Thursday, August 7, 2008



Hello and welcome to the New Direction blog. We are excited about the opportunity to share some of our adventures and mis-adventures with all of you. Most of you know we are a family gospel music group and evangelism team. We travel nationwide to wherever the Lord opens the door for us to go sharing the message of Christ. Teresa is my sister-in-law, her husband, Jim and my husband, Darren are brothers, and I am Donna. Most people do not believe that Jim and Darren are brothers, but it is the truth. Jim took after their father's side of the family and Darren took after his mother's side.

This last weekend took us to Alvin, Texas, which is south of Houston, Texas. We had the privilege of singing and ministering in Bro. Scott Condiff's place at The Church of the Nazarene where he is pastor. It was a blessing to see everyone once again. It has been at least two or three years since we were there last. We were commenting on how everything looked so new and clean and found that there was a reason for that. They had a line break in the restrooms and it flooded the building. Bro. Steve said that plans were already in the making for remodeling, God just intervened and picked up the tab! It was a great service and time of worship. Bro. Steve and Sis. Kathy were great host in Bro. Scott's absense. We appreciate you sharing with us your favorite songs. So many people still enjoy Four Days Late, it's message is timely and encouraging. We thank you for having New Direction to come be a part of your worship.

It was a great pleasure to see our good friends, Bill and Dorothy Higgins and their daughter, Pam and husband, Tom Evans along with their grandson. Although they attend a different church in Alvin, they made it a special occasion to come be with us. We have known them for at least ten years now and this was the first opportunity they have ever had to hear New Direction sing. We certainly enjoyed the fellowship afterward. Thank you Ms. Dorothy and Pam for a wonderful meal.


From Alvin we traveled to Clute, Texas and the First Assembly of God to meet some of the nicest folks, Bro. John and his wife, Becky. Everyone that attended that evenings service was a pleasure to visit with. Bro. John shared his testimony of growing up a missionarie's son. It is well worth your time to visit with him and Ms. Becky. They are certainly sent by the Lord to be a light in Clute, Texas. We are so blessed that the Lord connected us together as He did. She grew up where there was always gospel music ministries coming to sing in their church, and had been praying that God would send some their way to Clute. We were praying that God would give us the opportunities which He desired for us to have to sing and minister to those that were hungry for more of the Lord. Well, God answered our prayers! We had a great time of worship and then a great time of fellowship. Food, of course, is always a good idea!

Of course when you are enjoying the blessings of the Lord, Satan always rears his ugly head to steal that joy and that blessing. As we pulled up in the parking lot of the church, Jim noticed fluid in a puddle on the ground. The power stearing hose on the bus had broken just as we pulled up at the church. Praise God, the Lord kept it from breaking sooner and we weren't out on the highway somewhere. So, as the Lord always does, He provided us a place to park, a person with the knowlege of what we needed to fix it and who to call to do so. Contacts were made and we were back on the road by 1:30 p.m. Monday. Thank you Mr. Brent for all your help.

As I close, we are getting ready to pull out for Tennessee. We will be ministering there in Columbia, Piney Flats, Tullahoma and a couple of other places while we are there. We will also be in the studio recording vocals on our new project "OUR JOURNEY HOME". We ask that you keep us in your prayers and this project. Our desire is for it to capture the anointing of the Lord in the songs and be a blessing to all those that hear them. We will be in studio on August 20th and 21st, so please be praying on those days that the spirit would be on us and with us as we dedicate this project to the Lord for his glory. We pray this will be our best work yet.

Thank you all, we love you like family.

NDM/Donna Smith