Our Friend Sandi

On Saturday evening, we enjoyed a special outing to Cincinnati with our friends Daryl and Ruthann. You remember that Ruthann is recovering from surgery, and will be starting chemotherapy soon. It was a blessing that she was feeling well enough to go, and we had a great time.

We had dinner at the Grand Finale. Located in an 1895 structure in Glendale, the restaurant has been in business on this corner for over 30 years.

We ate in a room overlooking the snow covered courtyard. Our table had a little heater in the wall beside us that we could turn on and off as needed to take the chill off.

We all enjoyed tasty steak and great conversation.

Daryl and Ruthann at the restaurant.

Dinner was followed by the main event, a concert by our friend Sandi Patty. It was at the Springdale Nazarene Church, and we shared an amazing evening of music and worship.

The crowd was warmed up by the choir and orchestra from SNC. They were wonderful, and stayed on stage to sing with Sandi and friends during the evening.

I even managed a not-too-terrible selfie of Jim and me.

Sandi was great, as usual. She even dressed in my favorite colors. So considerate of her.

My phone photos aren't great, but can you see her shoes? Shoes are kind of her thing, and these were amazing, with probably 6 inch heels. I don't know how she can walk in those things. But she can. Walk and sing. Oh my, can she sing! She started off with some of the 'oldies', and mentioned that if we know these songs, we might be old. :) We did know them, and yes, we're old. We go way back with Sandi.

She was joined on stage by Larnelle Harris.

He is originally from Louisville, so he had several of his family members in the audience.

Wayne Watson also performed with them. He is a singer/songwriter, and shared a new song he wrote around the time of the election in November. It's called Heal Our Land, and is available on iTunes. You really should take a few minutes to give it a listen. So powerful.

Wayne and Sandi also sang their duet, one of my favorites, Another Time, Another Place.

Ruthann wrote a great post about our evening on her Caring Bridge site, giving some of the background of our 'relationship' with 'our friend' Sandi. We have always felt a connection to her through her music, but also because she was a young mom at the same time we were, doing our best to raise our kids and share the love of God. (It just happens that she sings a little better than we do. Otherwise, we're practically the same.) Her Friendship Company cassette (remember those?) lived in our van back in the day, as we sang our way to soccer, swimming, and school activities. Check out Ruthann's post to read about the time we invited Sandi to have lunch with us. :)

It was a great evening, and just what we needed, even if it kept us out waaaayyy past our bedtime. :)
We were blessed by the music, the worship, and time spent with good friends.
I love the lyrics from this Chris Tomlin song, that the SNC church choir led us in singing before the show:

Our God is greater, our God is stronger

God you are higher than any other

Our God is Healer, awesome and power

Our God, Our God.

Amen.