About a year ago Jason went to a conference in Kansas City where he met David M. Edwards, a worship leader and accomplished musician among many other talents. A couple of days before the conference, Jason had read one of David's devotionals on worship and when he got to the conference, noticed that one of the sessions was exactly the same topic as the devotional he had read--and David was teaching it. So he went to that session. Afterwords, Jason thanked David and let him know how God had spoke to him through the message he shared in the session. They talked there a few minutes and have stayed in touch ever since. Can I take a break and say that is just completely God! Several people talk to the people who lead classes at conferences and the leaders are not just leading one or two classes; it is more like 7-10. The fact that David remembered Jason and they stayed in touch is nothing other than God opening doors...Amazing...but it gets better! In the course of a later phone conversation about songwriting, David tells Jason "send me some of your songs sometime." Big mistake!!
A couple of months ago Jason did just that. He was working on a new song, got a somewhat finalized version of it (if you know Jason then you know he will never have a finalized version, he is his toughest critic) and sent it to David and a couple of other songwriter/musicians that he knows. David wrote back after a couple of days and loved the song. He wanted to send it to a publisher that is a friend of his as well. Some time passed and nothing really happened; we were all busy and everything was put on a back-burner for a while. Fast-forward to three weeks ago...Jason had talked to David about coming to one of the conferences that he leads to be able to visit more and hang out. David tells him that Craig, a publisher friend would most likely be coming to the conference that was in a few weeks and he wanted Jason to come to be able to meet with him. He asked Jason to Drop Box his song so Craig could listen to it and meanwhile he would double check and make sure Craig would for sure be there. So Jason sent the song and within hours Craig wrote Jason back and told him how much he liked the song. David also wrote Jason and told him that he not only wanted Jason to come to the conference and that Craig would be there but that he wanted Jason to lead worship for the group and include his song. Amazing! Now we arrive at this past weekend or yesterday....
Jason and I arrived in Virginia Friday at about 6 their time. We were originally going to meet with Craig and David that night to go to dinner, however, Craig was only able to get a late flight and would not be in until 9. So everything was moved to the next day. We called David after we had checked into our hotel and he said we could meet him at Regent University--where he flies in to teach every week and where the conference was going to be located. Can I tell you I was nervous, I have never met anyone like him before and I wanted to hug his neck for all of the encouragement that he has given Jason. We went to the auditiorium where he and one of the next day's conference presenters, Cathi Muckle, were. (Cathi is a worship leader and very talented singer/songwriter who also writes jingles i.e., the folgers jingle) We walked in and they were singing and worshiping and all my nervousness was immediately gone. They gave us hugs and we sat down and talked like we had known them forever. It was awesome! After a while we all went our separate ways and said we would meet back up in the morning. David said Craig's flight had been delayed so he didn't know what time he would be getting in but he was heading to the airport to pick up Glenn Packiam--executive pastor for New Life Church as well as a songwriter and musician.
When we arrived the next morning we were immediately covered in a spirit of worship. We met with everyone else that would be leading and participating in the conference and had a time of prayer. It was awesome, free flowing, and real. We found out that Craig hadn't been able to make it, his flight was canceled but he was still very interested in meeting with Jason. Oddly enough neither of us were disappointed. We were so excited to be there and both had a feeling that it would all work out eventually. The rest of the morning was one worship experience after another. David and his crew started off with worship followed by a message from Glenn. Cathi shared her amazing testimony and then David spoke a little. I can't describe how great it was, one of those things you had to be there for but everyone was worshiping and focused on meeting with God. We broke for a quick lunch and then Jason led in worship, he did three songs instead of the original plan of just one. Everyone in there was singing out so loud and was so worshipful, even on Jason's song that they had never heard-- it was incredible. The David spoke again, followed by worship and lesson led by Glenn, again a room full of musicians singing their hearts out to God with each song. We had a short Q&A time and then we had to rush off to get to our plane in time.
Jason and I talked the whole way home. We had such an amazing time and were both so touched with how real everyone was. Thank you to everyone who prayed for us; please continue. We both feel like this is just the beginning of an amazing journey. We are so excited and ready to see where God will lead us and let me tell you we are both 100% in. Like I said earlier GOD IS AMAZING!!!
Thanks for sticking with me through this long post! Check out some of the pictures I snapped below.
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