Music By Which to Change the World

Shaun Groves-0471
Shaun Groves on the Third World Symphony tour.

There’s this guy I know.

His name is Shaun. He’s a blogger, which is primarily how I know him. He also makes really good music. If you’ve been around Christian music long enough you have probably heard his songs on the radio. I confess I didn’t love his popular stuff of years ago. Too country or something. 
But his last album was different. It spoke to a path I’ve been walking for a few years now. It is somewhat folksy and totally worshipful. This music carries with it deep meaning. It’s called Third World Symphony and it’s one of my very favorite albums now. If you frequent Kosmos Coffee in Katy you’ve surely heard it playing through the speakers.
Shaun also happens to work for one of my very favorite organizations, Compassion International. I’ve written about them many times. Compassion works around the world mainly through child sponsorship to free children from a life of extreme poverty. Kids are fed and educated and loved on. 
I wrote about my decision to sponsor a little girl from Kenya a couple years ago. I wanted a daughter and my husband didn’t want to adopt one. So I did the closest thing I could think of. Now little Mbeyu and I send letters and pictures back and forth and I pray for her daily. She tells me how the Christmas money I sent bought her a new dress and a bag of rice for her whole family (six brothers and sisters). Her parents are Muslim but she loves Jesus and asks me to pray for them. Last week she told me how her little gospel dance group won first place in a competition. She also drew a beautiful picture…I think it’s supposed to be me. 
I know Compassion International does amazing work. I’ve seen the spectacular fruit of their labor in a young lady named Maureen Owino who grew up as a sponsored child and now works with my friend Kristen Welch to run Mercy House, a maternity home in Kenya. Her story is one of thousands of successes with Compassion. 
Compassion works in 26 countries, helping 1.2 million kiddos break the cycle of poverty. It doesn’t take much to get involved at all, it’s less than the cost of one dinner at a cheap restaurant for my family a month.

Shaun-Groves-Third-World-Symphony-iTunes-banner-200x200So back to Shaun. He tours around giving concerts so that he can talk about Compassion and help get children sponsored. When I heard that I immediately asked him to come play at our church. We finally worked it out, and he’s coming this Saturday. (!!!)

If you live in Greater Houston, you really should come hear him this weekend. 7pm at The Fellowship at Cinco Ranch in Katy. It’s totally free and my other friend’s band, Forlorn Hope, will be opening for Shaun. I promise you won’t regret it.

If you can’t come, please visit Compassion’s page and look at the kids waiting for sponsors. Even if you can’t sponsor one, just read about them and pray over them. It makes a real difference.

Songwriting In a Mini-Van

Here’s a confession I don’t know if I’ve made here on this blog previously: I want to write music. Songs, specifically. Music means more to me than almost anything and I just wonder sometimes how people come up with such miraculous combinations of lyric and melody. Sure I can sing and I can even play the piano, but writing music is not something I’ve ever really done.

Well I did once. I was 15 years old and had a guitar that I could barely play. My song was called “The Messy Hair Blues”. Yep. 
I’ve written bits and pieces of lyrics in the past year but I’ve failed to follow through with them. 
So I was completely and utterly surprised when I watched this video from Christy Nockels about how she wrote the songs to her amazing new album Into The Glorious. Seriously, these are great songs…annointed, even. 
She says most of them were written in her mini-van. Many while shuffling her kids to and fro. Much like how I spend a big chunk of my time. Go ahead, watch this video and see for yourself! 

If she says writing music in her mini-van works for her, maybe I could give it a shot.

Now go check out her new album because it’s really really good. Especially for listening to in a mini-van. It’s available on iTunes and Amazon.

Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of Christy’s album and compensated for this post. But that doesn’t make it any less true.