A CONCERT WITH PENNY BUHR JOHNSON

Our church was blessed on June 24th by a visit from 5 time CGMA award winner recording artist Penny Buhr Johnson. Penny shared an evening of beautiful music and fellowship with us. She played a set of about an hour's music (with three encores) and took us on a lyrical journey through her ministry in music. With a blend of country, gospel, jazz and just plain fun at times we were all treated to an hour of pure joy for the ears.

I had recorded a personal message from Penny for this blog but ... oops! I'm just too quick with the finger on the delete button. Ah well, we DO have video footage of Penny performing a sweet little love song. Just click on the (triangle) play button on the following video to watch!

Thanks to Amalia Sommer for recording the video for us. And here are some photos of the concert:

What talent God blessed Penny with in her hands and voice!

Penny takes a moment to share her personal stories behind her songs and ministry

Taking a small break in between songs

One young member in our audience brought some friends along to enjoy!

Good food was had by all

This amazing and delicious fruit platter was made by Italia Grasso! The white berries are fresh locally grown mulberries. This platter was a hit with everyone.

The OCC women baked 100's of cupcakes for the event!

I created this original recipe for the icing in honour of Penny's concert. Its an easy recipe which we women of the Osoyoos Christian Centre would like to share with you. This recipe is great for large functions because you can mix it up (double, triple or quadruple the recipe) the day before and store the icing in ziplock bags. To ice, simply cut a small corner in the ziplock bag and pipe it on!

PENNY'S RAINBOW ICING

1/2 litre whipping cream

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Whip these ingredients together until the whip cream is solid - JUST about stiff. Add:

2 tbsp softened cream cheese

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 small pkg of Jello Jelly powder (or to taste)

Gently fold these items in, then whip on high again for 15 seconds! Whatever Jelly powder flavour you choose will determine the color you will get. You could substitute Jelly powder for Kool-Aid, but then add more sugar. The Kool-Aid would punch the flavor and color up and would probably be a hit with youth! Open a regular sandwich size Ziploc bag and put it inside a cup or any upright container which will allow you to roll the rim back. Scoop icing into the Ziploc bag.

I've stored the icing in my fridge (because I was experimenting) for a week and its still fine! I'm betting this might even be freezable, though I've not tried it.

You can also download the recipe in a Microsoft Word format by clicking on the scribd file below:

Penny Buhr's Rainbow Icing

An additional special thank you goes out to Melanie Olsen for making the pretty beeswax candles which we presented to Penny as a thank you gift!

Thank you to our Pastor, Jim for all the hard work he did to prepare the church so nicely - including an entire repaint of a few walls.

Thanks go to Elaine for your hard work cleaning and organizing.

Florence and Dale (and your sister Kathy and brother in law Ray) for your tireless and ENTHUSIASTIC help - I could not have pulled this off without you.

An especial thanks to Nathan and Leila who made sure to be present (even though they had some big plans) and for backing up the introduction music and for sitting the CD table.

And of course, a kiss goes to my sweet husband who also MC'eed and accompanied Penny for a very moving song. I'm so proud of you!

And of course none of this would be possible if Penny had not come to bless our community with her talent. She made a special detour to join us as she had attended the marriage of her daughter Candyce in Victoria (congrats!) and then had another concert in Oliver the very next evening. (Tired a bit, Penny, seeing how we sat up until 1 a.m. playing on the keyboards and making up silly songs together?)

*****

I'm (Barb) officially on vacation starting the coming week but I have scheduled regular posts for the weeks I will be away. I hope you will come visit while I'm gone. There will be some lovely posts available. I will try to get an email reminder out each week (from the road) as wifi connections allow. If you're travelling this summer and find yourself in our corner of God's beautiful planet won't you drop in and say hello to us at the Osoyoos Christian Centre? We are located at 42 Finch Crescent, Osoyoos.

I apologise that I am postponing our blog entry of Ruth Robic's Rainbow poem for one more week - simply could not fit it in here today. I've scheduled it for publishing for the first week of July.