1. Fantastic news from Darlene Zschech! She revealed Thanksgiving week that her treatments--and God's intervention--were successful, and she is now cancer free! Darlene thanks her many fans for their prayers, and says she believes the experience will make her life "much better" in the long run. On top of that, her middle daughter just announced her engagement!
2. Lacey Sturm is urging her fans to send encouragement and appreciation to a man God used mightily in the Flyleaf founder's radical conversion story. Lacey said Brother Partridge--known affectionately as "Poppy"--spoke bravely to her about things he could not have known as she was leaving church as a 16-year-old who was contemplating suicide. Lacey is compiling the messages for a special Christmas gift for Poppy this year. On Facebook alone she's received 272 messages for him.
3. Vinyl albums are definitely back in vogue these days, and from the looks of things, Paul Baloche is just as excited about releasing his Christmas Worship record on vinyl as he was when it came out on CD and in digital formats a year ago. The vinyl version goes on sale tomorrow.
4. Shane & Shane quietly released their Worship Initiative Christmas album on Tuesday, but fans responded quite loudly, shooting the record up to No. 1 on the iTunes Christian & Gospel charts. Congratulations, guys!
5. Indie rapper Beacon Light said he never thought his claim to fame would be a little remix he did of "Jingle Bells," but the song's been played more than 110,000 times on YouTube as people are drawn to the Gospel-filled Christmas tune. The kicker is that most of those listens are fairly recent, whereas the single has been around for three years.
6. United Pursuit Band is recording its next worship record, and is opening up its live, two-night recording on December 12th and 13th to the public. Space is limited at the Fifth Avenue House in Knoxville, Tennessee, so they're having people reserve tickets through their website.
7. Looks like we may be getting some brand-new Christmas music from Jamie-Grace in the near future. Gotee Records hinted on its Facebook page yesterday that not only may there be some holiday tunes coming our way, but they're Jamie-Grace originals.
Quotes (4)
1. "God takes the messiness and the ugliness in our lives and he makes the most beautiful art in the world out of it. If you were half as cultured and refined as most Christians wish you were, you'd be useless to Christianity!" - Rich Mullins
2. "Rules are fine, but when rules limit your passion and calling it's time to color outside the lines." - Duncan Phillips
3. "He doesn't expect perfection from us, only a heart that says "yes" to following Him. He promises to never leave us and He walks with us on this journey. A heart that trusts the Lord is a heart at peace. Just say yes to Him." - Kim Walker-Smith of Jesus Culture
4. "A fighter isn't someone who never fails; a fighter is someone who never quits." - Manafest
