Wanda Women! Part Two

I am a music-lover. I love many different genres and styles of music, and I listen to it at home, in my car, at work--music makes me happy and soothes my soul. And every once in a while, a song grabs on to me and doesn't let go. Has that ever happened to you?

After the Women of Faith conference a few weeks ago, I told several of the ladies present a story about Sandi Patty, who is one of the featured speakers on the tour. If you know anything about Sandi Patty, then you know she is not just a public speaker but also a contemporary Christian musical artist--and quite a famous one at that. I can recall that while I was working at 20th (now 21st) Century Christian in Nashville after I'd graduated from Lipscomb University, Sandi Patty was quite popular and I made good use of my employee discount to buy her CDs at bargain prices. But then she got caught up in a scandal and her popularity waned, and my interest in her waned as well.

Fast forward 15+ years. I don't remember the date that the first Women of Faith conference was held, and I don't know if Sandi Patty was one of the inaugural speakers on the tour. What I do know is that I had the opportunity to attend my very first WOF conference while living in Grove City, Ohio, and Sandi Patty was a featured speaker. She also worked several musical numbers into her talk and I will confess--I was blown away. She's not necessarily someone whose music I would put on my iPod but I'll tell you something--her pipes can raise the rafters! She's got an astounding vocal range and it is impossible to hear her belt out a song live and in person without all the hairs on your arms standing up. She's THAT good.

I believe at this point Sandi has gone from being a "featured" speaker to simply one of the "regulars," by which I mean she regularly speaks and sings in front of hundreds of thousands of women each year. This year at the Women of Faith conference, she spoke about her latest accomplishment (losing eighty-something pounds to transform from morbidly obese to severely obese to obese to, she proudly proclaimed, "just overweight!") and sang three or four songs from her new album that accompanies her latest book, The Edge of the Divine.


I bought both, but it was a couple of weeks before I got around to putting the CD in my car's player. And I'll tell you right now, there are a couple of cuts on the disc that do not disappoint in the arm-hair-raising department! I half expect my car to be transformed into a convertible when she hits a few of those notes!

Now at this point you might be asking yourself, "Why did she name this blog entry "Wanda Women! Part Two" when it has absolutely nothing to do with us?" Oh, but it does, my dear sisters. It does! Because Sandi sings an absolutely beautiful song called "All To Bring You Glory" that, for me, absolutely personifies what we as Wanda Women ought to be about. EVERYTHING we do should be done to bring God glory. And since we now know that "Wanda" represents "wonder and awe," I also can't help but think of those two powerful words when I listen to Sandi singing of all the wonderful, awe-inspiring ways God shows His love for us. We are to recognize the wonder of God's creation, be thankful of the wonder of God's grace and mercy, and be awed by His boundless love for us, and we--everything that has the breath of life in it--are to bring glory to God.



I'm so excited about the rebirth of our women's ministry at Woodland West, and I'm excited to have a mascot like Wanda Woman who is such a great role model for us all. May everything you do bring glory to our God! Blessings!