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What We Love Wednesday – Kristen + Laura

Kristen + Laura

Today I’m excited to introduce an up and coming singer/songwriter duo – Kristen + Laura.  

Laura and I met at West Point in 2013, where we each had baby girls just a couple of days apart.  Anytime someone asks, “If you could do anything what would it be?,” my answer is always the same: “Be able to sing like Laura!”  🙂 

Kristen and Laura help lead worship at Max Lucado’s church – Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, TX.  They just recently started writing songs together and have a brand new song coming out today!

Let’s get to know Kristen + Laura:

Stephanie: So, first things first – How can people follow you and check out your music?

K: Our FB page (Kristen + Laura), Instagram (kristen.laura.music), on YouTube @ Kristen + Laura Music and our new website: www.kristenlauramusic.com

Stephanie: So, what is your story? How did you come together to write music?

K: We met in January during a songwriting workshop at our church, where we were actually never paired to write together!  We immediately connected and made an effort to start writing together after the workshop ended. We felt really passionate about writing songs for our congregation that synced with our heart cries and that paralleled our pastors sermons. Pastor Max’s new upcoming series was titled Unshakeable Hope and it was full of standing on the Promises of God. We were instantly inspired and started writing immediately!

L: We officially started writing on this project earlier this summer!

Stephanie: What is the heartbeat of your ministry?

K: To equip the church with songs that honor Christ, and resonate in their hearts.

L: When we were trying to think of a clever name, (before we settled on our actual names lol), we kept going back to the words ‘overflow’ and ‘abide’. We said, ‘what are we doing when we write?’ And the answer was we were sitting and listening and leaning into Christ. We were letting Him write these songs. We were letting Him minister to us over certain situations and over verses and by abiding in Him, the overflow spilled over into these songs and this is what we got! 🙂

Stephanie: I love your new song Come and See! What is the story behind this song?

K: Good question! It’s funny, that song actually started as a few different songs. I had a piece the “Come and See” chorus from another song, and Laura a piece of the “Hallelujah” bridge from a different song. Once we started writing out of Revelation 21 together, we knew those pieces fit perfectly!

Stephanie: Exciting things are happening for you guys!  What is on the horizon?
L: More songs! Now that we’ve released a few acoustic videos with #promisesproject, people are asking where they can get the songs so our hopes are to record an EP soon! We also have been writing quite a bit for another project and it’s so exciting! Honestly, it’s just going to be wherever God takes us, and that’s exactly where we want to be 🙂

Stephanie: I always ask guests on my blog: What would you say to someone standing at the edge of their dream?  Many people have big dreams and plans and yet they just aren’t sure what to do.  You ladies took the plunge – what you say?

K: That’s a hard question to answer! For us it feels more like a calling than a dream. I’d say if this is a calling God has placed on your life, then nothing can stand in the way of it. Be patient, be diligent, lean in and learn to know the whisper of the Holy Spirit. He’ll tell you what to do and when to do it!

Be sure to check out Kristen + Laura’s music and follow them to keep up with their journey!

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My Favorite Missionary

Missionary Monday

Serving

Helping

Indigenous

Ministries

 Serving Christ by Helping Indigenous Ministries in India and Myanmar.

 

Chad and I are extremely blessed have a strong Christian heritage.  On the first installment of Missionary Monday last week, I shared about my Pa-paw and today I am honored to share with you the ministry Chad’s grandparents – Norm and Sharron Monroe – have built over the last 25 years.   (If you are a pastor, small group leader or Sunday school teacher – please take time to read about this ministry.  It is a worthy investment!)

While living in Minnesota in 1991, a pastor friend, Dr. Roger Peterson, approached Grandpa Monroe with the opportunity to go to India on a short-term trip to teach in a Bible college.  Feeling the Lord’s call to go, Grandpa Monroe took his first trip to India January 1, 1992.

For three years, his trips consisted of teaching in the Bible College and building relationships with local pastors and believers.  In 1995, he began preaching in evangelistic meetings, flying to towns and villages throughout the surrounding areas, in addition to teaching in the Bible College.

Since that first trip, he has taken 64 trips to India – that averages out to 3-4 trips per year!  This year, Grandpa Monroe turned 80 years old, yet he says he feels more like 40.  He attributes his health and stamina during these frequent, long trips to the Lord (and maybe a little to Grandma Monroe’s muffin’s and workout regimen : ).

Here is more of my interview with Grandpa Monroe:

Stephanie:  What is the heartbeat of your ministry?

Grandpa Monroe:   Obedience to the Great Commission is the heartbeat of the ministry. The purpose of my trips to India the last 25 years has been to evangelize the lost, edify the believers, establish churches and to equip STRONG and STEADFAST students to be SKILLFUL servants of Christ.”

Acts 14:21-23 states:
“ And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.”

In training local pastors and leaders, we seek to carry out II Timothy 2:2:

“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”

In one of his most famous speeches during WWII, Winston Churchill called on America, saying:

“Give us the tools and we’ll finish the job.”

We cannot do the work of the local pastors and believers in India.  We work with indigenous people to teach and equip them to reach their own people with the gospel of Christ.

Stephanie: What’s something the Lord been done in your ministry lately?

Grandpa Monroe:  One of the biggest needs of for the local pastors is funds to help some of these rural pastors purchase small plots of land on which to put up small buildings for worship. Many Indian people will not come to a house for Bible studies. Through generous donations of some of the individuals here in the States, we have been able to supply three local pastors with funds to help them in this process.

Stephanie: How can we pray for your ministry?

Grandpa Monroe: For the pastor and believers in India the greatest prayer is for their safety.  In 2008, militant Hindus killed approximately 100 Christians and burned down countless churches.  Thousands of Christians were displaced, so to this day because it is unsafe to return to their villages.  While the constitution technically allows the freedom of religion, believers still face great persecution.  Accepting Christ and being baptized in the Hindu culture means a believer will be disowned from their families, lose their jobs and be cut off from society.

For Grandma and I, just pray for our continued good health to carry on this work.

Stephanie: How can people donate to your ministry and partner with you?

Grandpa Monroe: We pass on 100% of the donations we receive directly to the local pastors in India.  Having retired as an Air Traffic Controller with the Navy, we are blessed that we do not need to keep any of the funds for living expenses or operating costs.  We are simply a conduit to organize and funnel resources from God’s people here to the believers there.

An ongoing gift of $100/month, can support a local pastor in India.  Typically, a foreign missionary family needs $80,000-$90,000 a year of support to stay on the field.  For just $100/month we can support a local pastor to reach his own people.

In addition to needing funds for land and church buildings, Bibles are needed.  They cost about $3 each in local languages purchased in India.

We are also happy to travel to churches to share our work and more about our ministry.  To schedule us for a missions conference or service at your church, to give to our ministry or to receive our newsletter, people can contact me directly here.

 

Grandpa & Grandma Monroe are extraordinary examples of how age does not define our ability to serve in the kingdom of God.  I pray that many of your will partner in this work!

 

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Let There Be Light

I grew up going to church.  Correction, I grew up living at church.  Honestly, we probably could have changed our address to 587 Landers Drive.  Anytime the doors were open, we were there (normally always running a little late) and we were most certainly always the last ones to leave.  To this day, it is still a little weird to simply get up and walk out of church after final amen.

Our children’s church probably more closely resembled a course at a local Bible college than children’s church.  No crafts.  No games.  Just a few some cappella songs (Crayon Box song anyone…?), memory verses (For the Word of God is quick and powerful…), and then a sermon.  Between Sunday school, children’s church, “big” church, Awana, youth rallies, youth camps, and discipleship classes, I heard thousands of sermons growing up.  I went to Christian school and a Christian college.  In college, I went to chapel five morning a week and earned a minor in Bible.

With all of this training and knowledge, I should have had a firm grasp on the basics of the Christian faith, right?  I had a lot of knowledge and I even did the right things.  I checked all the boxes; however, head knowledge does not always transfer to heart knowledge.  Despite being given the clear Word of God, I somehow grew up missing a huge piece of the puzzle.  I knew the gospel – the forgiveness of sin through Christ’s work on the cross.  Yet for some reason, I thought after salvation, it was kind of up to me.  I had my list of rules to follow and that if I could keep them, God would be pleased.  This led to perfectionism – the pressure to be perfect in all areas of life.

Sitting in Bible study during my junior year at Cedarville, my Bible study leader pressed me on this issue.  I feebly explained that if I kept all my plates spinning – did everything right – then I would be happy and successful in my Christian life.  I can clearly hear her words to me that day:

“And how’s that working out for you?”

Tears flowed down my cheeks.  I had never had anyone confront me like that.  The truth was, I knew it wasn’t working.  Inwardly, I was drowning in my striving to achieve an impossible standard.  I knew all the right things, but I continued to walk in my own power and strength to try to live the Christian life out of sheer will and determination.

Fast forward five years to 2008.  We were living in Clarksville, Tennessee and were walking through our first deployment. Addison was just over a year old and, at the time, attending small group alone each week felt hard.  My introverted nature takes a while to feel comfortable in a group and some nights I spent all my time making sure Addison didn’t tear their house apart.  One night, our small group leader went around the circle asking what we took away from the sermon on Sunday, which was about the cross.  The Holy Spirit flipped a switch in my heart that night, revealing a truth that would shape me for the rest of my life.

“My whole life I’ve grown up thinking that the cross was just about salvation, however this week I’ve seen that it is so much more.  The cross is our source of power every day because Christ not only took our penalty for sin on the cross, but he took our guilt and our shame.  Through the cross and the resurrection, Christ conquered death and gave us the power to live in freedom.  The cross shows us the love of God like nothing else could.  It shows us a love that we could never earn or deserve.  The cross is our hope.”

 

Dear friends, the message of the cross – the hope of the gospel – is Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27).  The cross bears the messages that Christ died for our sins and invites us to accept his gift of salvation, but the good news doesn’t end there!

In Romans 7, Paul tells us that we still wrestle with our flesh.  We live in a fallen world and deal with the painful consequences of our sin and the sin of those around us, but Romans 8 breaks forth in glorious light and hope:

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

The hope of the cross brings no condemnation!!  What a sweet relief!!  Jesus went to great lengths to not only free us from the penalty of sin, but from the guilt and shame of it as well!  For years I walked in the assurance of Christ’s power over the penalty of my sin – I knew I was going to heaven.  I knew He loved me, but oh what peace it brought to my heart when I realized that I did not have to carry around the fear and shame of my sin.  I could shed my false sense of security I felt through perfectionism.  God loved me and did not condemn me.

Maybe this sounds “churchy.”  Maybe it doesn’t sound like something relevant to you or your situation, but look what I Peter 2:24 says:

“Who his own self bare our sin in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.”

The life brings more hurt and heartache than we can bear at times, but we are not left to drown in our sorrow.   The cross brings the only hope of healing.

 

My favorite song right now is Let There Be Light (Hillsong).  It’s worth a listen!

I heard it for the first time in church a few Sundays ago.  I’m glad our church is pretty dark during worship, because I had a full-blown ugly cry.  I couldn’t sing.  I just cried out to the Lord from the depth of my soul as the words washed over me:

Good news embracing the poor

Comfort for all those who mourn

For the broken-hearted

We sing louder

Release from prison and shame

Oppression turning to praise

For every captive

Sing louder

Restoring sight to the blind

Breaking the curse of the night

For all in darkness

Sing louder

Proclaiming freedom for all

This is the day of the Lord

Beauty for ashes

Let there be light

Open the eyes of the blind

Purify our hearts in Your fire

Breathe in us we pray

Let there be light

Open our eyes to Your heart

Desperate just to know who You are

Shine in us we pray

Jesus have Your way

 

Friends, Satan is the father of lies.  He wants to keep us in bondage and fear to our sin.  He wants to cripple our walk and keep us from living the abundant life Christ has promised.  For many of us, he is winning the battle.  The fear and shame of our sin has paralyzed us.  But dear ones, the light of the gospel is our hope!  Light is the only thing powerful enough to dispels darkness.  Shining the truth of the Word on the lies of Satan is the only way to defeat his hold on our hearts.

Father, I pray that your truth would be seen, that your light would dispel darkness in our hearts.  I pray that we would know You – to know your hope and power that you give to those who have accepted your Son.  You are our good news.  You are our hope.  I pray that you would “break the curse of the night” in hearts.  Show your glory through us.  Take the pile of ashes in our lives and turn them to beautiful masterpieces of your glory.