At his 3rd Annual “Love Your Neighbor” benefit concert this past Tuesday, songwriter Brandon Heath noted how so many people had stopped what they were doing to help their Nashville neighbors following the flood.
Without having thought of it in those terms, I realized that’s what I had done as well. Stopped house cleaning, stopped family, stopped financial worry, stopped Hope Shows and headed straight for El Shaddai Christian Church in Brentwood, TN for a week and a half … and yet the oddest thing happened, I found myself cleaning up God’s house, getting to know more of His family (and stealing a few moments with my oldest son working in Nashville), bringing gifts to cover a few financial needs of His people and, perhaps most interesting, found myself smack-dab in the middle of a cause-related Christian music event, much like a Hope Shows benefit (only bigger, better and hosted by Brandon 
).
In the midst of setting and pouring concrete footings, loading huge dumpsters, ripping out drywall and pounding off plaster, tearing apart old duct work, pulling down ceiling tile and dismantling built-in shelving (with permission of course), I was asked to assist El Shaddai with their PR efforts in preparation for the benefit concert.
From that point on, everything was coming up daisies – literally – and it’s a story that must be told, lest I take God’s presence for granted.
Pastor German Castro and Carrie Van Alstine at EL Shaddai Christian Church
El Shaddai is a 300-member growing church, led by Pastor German Castro and his wife, Margarita, ministering to the 200,000+ metro-Nashville Spanish-speaking community. Representing 18 countries, El Shaddai seeks to build up a Kingdom community for regional and international outreach.
Prior to the flood, El Shaddai was preparing to celebrate its 5th anniversary, praying and fasting for their next step as they found themselves bursting at the seams in their charming, history-filled building. With plans to restore the building for community use, the members of El Shaddai believed God was calling them up the mountain to build a new facility on available hillside property just across the street.
Margarita Castro in a field of daisies on the hillside property.
I acquired this knowledge over coffee with a very beautiful woman (and wife of El Shaddai’s pastor), Margarita, as we first sat to discuss the impending PR needs for the church in light of the favor God was giving them in the local media and through the benefit concert.
It became clear to me that what the church needed first was a communications campaign to share the immediate need and long-term vision of the church with LYN benefit audience.
If you’re thinking I have previous connection with the church, its members or any aspect of Spanish-speaking culture, nothing could be further from the truth (with the exception of an unexpected Greenville College alum on staff). I didn’t even take Spanish in school (je parle un petit peu le français). It was learn-as-you-go campaign development, packing a few months of planning and preparation into two meetings over coffee.
In our first meeting, I asked Margarita to share anything and everything about the church in 45 minutes or less. Although I originally thought we would build the campaign message around a mountain theme, phrases like, “a seed in the plans God has for the Spanish-speaking community here,” “serving a mission field,” and, “we believe God will use the flood to grow this church,” coupled with Biblical references to a flood as fertilizer for new growth (thanks, Carrie Van Alstine!) took my thoughts in a different direction.
I told Margarita I would process all the information she had given me overnight and come back in the morning (coffee conversation #2) with an idea (with God’s grace ). I worked through various concepts throughout the evening without success and reminded God that He had me here and now I needed Him to provide the right theme.
Soon after I woke up, the phrase, “from a flood, a field,” got stuck in my head, but I didn’t like the English wording. Wanting to have some cultural representation of their community in the theme, I brought the concept to Margarita that morning and asked her to share some Spanish phrases we could use in place of, “from a flood, a field.” After discussing various options, Margarita wrote, “de las aguas, florece,” meaning, “from the waters, it blooms.” I loved it.
Design by Matt Lehman @ www.invisibleassociates.com.
Did I mention that Margarita is Spanish for daisy? If not, I should do so now, and then direct your eye to the incredible handiwork (see right) of artist Matt Lehman, creator of the original artwork for the 3rd Annual “Love Your Neighbor” poster. I had commented earlier on how much I liked the graphic on the LYN event poster (marketing-minded people tend to notice pretty pictures) and Margarita shared this meaning behind why the daisy image was extra special to her.
As I shared the “flood to field” concept with Margarita, I told her that I would love to see if we could get permission to “grow” the poster graphic to include the new theme and a field of daisies going up a hillside behind the hand/raining daisy image. I told her I envisioned this one daisy backed by a whole field of them on their future hillside property.
Now we had concept, content and a graphic idea (pending permission), and we headed back to the church to pound more plaster off the 1847 brick walls of the church.
Later than day, just after lunch, Margarita asked if she could take me up to the mountain property. I grabbed my friend, Carrie, and off we went. As we were getting out of the car both Margarita and I were apparently looking at our phones or something and next thing I know Carrie is urging us to look up. “Look at what’s growing all over the mountain!” It was wild daisies … everywhere. The hillside was covered with them. With the exception of green trees and weeds, it was almost the only colored-vegetation out there.
Robyn Lyn, Carrie Van Alstine and lots of daisies.
It was truly glorious. I know that to Margarita this field of daisies symbolized new confirmation of the promise of this land for their church. I felt confirmation of purpose. God had put me here to use His new “Hope Shows” direction for my life to assist this community at the “Love Your Neighbor” benefit concert for their church.
In the same way that Samaritan’s Purse is primarily known for their “Operation Christmas Child” project, but also applies significant resources to relief efforts in other communities, I believe God has led Hope Shows to focus on prison ministry, but also lend our gifts and talents in support of other cause-related Christian music events.
I thought I was stopping everything to go down to help a flooded church in Nashville (and felt called to do so), but God used the opportunity to take me one step further in trust and faith on this uncertain ministry journey of Hope Shows.
Daisy Thank You's for LYN Benefit
A short P.S. to this story … at our coffee conversation #1, Margarita also mentioned a desire to thank the people involved with the “Love Your Neighbor” benefit. I asked her if there was something they could give that would represent their community. She said they were known for flowers and we decided potted daisies would be the just right thank you.
After the field-of-daisies experience, we decided to request permission to pot some of the daisies from the hillside property. With that permission, Margarita and I spent Tuesday morning of the benefit digging up and potting daisies for the artists and coordinators of LYN.
El Shaddai work day with Brandon Heath, Jason and Culley Ingram and Carrie Van Alstine.
Muchas gracias to Brandon Heath and Jason Ingram (who spent a day working at the church with us … although I will forever question Brandon’s intent to do the heavy lifting since he came without gloves … good thing he’s cute, and moderately talented, or we would’ve had to have given him a much harder time about the deal), Jim Houser and Creative Trust, Inc., Tom Clagett and Fellowship Bible Church, designer Matt Lehman (and his willingness to let me modify his incredible graphic!), the video production company and the artists who participated in LYN, tobyMac, Mike Donehey of Tenth Avenue North, Britt Nicole and, special surprise guest, Amy Grant.
