Back in Action!

Hello friends and family,

New Direction is gearing up to hit the road after a long and restful Christmas and New Year's holiday season. We certainly enjoyed our time off to spend with family and friends. It has been a while since I filled you in on our travels and I won't bore you by going back and trying to trace our steps. I will however, try to be better at getting our blog out to you this year. "Mr. I'mnotinternetsavvy" stayed on my case about being on the computer so much so I slacked off! So, if you missed me and my 'dialupconnection' blog, please tell the guys to stop fussing about us keeping you guys up to date. Let them know someone actually reads our 'newsletter' blog. Darren's friend Ronnie showed him a wireless connection in action, so I think he kinda gets the 'slowwww' picture why it takes me so long to 'do my thing' and get off of here.

Enough of that! Our first activity of the New Year was to go to Amazing Grace Church in Cleveland to be with our friends, The Telestials, from Nashville, TN. Moody Community Worship, our home church, had a fish fry fellowship that afternoon and we cleaned up just in time to go join Beth, Jim, Bethany, Caleb, Jerry and Scott as they sang in the New Year. It was a great evening which was closed out by praying in the New Year as we gathered together and each ask the Lord to bless our country, our leadership, our troops and each other.

Maybe not everyone has heard the news of our new additions to the family. Leslie and Miguel Nueves, Teresa and Jim's daughter and husband, were blessed with twin boys on November 9th. Isaac Antonio was born first and weighed 5 lbs. 12 ozs. and Caleb Todd came 21 minutes later and weighed in at 5 lbs. and 8 ozs. Everyone was fine, healthy and blessed of the Lord. If you would like to read the full, quite hilarious version of that story, just email me at dlhsmith01@yahoo.com for the extended, uncut version of that ordeal! Only the Smiths!

Our first service of the New Year was to be with folks at Hardin Baptist Church last Sunday, November 4th. It was a difficult service because there was a tragic accident among their membership. We felt we still needed to proceed with the service and our prayers go out to that family and the church for their loss. I pray that in some way we were a blessing to those in attendance. The Lord's presence was felt and we know that hearts were touched by the Lord.

We are leaving Friday to make our way to Roby, TX out near Sweetwater, TX. We will be with Bro. Jerry Vincent and First Baptist Church leading the music and worship for their annual Bible Conference beginning Sunday, November 11th through Wednesday, November 14th. Please be in prayer regarding these services. We look forward to the spiritual refreshment and ask that the Lord will use New Direction to minister in a very special way as we follow God's leading throughout conference.

We would like to remind you to check your calendars now and schedule New Direction for your next revival, special service or concert early to assure your dates. The new project, OUR JOURNEY HOME, is still in the works. We have some final mixing to be done and at this point, I would hate to give another release/due date. So, please hand in there with us, we haven't forgotten you! Don't forget about the SGM Fanfair coming up March 16-21st, 2009. This is a full week of SGM music, Bible study and fellowship. Contact us now for your tickets. Visit us at http://www.NewDirectionministriesoftexas.com , sign our guest book, and yes, you do have to click on a separate link, but it comes up in a separate window, which is a good thing! We are looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you soon, so, contact us by email dlhsmith01@yahoo.com or tasmith80@yahoo.com or visit us by clicking on the NDM link above!

May the Lord send you His Biggest Blessings! 'Til next time, Donna

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