29 years ago today...

I arrived in Phoenix, Arizona!!

In 1977, I was a 20 year old farm girl looking for adventure!
Linda and I sang in church the morning we embarked upon this journey of faith. We hugged our family and friends and then we hit the road. I loved traveling. I enjoyed every single mile... the breathtaking scenery AND the music on board. Linda had brought 2 cassettes... 2nd Chapter of Acts and Keith Green. I had never heard such music! It would change my life!!

Even though I had become a Christian in H.S. while watching a Billy Graham Crusade on TV... I had grown little in my faith. But I always had such a deep longing to totally live for Him in everything I did. SO when my friend Linda started talking to me about going out to Phx for a year... well, I literally thought... OK, I will take up my cross and follow Him to Phx! I would learn and grow and become equipped to come back and make a difference in my community! I also had no idea where in the heck Phx was! So a couple weeks before we left, I was looking at the weather map on the news and was shocked to discover that AZ was way, WAY out West... like touching California! Oh my!
But in all my planning, in all the good byes, I was at total peace... knowing I was doing the right thing. I had never felt more sure about anything in my entire life! God's plan was unfolding and I was along for the ride! I was expecting GREAT things!

Upon arriving in Phx, Linda stopped at Coco's, where she worked the year before, to get on the schedule. I was bubbling over with excitement, anxious to tell ANYONE that I was new in town! So I turned to the guy sitting at the counter near me and told him I had just moved here from WI! He said where in WI... I said between Black River Falls and Eau Claire... and he said HE was from Black River Falls! I went wild! He even knew my cousins! Right then and there I knew I was right where the Lord wanted me to be. This big city didn't seem quite so big and scary after all. This was home.

We immediately found a fully-furnished apartment. The next day we bought new guitars from a neat man at a music store... who would eventually be our record producer in the studio. Then while trying to find Hand in Hand, we ended up at another Sat. night concert venue where we met the guy that was in charge... we sang for him two days later... he booked us to open for Barry Maguire. It was at that concert months later that the guy that we had been trying to audition for (so we could sing at Hand in Hand) came up to us and said he'd get us on the schedule... and it was at THAT VERY FIRST Hand in Hand concert that I met Randy! Hello!! Are you getting all this!!??


That FIRST WEEK IN PHX literally set the stage... pardon the pun, but LITERALLY SET THE STAGE for me to meet my future husband at that Hand in Hand concert 6 months later! Still gives me goose-bumps after all these years!!

And the only reason Randy took our phone number that night was because Linda and I were in the studio recording and he sorta accidently asked me out so we could talk about it. Oh, and did I happen to mention that Linda and I had the same first and last name... so that when he called, he thought to ask for the Linda Larson that was not engaged... cuz yes, I would still be wondering if he got the right one! Thank God the other Linda was engaged!



So there you go... 29 years ago I set out on a journey that forever changed my life! I cannot begin to tell you all that the Lord has done in my life... oh, but wait... through blogging... I just may try!
So stay tuned for more...