FIVE-Oh! Birthday Jam

The 4 weeks of preparing for the event was fraught with illness, hardship and setbacks, and was an advanced lesson in character formation! For those who helped, it was very exciting to see what unusual windows were opened when many doors got shut. I'm still learning of setbacks: both video cameras from the 1st half did not work! I'd arranged for 2 so I'd have a back up!*

In the end we made great memories, and have encouraged and inspired each other to live generous lives submitted to God. As an entertainer and evangelist, I wish I could have filled the auditorium! As I reflect, probably the most lasting impact above the memories of what turned out to be a collaborative creative circus was the way God filled me with grace and peace to model an empowering leadership style with the 50 or so people involved. People are extremely generous and really shine when they are given a platform to serve in their area of passion.

So for those 50 or so who were involved as my "slaves" for the day, it was everything I'd hoped it would be.

In seeing who rallied for or attended the concert, it was a watershed event to help give direction for my future and where to focus my energy for ministry.

*We had setbacks too numerous to mention. But I'll share two: 

1. I sang for 7 hours last Saturday - 4 hours was rehearsal - and I started the afternoon with a red and raw throat. Due to illness and fatigue, I'd not been able to do much of any conditioning to prepare (much like running a 10K without any training and just looking over the map of the route). I knew going into the day that only by the power of God would I be able to physically make it thru the afternoon's rehearsal, let alone the "jam." What fun to walk through that day by faith feeling like I was walking on water!

2. At about 4PM it seemed like my imac computer crashed in that little room backstage. There were so many technical problems at home, i'd brought it in hoping that someone might be able to sort it out at church that afternoon while we rehearsed on stage. This apparent "crash" meant that 3 of the 4 songs with slides would have none, and dropping one of the songs (the one with a singer and a modern dance). The last option for retrieving his minus one, was on that computer. After even checking the fuse on my mac's power cord (it was fine) someone noticed a black power cord among the sound equipment. It worked on the imac and everything was retrieved and used for the concert.