Jen Haugland

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Last night was so sweet! We had a turnout of 70+ friends and family from our community to the release party at Joyful Noise Music Center for Your Love Comes After Me! We sang a couple of worship songs and then I performed a mini concert of 3 songs from the EP. I think people really enjoyed ‘It Is Well’ (great singing voices from everybody) and ‘Kingdom Come.’ I also did the title track, ‘Your Love Comes After Me.’ And of course, I have to admit, everyone singing happy birthday to me was pretty darn sweet! I was proud to show off my beautiful family. I couldn’t have done it without them and or course not without my Heavenly Father who has been leading every step of the way!

My beautiful family!

The food was great and we had some giveaways of t-shirts, thumb drives with the title track/digital album and CD’s. I am almost to the end of my first stash of 100 CDs. I need to place another order this week! An added blessing at the end was a gift from the Joyful Noise Music Center (John Mangiameli) who decided to bless me with a music stand to cross off my wish list so I can have what I need to perform at other venues around the community. I still have the need of a keyboard and monitor on my wish list (I’ve been borrowing the keyboard from my church worship leader, Dave).
Thank you everyone for supporting this ministry and my songwriting! I know I am so blessed and God is so good no matter what comes my way!

Let me know what your favorite song is from the album!
Blessings to you all!

Love,
Jen

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JUST RELEASED!

I am very excited to announce the debut release of my EP, Your Love Comes After Me. You can get it here on iTunes, at Amazon or Indieheaven. You can also sample and purchase individual songs digitally or purchase the physical CD right here on my website Store or Downloads page!

 

RELEASE PARTY!

Saturday, September 15 at 6:30 p.m. I will be celebrating the release of the new album which will be hosted by Joyful Noise Music Center (next to the Good Book and Hurricane Coffee) in downtown Sequim, 118 W. Washington Street. Come on down for some great worship music, food, cake and freebie giveaways if you are in the area! Oh yeah, and you can purchase your CD directly from me!

SPREAD THE WORD! 🙂

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Meriam Webster defines “yielded” as: to reward, render as fitting, to give up a claim or possession on, to surrender, to cultivate, etc. (see: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/yield)

Here are the many definitions of it in the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek (basically it means the same thing): http://biblez.com/searchstrongs.php?q=Yield

Be sure to read up on these though, because this will be a longer blog series that I want to share with you. This first part will reflect a portion of a testimony and story that I am writing in a book that I hope will be another important part of my ministry here at Jen Haugland Music.

As I went about a particular day in my week (last week), I think I may have experienced most of these different meanings of the word. I certainly yielded to my early morning schedule. I had to drop off my son with his sister early in Seattle,  so I could get to the recording studio in time to lay down vocal tracks for my new EP starting at 10. That meant I had to leave the house by 5:15 to catch an early enough ferry (which I missed by the 4th car) and know my route to my daughter’s house (which I overshot by going a back way from downtown Seattle and ended up in a very wrong neighborhood of W. Seattle and consequently was late to my recording time).

But the morning had started off so good as I laid in bed, slowly waking up, reflecting in my mind these songs that I would be recording that day. They were worship songs and meditating on them, word by word, gave me solitude with my Heavenly Father.  I prayed that He would be glorified in every song that I sang so that the listener on the receiving end of this upcoming EP project would hear whatever message God would have for them.

Then I turned over and looked at my husband of 25 years next to me still sleeping and remembered whom I yielded my life to in marriage, twice! I thought about my God of second, third, fourth (etc.) chances. This day was our 12th wedding anniversary of when Craig and I re-married each other after being divorced for 6 months (and married for 13 years previous to each other). On August 16, 2000, I chose to be brave that day, when I was so scared. I had thought about running away, even at that last moment before walking into that courtroom to go before the Justice of the Peace. My step-mom, whom I had just confessed my fears to, who was by my side said, “I am so proud of you honey, you are so brave” and she held my hand. I never forgot her words.

As I stood outside of that courtroom I thought about that word “brave”.  I had no guarantee that life would be easier, or different from the previous 13 years that we struggled through, but then I heard a still small voice in my ear reminding me, that if I would yield, I had a guarantee that He would be with me every step of the way and carry me when I needed Him too.  I yielded my life to Christ and remembered how much He yielded His life to me and also to my husband who very much needed the same forgiveness that I needed.

Apparently there is something to being brave…

Yes, I trusted my God that day, I chose to be brave and yield to Him and His will in my life (as did Craig), and our God has been faithful… these last 12 years have been the best ever and we count even the 13 before as a blessing as well. Yielding has produced much fruit in our lives. We stood against the forces of darkness that day that longed to destroy us and our little family. We stood against the societal norms of our times and the ‘lie of divorce’ as we stood inside that little room and we confessed to love one another forever with the love that Christ had shown us.

That day, we were surrounded by our small cloud of witnesses here on earth: our 3 beautiful children: Jessica, Rachel & Nathanael, Craig’s dad and mom and my dad and step-mom. I know our Heavenly Father, our Savior, the Spirit and a cloud of witnesses in the heavens were also rejoicing! It is a day we all highly treasure as a family. It changed our hearts, it strengthened our faith and it gave a solid foundation and future to our children who now understand a deeper meaning of what and who love is in their own lives.  It has changed our lives forever in so many ways and we are so thankful for the cross!WeddingDay08162000-1

(to be continued, A Yielded Life-Part II)…

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I am very excited to announce that My Heart’s Desire, co-write with Ed Kerr (featuring Leann Albrecht) is circulating this week on Eric Copeland’s Creative Soul Records, New Music Week, out of Nashville, TN. This song will also be featured on my new EP Your Love Comes After Me which will be released in the next few weeks! Have a listen! Blessings, Jen

http://www.newmusicweek.com/2012/08/week-zero3.html

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I’ve been a bit slow on my blogs lately, but its been for a good reason: things have been getting very busy here at Jen Haugland Music! My husband and I have just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary (a major milestone and miracle for us for anyone who knows our testimony)! We took a little vacation time away at the beautiful Ponte Vineyard & Winery in Temecula, CA and I am now on the countdown to finishing my EP! I will be tracking vocals in studio with Matt Kees, my producer, on this Thursday and the final mastering should be finished by the end of the month. Sheri Gould has been working with me on vocals to help me be at my best for this day! I am so thankful for her!

Be watching for an official announcement of a release date of YOUR LOVE COMES AFTER ME very soon! I am so excited and can’t wait to share this new inspirational music with you!

Another exciting thing that just was completed, was my new logo for Jen Haugland Music. I love it’s versatility. I can change where I place the text, tag line and change background colors to to match any medium I am using it with. My friend Shaun did a really nice job on it! A friend from church who saw it said, “Jen, it is so you!” Perfect! That’s what I wanted!

My graphic designers for the album art are busy at it. A joint effort between my two beautiful daughters, Jessica & Rachel, who insisted this needed to be a family project. They are pretty talented too and can get the job done! We have some great photos to work with from our photo shoot (done by my daughter Jessica as well). In fact, the current photos on the website here were done by my other daughter Rachel.

There is also a Release Party in the works for the new EP in September, so I will keep you posted on that as well! You will ALL be invited! My local Christian Bookstore is working with me on the details! It’s all coming down to the wire and I can’t believe it is finally happening! My first album! Yea!!!

Blessings to you all!

Love,

Jen

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“For the wisdom of this world isSunset Travel foolishness in God’s sight.”1 Corinthians 3:19

The other day, I had to attend a professional ethics workshop to stay current on my license as a Mental Health Counselor. I was trying to think positive about attending it, knowing it would not be a class from a Christian world view, but quite possibly I would learn something new. Well, I was quite disappointed. What I did learn is that I truly felt like a foreigner in a secular training. I had to listen to sneers and chuckles when therapists reported that “Christians say people will go to Hell if…” (wish believers were careful with their words, it sure makes a bad name for those of us who are trying hard to be salt and light).

Then we had exercises on situational ethics and examples in which we had to answer, “What if’s” based on our personal values and then, how we would handle that if we were the therapist. On the abortion situation, I was one of 3 therapists out of a room of 25 that held up their hands as being pro-life (because she asked us to). I was definitely starting to get the feeling that we were being singled out. Then, ironically (but of course known to God), I sat next to a therapist whom I had to partner with to discuss an ethics issue that each of us were currently dealing with. She was dealing with a father in session who was “extremely religious” and trying to impose his desires of having her counsel his daughter in biblical standards. She believed that this was going beyond her scope of practice. I suggested to her if she had considered finding a Christian Therapist and referring. She had not, in fact she just couldn’t understand how there could even be “Christian Counselors” and how they could remain neutral in therapy sessions. I smiled politely at her and stated, well, actually, I myself am a Christian Therapist, and this is how I am able to work with my clients from a Christ-centered perspective…” I am sure I surprised her quite a bit. In fact, I must have surprised her so much, she avoided me the rest of the workshop.

Sexual misconduct by therapists with their patients and supervisors with their supervisees is still an ongoing problem in the field of clinical practice and the majority of the training seemed to focus in on this, but instead of using real-life case samples, we got to watch movie snippets for how Hollywood interprets therapy (which for the most part is poorly, by the way). And for a final exercise in this area of concern, I learned that the wisdom of the trainer I had was truly foolishness. First, she let us know that we did not have to do the exercise if we didn’t want to, but that she would explain it after we did it. That was my big red flag. We were instructed to physically write out a plan for how we would sexually seduce a client in our office. Seriously, I was appalled. I refused the assignment. We were later told that by doing the assignment we would then be better able to detect in ourselves when we might be starting to slip into this plan and to be sure to avoid it. Hmmm. Seems to me there could have been a much better way to teach this.

Scripture tells us that we are to guard our thoughts and to flee from sexual immorality. “After desire has been conceived it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown gives birth to death.” James 1:15 How about we just don’t go there? We flee! Why entertain the thought, even yet, why put a plan in writing…can you see what the next step would be? We are living in dangerous times for sure.  When a trainer on ethics decides that this kind of an exercise would help us in physical restraint, we are mislead as professionals. For the only one who restrains is the indwelling Spirit of God in the hearts of the believers. We MUST exercise restraint by allowing the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And we should practice fleeing from sin and sinful desires, being willing to hold every though captive to the obedience of Christ.

I realized after this training, that indeed, I am in the world, but not of this world. And yes, my evaluation of the training that I turned in had a lot of writing on it!

 

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GA FlowerI am here in Peachtree City, GA right now, visiting my 90 year-old grandmother and almost 89 year-old grandfather. I have fondly called them MeMe and PaPa since I was little. My grandmother recently broke her upper left leg around a repaired hip break last year and I came to bring some good cheer and let her know how much I love her; as well I came to be a helping hand with the family.  As I saw her in the rehab facility Friday night, I was reminded how frail life had become again for her. She has lived a long life and seen so much.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 ESV

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”

The initial shock of seeing MeMe suffering physically and emotionally is freshly etched in my mind and is unsettling in my heart as a grand-daughter and as a mental health counselor. I want to take her pain away and I want to be able to tell her she can come home and be with her family. But I can’t. She needs the time to heal. She wept and I wept with her. There is a time to mourn and grieve the loss of independence, the pain of being alone in a care facility and there is a time to love and to embrace as I lay next to her in the bed yesterday afternoon snuggling with her as she took a nap. I’m not ready for the time to die yet.

I suppose God will prepare me for that season, in its time, and as well for my grandma. In the meantime, there is a time for everything…don’t let these moments of here and now slip you by. Life is too short. When we have opportunities to grieve, it is important to experience them right when they are happening so that it is not stuffed down inside ourselves or prolonged. It will help us in the long run when those final moments come and death takes our loved ones. Our grief is only temporary in the grand scheme of life. Death has been overcome. And when you have time to tell stories of yesteryear – LAUGH – even if it makes you cry! I think I will be on a bit of a roller coaster with my emotions while I am here, but I am okay with that…this is life …and my time for everything with my MeMe and PaPa.

I thank You God for these precious moments in time and to be a participant in them!

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My friend Gerod Bass, who is a worship pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Tacoma, WA and I met through the Christian Musician Summit a little over a year ago. We started listening to each others ideas for songs and decided this last winter to get together and do some songwriting together. We hit it off well.

Gerod had a beautiful anthem-like worship song that he was working on and I joined him on the co-write with it. The song has turned out so nice and is a great call to the church to “go” and “be” because our time is short. The song is in production at this time with our friend and producer Matt Kees. It is also the title track and name of Gerod’s new EP that will be out by the end of this summer. I will have a similar, but slightly different arrangement on my new EP also out by the end of the summer. The cool thing about this song is that Gerod has been playing it for his church there in Tacoma and it has been getting received well by the congregation. Let’s hope it “moves” the church!

Gerod will also be debuting Kingdom Come during the worship time for an upcoming Northwest District 63rd Convention of the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, OR this week/end June 21 -23. About 700 leaders will have the chance to hear and worship to it!

In addition, a few members of a high school youth worship team from Golden Hills Community Church in Brentwood, CA just spent the weekend with us as our family was one of many host homes this weekend while the Power & Light team performed and shared Christ in song and dance with us on Sunday. We had a great time. I was able to share Kingdom Come with my captive audience, Kieth & Patty Morgan (leaders of Power & Light), and after they heard it, they said they would like to take the song down to their church where their son is the Worship Pastor there. I contacted Gerod and he agreed to send it out early. I quickly pulled together Gerod’s current draft demo of the song and 3 different chord charts to send back with the Morgan’s. This will give the opportunity for over 4,000 congregants to hear our song that we co-wrote. Would you please pray along with us (Gerod and I) that this song will be a blessing to the hearts of those who hear it and that the greater church will respond to the message we are speaking in it? Thank you so much in advance for this! We are so excited to see what God will do through this song!

Be watching for the release of this song on both of our upcoming EPs and as well on our music sites. Stay tuned for more news updates on it as it gets completed! I promise I will share it with you!

Blessings to you in Christ,

Jen

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God’s timing is perfect for this blog: Just the other day a friend posted on his FB a need for prayer for a young man who was suicidal. Fortunately the young man knew that this friend and their home was a safe haven. This young man is reaching out and grasping at any ounce of hope that he can find and he chose this friend who happens to be a mature Christian.

“The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.” Proverbs 20:14, NIV

Like the young man who is struggling with suicide, his heart is full of deep waters at this time. My friend is the man of understanding. Would you please pray along with me during this urgent time that my friend will have the wisdom and discernment to be that man of understanding that can draw out these deep waters in this other young man’s heart and bring the hope of Christ to him during these dark moments?

We all have deep waters and it takes a special heart that can draw them out. Do you have someone that draws out your deep waters? Are you the one of understanding? This is the wise counselor. You are needed so much, look for those you can draw out. There is a light that shines in us as believers that brings hope to others when they see us. But they are seeing more than us because we reflect the radiance of Christ. It is His reflection back at them that tells them there is hope. You are that messenger of that Good News.

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