The Character Studio Dot Com

The Character Studio Dot Com is another division of Mary's Lamb, Inc. dedicated to reaching more children and teaching them about Jesus. Creators of J.C. Lamb, introduced in the novel for children of all ages titled "The Secret of Yahweh!" and the J.C. Lamb Morning Show who interviews characters from other children's books to get kids off to a God-start each morning.

Rooter and Snuffle are two darling characters created by Shari Lyle-Soffe and they are our first customers! They are in the studio now recording the entire package. An interview, a jingle and their very own song. 

We sent Shari a little sample from these two little racoon brothers. Let's listen in!

LeFerna

Once an Entertainer, ALWAYS and Entertainer!

My friend Marvin is sailing straight to the top with his novels and now with his entertaining blog called Free Spirit. I read it most everyday and I am always amazed at what he finds to talk about, but mostly how he says it. It is like he is sitting right next to me. I am the silent type that lurks in the background, occasionally making a comment, so I wanted to make up for that and send him his very own award for Excellence in Entertainment Blogging! An award as unique as he is that is exclusively his own. IF he ever finds anyone with a blog as entertianing as his, then he can share his own award certificate!

Here you go Marvin D. Wilson!!! We love you!

Getting Your Children off to a "God-start" each day!

Recently a good cyberfriend of mine, Donna McDine (visit her blog - "Write What Inspires You") called my attention back to a recent press release from Mary's Lamb, Inc. Since God is working so quickly through me with various projects, I tend to forget my main purpose in all of this. (Right now I am trying to give books away to Iraq and Prisons, since they could be God's children who may be lost and needing comfort the most. AND you can imagine how hard it is to convince people why these adults might need a children's book!) But my main purpose in the beginning was to bring Jesus back into the public schools so we could protect our kids and make a safer place for them to learn.

This is the press release, in case many of you haven't read it, (grin) brings me back to understanding why I had the idea of the radio program "The J.C. Lamb Morning Show." See Below-



Press Release - "The Secret of Yahweh!"

Public Schools today: Are we sending our children off to war unarmed?

10 simple rules that can protect them at school

For Release in September / Back-to-School
For further information contact:
LeFerna Arnold Walch / Mary’s Lamb, Inc.
Addison, Michigan
leferna@maryslambinc.com
(517) 547-3656
Surveys show parents are concerned about the stress level of their children and what they are forced to deal with in public schools. Already frightened by what they hear and see in today’s world, they also face abusive bullying and negative peer pressure. All this stress is like sending them off to war unprotected and afraid. Just 10 simple rules in school, can lower our children’s stress level?

“The trauma suffered by children in other countries sickens Americans to the point of sending missionary relief.
What about this country? Who is taking care of our children? With our excellent media coverage, they’ve been exposed to kidnapping, school shootings, bomb explosions, and airplanes blowing up buildings, gang violence, child prostitution, drugs and war killings. Favorite television shows are no longer like “Leave it to Beaver” with no under-aged drinking or premarital sex, and many films add words not allowed on television because vulgarity sells. Good morals barely exist in public America and it shows in our schools. Children are the heartbeat of the world, growing into tomorrow’s leaders. They get strength in learning rules young.”

These words come from LeFerna Arnold Walch, member of the Institute of Biblical and Historical Studies in Addison, Michigan, CEO of Mary’s Lamb, Inc. and leading advocate for Christian curriculum in public schools.

Walch started her company to introduce J.C. Lamb, a twist on a favorite American nursery rhyme. Their mission is for the character to follow our children to school where…

• ADHD, obesity, learning disabilities, autism and handicaps limit children, inviting torment and teasing.

• The smart children are called “nerds” or “geeks” causing many children to fear success.

• Some have more material things than others, causing jealousy and resentment.

• Bullying and peer pressure can be very dangerous.

Walch claims the time is right for arming our children with American Christian history and bringing these ten rules back into our schools. Walch started Mary’s Lamb Publishing to release The Secret of Yahweh! now available through Ingram/Spring Arbor Books. The “Give & Share Book™” that introduces J.C. Lamb is a church tool designed to reach an estimated 100 million unchurched Americans. A hit at the 2008 International Christian Retail Show, the book is also receiving great reviews. Since the goal is for J.C. Lamb to make his way to school, Walch is already giving away free school supplies and working on a before school radio program called “The Morning Show with J.C. Lamb” –reading Christian children’s books and Bible verses using character voices while the children color downloaded illustrations.

Walch is an entertainer and speaker with both radio and television experience. She gives an informative and fun interview adding in the voice of J.C. Lamb.

Available nationwide – contact leferna@maryslambinc.com
Posted by Donna McDine at 4:33 PM
Labels: Donna McDine, J.C. Lamb, LeFerna Walch, Marys Lamb Inc, The Secret of Yahweh


Thank you SO much Donna for showing me this press release again. At Mary's Lamb, we have put out so many... I tend to forget what was said!

Let's all start getting our children off to school with a "God-start!" Rather it be with the new J.C. Lamb morning show, or with a Bible devotional of another sort. Let's give them the armor they need to get through a day in the life with other children.

It's a jungle out there!

Lamb Hugs,

LeFerna

Mary's Lamb Goes to Prison

Mary’s Lamb Goes To Prison (as sent to the the prison fellowship list of Prison Ministries)

Hello everyone. Someone must have signed me up for this group! Thank you. I've prayed about this and God is so great about leading me to the right people to make things work for His good. Please allow me to introduce myself.
My name is LeFerna, and I am the author of "The Secret of Yahweh!" a children's novel designed to be given away and shared eleven times so that each book will create twelve new disciples for Christ. The amazing thing about this children's book is that adults have been the main readers so far, and they are sending me some of the most heart-warming emails thanking me for renewing their faith in the Bible as God's Word, reminding them of their own childhood while teaching them things they never knew. When I asked what age group they plan to give their book to, it is always another adult that they know who can benefit from the book, calling it an easy guide to Christianity and what it should mean to Americans. This is wonderful! “Being as little children” in this way. I know this is God’s doing and not mine at all. He gives me visions and ideas and I try my best to fulfill them, using every gift or talent he has ever given me. I am still in awe and at the “why me?” stage, but I am starting to understand more as I study the unchurched families and the need for Christian curriculum in our schools today. These are two huge problems in the USA today. Our children are our future. They are also the ones growing up to face confusion and end up being incarcerated or worse. Killed before they get to know Jesus.
I am not spamming this list as I do not plan to "sell" this book to prisons. After reading the rest of my post, see if you don’t agree with me that it is God’s will that we give this book to as many people as we can. And why I need your help and guidance for a project of this magnitude.
Richard Blake, reviewed this book, (I share his review below) and his words first brought me tears, as I have never written a book before. Then he also gave me huge relief, because I spent most of my life "unchurched" and wrote the book based on my own new “child of God” experience as I learned and studied at the Institute of Biblical and Historical Studies. I prayed for a sign from God that I am teaching good doctrine in this book, and Richard was that sign!
Most of you probably already know he is the co-Founder of Christian Education Resources of San Leandro, California and a former instructor at the Bay Cities Bible College, and Golden State School of Theology in Oakland, Ca. Which means if he gives his stamp of approval, the book is on its way to teaching many people about Christ and how the Bible is still our best directions for life on earth. But God wasn’t finished here. He showed me where Richard is also the training coordinator of Follow Up Ministries, Inc. a faith-based ministry to jail and prison inmates and a regular contributor to the Restorative Justice News out of Huntsville, Texas.
This is his review of “The Secret of Yahweh.”
Lessons in Character, Citizenship, and Patriotism
LeFerna Arnold-Walch combines mystery, history, character building, and patriotism in this wonderfully crafted children’s novel “The Secret of Yahweh.”
The story centers on Mary, Petey, and Jimmy, the good kids, and Con, Bitsy and their clique of friends, the mean kids. The story begins in Mss Sawyer’s fourth grade classroom on the first day of the new school year. A brief announcement over the loudspeaker informed the classes that they would no longer include the words “under God” when they gave the pledge of allegiance to the flag. The students raised questions regarding this change and Miss Sawyer gave them new insights into American traditions, the constitution, and individual freedoms.
At lunch Mary was bullied by Bitsy and a group of the mean girls. They took her lunch, pulled her pigtails, and called her fat. Mary was sent to the principal’s office for the remainder of the lunch hour. That evening Mary was visited by J. C. Lamb, a special messenger (un-secret agent 777) sent from God on a mission.
In addition to lessons on supporting American troops, Christian history, and the traditions of gratefulness for being “one nation under God” the book is filled with lessons on the value of personhood, the power of prayer, and the power of love. These lessons are learned in the classroom, the lunchroom, on the school bus, playing with friends, in the home, and through Mystery Sunday at church.
LeFerna describes the presence of good and evil in the world today. She then goes on to introduce Yahweh (God) as the master of the universe, the trinity, and the misunderstood message of the gospel. She explains the fall of man, the plan of salvation, miracles, and the role of the Holy Spirit in enabling individuals to see Yahshua (Jesus) as the greatest super hero of all time. She told how we got our Bible, various translations, and importance of a lifetime of Bible study.
The gift of the saving grace of Jesus is presented through the message of the “preacher”, the youth leader, and Miss Sawyer in language easily understood by children ages seven through twelve.
Over 100 illustrations throughout the book add another dimension and help in maintaining interest and reinforcing the message of the narrative. The book is sound in doctrine, easily understood and can be enjoyed by readers of all ages. A unique program for passing the book along to others becomes an evangelistic tool for the reader and challenges the seeker to find the “Secret of Yahweh.”

I can’t thank him enough for this wonderful review. This is the kind of review that sells a lot of books, so of course I wanted to know more about him and see what his credentials were like. I was dumbstruck! To have someone who was a teacher of theology himself review my book, was a miracle!! Most authors would immediately be using this review to sell as many books as possible, but that is not what spoke to my heart when I read his credentials. What God showed me was the fact that Richard was the training coordinator of Follow Up Ministries, Inc. a faith-based ministry to jail and prison inmates and a regular contributor to the Restorative Justice News out of Huntsville, Texas. When I read this, I instantly remembered meeting Babbie Mason at the Christian artist’s seminar in Estes Park Colorado. This was just after a fire destroyed everything we owned in 1998 and we were not in any financial shape for me to keep my registration, but I went anyway. I was hobbling around this park on a severe sprain after taking a bus all the way there from Michigan. I was sure there had to be a message in it for me. Babbie Mason is a wonderful woman from the area I am from, so I asked her for advice. She told me I need to entertain at the prisons. Hmmm. Isn’t it weird how I’d remember that now?
With this review from Richard, and how it reminded me of the wise words of Babbie Mason, it was clear that the message was now coming to me again. He wanted this book (that I am entertaining with) inside the prisons for everyone to read. Not just in their library, but enough books for all of them to read at once, discuss it together and share the experience of a children’s book making them feel like little children of God. For some of these people, they may have never read a children’s book or had one read to them. They may have missed out on God’s love a child needs growing up. Some of these people may not even know how to read! This book would be perfect for them. It is easy to understand and a refreshing change of pace for those who want to know more about Christianity and to feel God’s love for them through the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
To think it hadn’t been that long ago, that God showed me something else about our prisons. We were fighting arson charges on our own home. We beat the charges and it still took seven years in court to try and get what our crooked insurance company owed us. Meanwhile we lived in our pole barn all that time with the mice, red squirrels and raccoons. We never did win that case. Our lawyer made a mistake in the jury instructions, so if we ever wanted a home again, we had to hire the best malpractice attorney available to sue the lawyer. Then it turned out he was an acquaintance of our lawyer’s partner, saying it would not take long. Then this lawyer “forgot” to show up in court for our case and it was thrown out. It was a devastating seven years. We did end up getting two thirds of a small 35,000.00 settlement out of the deal. All it did is prove one lawyer did us wrong and the other one took a third of the money for not showing up in court and losing the entire cost of our home. Again! But God is good, and He has his reasons for everything. Besides showing me that some of our “best” legal leaders and law enforcers can be liars and backstabbers and to beware, something very important came out of it for me. I met many people who were in prison for arson crimes that they did not commit, mainly because of bad, and usually “appointed” representation and very smart insurance company lawyers. One woman’s story in particular took my heart. I wanted to help her, but my hands were tied without the money it took to fight something like that. I wrote to her for a while, and I found out she was already in the hands of people who were trying to help her. I sent her a CD and hoped to start some kind of a fund for her. But God must not have thought the timing was right and somehow we fell out of touch. Now I can send her a book! I will have to look her up again. Her name was Leticia and she has been in prison now for most of her life.
So, I am very happy to teach “sound doctrine” more than anything, to teach children how to forgive early in life, because they are going to need it! God showed me how you can be accused of something you did not do in the very important lesson of our fire. The police were saying that my son was the one who started the fire and he was scheduled for a polygraph when he slammed into the church and went into a coma. Then police changed their mind and said my husband did it instead, and even admitted in the deposition that the polygraphs are usually designed to fail so you will confess. Well confessing to something my husband didn’t do was not his style. They drilled him for hours and he came home gasping for breath feeling as though he was having a heart attack. (When he came down with congestive heart failure, the EKG showed where he had a heart attack) It cost 10,000.00 to bring and arson expert in from Virginia to show where the police had not even tried to look for the proof of the fire found at the scene, reporting that it was not arson at all. It started from some hot coals left in a pyrex dish where we had cleaned out our grill. But the police and insurance company were more intent on proving it was arson than proving how we thought the fire could have started. Looking back, the worst part of that was the fear of someone taking our younger son away because of our poor living conditions in the barn, and then not having a home to bring my son to when he got out of the hospital (which I explain below)
But back to the call I think I hear to put this book into prisons across America, isn’t it wonderful how God works in our lives? Lessons to prepare us , while we get little hints of God’s plan for us everywhere. It almost looks like I was a tough nut to crack!
I wrote “The Secret of Yahweh” to keep a promise I made to God when my son's car crashed into a church after our fire and he lay dying in a coma. Doctors said his brain injury was so severe he would die within two days. This was my firstborn son! Let me tell you, in a world of terror for our children, no mother should ever have to watch their child lay dying and wonder if he would be “saved” or not!
By this time in my life, I was taking his little brother to church regularly, but I had raised my first child the same way my parents raised me. We believed in God but we didn't go to church, which meant we were open to confusion about the Trinity and of course Jesus. The first thing I did was have my son Christened and when I saw him raise his knee high in the bed while we recited the 23rd Psalm... I then made a promise to God that if He spared my son, I would tell more children about His! And the miracles began! Doctors then said he would never be more than a vegetable if he did live, but they were wrong again. I was given a gift few mothers ever receive. I got to watch him grow again from an infant stage. He had to learn everything from sitting up to balance, feed himself and learn to talk. Then he went on to learn to read, write, and by the Grace of God, even walk for the second time in his life! There are eight stages to a coma and he now lives in the eighth stage... a groggy, almost drunk stage of increased emotions and short term memory problems with a lack of focus on more than one task at a time. He also has a slight balance problem as his right side is somewhat numb to him. But he is alive! He is a walking miracle.
God not only spared my son, He made sure that I would keep that promise and immediately started using my firstborn to help me do it. One year from the date of the accident my son enrolled in a major college! It took him eight years to get his degree, since he could not focus on more than one hard class at a time. His major was supposed to be chemistry, and the classes were extremely hard for a "normal" student, much less one with a brain injury. So guidance counselors talked him into changing his major to entrepreneurship (since he had most of the classes he needed already) and then he minored in chemistry. A degree in entrepreneurship? This seemed strange to me, but I knew God was in charge.
Through those last eight years he was in college, first I had a music ministry. I thought this was how I was supposed to keep my promise. But things went wrong and I was made to feel uncomfortable selling my “project” that was recorded in Nashville, even though I had been a singer and songwriter for years. The song I wrote and sang into my son’s ear while he was in a coma hit number one on a station in Arkansas, but making a career of this, just didn’t feel right to me. It was some time before I decided to bring to life a vision that God gave to me while writing one of the other songs on the CD project. The vision was of a little lamb that the children had pictured on their school supplies, their backpacks, lunch boxes and even on their clothes. They all knew that this little lamb represented Jesus and it made them feel safe to have him at school with them where he was against the rules. The song was called Mary’s Lamb. I ignored this vision for the longest time, thinking it was too much for me to handle. The vision was obviously an end result of a much bigger picture.
Retiring from the entertainment business when my second son was born, my husband helped me start my own screen print business. I had it for several years until it grew too large for me to handle. I tried to hire help but they couldn’t produce the quality product I insisted on, so I sold the business at a profit. A nearly perfect plan, God knew that I could make these printed items, but how was I going to sell them? How was I going to make this lamb that popular?
When my husband had an attack and found out he had congestive heart failure, I had to go to work to help support our family. I ended up taking a job with a teddy bear business of all things, and this company was doing over 5 million a year selling bears! When I read that America spent over $440,000,000.00 in one year collecting teddy bears, this gave me the idea to design a stuffed version of the lamb I saw in the vision¬—a jointed plush toy. I sat down and drew the cartoon vision of the lamb, but working and driving a long distance, I never found the time to do anything else with it. I also had a few bookings left in my music ministry, so I was trying to find time to travel, too.
I wanted to share my idea for the lamb with my boss at the teddy bear company, but before I could, several things happened on this job to make me uncomfortable enough to leave it. I have never quit a job in my life, but things were going on in this place that were so bad, that after I left, they must have figured I knew too much, because they blocked any communication I had with my boss, and even stopped the US mail when I tried to write to him and his wife and tell them why I had to leave. Looking back, now I know that God had only placed me on this job temporarily until I could learn the plush market trade in China— since almost all plush toys in America are made there. I was not there to solve their company problems or disrupt their business. The short three months I was there, I learned a lot about employees and what not to do in business. The warehouse supervisor was an alcoholic that drank on the job, and the person they wanted me to train for my job smoked pot on his breaks and at lunch. Outside of one good friend I made while I was there, I felt so lost that I became obsessed with lambs and saw them everywhere. I took them as signs from God and even printed up a little white teddy bear with a shirt that said “I’d rather be a lamb” and put it on my desk.
I set that company up with the right equipment for the job and helped them learn how to save money by printing their own transfers. But soon I felt like I was being used, and involved in something crooked when my supervisor kept bringing shirts in for me to print for another company. I found out that it was his company and I didn’t think the shirts were being run through our company records. Rumors were circling that I was supposed to train a lower paid person to do my job and then I would be laid off. So before I trained anyone, when my first raise was not coming through as promised, I just walked out and never looked back. I tried to do the right thing, and I’ve prayed so much for that company. This was a very important lesson for me to see what is going on in the workforce today, since I have been self-employed most of my adult years.
It’s no wonder our prisons are filled. There are a lot of messed up people out there who are managing to live their lives and hold down jobs. It’s crazy!
Once free of this company stress, I finally took the time to make the lamb. I pictured him again in my mind, then I made the cutest most cuddly toy you’ve ever seen. Fully jointed and child-safe. I took some sewing in home economics classes in high school, but didn’t remember a thing. I couldn’t even find a pattern for a lamb, so I designed it myself by tearing up a teddy bear and looking at how it was made. I really surprised myself! But I still had the “horse before the cart” so to speak. How was I going to get people to know that this little lamb represented Jesus and get him into our public schools?
One early morning (I was woke at 4:44 am quite often) I was given his name! It was strong and clear. J.C. Lamb would be our reminder of the sacrifice of the Savior! What a great name to remind everyone of Jesus! Next, I was given the idea to sew a heart patch on his chest with the sign of the fish on it. But I still didn’t know how to make this lamb popular on a budget of zero. My husband had congestive heart failure and was being forced to retire on a very small social security check that wouldn’t even make our new (and still unfinished) house payment, so I had to go back to work, afraid I would not have the time to put into this vision any longer. I prayed for more time, because this was my promise to God. How was I going to make this lamb popular?
I ended up taking another job for a screen print specialist, and again I received another lesson in bad business practices and how employees will stab you in the back in a minute. I had this job just long enough to be led to a friend who was a writer. We were both at a book signing. (Which now I know that everyone and their dog can write a book today) But this woman was so excited about becoming a “published author” herself. She was a reporter who was there because of her admiration of the author and her inquisitive nature, and I was there to sell him on a T-shirt design to go with the subject of his book. This is what opened my eyes to the world of writing. These people were so excited about this man’s book and my new friend was so excited about writing that she reminded me of something I’d completely forgotten about— an old dream of mine to write and illustrate children’s books. I had completely forgotten about my first picture book. It was rejected by one publisher and I never tried again. My spelling was horrible and my grammar a disaster, so I decided it was just a dream. But she stirred up memories and I pulled out the old book I wrote in 1993. It was a rhyming book called “Peanut Butter Toes” that taught children not to be afraid of the dark. I met her for lunch one day and showed her my book. She thought it was wonderful, and showed me why it was probably rejected. I had spelled whose, who’s. Soon after I met my new writing friend, I lost my job. This was all in a city I normally never go to.
This is of course was the person I feel God led me to, to help me see how to make the Lamb popular. He wanted me to write a book. It wasn’t just a book either. It was a novel. At first it was called “Meet J.C.” and then when he led me to the Institute and I learned about the secret of Yahweh, that became the new title of the book. He gave me the idea of the voice of Jesus to come blasting out of J.C. Lamb’s heart, just behind his heart patch, and He gave me the idea of the comic book youth lesson on the Master of the Universe and the greatest superhero of all time. He had me teach His commandments and prove how people can be so led astray. Who knew that the fall of man was still in process and that changing the name of Yahweh to Lord had a lot to do with the “bad angel’s” plan to confuse us all of these years!
I’ve laughed, I’ve cried and my hair is long and gray now, but the book was finally complete by 07-07-07. Other than a few more spelling and grammar mistakes to find and correct here and there, this was the date I knew God gave to me for the deadline. It wasn’t until the seventh revision that He gave me the idea of the Give and Share Book™ to help spread the Word and hopefully make the book float in a sea of over 350,000 self-published books a year!
The J.C. Lamb ministry tells our testimony and asks for donations to help get him out there, but for years, no one donated a dime to support the promise. It was mostly because I hated to ask for money. I left it up to the website of jclamb.org and God’s timing. Then my son finally graduated in 2007 after watching me struggle with the book for years, praying my husband’s health would hold up long enough to let him work until I kept my promise and God provided for us. I learned as I went. (Since I am not really a trained writer or illustrator) He was the one who made the entrepreneurial suggestion to incorporate the ministry into Mary’s Lamb, Inc. and sell shares of stock to friends and family to help me pay to publish and market the book. This was when I learned why the college talked Him into changing his major!
So now, the book is out thanks to the few shareholders we have, and God is working to help me keep my promise! My son took one year to help me get the business off the ground and the China negotiations started, then he returned to college, still determined to get that degree in chemistry!
Now, God is clearly telling me, through Richard’s review, that this is not just another children’s book. It is for HIS children of all ages, and especially the ones who are lost. Now I feel like he is telling me he wants Mary’s Lamb to go to Prison! So that is my new goal. I was already in the process of sending books over to the troops in Iraq. I thought the love of Jesus, through a child’s eyes would comfort them. And today I hear in my heart that prisoners need comfort, too!
This is where you come in. Who do I talk to and how do I find a way to pay the cost on these books so I can send them out to the prisons? Who would help me with this project?

Thank you for ALL your time. I am sorry my post was long, but God wanted you to know the whole story. There must be someone out there that He wants me to meet.

Lamb Hugs,
LeFerna

Investing In Jesus - J.C. Lamb is Finally Here!: When Times are Tough, We Turn to God

Investing In Jesus - J.C. Lamb is Finally Here!: When Times are Tough, We Turn to God

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/08/prweb1182774.htm

40 Years in the Wilderness

Have you noticed how God seems to work through the talents He gives people? I never really stopped to look at my talent as God-given. I didn't feel "talented" because I had to work so hard at what I did. It didn't feel like it just came naturally. I was a dummy! No, Destiny Fox and Stew the Lamb are my dummies, I was an idiot!! I never thought of it as a gift, it was just something I was exposed to a lot, so I decided to do it, too. It started when my dad sat me in the floor in diapers in front of one of his guitar-playing and singing friends. I rocked back and forth for several songs until I finally fell asleep. Eleven years later I was given the same clarinet my sisters used to get started in band so we could march and perform like my mother did in school. I was the only one who wanted to be a majorette like her. And I was. Thirteen years after I sat in diapers listening to my dad's friend play and sing, I had a guitar and was doing the same thing right along with him. At fourteen I was winning contests and landed a spot as a regular on local TV. But I worked hard at this. It was not natural. But now I know it is the desire to do these things that is my gift. But it took awhile. For years (thirty or something) I played an instrument and sang; I had my own band, I sang in some of the best known establishments, I won more contests, I had my songs recorded. But when it came time to "make it," something always went wrong... and in some cases, painfully wrong. Let me just say that I had every terrible thing that could be done to woman that I could still manage to crawl away from a smarter and wiser woman.

It wasn't like I was ego-driven at all, which may have been the problem, since so many people are better at selling themselves than I was back then. I loved the friendships I made and the attention. Yes, I love attention. But it was still like something was missing; I had a fear of success, I had lack of self-esteem, I was too fat, it was always something. Then I had jealous and abusive husbands (yes, I have had more than one) who either used me for their own gain, or made sure my feelings held me back. The first husband left me after six years because I was overweight, on our son's first birthday. "I can't be married to a fat woman," he said. Then the second husband stepped in as a father figure for my son. He was great with my him, but sometimes abusive with me. But don't think I didn't give it right back! But this time of my life, I didn't carry a gun, but I packed a mean wallop of defense! For five years I remained the loyal wife. I even went to Alanon trying to understand his outbursts of anger. What I loved most was that he was my manager and kept me working, but then he grew jealous of the men in my band, so I had to start working a single act. I felt very alone. It was never the same again.

After five years he took me to Michigan, and we turned out to never have been legally married in the first place because he was still married to someone else there! While he married me in Texas, he knew perfectly well his wife in Michigan had never divorced him! He'd just left her! What a character HE was! That is one of those unbelievable things that happened in my life, that I know had to have a much bigger picture. I do believe some marriages are not God-planned. I've read in the book of Mark about divorce and how you are an adulterer after you've been divorced, but when they divorce you and you have no choice, that has to be an exception to the rule. And you can't stay in a marriage where you are beaten and abused both physically and mentally. This can't be a marriage recognized by God, as far as I'm concerned– and in my case God was showing me who to marry. This joke of a man I thought I was married to, was the conduit that led me to my "real" husband—the one I've been with for over twenty years. How else would I have ever gotten to Michigan? It's not like people in Texas just say; "I think I'll move to Michigan!" As beautiful as it is, I missed the Seattle area, where my career began, so much, that it took real love to get me to stay in Michigan. Plus God gave me another son. I now had two sons, ten years apart and eventually gave up my career to stay home and raise them, (with much coaxing from my husband). I wasn't lonesome anymore... but after awhile I really missed singing.

I'm getting ahead of myself a little here...

Before I arrived in Michigan, since I was lonesome on stage, going from having a full band to working a single, I made a little man. A little man that loved me unconditionally and LOVED to hear me sing! His name was Omar. I made him out of soft-sculpture and pantyhose. I gave him big blue eyes and a bald head. (If he was too attractive my husband may have been jealous again!) I attached his head, arms and legs to my one-man-band type of instrument, called an Omnichord back then, and I didn't have anymore good-looking lead players or drummers to love (as good friends) that would get me in trouble. I was set. Or was I?

I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I! Have you ever heard the word "I" so many times in one blog before?

It was all about me! Where was God? Was life really all about me? Who gave me the desires I was struggling with and not using at their fullest? Why was I being abused? Because I was going in the wrong direction? Wow! I think "I" finally got it! I needed Him in my life so I would have more U-U-YOUs!

Nope. I was wrong again. But I was getting closer now with God more prominent in my life.

The "right" direction was better, but there was still a problem. (I lived near NASA for awhile. During some of my "married to the band" troubles I loved to tell the guys; "Houston! We've got a problem!" (By the way, when did an H start becoming silent? When did we become Yumans instead of Humans, and learn Istory instead of History?— I never once heard "Youston, we have a problem" when I was in Houston!)

Anyway... (No, I am not on drugs! Been there, done that!) Did I tell you that one of my gifts is honesty? Sometimes it's not for my own good! I have been known to wear my foot in my mouth quite often.

Once I was in Michigan where God set me up with a good providing husband and roots, for the first time in years, I could see more clearly with my heart. I missed too many little hints along the way because I was not "spiritual" enough before. I didn't look at things as communication or signs like I do now. I didn't go to church, but for some reason I felt drawn to singing in church where they wouldn't care how fat I was. They would accept me for me. But what would they think of Omar? I changed his name to Ezekiel and we gave it a try. But no. He was Omar for too many years and I didn't know how to have an Ezekiel act... after I finished singing "Them bones" while I slowly put him together, I wasn't sure what to do next! My comedy found no comfortable place in the Bible. My Omnichord sounded so much like a toy compared to some of the better music ministry projects. If I was going to do this for God instead of myself, I wanted to do it "right."

But I soon found out nothing feels "right" when you are going the wrong way with your talents.

When I found out my mother was dying of cancer, the first thing I did was write a song for her and go into the studio to record it. It wasn't easy, but my parents were thrilled with it. My mom was "sick" most of my life and the song was all about finally getting to stretch her wings. She loved it. Dad played it for her over and over while she lay dying. What I didn't realize at the time is that I just wrote my first Christian song. Something else that seemed to intrigue me was that as soon as they found out she was dying they looked for a church to go to! THAT was something that made me feel very curious. I didn't know why. I'd never seen them go to church in all my life. This told me there is more to this Jesus thing than I realized. I loved God. Talked to God. I knew His angels protected me many times. But my parents never took me to church. They couldn't even remember if I was Baptized or not. I learned about God from my sister when I was little. She said I better be good because there was a mean man up there that would strike me with lightning if I wasn't! So I developed a good, close, talking relationship with this "mean man" early in life so I could stay on his nicer side!

Two days after my mother died, my father died, too! He died of a brain aneurysm. After I got over the shock, I thought about how sweet it was, as I remembered my Dad saying he wanted to spend his "golden years" with my mother, feeling as though God was cheating him out of it. I think he has a special relationship with God that I never knew about and going to church helped him see it again. Iwa Jima left him with an unwillingness to share much about his personal feelings. But I saw this as God's way of being good to him. I remember the disappointment I felt that he left without warning, because I didn't get to write a song for him! So I quickly wrote a poem to be read at the funeral after they played the song I wrote for mother (which was their request) It haunted me that I never learned to play the fiddle for him either. So that was what the poem was about. Fiddle players in Heaven.

There were messages in this whole thing for me. After the funeral we had to take care of all of our family things that had accumulated for nearly 44 years, and I found my grandmother's old Bible. Inside was my baptismal certificate from when I was a baby! So I wasn't "unchurched" my whole life! No, actually the memories flooded back of how much I loved to attend Sunday schools and VBS when I got to stay at my grandparent's telephone exchange in Camargo, Oklahoma. (They owned the phone company) My favorite part was the singing. But more than anything I think I liked the attention. (smile) Everyone in town knew my grandparents, so I got special attention going to church. It was fun. Today I look at all the children that never have either of those luxuries. But there it was. Proof I was a child of God! The first thing I did with my inheritance money was to send some to the local church of the same denomination of the church where I was baptized. I visited a few times, too. But I was still in the habit of lazy, selfish Sundays.

A few months passed and I wrote and recorded a song called "Tell Mother and Daddy I Love Them" and I sang it in a new church I was going to. I started at this church when someone invited me to hear a Christian Country singer there. Another planned step, I'm sure! I was VERY impressed. I didn't know people did that in church. He sang 20 minutes and sold everyone CDs and tapes. That was my kind of church! When I sang for them, the people in the church encouraged me to go into music ministry, too, so that is what I did.

I wanted to do my ministry right, so I registered for a music ministry seminar in Estes Park, Colorado. I also auditioned at the local community college for a music scholarship and won it, too! I wanted to be more than an "ear-trained" composer and wanted to brush up on my writing, too. I won a full scholarship at age 42! Then soon after that, my world of I-I-I started falling apart!

I didn't get the message here yet either. First it was the fire that took our home. But I was still determined to go to this seminar two weeks later! Then, the weekend before we left, I fell down the steps at the church and severely sprained my ankle. But I still went and hobbled all over the hills on foot. With little money after the fire (fighting with the insurance company—which went on for 7 years while we lived in the barn.) I took my youngest son with me and we had to travel by BUS 26 hours each way. It was a good experience for both of us. Then as soon as we got back, I continued in the wrong direction with my talents. I started school and the first week, my oldest son crashed into a church! (I think I wrote about all this in the "Investing in Jesus" post.) So I of course quit school and gave up the scholarship.

While I was in the hospital with my "dying" son Travis, I put headphones on him and played Christian Hip Hop music, since a nurse told me their hearing was the last to go. I felt SO heartsick, raising him unchurched like I did. Would he be saved? Is her scared? That was when I brought in a pastor to Christen him. This was the first sign I got that he would live. He raised his knee up in the bed. Doctors said at best he'd be a vegetable the rest of his life. But for some strange reason I was still singing!!! I wrote a positive Christian lullaby for him as he lay in the coma and I sang it in his ear every night for weeks, until I found him taping his toe to the music one day! (To the Hip Hop, not the lullaby) Since God obviously heard my prayers and my promise— when I told Him if he spared my son I would tell more people about His—the miracles were unending! And the horrible things they did to him in that hospital, giving him up for dead. What a story I have to write about that!

I was so thankful that none of us were hurt in the fire, and now this. What was God trying to tell me, or show me? There was a much bigger picture here. People don't just crash their cars into churches!

I knew there was a reason the only thing I had left from the fire was my music and computer recording equipment, too. So after all the miracles we received while my firstborn son was in that awful hospital were phenomenal! He was going to live! Maybe it was his song that was going to be heard by the right people. I never thought about the fact that every good music ministry has a good testimony to tell, and this was a DOOZY crashing into a church to become radically saved!

What a blessing it was to watch your child learn everything from an infant state, the second time in his life! He had to learn how to sit up and balance, talk, read, write, stand alone, feed himself, dress and walk... he set goals and by Christmas was out of the hospital. One year later he decided he would go back to college and get his degree. It took him eight years and about 150,000 dollars he didn't have, but he did it!

SO... After watching my son go from coma to college... during that eight years I was also learning to a HUGE degree!

My good husband sold off a collection of his so I could have enough money to record a "project" or CD in Nashville. I needed ten songs. The Adult A.D.D. I'd finally been diagnosed with, caused a lack of focus that barely allowed me to make it to the ninth song by the deadline. That ninth song was "Mary's Lamb" that came with the HUGE vision of this little lamb that I knew was much too big for me to handle. The dreamer that I am, saw all those kids with that lamb on their clothes, backpacks and school supplies, and I just put it aside. I'd had screen printing experience and knew the expense involved. But God wasn't going to let me forget this vision! I just didn't know it yet.

I found a producer out of the Singing News Magazine. He seemed wonderful enough. Had a lot of credits to his name and I was drawn to him. When I got to Nashville I had no idea that he was with TBN studios. (Trinity Broadcast Network) I can't begin to tell you the experiences I had in that place. It was awesome and scary all at the same time. It was on the grounds of the old Conway Twitty mansion. The whole recording experience was thrilling for me, but I still only had nine songs. That meant when my CD was put on cassette, the sides would not match and they would have to eliminate a song. For some reason Mary's Lamb was no longer the ninth song. Another song was cut instead. The song that was cut was a swing tune called "This Stone's for You!" all about how we shouldn't judge or throw stones at people.

"Is this stone for you, to cast without a doubt? Is this stone for you? Or is this stone for you, to hold and think about; then know on jugement day— the stone you're holding in your hand, could have been your heart!"

The song was really one of my favorites to perform. I had a rose quartz stone shaped like a heart and I would toss it in the air and catch it. Or not. My kids bust out laughing at a Gospel concert when I missed and dropped it. The one with the brain injury had trouble keeping his emotions under control sometimes and he would get the other one going who was only ten at the time. The conservative congregation did not think it was funny at all!!! My boys never got to go to any more of my more "serious" concerts. They were used to me making people laugh and the oldest always loved saying he couldn't help it, that he was filled with the Joy of the Lord.

I will never forget our first Communion after his accident. I was having trouble picking up my portion of bread and holding up the line. The first laughed, then the younger, and of all things... I could not hold it back myself! I was SO embarrassed. A time when we are paying our respects to Jesus and we were ALL filled with the Joy of the Lord. It was just so nice to have my son back in our lives! I'm sure God understood. But then again, maybe that was another lesson I needed to learn.

Back on track here... God's gift of talents —moving in the wrong direction.

I started my ministry, with a project ready to sell like all the rest of them were doing and just how I was taught to do at the seminar. I joined a gospel music club and started doing concerts. I also had another ministry going with my youngest son and the teenagers at our church at the time. He led it, and they were high flying swing-dancers for Christ, dancing to Christian swing music and we brought several kids into the church and toured the western states one year. I taught dance and acrobatics for years when I was younger. My mother and sister were both dance teachers, too. I had forgotten the story she told me of how people didn't like them dancing, and wouldn't let them dance often in Texas because some faiths didn't believe in it. But I thought that was probably a thing of the past, since it mentions dancing all over in the Bible. Boy was I wrong! Several people in the gospel music club heard I was also a dancing teacher and they refused to come to any concerts that I took the "Christian Swingkids" to. What was happening? Why was God showing me this now?

I was confused. Even the seminar featured dancing as expression and made a ministry of it. I thought the point was to reach out to the unchurched and teach them about Christ—however we chose to do it. What was the deal? Why were they so different? Aren't we all Christians here? I had also noticed the gospel music club's bylaws excluded many faiths by only allowing what they believed in. They had just forgotten to say "no dancing" and in my case, "over-entertaining." I felt like this was not right when I did one of their seminars with them and met so many talented people from various faiths who complained that they were being left out of this club because of their faith. Many faiths believe in doing some things in moderation in their private lives that was not allowed at all in this club.

I used to smoke. I smoked for twenty five years. I know how hard it was to quit. I never looked at it as a sin though. Just a weakness and an addiction. Besides. Who are we to judge? I can see having rules that you do not smoke or have a glass of wine anywhere around their functions. But do they have the right to tell you what you can and can't do in your personal life? Things between you and God? How will they ever meet anyone that needs to find Christ if they are only allowing "perfect" people into their group? I noticed the concerts were always people who had the same beliefs and had for the most part already found Christ. Wonderful people who loved to be entertained, but not too much! So when someone made a comment about me being overly energetic on stage. I lost interest in their club. As a matter of fact, I watched as some used their awards and positions for promotional gain. This was in fact the bonus of the club. Their yearly awards. Then I opened my big mouth about how unfair that awards system was when I wasn't allowed to enter any of my new songs in the songwriting competition—and the next year they would be to "old" to enter them. So I complained to the same "friend" that asked me to join in the first place, and he shared my "personal" complaint with the entire board! Now that was a lesson in trust! I did get an award. I got the "Newcomer" award and a letter was C was faded and missing on the abbreviation of asscociation on the front of the trophy. It read; "Gospel Music Ass." Which is exactly what I felt like. But I know now I was supposed to have this experience. My husband wanted me to start another club up for all those "Christian Singers" who were not allowed in the "Gospel Singers" club. This is when I realized "Gospel Music" and "Christian music" are a world apart! Their beliefs are different and one is more conservative than the other so one does not accept the other. Like oil and water. Not the kind of behavior you would expect of God's children. How are people supposed to look at the love of God and Christianity and think they may like to practice it when things like this are going on? And in our music? I realized my songs are more Christian and not gospel at all. I may have a country flavor, but I am not "southern gospel" where my beliefs are concerned. I will always love southern gospel quartet singing, and I am so glad they are showing up now on "the other side" of Christian music for all faiths to enjoy.

I am naive and very outspoken and God loves me for who I am. He needs me to be me in order to complete my destiny He has planned for me. He taught me lesson after lesson. I no longer wanted to have a music ministry. I only joined the group because I needed to be with more people making their living this way. I had a huge guilt of making money off of God. How did they do it? Now I will never know. Besides, all the other messages weren't getting through to me that I was not meant to be there. I had my music cued wrong numerous times, I got twisted in cables and shocked by microphones, and I even fell off the stage once! And I really missed Omar.

Do you hear what I saying here? I hadn't become "spiritual" enough to be where I put myself. These people have an awesome relationship with God and do not stand for anyone coming in and messing that up. That is great for them! I just didn't fit into their picture with Jesus yet.

It was on my last "booking" at a fair in the little town of Aline, Oklahoma where my dad grew up, that I think God finally reached me. I drove there alone, like many times before, and played my music while I practiced for the concert. I rarely performed the song "Mary's Lamb" and I really didn't know why, since it was the only one I always remembered the words to. When the song came on my disc player, I saw a highway sign dedicated to someone by the name of Lamb. Then when it played again, I looked up at the clouds and I saw the shape of a lamb. I tried to pass it off as just coensadence.

The concert was rained out by a HUGE thunderstorm and I moved to the inside since I was also an MC for other singers at the fair. This is when it dawned on me that they looked at me as a "gospel singer." Wow. So for some reason I never learned any of my "Gospel" songs on my Omar, and they were disappointed that I didn't. They were there to hear Christian music which was not what I planned to do at their fair. The crowd loved Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves and Brenda Lee, but they wanted to hear the songs I wrote on the Moving Mountains CD. It wasn't that I couldn't play them on Omar, it was just that TBN studios were kind of hard to reproduce on a toy! (By the way Omnichords are not a toy. You have to know chords and music theory really helps since the oldest model I use is missing many chord buttons. I just called it that. Today there is a lot of people who use them and they are much more sophisticated and called a Q-chord.) I wouldn't have done myself justice to try to play my Nashville recorded songs! Now, I don't know why I felt that way. I did Patsy Cline and Etta James songs.

I put the song tracks in and did the concert without Omar. And I decided to sing "Mary's Lamb" and they loved it so much, that I think I liked it better myself. I finished the concert, but I cried myself to sleep that night after watching a full old-time country band play at their dance. It was the first time ever, that people didn't know me and invite me up to sing a few songs with them. That hurt so bad. So something was still missing here. I didn't want to be "just" a Gospel or Christian singer, because I felt like I couldn't entertain people. It was all for the glory of God, so I couldn't cut loose and laugh and have a good time on stage. (Or at least I was made to feel that way by some people) I missed entertaining "the other kind of people" and it was starting to show. But I had a promise to keep. What was I going to do now?

On the way home, I prayed and listened to my music again, wondering what I was going to do with all the CDs I had. "Mary's Lamb" came on my player again. I was taking a different way back after visiting some old friends of my parents, when I saw a registered sheep ranch with a sign out front that said "Lambs for Sale." I laughed and said aloud; "God, I do not have enough property to raise sheep!" (Not thinking of the message there).

When I got back to work, the place I normally went for lunch, had a new sign next to it that read; "Precious Lambs Daycare." I was becoming obsessed with lambs! I saw them everywhere! When some people counted them to fall asleep I was wide awake wondering where they were all coming from! I was working as a screen print specialist helping this company learn to make their own transfers for their teddy bear t-shirts, so I printed up a little hoodie that said "I'd Rather Be a Lamb" and I bought one of their pure white teddy bears to put it on. It sat on my desk and smiled at me daily. I loved my job. They were very easy going for the most part and they all seemed to really like me. Then everything started getting strange. People were stabbing each other in the back to keep their jobs, and I was told they were going to get rid of me once I trained someone else. That triaining began and he was smoking pot out the side doors on his break, so I wanted nothing to do with working with him while he was on drugs. I was also printing shirts that were being brought in and out for another company that my supervisor had... and I know how much profit was being lost by the company I worked for when I did this for him. It was all weird. When it came time to get the first raise I was supposed to get, he acted like he knew nothing about it and wasn't going to give it to me, so I quit. I had never quit a job in my life! Come to think of it, I usually worked for myself. But if this is how it is in the work world, I would say God was showing me yet again, an important lesson in loyalty. I tried to write to the owners of the company to explain why I left and all that was going on, but again, someone I thought was my "friend" stopped the letter! That is even messing with the US government! So they never did find out any of what was going on in that place, and it probably still is.

This was another stepping stone for me to see God's plan for me. While I was there, I learned about the China Plush market and importing. Did you know that almost all the stuffed animals in the US are made in China? A few that aren't are very pricey. And di you know this country spent $400,000,000.00 in one year alone collecting Teddy Bears? Hmmmm. Why not lambs? At this time I could hardly find a plush lamb anywhere! Just a few from the Russ Co. that I dearly loved. Today, there are more of them, most often at Easter time. You should see my collection!

Anyway. I quit my job! What was I going to do now? My husband was retiring and I needed to make better money than just a gig here or there would pay. And he did not want me going back into "regular" music. On the way home, on the day I quit my job, on the same road I traveled many times, there they were. Through my tears I saw the most beautiful little lambs I had ever seen, all lined up next to the fence in a row. I had never noticed this farm had sheep before. I instantly felt comforted.

I put the song in the CD again. The vision came to me like it had many times, but this time I paid attention to it. I saw the lamb more vividly. He was irresistible! The lyrics said "he's following believers everywhere they go, following believers with hearts as pure as snow, just the thought of lambs at school is comforting and cool, to know that Mary's Lamb can follow you though He's against the rules." BINGO! God was using my music to communicate with me! I remembered how it felt to see my parents go to church, I remembered how it felt to watch my son lay dying and wonder if he was saved or not, I remembered everything He was trying to show me! The only way unchurched children can learn is in school, and now they are trying to take God out of our country, starting with our children! That was the message! But the vision was an end result to the plan. I couldn't just expect kids to know this little lamb represented Jesus and start taking him to school, no matter how cute he was! I was still missing the pieces to this puzzel. If I had been more spiritual, I may have gotten the message more clearly or at least in order! But he needed me to be who I am. I'd even started studying Christianity and the unchurched family, once I felt this was my calling.

I was only a children's entertainer in children's church, as I don't have the patience for unruly children. I didn't mind doing parties or shows for them, as long as their parents were with them to keep them under control. Lets just say that I have a lot of respect for teachers! (I was just spoke to again!) I heard that I entertained unruly adult children for many years. He's right. And His children are all ages. Could He have really meant for me to reach the 100 million unchurched people out there as if they were all children? One song can be heard all over the world. And it all started with a song. But how do you reach the unchurched when they don't normally listen to Christian music stations? That's when it hit me. I would have a stuffed lamb. A stuffed lamb with versed clothing like the little clue on the bear's hoodie read; "I would rather be a lamb." If America loves the teddy bear, why can't they love the Lamb and learn from it, too? A tool to use so others can see a reminder of the love of Jesus. A tool for the billions of Christians who are churched to use to reach the unchurched. I won't be alone in this. God showed me he would send help. And lets make it personable and collectible while we are at it. American loves that!

My music was no longer a talent, it was a tool and I was a vessel! My love for songwriting was only there for HIM to communicate with me. I had to become an entertainer because He needed me to pull this off for a crowd! (And take the tomatoes while showing I was not perfect!) The reason I am attracted to the company of characters when it comes to my music is because He made me that way so I would recognize the character in J.C. Lamb and breathe life into him like ventriloquists do. (which is my hobby) He needed me to see from my heart all that could be done with him. Just one song is all I needed to write. The rest was all preparation for this time in my life. I just never dreamed it would be possible to write a novel! But then how else would I reach 100,000,000 people? It was the hardest thing I have done in my entire life. God knows.

It's been a long nine year process and I am excited now to share what all He gave me to put into that book. Once I finally took myself or all the "I-I-I" out of my life, I wasn't so afraid to notice that I had actually been CALLED! This is what it means! This is what it feels like. I just had all the signals messed up because He was calling an unchurched person. If I had a pastor to go to earlier in life, he would have explained it all to me. But then maybe not. I had a lot of lessons to learn and a lot of Bible study to catch up on first.

He continues to lead the right people across my path!

At times I feel to blame because my firstborn son will never be the same again, but yet he has the most positive attitude on life. It's hard for a mother to see their once "normal" child struggling to deal with the physical challenges life has brought them. But he is not "less than perfect." He is definately "more than perfect" when I see how God has used him. I still cry when I hear the song I wrote for him. "God Loves You More." I was in shock all the time he was in the coma. I look back now and wonder how I ever got through it, or how I even had the strength to ask for God's help. Must be the Angels sent to prepare the way.

So we went from my vison of a plush lamb with a special heartpatch with the sign of the fish on it, to a lamb that had a player behind the heart that played the song "Mary's Lamb." I planned a full line of clothing for this little guy. Then having him play my song seemed too ego driven, so I decided to have a special heart recorder made that can be taken in and out and personal messages and prayers applied to it. Much more than todlers needed during play (though it would be nice to hear mom or dad's voice when you are left with a sitter) I decided to sell the plush with a little prayer journal inside the pocket behind the heart and sell the heart recorder separately. I'm still struggling to have a full flock of lambs by Christmas. All this was much too expensive for just me. It is too much to handle for just me. I got it all started and invested thousands into it but it now just sits waiting on an Angel investor to make it all happen.

I need to save my money for the book tours so I have to put the lamb on the back burner once again, knowing I have to come up with the rest of the money in September if I want to see them by Christmas. You never know. I am booked to sign and give away 100 books at the International Christian Retail Show in July. Just maybe some stores will order the book!

This too will pass. (I love that) As you can read in my posts, many things have happened to try and stop me. People think I am weird when I tell them this, but I started being woke at 4:44 am each time I was given a thought or idea to help me keep things going. I was just moving at it all backwards. Putting the plush before the book. I don't quite understand the 4:44 thing. But what I do know is that it happened so often I began to pay attention. I would pray if nothing came to me. I just felt like God was there, spending time with me. I got most of my ideas for everything at this time. Always at exactly 4:44 am.

I never realized it before, but writers are actually entertainers!

I am not a good writer, but I had to write the book because it was the only way I could see to make J.C. Lamb popular so we could complete the vision and use the plush and school supplies to get the message out everywhere, especially in schools. The Secret of Yahweh~ The character's every move came to me with ease. I never had training in illustration either, but I loved desktop publishing. So I learned how to use a word processor for more than song lyrics and I learned to draw and scan the pictures.

God showed me that I could do it. But why did He pick someone with bad grammar and one who can't spell? A rhyming picture book would have been nice! But no. We had to have an 83 thousand some odd word novel with over 100 illustrations!

Now He is showing me that the book is for everyone. Every age! For everyone to reach out to all the unchurched people in our country—in the world! The churched will reach the unchurched! We will "give and share" this book with everyone. He says.

So this is what it is like to be "called." I tease that it feels like it was more of a "setup!"

Seriously. I am honored. I am a basket case now, but I am honored!

I look back at my life and all He had me doing to prepare for this. Starting when I landed a regular spot on local television at age 14 and was scared to death every time that little red light went on. My stage fright is over! I'm not afraid to face whatever is thrown at me anymore. I've been through some horrible things with men in my life and right before it was "time" to show me the right direction He gave me a good husband. One that is not "jealous" or abusive. One who will stand behind me when some faiths try to knock down my efforts. One who can't wait for J.C. Lamb to come to life and for me to succeed at something I love!

40 years. It was 40 years that I went through all these things before I realized God was talking to me. This was my 40 years in the wilderness.

Now I am over 50!

Lets get this show on the road!

LeFerna

PS- I posted pictures of Omar and I on our "Fat & Fifty" comeback tour! A "real" job would make it so I couldn't tour and promote J.C. Lamb when I'm led to do so. From the looks of the gas prices at gig rate, I am going to be on foot!

If you see someone waddling along the road with a little old white-haired man under one arm and a cute, cuddly lamb under the other, wearing a sign on her back that reads; "SUPPORT J.C. LAMB OR BUST"

That would be me. (smile)