September

Rockpointe Church - Flower Mound TX
September 12, 2010
Finishing Touch Fall Dinner - Euless TX
September 13, 2010
"Laps For Little Ones 2010" - Denton TX
September 18, 2010
"Designed For Life" - Ozark, MO
September 30, 2010 - - October 02, 2010

October

Reach For the Stars
October 05, 2010

Who's Lisa

Lisa in her own words...

Both Lisa and her Mom, Vicki enjoy the opportunities to answer your questions about who she is and how she got started as a stage performer...

Tell us about your family

We live in Aubrey, TX. My Dad, is a carpenter..he makes furniture and cabinets. My Mom is the Court Administrator for the City of Plano. I have an older brother, Michael and a younger sister, Lori. My sister has 3 children. I have two nieces and one nephew and a favorite brother-in-law. My special Grandmother lives in a little house next to us.

What prompted you to learn sign language?

I wanted to sing ..just like Sandi Patty, but my Mom says I can't sing. My Mom talked to our friend, Marla. She is a Sign Language teacher. My Mom asked Marla to teach me one song. I picked Sandi Patty's song, "In Heaven's Eyes". I had one lesson and learned the whole song. Marla told my Mom I had a gift because I learned the song so fast. Now I know over 300 songs.

How did you begin signing with Sandi Patty?

We went to Sandi's concerts and I always sit in the front row and sign to her songs. KCBI radio let me come to meet Sandi in 2003. I told Sandi that I wish I could sign with her. Sandi came to Denton, TX for a Christmas concert in 2004. Sandi used her finger and called me up on stage. She asked me if I knew 2 songs and I told Sandi I know ALL your songs. Sandi said "come on, let's go... take a deep breath". All the people clapped and clapped and stood up on their feet. I love Sandi very much.

Do you like traveling?

You go to a lot of WOF conferences! Do you like traveling?

I love Women of Faith. They are like my other family. I used to go to Women of Faith and just watch everybody talk and sing. I like it when I can sign with Sandi and Sheila and Kathy Troccoli and Avalon and the Worship Team.

I practice everyday so I can travel with them and do good and sign with Sandi. God is so good to me and I keep praying He will open more doors for me so I can sign for God. I love to meet all my fans and give them hugs. They always ask me if they can give me a hug and I tell them go right ahead. I love hugs. I never get tired and I love to laugh with Lucy and Marilyn and Patsy, and my friend Anita Renfro. She's good for my liver... she really makes me laugh! She is my red carpet woman!

My Mom likes to talk to all the mothers about me. Sometimes she tells them funny stories and sometimes she cries with them. But they are not sad tears...they are tears of joy.

Lisa's Mom answers your Questions

What is it like to see your daughter used to minister to so many people?

First, you love to see that your child is happy and doing what they believe they are meant to do. I'm so proud of Lisa because she has worked so hard and never gave up on God answering her prayers. She knew she was going to sign with Sandi some day "because God told her".

Her faith is strong, which is what every Mom desires. Our God is full of surprises and we should never take Him for granted and think that He can't use us. He loves us with such unconditional love and He gives each of us a gift or talent that can be used, whether we're disabled or not.

All we need to do is surrender our will for His... have a heart to serve Him... and He will do the rest. God is faithful and He is faithful to Lisa. I couldn't be more proud of her and for her that God has chosen to use her to touch so many in a unique way. I stand amazed and yet...why??

Our God is an awesome God... nothing is impossible with Him.

How did Lisa learn to sign?

Lisa had just one, 1½ hour lesson with a sign language teacher, a friend of ours named Marla. Marla taught her to write out the lyrics; look each word up in the sign language book, and write the page number of the sign over the word for her reference. She did that for many of the first songs she learned. As she began to learn more and more songs and signs, she no longer wrote out the lyrics. She uses six signing books, a dictionary, a thesaurus and aslpro.com to assist her in finding the signs she looking for. If she can't find the exact sign, she looks up the word in the dictionary and thesaurus until she can find a match. Now, occasionally, she has challenges with distinguishing between "can" (able) and "can" (a drink) or "there" and "their". Words like that which sound the same but have different meanings. But once she has the signs of the song, she puts the music with it and practices over and over, hours every day. When she has the song finished, (in her heart), you can usually hear her squealing throughout the house.

She'll come running telling me she knows it! God helped her and put it in her heart and she is READY to do it! People have asked if she has taken ballet or drama because of her artist ability to move with the song and express the meaning of the song, but she has not taken either. She has a gift from the Lord that is unique, angelic.... making most people move to tears.

Vicki on Lisa's Down Syndrome

When you learned that Lisa had Down's syndrome, how did that affect your dreams for her?

Of course, my hopes and dreams for her included her becoming a productive young woman, one that could be as self-sufficient as she could be. Learning that she had Down syndrome initially saddened me. We cried... but just literally for minutes. We had 8 weeks of loving on this special child before it was confirmed... not seeing her as anything but a special baby girl that I wanted so badly after having three miscarriages. Her having Down syndrome was just part of life now.

After reading and learning about Down syndrome, I had a desire that no one see Lisa as a burden, should I not be around. I wanted people to see that Lisa had value. Lisa was special and she was unique in her own way. Once I became a believer, I saw she was unique in God's own way. A friend shared with me and taught me how to look up scripture and pray God's Word earnestly for my children. His Word does not return void. I prayed that Lisa would grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. When Lisa graduated from High School I believed it would be real easy for her to obtain a job because she functioned at such a high level. We worked with Mental Health and Mental Retardation for 8 years and I couldn't understand why God did not open any doors for employment. But in the mean time, Lisa continued to practice her signing for hours each day. Now, I can see, the Lord never opened those doors for such a time as this. I believe God was preparing Lisa to be the little minister she has become...to bring joy and laughter and hope to all those she's been privileged to meet. Did she exceed my expectations... well, I'd say God answered my prayers exceedingly, abundantly above all that I asked or even thought would be possible for Lisa!

Latest News - Jan 2010

January 2010

Well, we finished 2009 blessed to be able to serve the Lord and be apart an awesome group of young women, the Journey of Sisters. The last six months of 2009 was a tough year for all as we struggled to understand why our sweet friend and leader, Amy, was taken from us. Thankfully, we can find comfort in knowing and believing she was in God’s hands from the start and ready to be with Him according to His plan for her. So we move on trusting God to direct and guide us wherever He would have us to go... doing whatever He would have us to do.

As we look back over the year, Lisa had several opportunities to be with some pretty awesome people. Our cruise with Kathy Troccoli was just incredible. Meeting and performing with Mark Harris, Mark Lowery was so fun…seeing and laughing with old friends from WOF (Chonda Pierce)…and time with Avalon and of course, Kathy couldn’t be beat…. Meeting and making new friends was just a gift on top of it all!!

A special highlight of the year was getting to meet and perform with Charice, YouTube singing sensation discovered by David Foster. Charice and Lisa performed at the Best Buddies Gala in Dallas. When David Foster saw a video of the two, he asked Lisa to join them at three of his ten David Foster & Friends concert tour stops. We went to Chicago, Ft Lauderdale and Los Angeles. What a blast!! Charice and Lisa claimed to be the diva-sisters and were arm and arm the whole time. They did autographs, photos, and TV interviews together. We were blessed to meet new friends Deborah Cox, Kathy Sledge, Ruben Studdard (American Idol), the Four Canadian Tenors, and Peter Cetera….not to mention David Foster himself…the legend…the “hit-man”. In LA, we were able to see and talk with Dr. Phil and wife Robin again who were sitting on the front row as Lisa and Charice performed. We caught up with them later at David Foster’s party. It was an awesome experience and one we’ll never forget. Many thanks go to Jan Miller and American Airlines for making it all possible.

News Update - October 2009

October 2009

So much has happened since my last update on Lisa and the journey she is on. Some of you may have noticed how light Lisa’s schedule has been. Lisa has had to face one of the biggest challenges in her life…. the death of her best friend, Amy Jones… the founder, leader, and mentor of Journey of Sisters. Amy and Lisa met at a Women of Faith Conference and remained the best of friends ever since. Amy saw the potential in Lisa to be an inspiration to those hurting and those with family members who were intellectually challenged. However, Amy would never place Lisa in that category as she always said it was the rest of the world who were intellectually challenged… NOT Lisa!

News Update - May 2009

May 2009

I can’t believe nearly half this year has gone by!! What a year this has been for Lisa! In January she joined Sandi Patty while Sandi was doing a concert in Lancaster, TX. That couldn’t have been a better way to start off the new year for Lisa! She was in her glory performing with Sandi again. One of the 4 numbers they did was Operator. Lisa loves to tell people how they “hammed” it up! And they really did!! Lisa’s Mom sat in the audience just shaking her head in disbelief…with Mama T (Thelma Wells) telling her “it’s OK”! Lisa loves performing with Sandi!!!

June 2008

Latest News
June 2008

Well, my goodness…where has the first part of this year gone!!! Between Lisa’s teeth project, her signing, and my job…this year is zooming by like no other….but we’re totally blessed by the Lord through it all! The update on Lisa’s teeth is fabulous and a HUGE praise to our Lord! After some delays and then waiting for our dedicated and loyal oral surgeon, Dr. Michael Ellis, to return from his tour in Iraq , our three doctors got their schedules coordinated and Lisa had her surgery. Dr. Cunningham performed the surgery, with Dr. Ellis overseeing it and Dr. Todd Baumann (her Prosthodontist) checking it all out too. Lisa had 13 teeth extracted and 8 implants put in all at the same time! You talk about a little trooper full of courage….that was Lisa! To allow Lisa the capability of continuing her signing in between dental appointments, Dr Baumann re-fashioned her old “ California ” teeth as a short, temporary fix to give her some healing time before prepping her remaining molars for crowns and fitting her new permanent, temporary teeth. YEAH! Her new temporaries look so good and she no longer has to take and/or switch her teeth out in public to eat any more! Oh, how she enjoyed that first meal! Her headaches have ceased and she no longer flips or nearly loses her teeth in the middle of a song or sentence! Yeah!!!! God is good!!!

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