Well, it’s a good thing we saddled up with fresh horses for this year! 

2007 started off with a bang with a full schedule in California and New Mexico.  In California, the Lord was so awesome in bringing us into contact with friends, old and new.  We really saw the Lord moving in the encouragement department.  We were encouraged in our new Ministry.  And, we were also able to be used to encourage others in theirs.  God’s Word says “iron sharpens iron”.  That is so true when believers get together in total unity and work together for the goal….leading others to the Love and Grace of Jesus Christ. (I Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:24-25; Proverbs 27:17).

In California, the folks we got together with were of all different nationalities with different gifts and talents.  We were all so different, yet we were all flowing as one in Jesus Christ.   I thought to myself, now this is how it’s supposed to be!  This is what Jesus is talking about in the Word when He talks about total unity!  Soooo awesome!!  (Acts 2:42-47; Philippians 2:1-2)

We left California and headed for Roswell, New Mexico with a large storm chasing us down the road.  A few flakes hit us as we drove along the lower breaks of the Guadalupe Mountains, but we made it safely to our hotel. We woke up to snow the next morning.  It was too cool!

Now, we get to one of the most exciting adventures this year!  Remember at the end of the 2006 Trail Tails when I wrote about how we were called to go to the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation?  We went at the end of February and it was awesome!  Wow!  God was really moving!  We just hung on for the ride and let Him go!

The People there are so awesome!  They accepted us right in and we felt very blessed to be with them.  During the Services throughout the weekend, people were delivered, saved, they prophesied…..it was exciting!  The Pastor there delivers his sermons partly in the Apache language and partly in English.   Very cool.

In one particular service, after we had sung the song “Still In Love”, God moved on one of the Apache women and she started speaking in tongues and Apache.  She kept saying over and over…….”Come back to Me!”   I get teary eyed even as I write this.  God was telling the Apache People to ‘Come back to Him’!  Come back to Him.  Later the Apache pastor told an awesome story about Geronimo: 

He and his band were being chased by the Cavalry across the plains.  The Cavalry were on horseback, but the Apaches were on foot.  There was no way the Apaches were going to outrun the Cavalry.   Geronimo stopped in his tracks as his band anxiously wondered why he stopped.  Geronimo lifted up his voice and asked for protection…...from God.  Not a god.  The God.  All of a sudden a thick dust cloud came up, surrounded the Apache band and completely hid them from sight of the Cavalry.   The Cavalry turned from the cloud and rode the other way.

There are other gods worshipped on the Reservation, just as there are outside the Reservation.   The Word from the Lord….‘Come back to Me!’   Awesome!

At the end of our stay with the Apaches that weekend, we were invited to go back during their Ceremonial time in July.  The excitement and prophesies continued……

Well, the Lord kept us busy through March.  Then, in April, we hit the Studio!  Whoohooo!  We’d been writing songs for this album for the past couple years and now it was time to record.   Praise God we were blessed to have the same musicians, etc. on this Album as we did on the last Calvary Cowboys album and my own “Don’t Look Back” album.   What I so appreciated about all these guys and gal (Amanda), was that they all have a sweet, professional…no ego…personality.   They are so good, yet they are so humble.  They love the Lord and we had, yet another,  anointed, great time with all of them. 

Steve Palousek owns and operates Awesome Works Studio and is a musician, engineer, etc…..extraordinaire!  He is a good friend of ours and we had a great time hanging out with him for the two weeks of production.

Now, before I go on, I have to tell you about the awesome promise that the Lord kept for me (which, of course, when I met Bruce extended to him as well).  In the year 2000, I received a Word from the Lord that He was going to provide me with a living-quartered horse trailer.  At the time of that Word, I was singing with a friend of mine.  My self-esteem in the Lord was quite low at that time and I thought that the prophesy was for my friend, not for me.  Frankly, I didn’t think I was good enough or worthy enough to really receive something that cool from the Lord.  Well, I talked to the pastor that gave the Word and he told me the Word was for me. Talk about a turning point in my Faith!  I felt so obscure and insignificant and the Lord showed me that to Him, I was “on the map” and He loved and wanted to use me.

To make a long story short, I stood in Faith for 7 years and the Trailer finally manifested itself this year, along with a brand new Dodge truck to pull it!  God is good!!

There were times when I wanted to “take the bull by the horns” and get another job, etc. to “make it happen” or to “help God out” with His promise. But, one day, He spoke loud and clear to my spirit and told me “I said I was going to give you that Trailer”.  Well, He didn’t have to tell me twice.  I was working hard enough at the job I had. I really didn’t want to go out and get another one and make it hard on myself!

As you can see by the pictures, it was worth the wait!  And God gives the very best….on time and in excellence!  Romans 4:19-25; Hebrews 13:20-21.

Well, with open doors comes change.  Isn’t it funny how the Lord doesn’t ever want us to stay the same?  Sometimes during that change, you get that “deer in the headlights look” and a pounding in your heart, but Praise God we never get stale!  In saying that, we felt the Lord leading us to give up our rent house in New Ulm (Texas) and hit the road full time in our new Rig.  We were running full out, non-stop…..putting away, stowing away, throwing away and Ebaying away just about everything we owned (and singing in between). Yeehaw, what a rodeo!  But, we got it all done.  We were a bit glassy eyed when we drove out of our driveway for the last time, but it was all worth it.  Isaiah 43:18-19

I do, however, need to mention something here.  Looking back, I realized the Lord was impressing on my spirit to start stream-lining our stuff the year before.  Slimming down, if you will.  Well, I did a little, but procrastinated a lot.  If I had done what the Lord told me to do in the first place, when He told me to do it, I would have had plenty of time to sort through everything without the frantic push and “cart-wheels” we had to do at the end.  Lesson learned!