concert

It's a couple of weeks now since I wrote anything here - and boy, has it been full!! In the middle of the month, Brian Doerksen and his daughter Esther came over from Abbotsford in BC, Canada to be with us for the weekend. On Friday we did a coaching day - 62 people came from all over Ireland, one from Finland, another from Holland, three from Switzerland, a couple from Slovakia, 8 guys from Scotland. It was great to hear Brian's thoughts on the importance of character, song writing, on leading worship, on choosing songs and working with band members. It was such a helpful thing to ask Brian questions and be able to interact with someone with his track record!
On Saturday night we did a concert together, and 650 people came - which is quite a few for round these parts!! It was a wonderful time of worship - it so cool for me to have a friend like Brian come do this here! I get to travel a fair bit, but it's very rare that people from home get a taste for all the stuff that I get up to when I'm away, so it was such a treat to share it!
Since then, we've had a lovely couple stay with us for a week, and I've been working like mad on my new CD.
It's coming together really well - the songs are pretty much there... it's a lovely feeling!
Next week I'm off to the States for a week. I'm going to stop off in Texas for a few days with Paul and Rita Baloche to do some writing together - please pray that we have a productive time!! And then, I'm heading on to the CMS conference in Seattle.
I'll let you know how it all goes...

been busy

I seem to have been busier than usual the last couple of weeks - I'm writing for my new album at the moment, and I'm writing seminars for CMS in November. It's wonderful to be giving time to this again though. I don't know about you, but I need deadlines - because life goes at a hundred miles an hour all the time - and sometimes I need to know what needs done NOW before it gets on the schedule.

On the songwriting front - I'm working towards doing some more co-writes (I'll keep you posted on how I get on). I love what happens when it's more than just me staring at the drawing board! It's a lot more exciting I think!! Interestingly, when I started writing properly, I wasn't that keen on co-writing. It sort of felt like a cop out - I wanted to know that I could do it myself. Somewhere along the line though, I got a little more secure that God really has called me to do this - He really is the God of abundance - if this is something he has in mind for you, you won't be a 'one song' wonder - whether those songs leave your living room or not :)

On the CMS front - I'm SO excited to be going to the States again and to be doing more teaching. This is a major learning curve for me, but one that I'm enjoying... whether or not the people who come to those seminars enjoy it or not remains to be seen :)