guys doing playing for little ole me… Miss Nobody?’

And that’s when God began to unravel a message to me… a message I hadn’t planned on… a tundra of self-debasing emotions I didn’t intend to meet on this "celebrative" journey.