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Update #20: A VERY good report about what had come because of our Toy Soldier project...
Hi Team!
I want to share with you some very cool developments that have already come out of this little project we created…
In May we premiered the music video by playing with it live at a big concert in Colorado Springs to benefit a detention center ministry. Close to 1000 people were in attendance. It so happens that the national director of USA Youth for Christ was there, and was blown away by the overall concert experience, by the music video and by what I shared. He came up after, pumped my hand and said that his mind was racing thinking of all the ways he wants to use me. I was near tears and began to explain the vision God has given me to strategically serve as a bridge between churches in the locale of detention centers in the country that do not have existing Christian mentoring programs on those facilities. He told me the Youth for Christ Juvenile Justice branch had been led to the same thing last year. That they have a tally of the those facilities that currently need Christian mentoring programs and there are a total of one thousand two hundred and eighty of them. I told him I had been commissioned by God to basically use a church concert experience as a catalyst to recruit a team of dedicated volunteers and plug them into the facility in need in their area. That I was to do this all over the country until EVERY facility was reached by spirit led Christ followers. I said I was going to do this with or without them because God had told me to but that it just made sense to do this together. He was totally excited.
So there and the then the TOY SOLDIER 1280 PROJECT was born.
I have met with all the national YFC board members now and they have said that my plan was just what they needed. That they were working hard on getting the mentoring materials and resources together but that they hadn’t thought about how to get the churches on board and really spin the top on this work. They want More than Music’s help. AWESOME!!! So the plan is that MtM will serve as a bridge between the church and the facility and YFC will then help with long term recourses and training. God is awesome!
I did a facility wide concert at a maximum security detention center recently. I have to say, after all these years doing this, I think it was the best, most powerful testimony concert I’ve ever done. Sharing the Toy Soldier Video in my concerts has proved a powerful tool and caused me to be open to re-direction about the order of the songs and when I share what. God led me in the moment and my whole presentation is so much better now! All but 5 of the kids rose to their feet to accept Christ at the end. Even those 5 not yet ready to commit to Christ were moved as I announced to them that God wasn’t done with them. It is such a humbling, and awe-striking thing to see God heal hearts right before your eyes. All just from sharing this simple good news: God loves us, SO MUCH that He sent His son to die in our stead. He wants to know us and be intimately involved in our life, our day, our here and now. He is trustworthy and good, and though hard things happen here because of the freely made choices that we all have been given, God can and will work all things for our good if we will let Him. THAT is transformational when coupled with the power of love and the living Spirit.
Just want to tell you kickstarter team…this video is having an impact and it set to be used all across the country in the next several years. It’s going to be a revolutionizing force…thank you for your integral part in bringing all of this to pass! Now THAT is a good report!
Thankful and SO excited to begin this chapter,
Stephanie Pauline
Update #19: Last update of the night here. :) Check out these quotes...
Last "update" of the night! Sorry for all these updates here. Just thought you should know how your help creating this project has inspired people.
Check out these quotes from people moved by the song and music video...
"The first time I heard Toy Soldier I was overcome with emotion and was given a new sense of freedom to own my need for God. From my unique vantage point as a member of the military community I relate so profoundly to this song. I think of our loved ones who carry a toy soldier on the key chains of their hearts to remind them to pray for us as we come and go in harms way. I'm so thankful for our prayer warriors and so thankful for this song that expresses our everyday situations so poignantly!"
~Chaplain (CPT) Lisa Northway, U.S. Army
"I heard "Toy Soldier" on KTLF Saturday afternoon and immediately thought of one of my dear friends whose 1 yr-old is dying of cancer. She often talks of her son as a warrior who is fighting the giant of cancer. She and her husband tell their other sons that their brother is a brave warrior who is fighting a tremendous enemy and will probably need to rest soon. But when I heard “Toy Soldier”, I thought about my girlfriend and the brave warrior that she is and just how much she must want to rest and not "put up a good fight." We are contending for God's presence this week as the boy has been given just a few weeks to live after his past nine months of chemotherapy. I sent “Toy Soldier” via newchristianmusicnow.com to my friend along with the prayers that she will find rest with her Father.
Thank you for this song - it is, in fact, beautiful."
-Colleen Caikowski
"I wanted to say that after seeing the statistics in the Toy Soldier video, I made the decision to stop using. Two days sober! Warm blessings to you & keep doing what you are doing...you are beautiful!"
-Anonymous mother of a teen
Wow. Look what God has done. Look what you have done. THANK YOU for standing with me in this work.
Your partner,
Stephanie
Update #18: PS Besides the cool report about the Toy Soldier premier...we also
PS Besides the cool report about the "Toy Soldier" premier that I sent along with the DVD...I also want to share that we are using this music video in detention facilities now too. I shared it the Sunday before last at the Children's Arc in Green Mountina Falls. By the end of my time there sharing my story, songs and this music video the kids were visibly moved. All of the young people in attendance (about 25 kids) but 5 were ready to commit their lives to Jesus and to His Way, accepting God's forgiveness and healing. It was awesome. I'm going their tomorrow again. Not done teaching yet and God isn't through either...with all of them and with those 5. :) So much Good News to share!
Also, sharing the music video this next Saturday in concert at Spring Creek, the facility where this music video was filmed. They are letting all the kids come. This is a pretty large facility in this area housing young people who have just been arrested, many awaiting trial. A few of the kids there are there for years, simply because there is no where else to send them. I am so thankful to see this music video make a difference in hearts and lives.
Bless you. Thank you for all your help bringing this to pass.
Just thought you should know.
Stephanie
Update #17: "When the Smoke Clears"...
Hi there backers!
Well I have sent most of the music video DVDs out now. Those of you who haven't yet recieved yours, it is either in the mail or your package is sitting here to my left waiting on you to send me your snail mail address. I'm hoping you guys are impressed with the music video and the work represented in it.
While I continue to work on getting this music video out there, I am also working on my next project. I just launched another kickstarter effort. This time I am just looking to find 300 people who are willing to pre-order the CD set to be released early August. It is a duo album with my music partner Joe Uveges and features some amazing, meant to be songs. I am sure you will be so glad to have this cd in your collection. If all 40 of the backers here from the Toy Soldier Project pre-ordered their CD today it would bring us SO much closer to our goal!
Will you come through for me yet again?!
Thank you SO much for your support - it means so much to me to have a team of people behind me encouraging me and helping me along in my calling, and art.
So check it out. I put together a fun, quirky promo video I think you will find entertaining. This project is much more lighthearted than the last, but will still move you deeply from song to song before we are through. :)
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/265295259/joe-and-stephs-when-the-smoke-clears
Those of you who have yet to send me your snail mail address - please do!
Love you all! Let me know if I have your support!
Stephanie
Update #16: Try this again...correct link to video
I think the link I sent you was wrong...try this one! Let me know what you think and THANK YOU again for your faith and support.
40
Backers
$7,185
pledged of $7,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on September 2, 2010.
Pledge $20 or more Pledge $20 or more
*To those who $20 I will give a DVD of the music video we produce.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
*To those who give $100 I will give two signed copies of the DVD and a personal thank you.
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
*I will do a concert in a detention center in their name (I will send you a description of the event, a picture, and I'll try to send along a thank you from the kids too) and give them a signed DVD and thank you.
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
*I will do my best to plan a detention center concert in the area of the donor so they can come with me to view the concert we do in their name, a signed copy of the DVD, and credit on the inside cover of the DVD.
Pledge $2,000 or more Pledge $2,000 or more
*To those who give $2000 or more I will give Associate Producer credit on the DVD, do my best to plan a detention center concert in the area of the donor so they can come with me to view the concert we do in their name, a signed copy of the DVD, and a commemorative thank you plaque framing the DVD and artwork with a signed thank you from me, board members of MtM and the music video producer.
Pledge $5,000 or more Pledge $5,000 or more
To one who gives $5,000 or more I will give Executive Producer credit on the DVD, a commemorative thank you plaque framing the DVD and artwork with a signed thank you from me, board members of MtM and the music video producer, and if you want to - an opportunity to come with for a day of filming and production - or a skype session while we are filming.
Project By
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Stephanie Pauline has proven herself a force to be reckoned with. The singer/songwriter from Minneapolis, currently residing in Colorado Springs, offers sincere lyrics, provoking melodies, powerful storytelling and dynamic live performances. With songs played on more than 500 radio stations and in more than 30 countries, there is something clearly compelling about Stephanie’s brand of folk, pop and rock music. Listening to Stephanie, one is reminded of great artists like Sara McLachlan, Jewel and Alison Krauss, as her voice pierces the soul and leaves listeners aching for more.
Stephanie says singing and writing songs came to her “like breathing or laughing.” She plays the piano and guitar and has written over four hundred songs. Stephanie co-produced all of her recordings to date, with her last two recording projects bringing her to Nashville and Los Angeles, where she worked with some of the industry’s best studio musicians. She has performed hundreds of concerts the last several years. Three of her songs landed in the top ten on indie radio charts this last year, and one of her songs was used on a soundtrack in a film called My Lawyer.
Tied closly to all of Stephanie Pauline’s endeavors is the goal of funnelling the resources from her life’s work to world relief efforts and social evangelism. The non profit organization More than Music Inc. Stephanie founded in 2003 is enables her to do just that. 30% of her concerts are performed in detention centers and drug rehab facilities around the country and she has been on several humanitarian forays. Stephanie has seen first hand the extensive destitution that plagues most of this planet and it is her destiny to use her gifts to make a difference here.
Stephanie is planning to continue touring and to record another album to add to her welling discography in 2011. You can purchase Stephanie Pauline’s music at www.morethanmusicinc.com or visit her myspace at www.myspace.com/themorethanmusicband.com.
