Calling upon the Lord for courage, I stepped out of my comfort zone again when the opportunity opened up to book monthly concerts for the church we were attending. Contacting groups and asking them to come to a little church that could only afford to pay them a small love offering was definitely not a comfortable experience for me, but I did it for years to serve this church and because it gave me direct contact with local, regional, national and international groups. I developed more contacts in this way. When opportunities were available to billet any of these groups, my husband and I opened up our homes to them. Having strangers in my home pushes the edge of the envelope for me, but asking the Lord to give me the gift of hospitality, I did it.
This helped build further relationships with groups. For the most part it was a wonderful experience.
I enjoyed after-breakfast chats with groups about the music industry and even received a tip about a lady who could do wonderful tracks at reasonable prices. She is still doing tracks for our songs to this day.
In honesty, I have to say that not all of my experiences billeting artists were positive. There was one artist who retired to bed early and left us at the mercy of their manager, who spent the entire evening trying to find ways to get even more financial support from us for that ministry. I felt very used when they left. Overall, in this area, the positive far out-weighed the bad.
While responsible for the monthly concert series at that church, I also began an annual concert patterned after the popular Gaither Homecoming series. I invited local artists to participate, contributing a song or two of their own, while my husband and I selected some Southern Gospel songs for us to learn and sing as a group. I did all of the organizing and left the leading of the music to Paul. As well as being a wonderful evening of singing praises to the Lord, this helped us get to know the local artist a little better.
I’m not a sales person. This is very difficult and uncomfortable for me but, if you believe in what you are doing for the Lord, it has to be done. As well as organizing concerts and billeting artists, my husband and I travel to any concerts we hear of within our range. At them, I push aside my shyness and talk with artists and hand them demos. Every few years we are able to go to the National Quartet Convention, and though I would prefer to be sitting the entire time in audiences enjoying the wonderful gospel music, we spend a large amount of our time there in the exhibit hall, introducing ourselves to artists, chatting with those we already know, building connections and handing out demos.
A few years after I began writing gospel songs, a different opportunity presented itself. Paul and I sing as Through His Grace. We were invited to sing at a large event called “Gospel Fest by the Sea.” It meant travelling to an area a distance away where we knew no one. While speaking with the organizer on the phone, I asked, “Will there be a song writers’ circle?” because I was anxious to attend one and learn from it. She answered excitedly, “Oh, that’s a wonderful idea! I’ll organize one and you can lead it!” Since I had never even attended a song writers’ circle, gospel or otherwise, my first impulse was to say, “No!” Here was that comfort zone thing again. I swallowed my fear, pushed my trust in the Lord to the forefront and said, “Sure.” We spent a wonderful afternoon with an audience and a circle of writers learning from each others’ work and experiences.
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