Contributed by Jim Naugle in Meet other CAs As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace…in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:10-15 Christine and Nicole Roberts are a mother and daughter team of Child Ambassadors from New Jersey. Christine is a pre-school music teacher and a singer/songwriter. She has released two albums of Christian music: “He Changed Me” and “Forgiveness”. Nicole recently graduated from high school and is headed to James Madison University in the fall. The Child Ambassador Blog team recently caught up with Christine and Nicole to discuss World Vision, music and family. Can you tell us a little bit about your family? Christine: Doug and I have been married for 22 years and we have 3 children - Duncan, 21, Nicole, 18, and Luke, 16. We are life-long residents of NJ. We have had the privilege and blessing of taking in different foster children to live with us over the years. It is a ministry that has really shaped us as a family. We enjoy traveling together, playing sports, hiking and listening to music. God has always been the center of our family. How long have you been writing and performing Christian music? Christine: Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I learned how to play the guitar by bringing my guitar to church when I was 12 and watching older people in our “folk group” play. I wrote all kinds of silly love songs when I was in high school but it wasn’t until about 17 or 18 years ago when I started writing music to praise God. I am a music minister for women’s retreats at my church and majority of my music started there. The women really encouraged me to start recording and performing about 3 years ago. How does your music intertwine with being a child ambassador? Christine: It’s amazing how perfectly it fits together, really. Everything I love - God, children and music! Many of my songs have come from the suffering I’ve seen our foster children go through and I imagine it is similar suffering experienced by children living in poverty anywhere in the world. There are so many types of poverty and music can really bring light to the suffering and hopefully provide healing. If not healing, at least awareness to others who might be immune. Nicole, you recently graduated from high school - tell us about your post-graduation trip… Nicole: Three days after my graduation I flew to Uganda to do mission work at 2 orphanages. I had the chance to work with disabled children in a home for boys and a home for girls. Most of the children couldn’t communicate and most had physical disabilities as well. I helped feed them, brush their teeth and play with them. It was one of the most emotionally challenging things I’ve ever done but being able to see God in every child was worth it. While I was in Uganda, I also had the opportunity to meet our first sponsored child, Ivan. What an incredible experience to finally see him, his family and his house that we had seen so many years in photos. My favorite part was taking him to buy a bike!! I was impressed when I attended one of your concerts. It’s a real family affair. Your family greeted people at the door, your son sang back up on several songs, Nicole spoke to the crowd about sponsorship. Is it hard to balance performance with family life? Christine: Yes, it’s great that my family is so supportive of my music, but my first priority is always them. I am definitely a wife and mother first, singer/songwriter second. I had no idea how many hours it would take in the studio recording all the music. That was really tough, but so rewarding. Now that my children are becoming adults I have more and more time to devote to songwriting and performing. I understand your family met one of your sponsored children in Bolivia. What are your memories of that meeting? Nicole: It was always a dream of mine to meet our sponsored child, Dayanna, who is the same age as me. I had been writing letters back and forth with her for several years but meeting her and her family made everything so real. We got to meet the World Vision workers and saw all of the projects they were doing in the community and got to visit her school and house. We had an unforgettable day together getting to know each other, sharing a meal and exchanging gifts. Despite our language barrier, we ended the day in tears calling each other hermanas, sisters. On your most recent album “Forgiveness”, you include a song called “Chaos” that I understand was inspired by visiting Dayanna and her family in Bolivia. Tell us about that song: Christine: Bolivia was so beautiful and so chaotic. We went in April of 2018 and when we came back everyone here had all of these perfectly mowed lawns and polished cars and all I wanted was to be back in Bolivia in the joy and dust and chaos. Seeing how simply people live in Bolivia really changed the way I look at material things. When I got home, I kept walking around my house thinking, “I don’t need any of this stuff”. I literally cleaned out my closet on the second day back from the trip and donated bags of clothing that I didn’t need. It seems that we are so intent on making ourselves comfortable all the time that we miss out on uniting ourselves with Christ though suffering. The song “Chaos” talks about all of these ideas. You have another beautiful song called “Steady, My Love”, a love song from mother to daughter. Can you both tell us about that song? Christine: Not to slight my sons, but I think there is a unique bond between a mother and daughter. I wrote “Steady, My Love” to tell Nicole how amazing I think she is! As a mother I want my daughter to be strong, always speak truth and follow God’s plan for her life. While I was writing it, I kept thinking about how many young women out there don’t know how beautiful and amazing they are because no one ever told them. I wrote it as a love song for all mothers to their daughters. Nicole: My mom writing a song just for me meant more to me than any other gift she could have given me. I love the way it turned out! Be sure to say hello to Christine at the Child Ambassador conference in October! If you haven’t registered for conference yet, go to https://wvchildambassadors.lpages.co/conference-2019/to sign up. And if you are interested in downloading Christine’s music, visit https://christinerobertsmusic.com, Amazon Music, or Apple Music. |
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