Dear Chris & Diane,

From 1997 – 2001 I worked for the New Life Family Services Crises Pregnancy Center in Anoka, Minnesota as the Branch Director. In 2000 or 2001 I was privileged to attend the Focus on the Family Pregnancy Care Conference. At that time you were the guest singers for the conference. I have a copy of your tape "Time to Trust". At the present time I am a missionary at The International Christian School of Budapest in Hungary. I am the Guidance Counselor for the school. Since most everything is in Hungarian, I brought my tape with me. I can’t tell you how many times those songs minister to me. Thank you for these selections. I see on your schedule that you are also going to prisons. That is awesome. May God continue to bless your ministries. In His service, EB

On Tuesday of this week we went to a maximum security prison south of Houston to do a Christmas program for the prisoners. A quartet of prisoners, accompanied by a band of prisoners did the most amazing rendition of "I Have Seen the Light". They prayed together before they sang, and they did a great job of it. The other prisoners gave them a standing ovation. I told them I knew the man who had written the song and would write to him. Chris, your song blessed about 300 prisoners, about 30 of us from the church, 6-8 guards, and others in a very, very dark place… the real light of Christ was bright. You are a great, wonderful guy, and I wanted you to know how God used you this past Tuesday to bless a group of men who really needed blessing.

I just want to take a moment to tell you of my appreciation for your music and how it has provided encouragement and ministry to our family over the past 3 years. We are members of First Baptist Church in Dallas. I was a senior in high school (1986) when Chris and Diane played at our youth camp that year. I've been hooked on their music since that time. Over the years their cds and live concerts have provided much inspiration and encouragement to me and my wife. Now we are missionaries in Uganda and Chris and Diane continue to lift us up. This music has provided a much needed opportunity to worship God in our own house in a way that we understand. Since most of our ministry time is spent reaching Uganda nationals, we also spend our public worship time trying to reach out to the nationals in their own culture. In private time, when we need to feel more "American", we can put in a cd and go back to our world for a moment. This often gives us a fresh start to continue doing our work. The music has helped lift us out of times of discouragement and has provided us with a great time of refreshing. Our children now listen and can often sing along with the cds. Listening to Chris and Diane is something our entire family can listen to.

Thank you so much for your faithfulness in singing and celebrating your talent with us.

"Last summer I was asked to serve in Rwanda . . . a very tough place to live. On my way to the airport I stopped by a shop and bought some CD's to make sure that I had some Christian music to listen to in Rwanda. I grabbed four or five CD's, one of which was 'Mercy'. . . I am very thankful to have had a copy of Mercy with me. The music really touched my heart and soul. So often in my work . . . I was confronted by the images of the horrible genocide that had taken place in Rwanda. . . Most every night I would listen to 'Mercy' and found such peace and joy in your message. During the day I would often find myself singing one of your songs. A young man who worked as a driver asked what I was singing. I told him about your album and offered to let him listen to it. He told me what a powerful experience it was to hear it. We shared what it meant to put your trust in the Lord. When I left Rwanda I realized that 'Mercy' had become one of my most treasured possessions so I gave him the copy."

I'm sure you get this all the time, but I just felt led to pass along my gratitude at the blessing that you and Diane have been in my life.

You and Diane came into my life when y'all were promoting "Written On the Wind" almost 20 years ago. I think I was like 5 or 6 at the time and you came to the First Baptist Church in El Paso, TX. I remember that I was mesmerized and I even met you after the show/service - I thought Diane was so beautiful and I wanted to be just like her when I grew up - don't take that the wrong way, because y'all aren't that old!! Anyway, my mother bought a tape and I think I played it until the tape began to fray. That was the start of my journey with God and music and how I could join the two.

I am waiting for His leading into the next phase of my ministry, but during that wait, today, I thought of you and Diane. I Googled y'all, found your website, and ordered a copy of "Written On the Wind". As soon as I saw the track listing, my eyes teared up as I remembered the chorus of "And God Cried", word for word, note for note, background harmony for background harmony. Chris, I haven't heard that song for almost 20 years, and yet it came back to me like it was yesterday!

Your music affected me so much more than I realized back then and I just know that y'all were the catalystic force that drew me to a life of service to God through music. I don't know where He will lead me, but I know where it started - in that Baptist church in El Paso when I was just a little girl, with you and Diane.

I just had to share that with you. I want you to have another example of the fruit of your ministry. Thank you both for what you've done for me!

With so many commercial entities trying to take Christ out of the holidays, I want you to know what a blessing your Christmas album is. As my wife and I sit here at 5:44 in the morning after a rough night to sleep (Anchorage has gone from -10 on Sunday to +40 and 50mph winds last night), we listen to your music and are continually blessed by it and by the feeling that we have grown to be friends over the years, even though we've never met in person. God is touching your ministry and we want to encourage you to keep up the good fight. We pray health issues with Diane are better. We think of you often and pray for you when those thoughts touch our minds. We pray God's richest blessings on you throughout this Christmas season, and please know that here in the far off North, you have warmed our hearts and souls through your efforts. Of the 100+ Christmas albums that we have to chose from in our household, yours is the first pick to go into the CD player, and the most played during the holiday season. (Right now, we're listening to "Mary Did You Know") God bless you and your family, our friends.
Thank you.

I'm sure that quite often you wonder if God's gifts to you in the form of talent of musical inspiration ever have any real life impact on fellow believer's lives. Well, in the case of your song "Bow the Knee" I can assure you that you have ministered richly in the lives of at least two families.

My son is involved in the senior high choir. Last fall our Music Minister began preparing them for an eleven day singing tour in Europe. One of the songs they placed in their repertoire was " Bow the Knee". One of the young ladies in the choir had a Mom that was diagnosed as terminally ill with cancer. Late in the spring, near to departure time, she found out that her Mom couldn't go on the trip with her. Naturally she then questioned whether she should go or not. The young lady went in to talk to our Minister of Music's wife. At the end of the conversation she decided that since it was God's will for her to go to Europe she had better go. To cement this decision, our Music Minister's wife had her call her Mom on the phone and they sang "Bow the Knee" to her Mom. Later in the year, in spite of hundreds of hours of prayer by hundreds of saints, God, in his infinite wisdom chose to take that Mom home with Him. At her funeral the church was packed by those honoring this Godly woman's life, and those of us who knew the words were comforted by a piano arrangement of " Bow the Knee".

In my own family's life your song has a very special place of ministry. You see, the son that I mentionned that is in the choir is sixteen and has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Individually and as a family we " don't understand" a lot. Often we ask why, since we worship and adore the same God now as the God of the Old Testament prophets and the God of the New Testament miracles, that he doesn't chose to completely heal our son. The Bible teaches that in the End Times miracles will increase, so why not for our son. Thanks to this song I am reminded daily that no matter what, or how distressed, we are to worship, adore, and " Bow the Knee".

Our church (and choir) love Bow the Knee. A very touching song since our Pastor died unexpectedly in December 1999 at the tender age of 45. Our people were devastated by his sudden death.

But as you know, music (God's music) filled a void when there were not enough words to comfort us. Our choir had been singing BOW THE KNEE for a few months and found the song ministered to many of us during our time of grief. We still pull out BOW THE KNEE about once every three months to remind us where we were, where we are now and where we are going. There are still hurting people out there with new problems, new challenges and broken hearts.

Thank you for sending your Christmas album to KHCB. We placed it in the library and aired selections from it throughout December. It is a nice compilation of old and new favorites plus the original songs you wrote. All of the songs fit our format and I liked the entire project! I'm so glad you made a Christmas album. We will feature it every year!

Thank you for partnering with us in ministry. We continue to air your music - from "Written on the Wind", "Deeper Love", "Time to Trust", "God is Able" and "Mercy". We're a little different than other stations in that once we put music into our library, we keep it there and continue to feature it. We also air "In God We Trust" on patriotic holidays.

We have a link to your website on the KHCB music search page so listeners can go to your site when they're looking for a song such as "Bow the Knee", "Arrows", and "You Are Everywhere".

May the Lord bless you as you continue to serve Him with your gifts. Please let us know if you produce any other projects. We will be happy to air them on the KHCB Network.

Sincerely,

KHCB Network, Houston TX

I just wanted you to know that I have recently become the choir director at our church here in Michigan. We sang for the first time two weeks ago, and I wanted to do a song that would bless the congregation and one that the choir would really enjoy singing, and I chose “Crown Him”. It was the perfect anthem to start with and I just wanted to let you know what a blessing your song was to everyone up here. Thank you.

Many blessings to you both,
-HM

Just wanted to write a note and thank you for your ministry in music. I am volunteer musician for the worship ministry at our church in Iowa. This past week we performed your musical "More Than Just A Man" for sellout crowds on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night at our church. Thank you for so eloquently and purposefully setting the Gospel of our Risen Lord to music. The weekend was such a blessing to our community. After services Sunday morning, I was getting groceries at the local store where I live with a big smile on my face at what the Lord did in our midst. I'm aware of several people who made commitments to Christ over the extended weekend. Wow. What a time for the Kingdom!

Thank you for your ministry. It's clear that He has blessed and gifted you.
-RS