BST's Blog

This will be mostly a picture post from ZOE. Thanks to Scott who's on vacation, I have a computer to work on this week. (I'm preparing for our praise team retreat which is a week and a half away. (WHAT WAS I THINKING???!!!!!)

These will be in chronological order:



We were so blessed to have so much family here for the conference this year. Here's Sam enjoying time with MeMaw.




We're so blessed that Chris Lindsey is connected with ZOE. Chris works for Media Shout and always does our ZOE presentations. Chris is leaving Media Shout and heading to Rochester, MI to be the worship minister for the Rochester Church. Since that's Sheryl's old stomping grounds, we're thrilled for all of them.




The crowd gathers at the ZOE conference ready and eager to worship. It's one of the coolest weekends of our year. The sheer sound coming towards the stage is almost deafening. I mentioned Sunday morning that it was like leading wild horses. It's so energetic and fun!




My good buddy, John Chisum, was in concert Friday night. He also helped me do the Worship Leaders' track on Saturday. John is a gifted writer and travels with the Hosanna/ Integrity Worship conferences as a presenter. It was a blessing to have him with us!



It was so fun to have my best friend and his wife (Stephen and Stephanie Bailey) with us for the weekend. The girls were really excited to see them--but they would have preferred to have Rainey there. (Rainey and Maddie are only a few weeks apart in age.) Stephen has always been a brother to me. Sometimes we communicate telepathically. That's a really scary thing.




Another ACU roommate of ours, Craig Fisher, married up--waaaay up. Beth Ann Souder's dad, brother and nephew were all there this weekend. It was fun Having Scott, Sam and Gary. 3 generations of Souders! Hmm...we've never even had ONE Fisher. But, I'm not bitter.




Sam and Scott are great guys--you just tell by looking at them. It was a blessing to have them with us.




Baby Sam did great all weekend. True to form, he just went along for the ride. It was a blast being able to show him off! I couldn't wait for Stephen, Stephanie, Sally, Hainey, Amy--all our friends--- to see him.




Michael Card gave a concert on Saturday afternoon. It was fantastic. His songs were a perfect fit for our conference and theme. I had a good visit with him during lunch. We've been trying to connect with each other. I look forward to learning from him. He's a great teacher and thinker--not to mention a brilliant musician!



Peter Wilson sings with ZOE but he lives in Malibu, CA. We miss him when we're not together. Maddie and Ella love him. LOVE him. Maddie has had a crush on Peter for well over a year now. Poor girl, she can't even be normal around him. She turns dorky--like a 7th grader. Bless. She wouldn't even let him hold her for the picture.




It was fun having Jay Duty and his father, John, at the conference this year. Jay was my intern about 4 years ago. He's active in the children's ministry at the Farmer's Branch church in Dallas. He's a nut--can't you tell?




This was taken Sunday morning at Otter Creek. This is Peter with his amazing girlfriend, Lindsey. We all LOVE Lindsey. She's a part of our ZOE family. We love hanging with her in California, but it was nice having her at the Nashville conference this year. It just seemed right for her to be here.




It was fun having our extended ZOE family (they affectionately call themselves "Chloe") singing with us some this year. Sunday morning was such a blessing. All those energetic conference participants infused our assembly with joy and exuberance!




After church we had about 20 people at our house for lunch. Two life long friends were here this weekend. Hainey Price and Amy (Nichols) Boone. We all grew up together in Abilene and had a blast laughing again. Amy and I used to call each other and speak in weird Chinese languages back in junior high. We all grew up singing together too. Amy married Grant, son of Nick Boone and nephew of Pat. While he doesn't have the singing career Pat or Debbie have enjoyed, he wears some nifty white buckskin shoes like his Uncle Pat. We asked him to sing "You Light Up My Life" at the conference but he refused. Apparently the golf channel is more important than ZOE. Thanks, Grant. Next time we'll just have to resort to asking Joel Quile.



This is only a section of the people who were with us Sunday. Left to right as pictured: Stephanie Bailey, Ella, Sheryl, Julie Danley, Hainey Price, me, Katey Earles (doing a marvelous job of managing her crowd anxiety here, I must say!), Gina Lewis, and Amy Boone.

What a marvelous time of challenge and worship we shared together. There's much to blog about but it will have to wait until I can decompress a little.

Have a great Tuesday, blog land! (I tried publishing this once and lost everything. I'm still a Christian.)