Lewis & Lewis Blog

Greetings and salutations in the name of our Lord and Savior! At last Spring weather is finally here! Winter used to be my favorite season, but the older I get, I just love Spring. It’s the beginning of things (spring-cleaning, re-planting the flowers, detail cleaning the inside of vehicles, etc., you know, fun thingsJ !) It’s a time of re-birth. Every Spring I just love to sit outside on our little front porch and see how one day the buds are on the trees and two or three days later they're sprouting, and before we know it, there are leaves. We leave for a day and come back and --- Spring has sprung! J

Speaking of traveling, isn’t the price of fuel something!!! I’m so thankful that Lewis & Lewis’s employer owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He’s the one that hired (called) us to be fulltime in His work, so He’s the one that takes care of our fuel bill. But His bank is The Church. When we pull up to a service station to fill up the tank of our RV, telling them that we’re a faith ministry doesn’t workJ . So, that’s why we thank churches for their giving to our ministry in song. You know what? God thanks them, too…..

Everywhere we go there’s someone that says something to us about the stories of our travels they sometimes read on this website. And there are a lot of them that I don’t even have time to write down. We love meeting new people as we criss-cross the country. Like a few weeks ago in West Virginia when we met a ten year-old boy that is in a wheel chair, but man - can he sing! I mean, he is soooooooo anointed! What a blessing he was to us! So special!

In many churches where we sing on Sunday mornings the children come up to the front and sing before they go to their own Children’s Church. That always blesses us! A church that uses their children and teaches them to take part in the service is a wise church.

When we drive up to a church, many times the young boys will come out and want to help unload the sound system, etc. And we let them! Not only does it help us, it helps them to learn how to be a good person, good citizen, shows compassion, etc. We know God smiles on them!

Lewis & Lewis simply love meeting refreshing pastors. We met one in particular like that last year, and was privileged to see him again just recently. He makes you feel welcome from the time you drive up to the front door of the church, he has a spring in his step that you know comes from that “spring of living water” in his soul, and everyone responds to that. His humor is exceptional. He laughs a lot. That’s so great! In this world of vast confusion, it’s a joy to be around him! Just a hint…he’s in Willette, TennesseeJ .

Another one that is an exceptional pastor is in Man, West Virginia. He’s refreshing in a different way. He has a passionate burden for churches uniting in these end times of the social climate of our country. We admire him speaking out. He’s a tremendous asset to God! Let's all help him pray that God's Church will unite for the good of one and all! Will you help?

One church in Brookwood, Alabama has some very young folks playing in their church band. Our hearts just swell with joy as these young ones work for the Lord in every service. We know the parents have to feel ten feet tall as they watch their offsprings devote their time to The Kingdom.

This year on Easter morning as we came out of a church in Monterey, Tennessee, we found the sky spitting a little bit of snow. Snow, we said? In the Sunny South on Easter? We traveled north that evening to sing in Kentucky, and there was still a little coming down when the service started. But we were “blown away” (funny how that term slipped outJ ) that night headed home because we were caught in a regular blizzard!!! Can you believe it? In the Sunny South? It’s all we could do to see where we were going! But you know what was funny? The snow stopped three miles from our home! We were sooooooooooo madJ . We’d made plans to make snow cream the next day, etc.J .

In Louisiana we met a young lady about twelve years old or so who sang, and we just know that the whole country is going to be blessed in the future by her singing. She’s just great! Watch the internet/TV stations and listen on the radio for her during the next few years. God is really going to use her, she’s just awesome. Talk about talent! Not only that, it’s anointed talent!!! We were soooooooo blessed! I thought I was gonna shout!J Oh, I'd better tell you her nameJ, it's Hannah Austin!

Now I just love one lady that I met in Kentucky. She told me that I looked like a Barbie doll up there singingJ . Why wouldn’t any great-grandmother (we have five of those) love that!J Talk about meeting nice peopleJ .

In Woodsfield, Ohio we’re always blessed because the pastor and his wife are soooooo exceptional, sooooooo refreshing, and they travel from coast to coast on motorcycles! They’re Pentecostal, and have a great witness for God wherever they go. We love them to pieces!!! Another pastor and wife in Bartlett, Ohio, they're like family to us. They always treat us to a great traditional breakfast of biscuit and gravy on Saturday mornings, at which time all of their grown children and their families come. What a great time for Lewis & Lewis to enjoy a “home away from home.”

Most pastors or ministers of music introduce Lewis & Lewis when it’s time for us to come up on stage to sing. Not in Loranger, Louisiana…There a young couple who have a puppet ministry had the puppets introduce us with a little skit. It was the most precious presentation we’ve seen in a long time! We were sooooooo blessed and impressed by their efforts! Isn’t that so original?

A church in Downsville, Louisiana has a little cabin close to the church where visiting guests can stay and just “kick back.” Everything’s there just like at home; TV/VCR/DVD player, kitchen well stocked with your favorite foods (they make an effort before you come to find out what they are!), king-size bed, all the comforts of home. What more can you ask!

In Dover, Florida there’s a pastor who’s one of those “refreshing” ones, too. He really blessed our hearts with a short but verrrrrry powerful message when we were there. Also something so cute happened that morning as we walked into the sanctuary when the service was starting…We were walking up the aisle to the front when a gentleman stopped us and said, “I’ve never seen y’all before, and I know you’re going to think that I’m crazy when I tell you this, but my son told me to be sure and ask you to sing…….the “chicken song?”……We kept a straight face (it was hardJ ) as we replied, “Okay, Sir, we’ll surely sing that one”. (If you haven’t heard the song Ray sings which is affectionately known as “The Rooster Song”, after the first week in May you can go to www.YouTube.com and find Lewis & Lewis, or “Down To The Farm” (real name of the song), and you’ll see what that man in Florida heard in church that morning…(After you’ve seen it on www.YouTube.com, be sure and tell your friends about it, too, or better yet, send them the link to it).

What a blessing all these folks are to Lewis & Lewis as we travel around the country! We love each of you that we meet, and if we haven’t met you yet, then - hey - just call our office or have your pastor or minister of music call our office (Contact Us Page) and then maybe we’ll be able to meet you, too, at some point in time.

Now: All of the pastors I’ve mentioned above, all the young folks, all the folks I’ve just talked about…Do you know what they are?…..You guessed it...They’re a Filling Station. For Lewis & Lewis. Each smile, each one that says, “Your music blessed me”, each exceptional person we see/meet that’s choosing to work for God’s Kingdom, not “the other” kingdom, each precious handshake…They’re all...The Lewis & Lewis Filling Station.

Thanks...for letting us pull up to your tank.

It's been fun chatting with you again. We hope you visit our website often to keep up with what's happening in our travels/ministry in song. Email us on the "Contact us" page, or write something on the "Notepad" page. Oh yes, before I forget it, we've had so many comments on one of the previous blogs I wrote - about some of the things that happen to us on the road - that I decided to keep it on here for a while longer. It's just below. Have fun reading it!

God bless you, till later,

Laura Lewis, Lewis & Lewis

   Ray and I love the job that God gave us to do. Period. We criss-cross the whole country sharing songs He's inspired us to write through the years. Wherever we sing, you can count on one thing for sure; two of us are gonna have a great time in the Lord!

   We laugh a whole lot together while we're traveling, because...there's usually a whole lot to laugh about!

   Let me walk down Memory Lane and see if I can find anything funny  - or unusual - that has happened to us during the past while. Let's see...tripping on the edge of the stage at a new church was not funny, but you would've thought it was the way everyone was laughing, so I thought I'd better laugh, too.  Somehow (I think that's my Guardian Angel's name) I landed on both feet, still standing! Come to think of it, that little feat might be termed "unusual" as well as funny.

   At another church - just ten minutes before service started - the power went off, and back on again three times in a row in about ten seconds. Wow! No time to do anything except look at the sound system in horror. We thought something had overloaded the electrical circuits in the church itself, but later learned that it had occurred in the whole community. Sure enough, our mini-disc player was "fried". Not to worry, we carry a spare. Hooked it up and then discovered we only had ONE speaker working! By this time, the minute hand is straight up and down, time to start the service and you know "the show must go on." So, we walked onstage and during the first song we "fixed and mixed." During the second song, I got a brilliant idea and motioned to Ray while we were both singing. Fortunately, he understood, and the audience was laughing with us as Ray walked to the one speaker that was working, and moved it over to the center of the altar, still singing. By the time that song ended, we had equal sound throughout the sanctuary, although it looked real funny because our speaker stands are about seven feet high, and the speakers are about the size of a shoebox, and there it stood - right in front of us.  All's well that ends well, and if God be for you, who can be against you! Love that scripture, don't you?

   I guess most every artist has done this at least once...I'm talking about the time I was getting ready for the first service of a small tour and realized I didn't bring my heels. Oh dear, can't wear these jogging shoes with my suit. Thank goodness the pastor had his wits about him, and it only took him making one phone call for someone to bring a pair of shoes my size to wear. Take it from me...singing in someone else's shoes can change your tune!

   Oh yes, Ray left his dress shoes, too, just this past New Year's Eve, but he just stood bravely in his suit and brogans thinking no one would notice...but they did. So we laughed and joked about it on stage all night long, and not only did someone bring their camera to the stage and get a close-up of him, when we all went to eat during intermission, folks had to come around to our table and get a closer view  of the famous brogans. They thought he looked so "Nashville." Funny.

   And I could never forget the Sunday morning when we were singing just a hundred miles away from home, and we left bright and eeaarrllllly that morning, in sort of a hurry. I started to get ready for the service and there was my gorgeous blazer and top, but where was my skirt, I asked myself."At home", my brain screamed. So, I sang that morning in my parachute pants. Fortunately the pastor understood. That afternoon we passed a Wal-Mart on the way to the PM service, and thank goodness they had a black skirt that was okay to wear, because the church we were singing at that night wouldn't have grinned on me singing in slacks. Close call!

   But can you believe that Ray actually left his precious guitar behind in a church? Surely did. "A few good men" were helping him load, and they were bringing the sound system, etc. out of the church, and somehow the guitar was left.  Ray had to travel around 400 miles round trip the next week to go back and get it! Ray has left so many guitar stands all across the nation that - now when he goes to the music store to buy a new one, I ask him, "What church did you buy that stand for"? He's left more than one pair of shoes in a church. He's left his clothes. I've left mine, too. We even left our cell phone in a foyer once. Churches are constantly mailing/UPS-ing something to us.

   As well as the guitar, clothes and shoes, we've left cords, microphones, cases of cassettes and CD's through the years, and in the past Ray has been known to say, "I've left everything but my wife." Guess what. He can't even say THAT anymore. He left me, too! Yes, he certainly did do just that. If you want to read the story, just click on our Road Report page and read for yourself.

   In going down Memory Lane for the funny or unusual, I guess the most outstanding of anything was when I went into the Ladies room in a great-big church -after the service was over and everyone was gone - to get into my traveling clothes and shoes. As I opened the door to the corner stall where I'd left them, my gaze was drawn to the commode...where my shoes laid...side by side... in the water. In the old days, if folks didn't like someone's singing, they'd throw rotten eggs or tomatoes at them. I guess we can see how far things have progressed now. I'm just glad there was an indoor bathroom instead of an outdoor one. The good thing about this story was that - I got a new pair of shoes out of this deal.

   Well, the Blog is clogging now, so I think I'll leave this until more wonderful things happen. What's that? Did I hear someone say they'd like to travel with us sometime? Mercy sakes, come on, there's always something interesting happening!

   After Lewis & Lewis have been to your church/event, when you walk in the door for the next service, check under the front pews and on the stage, in the foyer and in the restrooms. You're likely to find part of us still there.

   Don't worry, we'll call you in a few days to see if you found it.

   Our final words today: Are you growing in the Word?