The International Christian Retail Show was a pivotal time for my life.  I’m so thankful that Todd was there to help make it the success that it was and to make it as fun as it was!  On our drive down to St. Louis, Missouri we stopped for lunch.  As soon as Todd turned off the car I could hear a drag strip in the background.  When the line-up was really long at Bob Evans I asked Todd if he wanted to go to his first ever Drag Race. He was in!  We had so much fun!  Funny, but the track was called “Crossroads”–Godincidence maybe 🙂   The first night of the conference was great!  We got to finally meet the owners of the Gospel Lighthouse Bookstore Chain that have been so good to me.  Marna Mugford and Lynda Schoffro are wonderful people.  We sat together at the service and enjoyed worship led by Laura Storey, special music by Steven Curtis Chapman and preaching by Max Lucado.  All have impacted my life through their ministries.  Later we got to hear a concert of some talented singers hosted by Matthew West.
I had paid to have a book signing at the trade show in the Xulon Press booth and was scheduled for the Monday afternoon at 2pm.  UPS made so many mistakes and didn’t have my books there.  The people at Xulon Press we so great that they allowed me to have the signing booth for Tuesday morning at 10am.  I had to tell people who came that my books were held up at customs and that I would have them tomorrow at 10am.  I was trying to be calm about it, but when we got back to the hotel room and the books weren’t there I panicked, then I decided to trust God to do work it all out.  Todd and I even went out for dinner and up the Arch.  God did some miraculous things and a driver brought the books back after 7pm.
The next day we got to the trade show not knowing if anyone would show up since it was advertised for the day before.  God did amazing things and we couldn’t even get set up before line-ups started.  I was signing books from 9:30am until just before noon!  If only I were selling the books 🙂  The security from the building had to actually re-route the line because it was hindering so many other booths!  I met so many great people who owned or mangaged bookstores,  ran ministries, authors, publishers, radio, television and internet media connections.   We were especially blessed to meet Julie Cantrell, NY Times and USA Today Bestselling Author and winner of two Christy Awards, one for Debut Novel of the Year and a 2nd for Book of The Year, along with her lovely mom.  Thankful to God for allowing us this opportunity!

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