rechelle's lifelyrics

Wow… Where has the week gone? I just realized it is Sunday evening, and I completely missed my Website Wednesday!

Well, I can tell you it was for good reason, since we embarked on our annual “Family Retreat” for the 4th year in a row on Wednesday (…but that is another story).

The big news this week is that last Tuesday — on the day I completed notating and editing sheet music on the tenth song in my new custom compilation songbook, “Cherished Hymns” — I heard back from both of the publishers I’ve been waiting on to complete my requests for print licensing/permissions for this book. I was so encouraged and comforted to find out that both publishers have made concessions for my small project (that is not for sale) to be on a fee schedule that we can afford for the project. This news came after weeks of several emails back and forth, lots of prayer, and relaying the history of the previous project I completed in 2008/2009 for my church in Southern California before we moved to Oregon. (Other blog posts detail different aspects of that huge turning point in our family’s life… But that – also – is a different story).

Next week, I will be completing agreement signing, payment, and data entry for approximately the last 30 songs on the list of 235 songs that I am including in our new song book.

I have designed the book cover and an introductory page that will precede the 235 songs we have cherished for the past several generations since I was a girl growing up in our church in Long Beach. I remember going to Christmas dinner parties and Summer singings through the years where I heard many of these songs for the first time. I remember how they touched my heart, and made me long to be one of the people of God in spirit and in truth. These are songs that formed my young life and that speak to my heart – even a half a century later!

I want to tell you the story behind the cover photo, because it was a part of Ray & my 35th anniversary celebration trip last August. We were riding on our tandem bicycle on Lopez Island, Washington. We came to the crest of a hill, and there, overlooking the beautiful countryside and body of water between Lopez and San Juan Island, I beheld a breathtaking scene that prompted me to urge Ray to pull over for a photo shoot. We took several pictures of the quaint little church on the hilltop, even though it looked like it was not in regular use. It was perfectly picturesque, and I felt a great satisfaction to use that particular shot, above, of Center Church on Lopez Island, for the cover of “Cherished Hymns.”