Rejoice in the Lord- Majesty Music- 10/30/19
Rejoice in the Lord
Majesty Music 10/30/19
This song "Rejoice in the Lord" seems very fitting for this blog post.
The first stanza of the song goes like this:
"God never moves without purpose or plan.
When trying his servant and molding a man.
Give thanks to the Lord though your testing seems long.
In darkness he giveth a song."
In this blog post you'll see just how many times God had a plan in motion that I couldn't see and how many times he would give me little signs that he was gonna work everything out.
In a previous blog post titled "Patch The Pirate" I mentioned that Ron has meant a lot to me since I was 10 years old. His testimony helped me through some hard years of learning how to cope with my own eye problems. (Lazy eye and light sensitivity)
I had always dreamed of meeting Ron since I was 10 years old but I never thought it would happen. I kinda gave up on the idea and totally forgot about it for 16 years. But God didn't forget.
Back in 2014, (I'm now 22 years old) I posted this on my Facebook.
"This guy is amazing! I can't say enough about how God turned his tragedy into a blessing and God is really using this guy! Check out his page! I've loved his tapes since I was little! I would love to meet this guy!"
I posted this thinking that it would never happen. Well, don't ever say never, because when God wants something to happen, nothing can stop it or get in the way.
Well, little did I know what God had in store for me 4 years later.
God had a plan. And it was beyond my wildest dreams.
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, in January of 2018 God brought Ron Hamilton and Majesty music back into my life. This time with a bang!!
It has been amazing to watch this whole story unfold and see God work.
Here'’s the whole story.
For the last several years I had been digitizing all of our vhs tapes. Mom said when I finished digitizing all the vhs tapes she would bring in the cassette tapes for me to digitize.
When Mom got out all of our cassette tapes, and I started looking through that huge pile of cassette tapes, to my shock and surprise and sheer joy was the Patch The Pirate treasure box collection volumes 1 and 2 cassette tapes!!
Ron's testimony had meant a lot to me over the years, so to finally have his music was really special.
That brought back memories of how his testimony helped me through some hard years of being bullied for my eye problems and colored glasses.
I wanted to know if there were anymore Patch The Pirate recordings, so I decided to look him up on the internet to see if I could find a website or anything. Well, not only did I find a website (majestymusic.com) with all the Patch The Pirate Adventures, all his music CDs, solo CDs, Choral stuff, a whole slew of Patch stuff, Patch choir books, coloring books, DVDs, etc. I also found quite a few of his vocal Music CDs on YouTube, seminar sessions, sermons, past Patch concerts, etc. But the biggest surprise was I also found his Patch The Pirate facebook page!! Remember, this was back in Jan of 2018. On the Patch The Pirate Facebook page they had just posted that they were going to be coming out to San Diego CA to do a Patch live concert of one of his Patch adventures, "Ocean Commotion" , on March 17th, 2018 in San Diego, about 2 hours away from me. I had been wanting to meet him since I was 10 (I'm 26 now) but never thought it would happen. Little did I know what God had in store. When I saw this announcement, I was ecstatic, as you can imagine. I had to go and see him!! This would be a dream come true! An answer to a little 10 year old girl's prayer.
I talked with mom and she said she would try to help me make it happen. Well, one thing led to another. The Lord beautifully orchestrated the whole thing. Here's what went down.
It just so happens that my Uncle Steve (Dad's brother) was a pastor in Encinitas and was going to be having a Saint Patty’s Day party at his church on Friday March 16th, the night before the Patch Live Ocean Commotion concert on the 17th.
Mom and I drove up to Encinitas on the 16th for the Saint Patty’s day party. We stayed with a family friend that night. The next day Mom, our family friend and I drove up to Sandiego for the Patch Live Ocean Commotion concert. It was awesome!
After the concert I got a picture with Ron”Patch”Hamilton!!! It was such a surreal moment. Can I scream now??!!!
Dream come true!!! This picture says a thousand words!! I was on cloud 9!!! I mean seriously, I could not have been any happier!! To be honest, it doesn't feel real. It feels like a dream. No, this picture is not photoshopped. This actually happened. On the outside I was smiling and trying not to cry. On the inside I was crying my eyes out.
But just wait, the story isn't over. It gets even better!
I wasn’t planning on doing this, but after the concert I ended up getting all of the Patch adventures. Little did I know the HUGE life changing impact he would have on my life through his music, Patch The Pirate Adventures, Patch concert videos, seminar sessions, sermons etc.
God brought Ron”Patch”Hamilton back into my life right when all his stuff would be super encouraging and validating for me.
As I started listening to his all stuff I fell in love with it.
If you don't already know this about me, I'm a very visual learner. I'm also music and story oriented.
The Patch adventures just happened to be the perfect resource for me for learning scripture and music.
As I mentioned in a previous blog post titled "Sketchnote book" I had started sketchnoting the Patch adventures.
Ever since I started sketchnoting the Patch adventures I kept wishing and dreaming that I could show my sketchnotes to Ron and Shelly. But I never thought it would happen. Once I knew that I was going to make a book with my sketchnotes I started working on opening and closing pages. IF I was ever able to show them my book I knew I wanted them to sign it. So I got the idea to make a front page just for that purpose. I went back and forth about it because i knew it would cost extra. I went back and forth a lot about whether I should do that or not. I prayed about it and asked God to clearly show me if I should do that. As it turns out, all the book printing companies force you to have some kind of single opening page and it wouldn't cost anything. You get the first 20 pages basically free. There was my answer. I made that opening page in hopes that one day I would get to show my book to Ron and Shelly. I knew chances of that happening were incredibly slim, but this was sign #1 that I felt God was showing me that there was a chance at seeing Ron and Shelly.
In July of 2019, I finished sketchnoting all the patch adventures and had it printed into a book!!! I'm so excited! That was 14 months of hard work.
April 2018-July 2019
I tried to show them my sketchnotes on our last trip in 2018 right after I had started sketchnoting the Patch adventures, but it didn't happen. A close friend even tried to write them for me to try to make it happen, but the Lord closed that door.
It wasn't the Lord's will at that time. But God had a plan. A much better plan.
As I mentioned in the previous post titled "Simply Trust" we were going to be going on a trip to Hendersonville NC for a month in Oct of 2019 to get me out of the southern California Santa Ana winds, and Greenville SC would be only 45 minutes away from us.
After I had my book printed I showed it to mom. I was going to ask her if there was any way that we could go to Greenville on our trip. Before I even had a CHANCE to ask her she said "Ron and Shelly have to see this! We are going to Greenville!" I about fell over! I couldn't believe my ears! This was sign #2 that I felt like God was showing me that there was a chance at seeing Ron and Shelly.
After that I texted a close friend and asked her to pray that this would happen and the same day this verse pops up on my phone Bible app as the verse of the day.
Ephesians 3:20-21 -"now to Him who is able to do more than we ask or think according to His power that is at work within us. To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen."
You think God was trying to say something?
Then this happened.
I've been following the Patch The Pirate Facebook page and Shelly's public Facebook page, run by her Brother Randy, for a year and a half now.
Back in May of 2019 Randy had posted on Shelly's public Facebook page that he was digitizing some old music from the Majesty Music archives, because people were asking him for some of the old music.
There is a Ron Hamilton Christmas solo CD that had been retired just a couple of years ago that I didn't have and was dying to get my hands on. Because I saw that Randy was pulling out old music from the Majesty Archives, I messaged him and asked if there was any way that I could get a copy of that CD. I told him we would be staying in NC for a month and we would only be 45 minutes away from Majesty Music. So we started communicating back and forth for several months and started trying to figure out when to meet at Majesty Music to raid the archives to see if we could find the CD. At one point in the conversation he said he was looking forward to meeting me. For some reason, I felt led to ask if there was any chance at all of showing Ron and Shelly my sketchnote book. I told him about my book and how long I'd worked on it. I knew it was a shot in the dark.
Randy wrote back and said "I think I can arrange that for you." I about died. I was shocked! I wasn't expecting that response! This was sign #3 that I felt God was showing me that it may look impossible but he was gonna work this out and make it happen.
Both of us knew the odds were against us because of Shelly's crazy travel schedule. The chances of it happening were next to nothing. But when the Lord wants something to happen, nothing can stop it. I had so many people praying that this would happen. The chances of both of our travel schedules lining up was so incredibly slim. As I kept an eye on the Majesty teams travel schedule it kept looking like it was never gonna happen. But when Randy contacted Shelly and told her the plan and asked if she and Ron would be willing to meet up on the 30th, IF they drive back from Florida on the 29th and she said yes. She said she would love to see my book. This was sign #4 that I felt like God was showing me that it would happen even though it seemed impossible. We were leaving the area on the 30th. So it either had to happen on the 30th or it wasn't gonna happen. There was no wiggle room for change of days or anything. It was either the 30th or not at all.
It was a 50/50 chance on whether Ron and Shelly would drive back to Greenville SC on the 29th. It was gonna go one way or the other. I wasn't about to give up hope. Not now. God had given me too many signs that he was going to work this out.
Throughout the trip this verse kept popping up on my Facebook. It happened too many times to be a coincidence.
Psalm 20:4- "May he give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed."
I prayed so hard and had so many people praying that this would happen.
But because the Lord wanted this to happen, it did! I kid you not, our schedules lined up!!! On Wednesday Oct 30th we met Randy, Shelly and Ron at Majesty Music!!! Only God could pull of something like this.
But get this, not only did our schedules line up, it lined up perfectly because Ron and Shelly had a staff meeting they had to attend at Majesty Music that day. So they had to be there anyway. So it was no extra trouble for them.
It was a beautiful day! Everything worked out so perfectly! Ron and Shelly loved my book! Ron remains sweet and caring even through dementia. Ron and Shelly are so sweet. It was amazing to spend one on one time with them.
As I mentioned in a previous blog post titled ”I Saw Jesus in You” on Oct 11, 2018 Bob Jones University honored Ron with a lifetime achievement award. I was so glad they did this for Ron to let him know how special he is and what he means to all of us. But I still wanted to tell him myself what he means to me. I finally had the chance to do that with the dedication page of my book. That was really special. I think it meant a lot to both Ron and Shelly.
The picture above is Shelly reading the dedication page of my book.
Ron was so cute, he kept smiling at me. I think he knew I had a camera in my hand(my phone).
When Shelly saw I had sketchnoted two of Ron's sermons, she was thrilled. She had no idea how I found them. She didn't know they were public on the internet.
She told me she had his sermons notes but not the word for word. Mom told her I was a fast typist and could type them out for her. She said she would really appreciate that! I think that would mean a lot to her since Ron has dementia. I was able to do that for her. I was wondering what I was going to do once I got back home to CA. I always fight depression after a trip. God again provided. He gave me something to do to keep me busy. The project for Shelly gave me something to do and something to focus on. Shelly, you and Ron have been such a Godsend!
I got them both to sign my sketchnote book!! Was so glad I made that opening page in my book just for that reason. When we asked them if they could sign my book, Shelly flipped right to that page. She knew! I didn't even have to show her where! She was all over it! Year made!!!! Shelly loved it so much that she even interrupted a staff meeting to introduce me to everyone and she showed them my book! I snagged a selfie with Ron right before we left. He enjoyed that!
Cloud 9!!! #closure
Several hours after we left I get a message from Randy that said this:
"Shelly says your book is unbelievable."
Thank you Shelly! That means the world to me! And thank you for being willing to meet with us! That meant more than you will ever know!
Not only did I get to see Ron once, but twice!!!
Thank you Randy for saying "yes" on a whim to my idea of wanting to show my book to Ron and Shelly and for helping me get the CD I wanted.
I got the CD I wanted. We had fun in the Majesty Archives room.
The dream of a lifetime finally came true!!
I put together a special project for Shelly.
She loved it! Here is her response to my email.
"How can I thank you enough for all the work you did! I will so enjoy listening to them. They will be very helpful as we write a biography of Ron’s life. God bless!!! In Christ’s love, Shelly"
Made me so happy to be able to do something to give back. Meeting with Ron and Shelly made my year, and it will be helpful for Shelly as she writes a biography of Ron's life.
"God never moves without purpose or plan..."