Every year I play at the Liuna Gardens Valentines Day Dinner and Dance. This year once again it was a lovely evening with great food and my favorite...the chocolate mouse dessert :) I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day!

Here is an article that an anonymous person wrote from a Church I performed at this past summer. This article is from this website www.youthfaith.org I love to perform and share my testimony with others. My music is a gift that God gave to me and I am so blessed that I must share it with others so they can be blessed too. However I have had many journeys with the harp through God so sharing my testimony and my music is a real pleasure.

Harpist With a Story
Wednesday, July 16 @ 12:26:15 CDT
by youthfaith
It came to my attention that a harpist was going to have special music at our local church. I thought to myself that it would be very interesting. I've never personally seeing a harp, let alone heard the sounds the harp makes.

I had arrived at church that Sabbath morning and received the bulletin for the Sabbath service. I noticed in the bulletin that the same harpist was going to do a sermon as well. Honest truth, I misjudged and misperceived my original negative thoughts. In my mind I thought: why is a harpist doing a sermon? why isn't the harpist sticking to what she knows? Boy was I wrong and humbled at the same time.

The name of the harpist was Chantal Dube. She started out the worship hour with a couple of songs with her harp. The sound was incredible and she was very good at playing the harp. I was amazed, and fell in love with sound the instrument made.

It came the time for the sermon, and Chantal started to talk about her past. I was enchanted of what her life consisted of. Her sermon was inspiring and yet humbling. You know that feeling that you get that God is present. Well during this sermon I can tell you that God was present. She was absolutely 100% genuine, believe me, people can tell when a sermon is counterfeit and or fake. She was incredible and had many people in the audience in tears. Each of her story lines followed by a beautiful instrumental sound with her harp.

I highly recommend her as a guest speaker, and of course as a harpist. You can visit her website at: http://www.chantaldube.com

She also has a CD out, which includes possibly her best work. Chantal's 2008 album is called "Still Moments" and can be purchased online at:

http://shop2.mailordercentral.com/gospel/prodinfo.asp?number=Y-9712

I was very inspired, humbled, and I wished I had the same faith as she does. I personally don't think that I'm physically, mentally, or spiritually strong as her, and probably could not go through what she did. Please have a look at her website and of course the wonderful Gospel CD.

Here are a few e-mails that I thought I would post about comments I have been getting on my latest CD. Although the CD was not recorded with the purpose of lullaby music in mind, it seems to have worked very well with these little ones. The following are a couple of emails I have received recently from the thankful parents who have this great 'parenting tool'.

Hi Chantal

Here are some photos we took of our little Joshua with your CD. It has been an IMMENSE blessing to us, as we use this often to sooth him to sleep, and it is usually on repeat, so, we go to sleep with it on in the background, and those middle of the night moments are smooth as we are calmed as we recall the words to the hymns as we help him through the night.

This week he has been in the hospital with a respiratory problem (common cold for infants) and we have it playing in the hospital room, and it has been a blessing to us.

We have several more, and if you would like them, possibly for promotional purposes, or whatever, just ask.

THANK YOU!!!
Chris Cairns - Gospel Folio Press


Our baby absolutely loves your music. I put our baby to sleep listening to it tonight she drifted right off to sleep. Thank you very much for the CD.
Susan

Super Bowl Sunday!

It was Super Bowl Sunday night and believe it or not...I had a wedding to play at. Yes somehow this bride managed to find a guy that wasn't worried about getting married during the Super Bowl. Or maybe he did but they booked the wedding unknowingly :) Well either way they seemed happy and the guests were talking all about the happy couple and of course the Super Bowl. It was a lovely ceremony and reception at Le Parc which has a great indoor facility for ceremonies and dinners.

So here are some pictures from my first wedding of 2009! It was at the beautiful Millcroft Inn in Alton. It was a small wedding of about 30 people but it was romantic and warm. We had a clear view of the snow and icy water falls outside, but with plenty of candles around the room and a warm fire crackling we were as warm as toast.

Christmas Concerts!

I have had the opportunity of playing a few concerts this past December. So before I start my January blogs I must share a few stories with you. My favorite concert this year was the Christmas Extravaganza held at Georgetown Alliance Church the last weekend in November. I had the opportunity to share the spotlight with Hiram Joseph. He is a Christian male vocalist with a soothing and soulful voice that made my heart melt. www.hiramjoseph.com We did two concerts that weekend and I truly felt blessed to be able to get to know him and share in our common ministry together. As a solo artist in can get rather lonely in dealing with the stress and pressures but while sharing the concert with Hiram we were able to encourage and pray for one another.
Later in December I did a memorial service at Trull Funeral Home. I have often thought as funeral directors as snobbish people. Needless to say I was not exactly looking forward to this gig especially since I didn't want to get depressed during the Christmas season from the memorial service. However upon arriving at the funeral home I was pleasantly surprised how hospitable they were. They had made room in their indoor parking garage for me to park my car which was a huge blessing because of all the snow we had just gotten. As you can imagine it's very difficult to move a harp around in the snow. They were also very helpful in helping bring all of my things in and walking me through how the service would go. They made me feel very comfortable and they allowed me to display my CD's for sale. I was most of all surprised though when they asked me to stay for a short 'tea' so people could have a chance to meet me. I was really worried about how awkward that would be but prayed for God to give me the wisdom as to how to handle this situation. I walked into the parlor where everyone was enjoying Christmas treats, tea and coffee. The funeral director offered to get me a coffee while I began to work my way around the room introducing myself to everyone. I was touched by how comforting they found my music to be and how it added such a special touch to the service. I no longer felt concerned about getting depressed but selfish that I was worried about how I felt when all of these wonderful people had just loved a loved one. With some I shared my story about how I struggled with grief after losing my 'niece like' friend Catelyn to cancer and with others I just listened to them share about their lvoed ones. I was so happy I could bless people with my gift of music God has given me on that day and in that moment with those grieving people. I felt so good about the experience it felt strange to be payed for it. However I felt even more blessed after being paid that I have such an awesome job. I truly am living the dream...thanks be to God! On my way out one of the funeral directors mentioned to me that he had washed my car. I was so stunned than as I looked at him I replied, "In your suit?" He replied that of course in his suit, that's the way they do everything... in their suits! Wow a free car wash in December I was so excited to tell my parents about this one. So in the end it turns out that ironically enough I had a great time that day at Trull Funeral Home and sold 12 CDs!

A few weeks later I did my last concert of the season for a Senior Citazens Group at the Oakridge Bible Chapel. I had the lovely opportunity of performing with my dear friend Rachel and her mom. I am Rachel's spiritual mentor and she has the voice of an angel so it was great to be able to perform with her. I shared my testimony of faith with the folks and played several Christmas carols for them. Later we were able to join them for a nice Christmas Dinner in the lobby of the Church and I was blessed with good food and good company. It was nice to get encouragment from older and wiser people and also hear that they were encouraged by my ministry however it's not me but He that is within me.

I hope to have some interesting posts in the New Year about weddings I have coming up.

I am just trying this out and have no idea what to do...this blog is in the making.