International Chrsitan Retail show and International Lifeway sessions

Lifeway flew us in early to speak for

international representatives that sell our material worldwide. We always enjoy when our material is translated (our books are now in over 10 languages).
I stayed to be the emcee at AWSA conference (200+ of us women who are authors/speakers). Then I attended Harvest House author dinner, and spent a day on the floor of ICRS meeting with publisher: Harvest House, Focus on the Family.Tyndale, IVP, Lifeway, Mood and WinePress. Things in publishing are changing: electronic books, podcasts, dvd, cd, ezines, radio, TV, blogging, webcasting, phone conferencing, etc. all need to be things on our plate to get our message out in all kinds of formats. We will be communicating with you all with coming plans to adapt to our changing culture. In the group shot are several recognizable speakers and ministry leaders, one of the women has now lost everything in Hurricane Ike so you might hear how we will be walking along side her as she rebuilds. I love this yearly conference as it is "iron sharpening iron" to Bill and I. We come away stronger, better leaders as a result of spending time with some of today's best leaders.

Hearts at Home anniversary

Jill and Mark Savage invites us to speak on their Hearts at Home anniversary cruise (Jill is the founder of Hearts at Home) Bill and I value and appreciate Jill and Mark as friends and leaders, and Hearts at Home is one of our favorite ministries. This was an exiting ministry time, the ship was invited to attend our sessions (and they did!) and We enjoyed getting to know authors, John and Kendra Smiley. (they also raised a strong willed child and we love their books Be the Parent! and Arron's Way). One couple from Honduras invited us down to speak. We had many happy marriage memories of our own on the cruise as well.

Alasakan Adventure

Debbie Douglas has been my friend since college. she was in our wedding! She has become an amazing outdoor educator and Director of Women's Ministries in Juneau. We arranged to travel to Alaska (with Caleb) and we spoke 4 days (in the evening) and during the day we had adventures like kayaking on the bay ad hiking the glacier! Since we travel quite a bit, these kinds of memories are important to share with our children when we can arrange them. Ministry in Alaska was sweet as all sessions were packed out and we worked with several churches. Juneau is a bit off the beaten path so they really appreciated having us there to speak.

Cannon Beach Blessing

One of our favorite places to speak is Cannon Beach Conference Center on the Oregon coast. In the past 18 months Pam and Bill have spoken for a men's conference, a women's conference, a singles conference, a marriage conference, a family Bible conference. Bill has become a favorite Bible teacher there-- he does 12 messages is 6 days (and he is in heaven!) We highly recommend Cannon Beach for family camps, and their summer Bible conference is a great place for family reunions-- they have top notch ten and children's programs. One year when I spoke, it was my birthday and Janet the conference director and Bill secretly planned a surprise for me (flowers and balloon and "Our song" being played at my last session on my birthday.

Bill also celebrated his birthday at a conference this past year and he got all kinds of goodies from one of our favorite churches near St Louis.

I have always told our family-- we don't care where we celebrate or when we celebrate birthdays- as long as we live a life of celebration we can be flexible on the details!

10 Best Dcisions a Couple Can Make and Glad I am a Mom

The spring brought the release of two books: 10 Best Decisions a Couple Can Make (we reworked Every Marriage is a Fixer Upper, tweaked, added to, changed, etc). We have enjoyed speaking on this material and are excited it got new life and a new look! We now have:
10 Best Decisions a Couple Can Make
10 Best Dcisions a Parent Can Make
10 Bewt Dcisions a Woman Can Make
and Bill will be creating the proposal for 10 Best Decisions a Man Can Make and submitting it this year.

Pam had a chapter in heart at Home's new book, I am Glad I am a Mom!

Singapore in the Spring

We were asked by the Government of Singapore to come keynote at the National Marriage Conventions sponsored by the government (yes! the Cabinet sponsors it!) We spoke 6 times, including speaking at a VIP morning session where all the country's media and many high ranking officials attended. We met several in the Cabinet including the VP over the branch sponsoring the event-- he is a wonderful godly christian man. We were very impressed with TOUCH, the co sponsor of the event, as it is the helping arm of a mega Baptist church n the island. We attended services there and it was one of the most moving experiences we have ever had in worship. (Hundreds in the choir, dance team, flags, a powerful message, and incredible musicians!) Bill got food poisoning from bad sushi-- but he recovered just in time to speak at that day's session. Many of you got a frantic email: PRAY! and you did! thanks!

The Joy Zone

Our staff and volunteers have affectionately called our office "the Joy Zone". We have some terrific staff and volunteers:
Robin-- Office manager
Jan- Creative Director (all graphics, website etc)
Plus Debe, Marion, Jeanne, Shelly, and several interns: April, Rachel, and EB.
Pam has always mentored, now it is going to the next level:
Young Women of Influence group (women in ministry or want to be in ministry ages 18-30)-- Many of these women have gone on to garner paid part time and ful time minsitry positions in churches or parachurch organizations.
Ministry Internships
Circle of Influence (budding future authors and speakers) -- this group has produced several published authors now:BJ Jensen: Lovers of the Bible; Marcia Ramsland: Simplify Your Life, Simplify Your Time, Simplify Your Space and several others. Currently three of her women are waiting for contracts from publishers like Harvest House, Focus on the Family/Tyndale.