• Since the last REAL Newsletter Stephanie Pauline has done 7 radio interviews in OH, NE, CO, MN, and MI, (you can listen to some of them on the media alerts upper left) three concerts in the Portland area, and several in the Springs.  One concert was done at The Union Gospel Mission in Oregon.  (I, Stephanie, will share that God moved and one woman in particular came up after the concert and told me over and over how God had brought me there for her.  She needed what God has revealed to her through my story and through the teaching I had done on free will.  She began to cry and I just held her.  She then went on to tell me heartbreaking details of her family's struggle with incest and the toll that has taken on her children.  What could I say?  I just cried with her and prayed over her life and her children.  Big or small we are all grappling with the reality of living on a fallen planet with sin and its consequences erupting in various ways in our lives and the lives of those around us.  God's grace alone can bring beauty in this brokenness.  No matter the trial, or what it means about who God is to you - know this - God is here and He loves you with an unfailing love.  This pain is NOT his heart towards you.  He doesn't want all these less than loves and lifes we choose, and are chosen by others around us, but He is not above using them all for our good if we'll let him.  That's a costly statement,
  I know and I risk losing you because I said it.  But I said it.  God is willing and able to splash in the mess with us. Wrestle with Him if you doubt...God will show you what you need to know.)
  
• More than Music is in the process of walking Southern CO Youth for Christ through the myriad details of sponsoring, promoting and producing a successful benefit concert.  We are hoping to raise $20,000 net for this great cause.  See more to the left!  We have over 20 financial and in kind corporate and private sponsors on board right now to fund, and enable the concert scheduled for May13th 2011. 

A HUGE THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!  Thank you to Woodmen Valley Chapel, American Family, DC Custom Construction, Global Procurement Solutions, Chick Fil A, Kohls, Ascend Printing, Falcon Designs, Pikes Peak Traveland, Pikes Perk, Cure 9090 Mobile Windshield Repair, Learning RX, Russ Gordon Real Estate, JR Roofing, Embassy Suites, Eagle Lake Bible Camp, Chiropractic First, New Life Church, Fariscy Boys, Golden's RV, and Maxine's Salon!

• I was overjoyed to discover at our year end board meeting at the end of January that More than Music raised/ or directly gave over $20,000 net to worthy causes and partner non-profits in 2010 alone!  We are quickly developing and expanding our ability to help other non-profits raise money and awareness for their cause, through our benefit concert work and in time through a new artist program we are brainstorming.
• An unexpected delay occured and finally the"Toy Soldier" video is  set to be released next week to correspond with the radio promotion for the song.  Pray for direction in the filming of the video and for favor on the song with program managers across the country.  Pray for those who will hear the song in their cars, kitchens, and living rooms.  That they would find courage to be more real before God about their need and in that find how very real is His vast love for them. 
• We are still working to find funding for 30 Detention and drug rehab facility concerts this next year.  10 this year.  This will involve developing ongoing mentorship programs in some facilities through partnerships with churches in their locale.  If you feel led to help please contact me right away Stephanie@MorethanMusicInc.com

From the Heart "The Bigger Story"

By Stephanie Pauline

This is going to be one of my most vulnerable submissions yet.  :)  Bear with me please.

The 700 Club featured my story on their show last month.  When they called me initially to ask me to share I was so excited to have the opportunity to communicate in a forum that would broadcast to millions.  What a great way to share with SO many about God's great love!  Since that is the heart behind More than Music - I jumped at the chance.  That said, I was concerned by the implications of how that might effect my family of origin even upon the initial conversations I had with the 700 Club producers.  They assured me that the story would be handled sensitively and that there would be no acted portions pertaining to my parents.  I found out on national and international TV, along with the rest of the world when it aired, that those commitments made to me had been somehow lost in the shuffle. I was beyond mortified.  I felt literally sick - for days.

My parents have their own stories to tell.  They stand WITH me as a testament to God's grace and healing power.  

Central to my personal story  or "testimony" per say is the time through my adolescence when my parents struggled hard.  For a time, I was uncovered and seemingly forgotten, so great was their pain and need for that season.  We endured lots of very traumatic, hard moments together. Further damage was done in my life then by my choices and an abusive relationship I had with my son's father.  This is the time though that God moved in and through real difficulty, emptiness and pain in my circumstances, forged a new life in me and a deeper understanding of His presence within the pain.  That revelation is what directly birthed More than Music and the heart behind all of this work.  I can no more separate that from this then I can myself from what God has taught me through the songs He has given me over the years. 

Upset by how the 700 Club had told my parents' part of my story, I shook the ground with my protesting and praying, and I am glad to share that a re-edit was made by the 700 Club in response to my request that will be used hence forth.  (See the featured video in the media section - upper left.)  The 700 Club put back in what I shared of my family's redemption.  (They had implied in the edit that aired that my father was violent with my mom, and that was a very sad thing given how my father has chosen, very willfully chosen, to NOT hit us as he was hit by his step mom.  They had highlighted my mom's leaving and talked about that on the show at length after the clip of my story, not telling the part of the story I had shared about how she did eventually come back to my father.  They also took out much I had shared about the pain of my choices and chose not to do acted portions of my story which had been the plan.)  I am thankful for the platform the 700 Club gave my story.  I know many were moved the the story regardless of these details, (which to my family and me are important).  I am even more thankful for the 700 Club's sensitivity in re-editing the piece. 

All this to say - please forgive me for allowing this terrible misunderstanding.  I trusted and didn't make my approving the video before it aired a condition of my allowing them to tell my story.  I should have.  Please know that I did not know my story was going to be misrepresented like that.  Please know that I love my parents and God has brought about real restoration to our relationships.  Our relationships are still not perfect, but they are beautiful.  Over the years, since the hardships we experienced, my parents have given me real support, even in helping me with my work with More than Music.  Dad has travelled with me to help with my daughter a couple times.  My mom serves on the board of directors.  I have been more than blessed by their involvement.  I seek to honor God first and foremost, but also to honor my parents too in what I share and how I share it.  Thank you for your understanding and forgiveness.

There is need behind all of our wrongs.  Every last one of us have strains of the exact same virus.  No one is better or worse, and in fact - if you are think you are better than another, then you are prideful and that is one of the seven things God detests according to the Bible!  If each of us are honest with ourselves about our desperate inability to love as love would have us love then all of us would exclaim along with Paul "I am the greatest of sinners!"  True humility comes from being honest before God and man about our depravity and finding ourselves mercifully loved and valued despite it all.  Then we are freed from the pressures of posturing, performance, and perfection and find new strength to live the life we really want, except now not out of fear, but from the joy of our acceptance in Christ. 

In the spirit of authentic sharing I ask that you see yourself in my parents and in me.  The "bigger story" I am trying to tell is one belonging to all of us.  Its our love story with The Divine.  The thread of need, big or small, is the same in all of us.  We each need to grapple with it and find the truth of God's love in it all. God doesn't want all the pain of these less than loves and lifes that we ALL choose in one way or another, the pain from the less than loves and lifes chosen by others around us, or even the senseless pain that came this side of the fall of mankind (the earth is even groaning with it the Bible says) that we experience in natural disasters and death.  No!  That is NOT God's heart towards us - but He is willing and able to use it all for our good if we will let Him.  Our freedom to respond to 'what is' by choosing to live love, and life, or fear and death is our own.  God will not force Himself on anyone. 

There is power in the word of our testimony!  It is good to tell, and retell the story of God's salvation for each of us!  Feel free!  By daring to share freely we free others to be honest too!

Thank you to my mom and dad for sharing your stories with me all these years.  Love you. 

Thank you for your investment in More than Music.  I am an imperfect steward, but I pray that you are more than blessed by me and this work over time.