My Dear, Dear Siestas,
I am in the airplane on my way home from breathtaking New England with a whirlwind-week wrapped up in the Name of Jesus. He alone knows how much your prayers carried us. Never do I ever take intercession lightly. It takes time, concentration, and labor. I am humbly mindful that the requests we throw out to you here are added to a monumentally long list of your own. THANK YOU.

You’re already up to date on the first three days of our tour but I gave you my word I’d keep you up on the whole week. Praise His merciful, faithful Name, God was unsparing in His Presence among us in both Delaware and Connecticut. The arena on the campus where we met in Delaware was not only full to the brim with people but full of passion for the Lord Jesus. Their praise and worship rocked the whole house. I loved them to pieces and God granted us an altar time that night that I will never forget as long as I live. Our last night was in beautiful Hartford, Connecticut and I was deeply moved that God had us end this ten-year season of Living Proof Live in a church. That’s where we started these events, stayed for a long time, and where we will no-doubt (joyfully and obediently, I pray) return. Make no mistake. Every time we meet in an arena or civic center, we gather as His CHURCH and He graces it as such but it was wonderful to be back in a lovely sanctuary where God is praised week in and week out. We didn’t have to follow up something like ACDC if you get my drift. We also had a powerful altar time there last night and I can only imagine how God esteemed the many tears that stained the carpet.

After we concluded (late!) last night, LifeWay threw all us team members a surprise party. We had so much fun. Travis and I received three gifts that we will each treasure the rest of our sanguine lives. We were given framed maps of the United States will flag-pins in all 50 states identifying the city and the year we had the chance to serve there. I’ve got to preface the next gift we received with a story. Trav and I were saying at the party how much we wished we had a photo journey of the events in an album. We called over our dear Rich, our photographer extraordinaire, and asked him if he’d put together such a thing for us (as only he could do, creative as he is). We told him we didn’t even want a brother-in-law deal. We’d pay him full price for his labor. He promised he would. And fifteen minutes later he was called forward to do his part at our gathering and with tears in his eyes, he pulled two gorgeous, professionally crafted hard-back books out for us. The cover was a picture of one of the largest LPL events we’ve ever been charged by God to do. It was at Philips Arena (with CeCe!) in Atlanta, Georgia and the sight of that place filled to the brim is almost unbearable. The title beneath it is, “Living Proof Live: A Photographic History.” And, yes, by our very own LPL historian, Rich Kalonick. It is SLAYING. And, oh, Lord have mercy, the hair styles. And, if you don’t mind me saying (he will), not just mine. Trav’s hair has been through some seasons, too. But he is consistently the cutest thing for the whole ten years! I, on the other hand, have decided, big as it is, my hair looks better longer and blonder than shorter and darker. So deal with it. And, really, I should have gotten a nose job along the way. I used to want one but by the time I had the money to pay for it, I didn’t care anymore. As I look at the pictures, perhaps I should have cared more. (TEASING, GIRLS!) But that’s all beside the point. The point is, it captures a journey of God’s faithfulness amid frail but seeking people. I love every single page of it but my favorite parts of all are shots of the participants in varying states of praise and study, laughter and tears. Man, I am so blessed to be able to minister to women!! You just really get into it. AND, my other favorites are the group pictures of our entire team: tech guys, sound guys, light guys, graphics guys, event girls, Trav and the praise team, and, okay, yours truly. (When they’ve taken a picture without me, I always love to say, “I love it! But there’s something missing. I can’t quite put my finger on it.”) You cannot imagine the diversity of people and personality God has teamed-up at these events and we have grown into family. I am so thankful for them.

Our third gift was a blast-of-a-video compiled by our dear friend (and team member) Stephen Proctor. He’d compiled all sorts of greetings from team members and participants and a few special guests. Many of the shots were hilarious. I nearly died when it came to the part he shot of the team at an airport. He’d taken them into the nursing room (it was empty, praise You, Lord) to video them so it would be quieter. You can imagine most of them were too flustered with the environment to concentrate on their greetings. The video is complete with bloopers and you’d best run to the ladies’ room before you watch them. Other parts of the video made me do what I HATE to do in public: the ugly cry. Man, I hate that. Nobody looks cute doing that. The three gifts were the absolute best-possible ways to document and celebrate a decade of ministry. As LifeWay Vice President John Kramp so aptly put it, we don’t know where God will take us in the years to come – nor how! – but today we hold up a stone of Ebenezer and proclaim, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” He alone did it. He alone gets the glory. He alone decides where it goes from here. Not one of us would dare share one single success with Him. I’d be a wreck without Him.

I want to tell you one last thing I’m taking home with me from New England. My biggest loss – and it’s a BIG ONE – on the road is that I often don’t get to know any of the women personally. For this season of time, my one-on-one mentoring is done with serious concentration and calling toward my own daughters. They are the dearest ministry I have. Most of what I’m called to do otherwise this season is in a group setting. I’m so thankful for it and I can read a number of things from faces but I always wish I’d had the privilege of hearing their stories. One group of city coordinators sent me home this week with a very well-done photo album of their pictures, personal stories with Jesus, and their journeys over the last year as they worked toward their event. When I tell you I pored over it a little while ago on this plane ride and sobbed, I’m not exaggerating. It was as if we’d sat in a circle over a strong cup of fresh Starbucks and shared face-to-face. So many things struck me, some of which I’ve already written back in a letter to them, but one thing I feel compelled to share with you because I respect the same thing in so many of our bloggers. Many of them are living the Jesus-life faithfully OUTSIDE A SPOTLIGHT where they’d more often be affirmed and in the places where it counts more than anything. Where, as my people would say, the rubber meets the road. Right there in their communities, their school systems, amid hectic schedules of carpool and what on earth to cook for supper. Serving their churches, many of which are very small. Some of which lack a little spark. Many of them don’t have a sprawling LifeWay Christian Store near the neighborhood mall nor do they have a Christian concert every other weekend like we have in the Bible Belt.

One NE sister wrote me and said their beautiful city only has one Christian radio station and it’s mostly talk radio. Many of you could say the same thing. Numbers of you live in apathetic communities that just don’t give a rat’s tail about church or Christianity. Others live in very intellectual communities that look down on Christians like they’re ignorant and gullible. And yet there you are. Doing the thing. And doing it faithfully. Getting down on your knees at some point every day. Reading the Scriptures. Asking God to help you know Him. Living it out in your homes (is there any harder charge?) and in your work place and communities and finding yourselves wounded and wondering from time-to-time if God knows you’re alive. There is no such thing as serving in obscurity when you belong to Jesus. He is attentive to your labor. He is attentive to your CRY. IT MATTERS.

Sweet Thing, there is no one on Earth God notices more than you. He knows that the atmosphere He’s entrusted to you is not the easiest place on the planet to serve and, yet, day in and day out He sees you doing the thing. He knew you would. That’s why you’re there. He didn’t bother entrusting it to a light-weight. He knows you may go weeks between true soul-encouragements. Thank goodness we have the example of the man after God’s own heart, who, in 1 Samuel 30:6, was surrounded by bitter people who couldn’t see past their own problems to regard how he’d tried to help them. There, we’re told that David encouraged himself in the Lord. Yep, you can do that. When not one single soul bothers to encourage you, you can just go right to the Lord and encourage yourself. How ‘bout that? Speak to your own insides and say, “Why so downcast, oh, my soul? Why so disturbed within me. Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God!” As alone as you may feel, every time you praise Him, some ten-thousand angels jump in the chorus with you and your song becomes a symphony.

Stay faithful, Darling One. STAY FAITHFUL! Every ounce of your effort and every drop of sacrifice are poured like anointing oil on the feet of Jesus.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.” Psalm 32:8

Hey Siestas! God met with us in New Hampshire! He brought together three thousand people to the University in Durham to praise His Name and study 2 Corinthians 4. I could have stayed with them for a month, I loved them so much. I was so touched to get to the arena yesterday afternoon for sound check and prayer and find two college students, Heidi and Jessica, prayer walking the room, believing God to touch some of their classmates. We got to pray together for a few minutes and it meant the world to me. They are mighty young women of God and I was astounded by their commitment to Him on their campus.

Their prayers prepared a place, not only for students, but for the rest of us. Travis and the team led us with such power and grace before God’s Throne. The Lord led me to take a little more time to get to know the group in the beginning because He knew I was so sad to leave Vermont so quickly when I felt like we’d hardly had time to say hello. We’d looked forward to it for so long and it was over in a second it seemed. I pray God will let us return to that beautiful State some time. And maybe in October.

I only have two seconds because we had a late night (long altar time, praise You, Jesus) and an early morning. I have to be ready in 40 minutes to get in the van and head to New York City for our play-day. I’m sitting here in my jammies. Please pray for our safe travel today. Five hours to NYC and another three to Delaware. I will certainly have a few things to tell you about this play-day with my wild team when I’m able to get on-line next. Thank you so much for being part of our journey!

Pray for God to prepare a place for His Presence in Delaware! We can’t wait to meet our group!

Hey, Siestas! It’s nearly 10:00 PM Eastern time and I just got back to my hotel room. The group was wonderful. Thank you for praying! I wish so much I’d had more time to get to know them. I’m the slightest downcast because I threw too much into one night. I was really excited about the lesson but, as it turns out, it was better before I gave it. I hate when that happens. BUT, I love Jesus and I loved that gathering of people tonight in Burlington, Vermont, and I know He was there. I think I remedied the fact that we’d only be there for one session by doing three sessions of material in an hour and a half. Perhaps it was the time line I did from Genesis to Revelation that put us over the edge. Blast.

Still, God is faithful and His Word was spoken and He won’t let it return void. Keep praying for me! I need to adjust IMMEDIATELY to material that is suitable for one session and one setting. And pray for the precious people we will serve this week. We are so happy to be here!

I want to stop and pray for you right now, too.

My faithful Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth, Ruler of Land and Sea, I lift Your elect to You. I pray this week for You to grant them clarity in a very specific area where they are confused and not sure what to do next. As You said through Your prophet Ezekiel, You have put Your Spirit in them and You will MOVE them to follow Your will. Remind them that they are not stuck. Not without choices. Not without leadership. Whisper in each ear, “this is the way, walk ye in it.” Cause them – and me – to cease beating on doors that are closed and walk through the one that You Yourself left open even if it’s not our personal favorite Door #1. Bring confessions to their lips – and mine – of Your gracious providence and Your worthiness to be trusted and praised. Tend to their hearts. Where they feel battered and bruised but too busy to stop long enough to be healed, hem them in Your faithful hands, hold them still, and rejoice over them with singing. Tell them again how You love them. How You’ve called them. How You don’t make mistakes. Grant them – and me – spirits of wisdom and revelation that we may know You better and recognize You when we bump smack into Your Presence. And more than anything else, circumcise our hearts to love You and to love that frustrating person in our lives as we love ourselves. Teach us what the Apostle Paul meant when he told the Galatians that all that matters is faith expressing itself in love. We want to be Godly women, Lord. We cry out to You for help. We cry out to You for You.

In the saving, delivering, empowering Name of Jesus,
Amen

I’ll talk to you tomorrow, Siestas!

Hey Siestas! Well, I am absolutely beside myself. I just flew into Burlington, Vermont where we kick off our New England Living Proof Live Celebration Tour this very night. It’s a celebration because this week Travis, the praise team, the LifeWay event team and I finish off all fifty states with Living Proof Live events. Don’t get me wrong. We’re not finished…I hope. We’re just taking God up on a magnanimous opportunity to celebrate His faithfulness through 10 years of events together in 50 States. And then we’ll start over. He has taught us so much and changed our lives so ferociously that we’re nearly breathless with praise. I have made a lot of mistakes and misfired a whole lot of points in the last ten years – sometimes cried halfway home – but God has overruled my weaknesses with His power and faithfulness. He simply loves His own Word and doesn’t let it return to Him without effect. I love Him so.

This is the first time we’ve ever done a tour, moving from city to city without going home in between. I’ve always had babies to raise and kids to carpool and a husband that insisted on having a real wife, praise God. I still have the latter, thank goodness, but Keith couldn’t begrudge this opportunity for anything. When he dropped me off at the airport this morning he said, “Baby, this is big. 50 States. Go have a blast.” And that’s exactly what I’m planning to do.

Our first stop is here in Burlington and let me tell you, Vermont was a SPECTACLE from the air. I do mean A STINKING SPECTACLE!! I have never seen a more shameless Autumn in all my life. This from a girl who has seen some beautiful Falls. October has never been wasted on me. I was raised in the beautiful hills of Arkansas and have been to the Tetons at the peak of the Aspen-yellows countless times. And still, I’m going to tell you, I’ve never seen anything like the colors I saw from the air before we landed. I was dumbstruck. I had to talk about it obsessively to the men who handled the bags, asking what trees are what colors. They humored me. In fact, they kind of blew up like a toad about it. Proud as could be. And should’ve been. Then, my first stop after the airport was the local Starbucks, of course, and I wanted to talk to the Barista about it but he didn’t want to talk to me. Sometimes you can just tell. Dad blast. I just realized I let my cappuccino get cold. What a waste. So glad I didn’t get an extra shot.

I just got word that we’re expecting 1975 women tonight and I can’t wait to get my hands on them. I will teach four evenings out of five this week and I will try my hardest to journal something every day or most days as I go. It will have to be short because we will be on the move. We will be in New Hampshire (expecting 2977) tomorrow night, we’ll take a day off in NYC Wednesday (Lord, have mercy), be in Delaware Thursday night (expecting 3959! Way to go, Delaware!!) and end the tour in Connecticut where we’ll kick up our heels with 3000.

If I’ve heard God correctly, I am speaking out of 2 Corinthians all week. A portion of ch.3 tonight, then a portion of ch.4 tomorrow night, a portion of ch.5 Thursday night and a portion of ch.6 on the last night. So get busy and pray, why don’t you. I’m calling the theme for the week “That Ever-Increasing, All-Surpassing Thing Called Glory.” I’m hoping to form a 4-part series out of this week’s tour because I’m usually not a big fan of one-night speaking stands. I’d rather spend some longer hours with a group and see if God will take us from Point A to Point B like we get to do a bit more effectively at the regular events. Since we only have one opportunity with each of these wonderful groups, each night’s message is meant to stand by itself but then all fit together to form one cohesive series, I HOPE. God willing. Self crucified.

I’ve told you before that I deal without a lot of fear and anxiety but one thing compels me to do this way-out-there (for me, anyway) thing. I’d rather jump into Scripture and seek the face of Jesus with a group of women than take my next breath. His words are spirit and life.

Now you’ve gone and done it. You’ve let my clam chowder get cold. Oh, I don’t even care. But I do have to get off of here because I got to town much later than I usually do and I haven’t unpacked my Velcro rollers. They’re probably flat by now. I’ll gladly lay down my supper for you but I will NOT lay down my hair for you. Unless I have to. Don’t make me have to. I love you but my love does have limits.

Amanda, Melissa, and I are so honored to be your servants, Siestas. Thank you for allowing us to take this journey of faith with you. I’ll hopefully touch base with you tomorrow! If I don’t, you’ll know to pray for me all the harder because that will mean I’m in a tailspin.

I surely do love you.