April 11, 2007 <br> <br>Faithful God Part 1 w/Shannon Wexelberg <br> <br>You ask the Lord for a child but you can’t have a child. Finally you turn it over to the Lord and you wait for him. I’m Charles Morris sharing the great story that’s all about Jesus. That prayer for a child has been prayed by countless people all the way back to the early pages of the Bible. And in the next few minutes I want you to meet one of those saints who’s prayed that prayer. She’s a singer and leads worship at her church north of Denver. Her name is Shannon Wexelberg and I’d like to introduce you to her by first sharing her music, “All Your Promises Are True”. <br> <br>Song: All Your Promises Are True <br>Performed by: Shannon Wexelberg <br> <br>We were just listening to some great music, lyrics that just soar to Heaven but also with somebody who’s had a song that’s rated pretty highly, played on radio stations in a lot of places, “All Your Promises Are True”. I’m Charles Morris with Haven Today and I’m in Denver at Faith Bible Chapel and I want to welcome my new friend Shannon Wexelberg to Haven Today. <br>SW: Thanks Charles. It’s great to be with you today. <br>CM: Shannon, that song has been played on a lot of radio stations starting last year. Nobody had ever heard of Shannon Wexelberg probably, but you want to kind of give us a little clue as to where you live and who you are? Just a little bit here. <br>SW: All right. Sure thing. I’m a worship leader up in Greely, Colorado at a church called Greely Wesleyan Church and I’ve been married to my wonderful husband Mark for – golly – it’s been almost 14 years in May and we have a little boy, a 2 year old named Christian. <br>CM: You’re mentioning your little boy Christian brings up something I wanted to talk about so let me just go ahead and start it right now. He’s a gift from God and you asked God to give you him. Would you just tell us a little bit about that? <br>SW: Certainly, I would love you. Like I said a moment ago, Mark and I have been married almost 14 years now and for the first, oh I don’t know, 10 or 11 we tried, to no avail, to have biological children of our own. And we did all the, you know, the tests and some of the treatments and all that kind of thing. For women in particular it’s just an absolute rollercoaster, you know, and before you know it, you know, the months have turned into years and you’re just kind of looking up to Heaven going, “Lord?” You know all your dreams of motherhood are that you envisioned as a child, you know, are just kind of going down the tubes a little bit. And it was really a journey with my relationship with the Lord during that time. I mean I knew, I’ve always had a strong walk with the Lord but it seems like until you’re faced with a major trial that just doesn’t make sense to you that you really are challenged as to whether or not you truly trust the Lord. So it was quite a rollercoaster ride as far as just throwing up prayers to Heaven and you know, seeing all these other people have kids and you’re just, you know, you’re just, “I’ve been a good girl!” You know? “I need a baby!” And just praying and praying and praying and just going through all that process. It was extremely difficult. <br>CM: Shannon, a lot of people think of a trial as for a very short season, but how long was your season? And then why don’t you tell us a little bit about how the Lord gave you Christian. <br>SW: Our season of infertility lasted around 10 years, between 10 and 11 years. And you know, into that 10th year that I really began to just – and I’d tried to release it before. And I’d pray, “Lord, you know, take the desire away!” or you know, “I surrender!” But I don’t’ think I ever really had fully surrendered. And of course you don’t lose the desire but at some point the Holy Spirit enabled me to just say, “You know, it’s OK Lord. I trust that whatever plans you have for me are good. And even if they don’t line up with exactly what I think my life is supposed to look like, there good and I trust you.” So literally within several weeks time Mark and I began to talk about, really just pray about whether or not the Lord would have us either just not have kids or adopt. We didn’t know, we were just submitting it to the Lord. And we just said, “Lord you’re will be done. But we want you to complete our family however it is that you desire.” And I began to go online and look at adoption agencies and request packets and different things. And I got so overwhelmed because anyone who’s walked through years and years of infertility is already kind of exhausted from all that. And I started to get overwhelmed by the adoption process. And I just prayed and I said, “Lord,” I said, “I don’t feel like I can do this. If you want to bring a child into our life you’re just going to have to do it.” And that was probably a naïve prayer or selfish prayer but it was not 2 or 3 weeks later that we got a call from a, sort of a family acquaintance of Mark’s parents that a gal that they knew had been trying to raise this son. She already had a little girl as well, single mom, young single mom. And she just decided she just couldn’t do it. And she asked if someone in Mark’s family specifically, would adopt her little boy. And that was a Tuesday and we went up that Friday. And the only reason we didn’t go up sooner was because I had a commitment that I, you know, I had already had to do that week, but we went up Friday. So we literally had 4 days to prepare to bring a 9 month old little boy home. But it was such a miraculous story and just within those weeks the Lord was just speaking things to us and confirming things to us, even before we got the phone call. So by the time we got the phone call, we didn’t even need to pray about it, it was just like, “This is the answer to prayer.” We knew. And so we went up 4 days later and picked up our little Christian. His name is Christian Mark. And we picked him up in Michigan that weekend and brought him home. He’s slept through the night since that first night we brought him home. And he’s just a bundle of joy, I mean he is just precious, beautiful little boy. So, we feel so blessed and he just, he’s about 2 ½ now, so. <br>CM: Shannon, what a wonderful story. It really is a wonderful story and I know we’ve got a lot of mothers and hoping to be mothers that are just encouraged by what you just shared with us. Now you’re not just a singer, you’re a songwriter, so what does a songwriter do? I think you had already written about it but tell me about that. <br>SW: Well there is a recording that I did called, “Story of My Life” several years ago that probably the majority of the songs were written during that valley, because it was such a long valley. And there was one particular song that I wrote that was called, “In the Waiting” and it was also on the radio for a while several years back. And it just talked about the fact that God – so many times we look at the destination and the prayers that are being offered and we just want to get to that answer but we forget that God is so much in the waiting process and he’s molding and shaping us and really I think a lot of times he’s more interested in that process than he really is in the final, you know, destination of the prayer answer because he’s concerned about our character. So I wrote that song, “In the Waiting” just talking about how God is so much in that waiting process and how he uses it to change our lives. <br> <br>Song: In the Waiting <br>Performed by: Shannon Wexelberg <br> <br>What an amazing voice, singing to her Lord and to her Savior Jesus. That’s Shannon Wexelberg and I can’t tell you how much I appreciated our time together hearing her story and I’m sure you could say the same thing as well, where you pray for a child, you’re waiting on the Lord and then you hear the Lord answer. Shannon has a brand new album out it’s called, “Faithful God”. In fact I think it would be appropriate for us to hear the title song of this brand new album, so come let’s worship some more now with the music of Shannon Wexelberg. <br> <br>Song: Faithful God <br>Performed by: Shannon Wexelberg <br> <br>“Faithful God” is the name of the song, it’s the name of the album and it’s the name of this Haven Today with Shannon Wexelberg. She’s going to join us again tomorrow on the program as well. Thank you for being with me. And you know, sometimes we just need a reminder that our God is faithful. Even when we forget that, he certainly doesn’t. And of course his faithfulness is made known to us so much by his sending his son Jesus Christ to die for us, to claim us, so that when we come to him and confess our sins and ask for his forgiveness of those sins, he is faithful always, forever. Thanks for being with me on this Haven Today. And if you would like to hear some sound bytes from this brand new album by Shannon Wexelberg – you may have never met her before – she’s kind of new to the Christian music scene, a worship leader of a church north of Denver, Colorado. We have them on our website, “Come Worship the Lord”, “Endless Song”, the one you heard, “Faithful God” right then, a song called, “Hail to the King” and “Highest Praise”. Just go to haventoday.org. Our website again is haventoday.org. You’ll see a picture of Shannon and her album, “Faithful God”. Click there and you can hear a sound clip of all of these 10 amazing songs, and we also would like to send it to you right away as a thank you for your financially supporting Haven Today. So get in touch with us, haventoday.org. Or you can make your gift and ask for this CD, “Faithful God” by calling us at 1-800-654-2836. Let us know the station you’re listening to when you get in touch. One more time, that toll free number is 1-800-654-2836. And if you’d like us to pray for you, we’re in the business of prayer as well. You can write to us and send your gift as well to: <br>Haven Today <br>Box 79997 <br>Riverside, CA 92513 <br>Or in Canada: <br>Haven Today <br>Box 6800 <br>Vancouver, BC V6B4C9 <br>I’m Charles Morris. Come back again tomorrow with Shannon Wexelberg, when again we’ll be talking about Jesus together on Haven Today. <br>
