Updated August 17/ 2010
Three concerts this week in Orange County, CA:
Wednesday, AUGUST 18; 7:00 pm--Jana and the BAND
Saddleback Church of Irvine
Northwood High School Theater
(visit www.saddlback.com/irvine or click on our "Concerts" tab above for details)
Thursday, August 19, 7:00 pm --Jana in Concert
First Family Church of Whittier
(Visit www.firstfamilychurch.net or click on the "Concerts" tab above for details!)
Saturday, August 21, 7:00 pm--Jana in Concert
Living Water Christian Fellowship of
San Juan Capistrano
(Click on the "Concerts" tab above for details!)
"For the Lord takes delight in His people; he crowns the humble with salvation."
(Ps. 149:4)
(July 27, 2010)
My family and I just got back from spending a week at the Joni and Friends family camp held at the beautiful Calvary Chapel retreat center in Murrieta Hot Springs. I was privileged to give a concert there last year, but this summer I got to lead worship every day for these amazing families! What and incredible ministry! As soon as I get some photos, I'll post them and more comments. But for now, let me suffice it to say that I saw the Lord in the most precious and powerful ways through these families. Kids and adults with all kinds of handicaps, both physical and mental were there at the retreat. I witnessed patience like I've never seen before. Through bodies that don't work quite right and brains that have giftings and deficiencies unlike what we would consider the "norm," I saw the joy of the Lord, passion for Him and hunger for Him that blessed, challenged and humbled me. I love these people. I love Joni Eareckson Tada who has used her 4 decades of paralysis to create ministries like this and encourage hearts all over the world (including mine--she is my hero). I can't wait to share more with you about this. 
"I know that the Lord is great!" (Psalm 135:5a)
Summer is busy for us! If you are in Southern CA, we have several Jana and the Band concerts coming up in your area! Please come see us and praise God with us! If you're in Hawaii, Michigan or New Jersey, we're coming your way, too!!
Please check the "Concerts" tab above for details.
I LOVE getting drawings from friends!
I'm going to try to be better about sharing some of this art with you all!
And I love getting photos!
Here is one sent to me of little Sierra, singing "Jesus Reigns" to her dollies!
VBS is amazing!!!!!!
I love the concept of VBS (Vacation Bible School), and I love being involved in them. Many hard-working people have put together VBS programs all over the country where kids are loved, taught about the Good News of Jesus Christ, and have a blast they'll never forget. Super Giga World at Mariner's Church in Irvine, Ca June 28-July 2 was no exception. We were incredibly blessed to lead the worship for nearly 3000 kids and volunteers. My heart sings when I think of the millions of ways the Lord touched hearts and lives throughout the week!
If you would like to see many more great photos, go to http://www.marinerschurch.smugmug.com/Ministry-events/childrens-family.org Click on "ministry events" and then "children and family."
Our new kids' CD (yet to be titled) is well under construction! We shared 3 new songs from the CD at VBS and they were a blast ("Everybody, Everywhere," "Oh, Halleluia!'" and "Jesus, I am In!"). We're working hard now and through the summer to finish it. Our plan is to have it out by September and film the new Live in Concert right after that! We would love your prayers for time, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (without the Lord, we can do nothing of any good for the kingdom--John 15:5), and vocal health for me. VBS mixed with a little bug beat up my voice, but its slowly coming back to full.
LIVE IN CONCERT DVD #3 to be filmed this fall! Would you and your family like to attend the filming? Details will be posted as soon as they become final! We will need a lot of help, and a lot of kids!
Mother-Daughter weekend at Forest Home (April 30-May 2)...was a blast!
I did't get many photos because I was so busy having a blast. But if you missed it, you might want to go next year!
Go to www.foresthome.org/camps for information and registration.
Festival of Life Outreach festival.....
This was an amazing event back in April, organized by Horizon Church of San Diego, among others.
We were honored to present a children's concert early in the morning to start off the day.
A huge "Thank you" to all of you who participated in our Praise and Worship Concert Fundraiser for Haiti back in March! Here is a photo of some of the tents we raised money for that night. Bright Hope International was able to purchase 40 of these tents with our donation...just in time for protection from the rains!
Our band came together from all over the place (Tim Macres flew in from Colorado), rehearsed quite a lot Saturday and Sunday, and were thrilled to give our talents towards this effort. A huge thanks to Woodbridge Community Church for the use of their beautiful facility! We had a wonderful time worshipping the Lord Sunday, praying for Haiti and hanging out for a long time afterwards! And by the end of the evening, people had given over $4000 to purchase tents for Haitians! Craig Dyer of Bright Hope was thrilled. Thanks everyone! BTW, we plan to do another one of these Haiti fundraiser concerts..."family-style!" So, keep watching the website!
If you would like to make a contribution to Bright Hope International, please visit www.brighthope.org.
"Peace I leave you; My peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be trouble and do not be afraid...."
(John 14:27)
This is the Word of God. Let it be true in your life, every day.
Love in Him, Jana
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You've gotta love kids! Just look at this cutie-pie at a concert we did for Saddleback of San Clemente! I think we were singing "Five, four, three, two, one!" in the song "Everybody get Walkin."
"Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope,
because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed,
for His compassions NEVER FAIL.
They are new every morning,
great is your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:21-24)
We're having fun as we work hard on our new kids CD, due out sometime this summer (still working on a title)! Following right after that--a matching "Music and Motions" DVD, then a Live in Concert #3 DVD!
Would you and your kids like to be part of the LIVE filming???? Keep your eyes on our "concerts" tab for information soon to come! We need LOTS of kids and would love to see you there!
In light of tight economic times, we have lowered our prices!
Shop here: www.janaalayra.com/shop.aspx?n=484011
*DVDs are now at a special price of $16.00 (reg. $20.00)!!
www.janaalayra.com/browse.aspx?c+4&n+760730
*Worship Leader Packs --save up to $75.00 on resources!
We have 3 different Worship Leader packs! Click here to view:
www.janaalayra.com/browse.aspx?c=6
(Plus, when you buy a Worship Leader Pack now, we include a FREE Christmas CD!)
*NEW!!! "Music and Motions" DVDs for
songs from "Jump into the Light" and "Dig Down Deep CDs!!!
{A long requested resource finally filmed and completed! See full description here:
www.janaalayra.com/browse.aspx?c=4&n=210880 }
SPECIAL LOW PRICE:$16.00!
These two new DVDs were filmed like the "Look Out Now" Motions DVD where kids and I perform the songs in front of a changing background image. We've been asked to make these DVDs because they make following the motions so simple. These DVDs also include the option of scrolling lyrics. Hopefully these 2 DVDs will be very fun, helpful tools for use in church or at home (or in the car!). BTW, "BELIEVIN' ON" Music and Motions DVD will soon follow.)
NEW SHIRT COLORS COMING!
www.janaalayra.com/shop.aspx?c=2
(949) 551-8089
(updated 11/13/09)
CONCERTS, SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS,
MINISTRY opportunities...
Please go to the "Concerts" tab, or sign up on our e-mail registry to receive notifications about events coming to your area.
I continue to marvel at the opportunities the Lord gives me to blabber about Him. MOPS gatherings; huge, noisy concerts; online; and even bumping into people around town (like in Trader Joe's!), it never ceases to amaze me. What a thrilling adventure it is to serve the Lord, especially in these strenuous times (Who ISN'T struggling financially? And every day I hear of more heartbreaking trials!). How we all need the hope and confidence we have in Jesus.
A few more things coming up I'm really excited about...
*I always look forward to sharing with women...there are a few events coming up that will challenge and thrill me
*One of my favorite events of the year is speaking for women in prison...every Christmas, Easter, and many times in between.
*Scads of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) events which are a combo of speaking and singing for Moms and singing for their little ones...so fun!
*Conferences...Lutheran Educators, Northwest Christian Educators, GLASS, to name a few....
If the Lord wills, I press on to do my best for Him in all these things, and hopefully, will see you at some of them.
Because He lives and loves and IS and always will be......Jana
(Oct. 2009)
Goodbye, Summer.....hello Fall!
Hey, friends! We hope your summer WAS wonderful. Ours was full of blessings, and now we are totally gearing up for the fall! Here are some of my favorite moments of summer, and the BIG happs upcoming in the fall for Jana Alayra Music!
A few of my favorite moments: (there were many!)
*The photo above captured one special moment this summer. It was at the Fishfest (outdoor Christian music festival at the Verizon Amphitheater in Irvine, CA), where we obviously played on the "Family Fun Stage." The Reimer family drove all the way down from San Francisco to go to the Fishfest. The kids love our music, and had choreographed a dance to "Down on My Knees." I had them come up and do it live with the band...and they brought down the house! It was a great moment during a great day! Thanks to the few hundred of you who joined us in the hot sun! By the way, the whole Fishfest event was a complete blast, truly great for the whole family. After a hot morning helping us set up, our girls loved worshipping God with some of their favorite bands and running around with their friends (see below). Ron and the band once again did a great job and sweated a LOT...and we all had a blast!
Another favorite moment....Joni and Friends family camp. This is a special week long camp put on by Joni Erickson Tada's ministry for families with disabled children. We were invited to sing for them twice....and oh, my! What a taste of heaven! These families were so full of love, and those kids!!!! I adored worshipping the Lord with them...there was something so pure and innocent about them. From the big autistic boy named Wylie who was proud to say he was almost 6' tall, to the twins with cerebral palsey, to all the other kids and adults with varieties of Downe Syndrome and other handicaps--the way they all sang and bounded up to the stage to join in was so pure and moving. Many difficult stories, but there was so much abundantly grace and joy given by God.
One woman shared with me about her adorable little son (he jumped up on stage several times with an enormous smile). His brain has a gigantic vacant space from where a tumor was removed, and he remains a medical mystery. The doctors just don't know how he is alive because the part of his brain that's missing should contol his vital functions. It seems like the missing portion of his brain was filled up with love and joy. In fact, (my girls will never forget this about him)....he can't say "Mom." Instead, he calls his mom, "Love." Wow.
And one other enormous nugget I heard at this event...one wise woman with a handicapped child was sharing with another who was struggling with the "why's" of her son's situation. The older, wiser woman shared with her something like this, "In a way, there is a huge gift in these handicaps...because Satan can't touch these children." Wow again. I think that's what I sensed among these precious children...even though their handicaps can present challenges, they are free from so many of the things that can lure us away from the Lord...greed, pride, envy. I am so glad to serve a God who can work handicaps of all kinds into something enormously powerful for His kingdom. As one friend of mine recently said to me, "God can win with any hand dealt." Amen and amen.
I'm woeful about bringing my camera, and terrible about asking people to take shots, but here are a few from a very fun concert at Chapman University (put on by St. John's Lutheran Church of Orange:) What a blast that was!!!
Ron, Curtis, Tim and Jonathan:
And a shot I just think is three of the cutest guys I've ever seen...(Ron, with Cameron and Cade)
Favorite books this summer: (Besides the Bible...)
*Jesus Calling (Devotional, by Susan Young) Such a breath of fresh air...like Jesus speaking to our hearts!
*Traveling Light (Max Lucado). Does this guy write anything that isn't vivid, profound, moving? I'm always learning to hand "stuff (baggage)" over to the Lord that He died to free me from, and this book, which focuses on the truths in the 23rd Psalm addresses this in such incredible ways. Here is one of the most powerful images I read this summer: In a chapter called "The Prison of Wanting," Max describes a true story where a leper woman on the island of Tobago asked a missionary to lead her favorite hymn. She had stubs for fingers, no ears, no nose, and a completely mishapen mouth. She requested the song, "Count Your Many Blessings." Okay....that'll get ya thinking.
*Soul Cravings (by Erwin McManus)--I picked up this gem at a children's conference at Saddleback church a while ago and final got to it this summer. Illustrates so clearly how all our cravings stem from a very real craving to know and be loved by the Living God. Great stuff.
There were many more amazing moments this summer, but for the sake of space, I'll leave it at that and press on to what we are working on now and looking forward to this fall...
*"Grown up" Christmas CD....it WILL happen this year! Ron is doing a great job with the production. It will be simple, simple...hopefully sweet.
*We are set to film another kids' DVD! This one will be the style of the Look Out Now DVD, and will show us doing the motions to songs on Jump into the Light and Dig Down Deep. People have been asking for this for a while now.
*Believe it or not, we are simultaneously working on songs for a new KIDS CD, due for release in the spring or early summer '10. I'm having so much fun writing these songs...
*NEW WEBSITE....its all designed! We just need to tidy up all the new products in the shopping area, update some more photos and finish a booking page we hope will be helpful for those interested in that. Come October, you'll be hearing about a lot of "new" stuff from us!
In addition to all the above, we're looking forward to many wonderful events (see "concerts" tab). Of course the fall means all kinds of "new" things for the family, too. A new Bible study for me (if you're in Irvine, e-mail me and I'll invite you!), Haley back up to Seattle for school (she's still in Guatemala on a mission right now!), Brittany off to high school and Chandy entering Jr. High. Wow, that's a lot of change! But all good and exciting, and part of God's great plan for all our lives. A good thing for us to do(I just read this today): instead of focusing on the mountain ahead of us, turn our gaze at the One who can move it. Instead of fixating on any daunting challenge, we can fix our eyes on the one who leads us through the course. HE is afraid of nothing, so neither should we be. Oh, I'm so glad for Jesus!
We'll be in touch! As always, prayer is so appreciated as we do our best to serve the Lord in our ministry and with our lives! We pray for you, too!
Blessings.....Jana
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(old stuff:)
Ron, Jana and the band (Jonathan Ahrens, Curtis Herron, Tim Neinhuis)
'Hope your summer is going great. With our economy in the pits, I am all the more reminded that God's economy is completely different, and could be thriving in these times! Our silly habit of placing our identities and our hopes in things that can melt like wax is being put to the test, as so much melts down around us. May we truly find our hope in the "Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow" (James 1:17). I like that....He is always the same....always completely true and right; the Light in the darkness who shines continually. One day we'll really "get that," but for now we can at least count on it! And we can live like its true, because it is!!!!
Some recent Alayra updates:
Brittany put on the white gown and graduated from 8th grade. On to High School....
Here we are at the graduation, Dad, Britt and Mom....Mom and Chandy.
Haley had a great first year at Seattle Pacific University.
Here we are at a MacDonald's near SPU. I had so much fun going up there to help her pack up and come home. She made such wonderful friends up there, and Seattle is just amazing. It's fun, messy, and loud having her home for the summer (at least part of it). She leaves in mid August for a month long missions trip to Guatemala with a team from SPU. We are super thrilled for her.
This summer means hanging out with friends, serving at church, as well as the blessings of each and every concert God brings our way. We would love to see you if we are out your way (see our "concerts" tab).
Ron and I are trying in the midst of summer fun to get some recording done. We would appreciate your prayers on this!
Our NEW WEBSITE is going to launched as early as next week! Hope you like it! Please send us photos. We need some new ones!
We are still enjoying being featured in preschool curriculum by Craig Jutila's Empowering Kids (see www.empoweringkids.net/contact.htm). This stuff is terrific! Anyone in ministry just has to check it out!
I'm more convicted than ever that our FIRST love needs to be for God--studying His word, prayer, and falling deeper in love with Jesus. When we are close to Him, we "get it" that life, with all its uncertainties, is an adventure in fulfilling the purposes HE has for us....whatever that may look like! So actually, thing I am looking forward to this year the most is unknown to me, but known to Him! May we all have our eyes and hearts open to what He has for us!
How thankful Ron and I are to have the thrill of serving this Savior of ours by singing about him...to children, families, whoever will listen. 
(March 2009)
Check out this wonderful update. Some of you have been praying all year for a friend of mine named Stacey Burg who has struggled with leukemia. Here we are (along with my friend Georgette) at a Starbuck's recently. We were just gabbing after hearing a great message about teens by Jim Burns (gotta check out his resources if you haven't). Last year I wasn't sure Stacey would ever be well enough to do all the normal things of life again, but she is doing great (She is the cutie in the middle with the scarf). I am SO inspired by her outlook, her faith, her desire to reach out and help others going through similar struggles. She SHINES!
In the midst of such busy lives, we must NOT forget, nor forget to teach our children that we were created to love and worship the Lord, first and foremost. Remember how Christ summarized the most important commandment as recorded in Matthew 22:37-38: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind." When we seek Him and a thriving relationship with Him, we will a) find Him and b) "all things will be added" to us (Matt. 6:33). Everything will fall into place. He is first....
Blessings,
Jana
p.s. Haley is doing great in Seattle!
"Life shouldn't be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving; safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather, to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly shouting, "Wow! What a ride! Thank You Lord!" Beth Moore
(June 2008)
Hey, friends! Well, the above quote certainly seems to fit our lives these days! It is all fast and furious, but a great adventure serving the Lord! I can scarcely begin to sum up all that has gone on since I last updated, but here are a few photos to give you some idea:
Graduation day for Haley! Above, Haley with Brittany and Chandy, Ron and me. Below, my mom and dad.
VBS at Mariners Church...what a blast leading 2000 kids (and leaders!) in praising Jesus!
Below, Our bass player, Jonathan, with his WAY too cute little Brooklyn. Baby boy due early August!
Signing some well-loved VBS shirts! Brittany helped lead the worship with me (so did Chandy, but I don't have a single photo of her!), along with dozens of other amazing kids!
You can't tell by this little photo, but the stage was PACKED (3 rows deep) with men doing the motions at the Friday closer/concert! Way to be a blast, guys!
As you can tell, this VBS was a pretty enormous production and a complete honor to be part of. Hundreds of kids made commitments to Christ, deepened their faith, and took all that joy home with them to their parents and homes. I've had SO many conversations around town about how families were affected in such a positive way! Ron and the band and I loved being part of such an amazing week.
Thanks for your patience with me in updating this website. Life is sooo busy, and keeping up with this site is such a challenge for me. I don't know how you guys with Facebook pages keep up with them (Neither Ron nor I have one...but we're being prodded!).
I'm in a writing season again...getting inspired seemingly every day with new song ideas for a new children's CD. We have 5 songs done and it seems every time I study the word of God, lyrics to songs jump of those pages. I would covet your prayers that the songs come out simple, profound, full of God's truth, and done with excellence (pray for Ron as he produces and engineers these babies).
What a thrill it is to serve our Lord.
In His mighty love,
Jana
If you have any photos from Jana concerts, I would love to have you send them to me as we build out our new site! Please e-mail them to orders@janaalayra.com. THANKS!!!.
Please see photos from our 8/07 Africa trip in the"Letters" section. If you supported our trip in prayer or financially, I cannot thank you enough!!! I hope you enjoy seeing how God used your support of us! Enjoy!