In this dear-to-our-heart episode, we sit down with Jeanne Champagne as she shares the story of her life as a young hippie searching for real Truth and how that led to the birth of the music group “Living Waters.” Living Waters, a music ministry that began around a campfire in 1978, grew into a powerful force for glorifying God and spreading the message of redemption through Jesus Christ. That evening, in the light of a campfire in the woods, Jeanne, her husband Dennis, and her brother Emile, all who had recently experienced the transformational new birth of their soul through the gift of salvation, lifted their voices in worship. What started as an intimate moment of praise soon became an incredible movement and has touched countless lives. The powerfully inspired lyrics, taken directly from God’s Word, manifests the comfort, hope, love, wisdom and power that flows from a personal relationship with Christ.
Jeanne shares how Living Waters evolved from its humble beginnings and grew into a full-fledged ministry with the addition of other gifted musicians, artists, and storytellers. From their powerful musical drama His Name is Jesus, to their heartfelt performances across the Midwest, Living Waters remained steadfast in its mission to glorify God and draw people closer to God through music.
Originally, Living Waters recorded three albums which were released on cassette tape and vinyl. The first album, He’s Been Calling You, is being released digitally on all music platforms March 15, 2025! The other two albums will follow soon thereafter. We are honored to introduce this Spirit filled group to our listeners as the Gospel message of this music becomes a testimony “unto the uttermost part of the earth!” (Acts 1:8)
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In this dear-to-our-heart episode, we sit down with Jeanne Champagne as she shares the story of her life as a young hippie searching for real Truth and how that led to the birth of the music group “Living Waters.” Living Waters, a music ministry that began around a campfire in 1978, grew into a powerful force for glorifying God and spreading the message of redemption through Jesus Christ. That evening, in the light of a campfire in the woods, Jeanne, her husband Dennis, and her brother Emile, all who had recently experienced the transformational new birth of their soul through the gift of salvation, lifted their voices in worship. What started as an intimate moment of praise soon became an incredible movement and has touched countless lives. The powerfully inspired lyrics, taken directly from God’s Word, manifests the comfort, hope, love, wisdom and power that flows from a personal relationship with Christ.
Jeanne shares how Living Waters evolved from its humble beginnings and grew into a full-fledged ministry with the addition of other gifted musicians, artists, and storytellers. From their powerful musical drama His Name is Jesus, to their heartfelt performances across the Midwest, Living Waters remained steadfast in its mission to glorify God and draw people closer to God through music.
Originally, Living Waters recorded three albums which were released on cassette tape and vinyl. The first album, He’s Been Calling You, is being released digitally on all music platforms March 15, 2025! The other two albums will follow soon thereafter. We are honored to introduce this Spirit filled group to our listeners as the Gospel message of this music becomes a testimony “unto the uttermost part of the earth!” (Acts 1:8)
What is The Truth in Love Podcast?
The Truth In Love podcast will present God's timeless truth through the lens of His amazing love. We will do this not only through stories of people who have experienced His peace, love, strength, and wisdom through tough circumstances, but also by endeavoring to give the Bible’s answer to life’s great questions, like: Who is God, what's my purpose, who am I, how can I know God, what is heaven and hell, what is truth, and why is the Bible's truth better than my own version of truth? These are legitimate questions folks ask, and we as Christians should have the answers! God has a magnificent plan for every person. We are thrilled to be part of discovering and sharing what His Word reveals to bring hope, peace and great love into the hearts of all humanity. Join us every Tuesday morning at 5:00 a.m. CST for The Truth in Love podcast, with your host Kimberly Faith
Jacob Paul:
Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. The Truth in Love podcast seeks to present God's timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love.
Kimberly Faith:
Well, I have here today with me my childhood heroine. Did you at least say it heroin?
Jeanne Champagne:
I think so.
Kimberly Faith:
Jeanie Champagne. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Kim. I'm so honored. I I can't even really find the words to say how honored I am that I I get to, have you as a guest on this podcast that it's Guy's podcast, so I just let let him guide the way.
Kimberly Faith:
And, just by way of introduction, I mentioned you were my child heroin because I would almost every Sunday in church, you and the living waters would sing songs right from the scriptures that you had written inspired by God and, and your soul was just so transparent. I I could just see Jesus in you and the words and the songs. I don't even know that mesmerized is a good enough word. But not all and not only that, you also were a mentor, an amazing mentor for me in just my when I had trouble in college and in high school, I knew I could always come, and and you would just give me the truth and love, which is the name of this podcast. So you may have inspired that too.
Kimberly Faith:
You never know. So, in today's podcast, I'd really like for you to tell the story about how, how you came to know Jesus and how that inspired the group living waters and the music. Just by what because it for those who've never heard your music, they're gonna they're gonna hear some of it today. We're gonna introduce your music, but it's my understanding that, started in March 15. Is that right?
Kimberly Faith:
March 15? The is the date Yes. That the music is going to, the first album is going to do debut digitally. And, otherwise and this is music that you wrote how many years ago?
Jeanne Champagne:
It was, 1983 maybe, something like that. Yeah.
Kimberly Faith:
So look Give or take five years. Sure. No. I I get it. It's been a while.
Kimberly Faith:
But this is music that I grew up with and has influenced thousands, probably tens of thousands of people, and now it's gonna be available to tens and thousands and who knows how many other people. I I want I want everyone to hear the story about the backstory, or maybe it's the front story, about how that came to be. So the floor is yours.
Jeanne Champagne:
Okay. I appreciate that, Kim. Thank you. There's no greater honor than to be able to share with others the story that changed our life. So for me, in 1977, Dennis, my husband, and I were living in Rhode Island, and I was beginning to experience an emptiness in my heart.
Jeanne Champagne:
And I didn't know how to describe it, and I didn't know how to remedy it. But I was very aware that something was missing. And I would talk to Dennis about it. He wasn't experiencing the same thing, but it's something that we talk about really daily. Wow.
Jeanne Champagne:
Where I just say, I don't know what's missing. Maybe we got married too young. Maybe we started a family too young. Maybe we've never seen the world. Maybe we just need to step outside our our, Mill City life.
Jeanne Champagne:
And raised in a Christian home? As a child, I was raised in a Catholic home. Okay. But my parents stopped going to the Catholic church when I was, like, maybe 12.
Kimberly Faith:
Okay.
Jeanne Champagne:
So, you know, there was I I never had any type of a personal relationship with God. I understand. It was more of a Go to church. Sit, kneel, stand sort of a and and sometimes the the, sermons or the the church service was in Latin. Mhmm.
Jeanne Champagne:
So didn't get much out
Kimberly Faith:
of it. Thing. Yeah.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yeah. Didn't get much out of it. Right. But, now here I was in my early twenties. I had two kids.
Jeanne Champagne:
I'm married several years. I was married at a young age, 17. I'm still married to the same man fifty four years later. Oh, amazing. Amazing.
Jeanne Champagne:
Congratulations. So, this emptiness kept growing. And about that same time, my brother Raymond was teaching me how to play guitar. I really wanted to play the guitar. Like, my fingers were itching to play.
Jeanne Champagne:
And he he just showed me chords where I could actually just make up as I went along, and so that's what I did. So during this empty period, Dennis and I began to talk about selling what we had and moving to where we didn't know. But it didn't matter. It was the seventies. You could just Anything was possible.
Jeanne Champagne:
Sell everything and go. And and, basically, that's what we did. Oh. My mother had died several years before. That might have kept me there.
Jeanne Champagne:
I'm thinking it probably would have kept me there because it's I wouldn't have left my mother. I loved her. And, anyway, we we just sold everything we had literally and packed up our baby boys and bought a travel trailer, a 22 foot camper, and got in our car. It was July fourth of seventy seven when we my brother Emil helped us pack those last few things that could fit in the car, and we said goodbye. We didn't know where we were going.
Jeanne Champagne:
We just got in the car and drove. Sounds like Abraham. So without God. Yeah. And we really, I mean, we weren't even aiming at anything.
Jeanne Champagne:
We just got on the road and drove. This was the days before, you know, maps you could pull up digitally. This was like the days of paper atlases that were as big as your lap. And so on on our journey, we there's a song that I wrote. It was it's the first song I ever wrote.
Jeanne Champagne:
I wrote it while I was in Rhode Island, and it it's a song that Dennis and I played together, and I sang it literally every day. And it was called calling. Mhmm. And, I'll share the words in a minute, what they what they were because they they this song was representative of where our heads were at the time, especially mine. And Dennis was doing his best to wrap his brain around where I was because I I talked about that emptiness daily.
Jeanne Champagne:
It's what made us sell everything. It's what made us get in the car and drive off. Right. And we kept saying to even to each other, it's like, I don't know what we're looking for, but I'll know when I find it. Wow.
Jeanne Champagne:
So and and and there were times when I said to Dennis, I feel like if I don't find why I'm empty, then I'm gonna die. I feel like I'm gonna die. So as we travel, we when we bed down, we followed kinda campgrounds at the time. And when we would bed down and hook up our camper and kinda settle in for the night and our babies were asleep, we would take out our guitars and play this song. And the words to it are calling.
Jeanne Champagne:
I feel it calling me. Time, time to go. Life, a new life out there for me. Frightened is how I sometimes feel. But when I think of what's in store for me here and now, I know what's ahead is where I should be.
Jeanne Champagne:
Calling, I feel it calling me, pulling me into a path someone has made. No. I don't wanna fight it. Something inside tells me that's how it should be. So I'm trading my old life in for one I don't know, one that was planned by someone much higher than me.
Jeanne Champagne:
And why? Why I really don't know? It's not for me to question, only to go. Calling, I feel it calling me. Time,
Kimberly Faith:
time to go. Remarkable. That's remarkable. I mean, I think about the way that God made us to know our need for him.
Jeanne Champagne:
And I didn't know it was him I needed. Right. But I was aware that I needed something.
Kimberly Faith:
Yes.
Jeanne Champagne:
And I could only describe it as an emptiness. And it was an emptiness that we were trying to fill in any way we knew. Maybe traveling will help. Right. Maybe having children will help.
Kimberly Faith:
I mean Isn't that the universal experience of life without God, though Yes. For everybody?
Jeanne Champagne:
Yes. And, you know, there's many things I won't get into the details of it, but let me just say this. It was the seventies. And I don't know if you saw the movie, The Jesus Revolution. Yes.
Jeanne Champagne:
I felt Dennis and I probably watched that movie five times, and we cry every time we see it because they are telling our story.
Kimberly Faith:
Wow. My favorite story too.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yes.
Kimberly Faith:
I mean,
Jeanne Champagne:
really I'm
Kimberly Faith:
aware. Yes.
Jeanne Champagne:
And, also, even, like, when that band was playing and they the pastor accepted them and even encouraged them
Kimberly Faith:
Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
You know, we were in an atmosphere where that was the same for us. Right. So backing up a little bit in our travel days when I was searching, Dennis and I decided after we traveled from here to the other end of the country, the West side of the country, we were writing all these letters back home. Man, this is great. This world is so big.
Jeanne Champagne:
And, you know, we would write in these fake happy letters because we were trying to convince ourselves. Well, if this doesn't work, what is there?
Kimberly Faith:
It's like the seventies Facebook life. Right?
Jeanne Champagne:
Yes. Yes. Exactly. And we really felt like if this doesn't work, we've already given up the job. We've already sold our home.
Jeanne Champagne:
We've already moved away. What's next?
Kimberly Faith:
Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
And so, one day, we were in Tucson, Arizona or somewhere whereabouts on Mount Lemmon, And, we were saying, what what next? Like, what are we gonna do? So we decided because we're vegetarians, of course. You can't be a hippie. Not the vegetarian.
Jeanne Champagne:
And we thought we started following this book that was all the health group health food stores across the country, so we doubled back when we started it looked like everything we went to the library for and researched kept saying Arkansas. Arkansas. I'm like, where is Arkansas on the map? I failed geography in school. So we had to look for a map and find it and go, oh, alright.
Jeanne Champagne:
Well, it's kinda in the middle of the country, and it talked about the weather being so, you know, even keel. But Little lie. Well, I didn't realize that Northwest Arkansas had its own mind. So we decided, you know, we made some money when we sold the house. Let's buy some property out there.
Jeanne Champagne:
So we found a 40 acre plot. It was actually even more than that. We split it with another hippie couple that we met in the realtor's room. And, and so we we moved on to that piece of property, and we met a bunch of hippies that lived on communes, and one of them was selling their teepee. And we thought, you know what?
Jeanne Champagne:
Perfect. Let's, let's buy let's let's let's get a teepee, and we'll keep our our, you know, travel trailer for now until we build a house. Well, one day in particular that I will never forget, we had been there was a lot of pressure between the two of us, between Dennis and me because I was so unsettled and so empty, and I that's all I could think about was this there has to be more to life than this. There has to be more. I was, like, 22, 20 three.
Kimberly Faith:
Wow.
Jeanne Champagne:
And I was just like, this this can't be all there is. And one day and maybe I was PMSing. Who knows? But I I was I was peaking in emotion, and I ran off into the woods, that 40 acres. I ran it off into the woods, and I was shaking my fist up to heaven
Kimberly Faith:
Wow.
Jeanne Champagne:
And saying, what do you want from me?
Kimberly Faith:
Wow.
Jeanne Champagne:
What do you want? I felt like I was this, like, little experiment, like this little puppet upon, and that this being was moving me. Let's see how she acts if we move her from Rhode Island to Arizona. Okay. Well, let's see now what happens if this and that.
Jeanne Champagne:
So I didn't understand a loving God at all, but I knew there was something bigger than me that was pulling. I felt this pull. Romans chapter one. Right? So yes.
Jeanne Champagne:
Exactly. And I did that day that I went out in the woods, and I was yelling and just shaking my hands up to God, and I ended up it sounds so dramatic, but I promise I was by myself and not on stage. But I fell to the ground, and I was weeping uncontrollably because I knew that there was gonna have to be a next step. Right. But I didn't know what was gonna happen.
Jeanne Champagne:
Like, what's gonna befall me? So I went back, and Dennis and I talked about, you know, maybe I should go off on my own for a little while. And so we drove to Fayetteville. We found me a little studio apartment just off Dixon Street, which at the time was
Kimberly Faith:
Hippieville.
Jeanne Champagne:
Hippieville. I didn't know that though, but somehow I felt at home there. Wonder why. And I was in that little apartment, and the next day I got a job, and the next day, God brought a Christian into my life that talked very much Christian terminology using words like propitiation for my sins. Who was it?
Jeanne Champagne:
And it it it was it was a a gentleman that, that actually had a good influence on me.
Kimberly Faith:
Good.
Jeanne Champagne:
But he could tell he wasn't reaching me. And what the first thing he asked me, because I had a very strong New England accent at the time. First thing he said to me on our job together because we were both working a new antique shop. Okay. And he he could hear my accent.
Jeanne Champagne:
He said, what? You're not from around here, are you? I said, no. I'm I'm from Rhode Island. He goes, well, what brings you here?
Jeanne Champagne:
That's a loaded question. Right. And I said to him, I don't know. I'm looking for something. There's an emptiness in me.
Jeanne Champagne:
Wow. And I'll know when I find it. It's just surprising I even said that. Right. He said, well, I know what you're looking for.
Jeanne Champagne:
And I'm rolling my eyes up in my in my mind, like, who the heck do you think you are? And he says, you you need a relationship with God. God designed you to have a relationship with him. And if you don't have one, you're gonna feel that emptiness. Well, how dare
Kimberly Faith:
he? Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
I didn't know anything about this, and I I I thought it was a little, you know Presumptuous. You walking around like you know my issue. And after a week or so, he said, you know, I'm gonna introduce you to a friend of mine. His name is Frank Kinney. And, I think he's gonna be able to relate to you a little better.
Jeanne Champagne:
And Frank would talk to me every day about Jesus, and all I did was argue. Mhmm. Well, if this is that, then why is this? Well, if God is a God of love, then this whole hell thing, I I don't buy it. And, you know, what about people who've already died that were good people?
Jeanne Champagne:
And I had all the standard questions that people have when they first hear the plan of salvation and the simplicity Mhmm. Of turning your life over to Christ, but you're hanging on to it. Right. And so, one day after probably a month of talking to me, he left me his Bible. And just the day before that, some of my friends off the commune had come to visit me to pat me on the back and tell me how proud they were that, you know, I dared to go off on my own and do my own thing.
Jeanne Champagne:
And they they brought me some books, Seth Speaks, Ramda, some I'd already read, some that were new to read, Eastern religions and this is and that. And they were all brand new and shiny and they were sitting on my coffee table and, you know, and I I didn't feel like reading them. I just they just looked shiny on my table. And I just I I don't know. I I I just didn't feel like it was there.
Jeanne Champagne:
I'd already been down that Road. Then Frank comes over and he's got this old Bible in his hands. It's all beat up. Didn't even have a cover on it. Like, the leather cover was gone.
Jeanne Champagne:
There's pages sticking out. It's all marked, you know, yellow and green marker and little, you know, stickies and I mean, it was just His personal Bible? Yes. It was his Bible and he said, I want I want to give this to you. And I said, I don't want your I don't want your Bible.
Jeanne Champagne:
That looks like it's, you know, important to you. And he said and he just looked at me, like, with this deep look, and he said, I want you to have it. Wow. And so I said, okay. And he left it, and it that night, I saw this pile of brand new books, and I saw that old beat up Bible.
Jeanne Champagne:
And I don't know why, but I just started weeping. I picked up that old book, and I was holding up against myself, and I was just weeping. I didn't even know why except that I thought, wouldn't it be something else if this is where the answer is?
Kimberly Faith:
Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
But, I mean, Jesus is for grannies. Jesus is for narrow minded people. That can't be where it is. That cannot be the answer. I I no way.
Jeanne Champagne:
And all my friends on the communes and everybody in my circle, what a joke I'd be. And I didn't want that to be the answer. I didn't want it. I didn't want Jesus to be the answer. I didn't think of him as personal yet, and Al Carter invited me to church.
Jeanne Champagne:
Church? What? I don't even own a dress or shoes, and so Al came to pick me up, and I did not want to go. I didn't answer the door, and he kept knocking, and my door had a big window on it, So I got down on all fours, and I crawled under the window to the other side of the room so he wouldn't see me, and he just kept knocking. Wow.
Jeanne Champagne:
And he just kept
Speaker 4:
knocking. We got to share it with the people walking down the road with no one there to tell them how will they know. Another second by us now, how many men just died.
Jeanne Champagne:
And I thought, dang, this guy's not gonna go away. So I got up like flush the toilet, and I opened the door. Oh, Al. Didn't know you were here. And he goes, well, you're ready to go to church?
Jeanne Champagne:
I'm like, well, you know, not really. And he goes, well, my wife is really looking forward to meeting you. And he said, you might not know this, but there are a lot of people praying for you. Wow. Well, it kinda creeped me out.
Jeanne Champagne:
Right. Right? I'm like, woo. So I went to church and, I went to their house for dinner. And then, Darnesia, his wife, their little baby sequel was in her high chair.
Jeanne Champagne:
And and she asked me, what do you think about Jesus? Like, where are you with it? Because I know that Al and Frank and yeah. I know that different people have been talking to you about him. And I said, I don't know what I think.
Jeanne Champagne:
And she said, well, do you believe that he is God? And you know what? I did. Wow. Like being asked it now.
Kimberly Faith:
That innate knowledge.
Jeanne Champagne:
For some reason, I just did. Again, Romans chapter one. And she said, well, why why aren't you saved? And I said, I don't know. I I don't have what you have, but I don't know why because now I'm beginning to think, you know, this whole Jesus thing might be real.
Jeanne Champagne:
Right. And in spite of the fact that I didn't want it to be real because maybe that would mean that, you know, my quarter acre pot would have to be pulled up. Right. And, Isn't it crazy what we what we think
Kimberly Faith:
we're it's so worth hanging
Jeanne Champagne:
on to? And yeah.
Kimberly Faith:
It is. And then whether it's money or not
Jeanne Champagne:
or Yes.
Kimberly Faith:
Or a a man or a woman or
Jeanne Champagne:
style or career. Yes. And
Kimberly Faith:
it's just it's so fleeting.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yeah. Very fleeting. So and so on 07/12/1978, on July 12, I went to church with Darnisia, and we were sitting we were standing in the back of the church and everybody was going in. This was my first time going to church. And she said, tears were streaming down her face and she said, I want I just want you to know the Lord.
Jeanne Champagne:
And I and I started crying like, well, I wanna know the Lord but I don't know how. I don't know what to do. And as the tears were streaming down her face, God showed me that those were his tears going down her face. Like, I knew it. And I I felt the Lord's arms around me and she asked me.
Jeanne Champagne:
She said, it's a prayer away. He's a prayer away.
Kimberly Faith:
She
Jeanne Champagne:
She explained how our, you know, it is our sins that separate us from him because he's a holy God, and and she went over how, you know, in the separation that God made a way to get us back right with him and that it was through Jesus and everything she was saying made sense. And she said, it's a prayer away. Before I ever opened my mouth in prayer, there was a huge battle going on in my head. Huge. I felt this.
Jeanne Champagne:
It's like on the right side was a gentle pull where Jesus was saying, I'm what you've been looking for. I'm the answer. I will fill that gap. And on the other side, there was this other voice. Oh, yeah.
Jeanne Champagne:
You're gonna look like an idiot to all your hippie friends. And what if your husband doesn't accept? You're gonna live in two different worlds. And and they'll pull this way and they'll pull that way and to the right and to the left and all of a sudden, boom. Nothing.
Jeanne Champagne:
No pull. No pull. Just me with a decision to make. And in that moment, I let go. Before I ever prayed the prayer, I was born again.
Speaker 4:
I know I shine in darkness. I let the darkness come free
Kimberly Faith:
I just have to pause here. I have never heard this from you before. This reminds me so much of my own testimony. I remember, you know, being in church and being so tired of fighting God. And finally just saying, I give up in my head.
Kimberly Faith:
Just I give up.
Jeanne Champagne:
It's gotta be you. Yes.
Kimberly Faith:
And I knew before I prayed the prayer that I surrendered.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yeah. Yes.
Kimberly Faith:
Yes. Absolutely. So what did you do next?
Jeanne Champagne:
So Sorry. So next, I went into church. And wouldn't you know that the service that day it's the first time I ever heard it. It was on the crucifixion of Christ and what he bore on himself in my place. And the whole time that I I I was I was weeping.
Jeanne Champagne:
I was I was keep trying to keep it in, but I couldn't. And by then, I just accepted Christ. And after church, I just wanted to go home. I just wanted to go home. I wanted to just cry it out and and figure out, you know
Kimberly Faith:
So what?
Jeanne Champagne:
Everything that just happened. Right. Well, Billy Ray, I don't remember his last name right off the top of my head, but Billy Ray came over to me and said, we're gonna be going out for some ice cream. Do you wanna join us? And I I didn't.
Jeanne Champagne:
And I I said, well, no. I kinda wanna get home. Come on. Come on. He's kinda hard to resist.
Jeanne Champagne:
So so we went out, and when he got his ice cream cone, and I didn't get one. I was sitting in the back seat. He was sitting in the front. He turned around, and he had that ice cream cone in his hand, and he was licking it. And I could see the ice cream on his tongue, and he's just looking at me and licking that cone.
Jeanne Champagne:
And he said, you see this ice cream cone right here, miss Jeannie? I said, yeah. He goes, sure as I'm licking this ice cream cone, Jesus Christ is coming back. So all of these were like some major realizations that impacted my brand new Christian self. So,
Kimberly Faith:
Wow. I I I just this story is mind blowing to me. The way that the Lord it just reminds me of number one, the power of of the of the presence of God that he puts he plants in us as children. And and and I keep bringing up Romans chapter one because it it's so clear that God be you know, when they knew God, they failed to be thankful and they failed to acknowledge him as God and their foolish heart was darkened.
Kimberly Faith:
And and that's where you in that darkness Yeah. You were just desperate. Absolutely. And and I think about, you know, when I talk to people about who say, well, it's not what about the people in Western Africa that never
Jeanne Champagne:
heard of
Kimberly Faith:
it? Yeah. Yeah. And and and the the fact is that the Lord says that he roams the earth looking for the person who's seeking him, and he's gonna make it happen. Yeah.
Kimberly Faith:
He heard the cry of your heart Yeah.
Jeanne Champagne:
In the woods. He put the cry in my heart.
Speaker 4:
So true.
Jeanne Champagne:
He made me aware that I was missing something. Right. Because if I would have just been going about my life all satisfied, then I never would have looked for him because no man seeks after God.
Kimberly Faith:
Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
It's really kind of a selfish, self fulfilling thing that we do. But I absolutely know that, you know, if anyone's listening out there and you feel an emptiness, you know, you you ought to feel honored because it's probably God shaking you up. If you're one of his children, maybe he's waking you up because he he definitely has something better for us Yes. Or if we're lost. He's wanting us to feel that Yes.
Jeanne Champagne:
Because that separation from God is pretty profound. It's the whole reason why we're here Right. Is to meet him
Kimberly Faith:
Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
And have everlasting life when we leave this planet. Right.
Kimberly Faith:
Bring glory to him. That's the whole point of our lives. Absolutely. Well, so after you got saved, then what happened with you and Dennis and the family?
Jeanne Champagne:
Well, not long later, not long later at all. Okay. So that night that I got saved and maybe, like, a few nights later, maybe the next church service, I needed to go back. I I couldn't get to Dennis fast enough. Now this was the days before mobile phones, and we lived in the woods so we didn't even have a landline.
Jeanne Champagne:
There was no way to reach Dennis except through snail mail. We didn't even have Internet. It didn't exist. So Right. Everything was just, you know, raw and rustic, but I knew I I couldn't wait to tell Dennis that I just met god.
Jeanne Champagne:
That's so great. I couldn't get to him fast enough, and I was gonna hitchhike because it was the seventies and people hitchhiked. And somebody at church said, I'll give you a ride. And so I said, okay. Cool.
Jeanne Champagne:
And so I got a ride, and it was a long walk down a, you know, almost Pathy Road. So I was dropped off before that long Pathy Road and I walked it. And Dennis says to this day, as soon as he saw me, as soon as he saw me coming down the path, he said to himself, she found it. Wow. She found it.
Jeanne Champagne:
Wow. And he says, you look different. And I was just like, I don't even know where to begin to tell you, but, Dennis, he's real. This whole Jesus thing, he's real. And I met him, and I was just weeping.
Jeanne Champagne:
I couldn't I just didn't even I was so excited. I didn't know a Bible verse, but I shared with him that I just met God. And so not long later, I'm gonna say a month later. I'm not even sure, but not long later, my brother Emil was on his way to Arkansas to say he was he and his girlfriend were splitting up friendly terms, and they were passing through. He was gonna drop her off in Arizona and then come back.
Jeanne Champagne:
And at the time, the thought was help us harvest the moneymaker pot. So, so before he left be so okay. So that night that he arrived, we were sitting around the campfire and joints being passed around. And when it reached me, God said very, very clearly in my mind, in my heart, tell him about me. I didn't know a verse.
Jeanne Champagne:
I didn't know how to, but I just said I started crying and I said, Emil, this is gonna sound nuts. This is gonna sound like a crazy story. But, you know, all our life we heard about Jesus, this character, And he goes, yeah. I'm like I started crying. I'm like, Abel, he's real.
Jeanne Champagne:
Like, he's real. I met him, and I know this sounds crazy, and I don't know how to tell you without sounding crazy, but he touched my life and my heart, and I met him. So he goes, woah. You're blowing my mind here. This is freaky because just before I left Rhode Island, I went to visit Ellen, one of my other sisters.
Jeanne Champagne:
There's seven siblings. And he said, I went by to say goodbye and she just told me the same thing. Wow. So my sister, Ellen, I accepted Christ on July 12. She accepted him like less than a week before.
Jeanne Champagne:
And we didn't have phones. We didn't have a way, but but Ellen was praying that the Lord will show her how to reach me. Oh my god. So Emma was, like, blown, like, okay. This is freaky.
Jeanne Champagne:
So, he he ended up leaving a couple of days later and, Dennis started going to church and not long just like within a few weeks, he accepted Christ as well. Because I said, you go and talk to this person and that person and, you know, and he was, like, bop bebopping down the street, like, in his shoe with his shoeless feet and
Kimberly Faith:
Pink Panther style?
Jeanne Champagne:
Yeah. Probably. And, the pastor of the church, stopped and picked him up, and I think he said something like, are you a humanist? And Dennis didn't know what it was, and he's like, well, I'm a vegetarian. And but, not long later, Emil came back from Arizona, and he came to church.
Jeanne Champagne:
And Dennis and I were praying with all our hearts. Dear God, reveal yourself to him. Please show yourself to him. And at the end of services, my brother went forward and accepted Christ. Oh my goodness.
Jeanne Champagne:
So that night, I'm I'm pretty sure that these facts are exact, but they might be a little off. But we that night, we all went back out to the property, that 40 acres in Kingston. And, we we just wanted to have a time to worship God, and we didn't know how. We never prayed really or anything like that, but, you know, we pulled some of the pot plants out and put them on a big flame, and we were, like, given it as an offering. Hilarious.
Jeanne Champagne:
Stayed out of the wind. And we we started there's a song that I had written, like, a few days after I accepted Christ. It was called Righteous, Just, and Loving God. Mhmm. And we started singing that song together.
Jeanne Champagne:
And, and the words are righteous, just, and loving God, innocent giving lamb. Praise to you, oh, perfect one, a servant of yours I am. If you're looking for the truth or you're searching for a friend, if you're feeling like your life is coming to an end, if your days are hollow and your nights are all alone, if you're looking for a purpose or fulfillment in your home, then, friend, your search has ended if you're wise enough to see that the answer isn't Jesus who died on Calvary.
Kimberly Faith:
We sang song you recorded? Because I don't remember singing.
Jeanne Champagne:
I never recorded it, but we sang it a lot. Yeah. We sang it outside around that campfire over and over. And we were weeping, and we were the Lord made his presence so strong, like, he filled the woods. Wow.
Jeanne Champagne:
Wow. So the three of us, brand new Christians, we don't know anything. You know what? The Lord's good with that.
Kimberly Faith:
He is good with that.
Jeanne Champagne:
I do believe he loves the purity of someone who doesn't feel like they have to fit in a box to worship him.
Kimberly Faith:
You know, the the beatitude, blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God and combined with Jesus said, come to me as a child. Yeah. One of the the the beatitudes in our in other book that we're putting together, we were talking about what does it mean to see God. And I think it's to know him for who he is, not who we've made him. Yeah.
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah. And that's what you were experiencing Yeah. With the innocence of the living child. You know?
Jeanne Champagne:
I do feel like in that moment, though I didn't know it at the time, if I look back at it, I always attribute that moment to when, like, living waters began.
Kimberly Faith:
Really?
Jeanne Champagne:
Yeah. Oh, man. Because it was this pure singing to God with thankfulness and appreciation and acknowledging who he was and God allowing us the honor and the privilege of sensing his presence there.
Speaker 4:
When I was crying and How could you be there? I've been so cool. You never
Jeanne Champagne:
He was pleased, and all we wanted we talked about this that night. All we wanted to do was let God have our lives. We didn't know what it meant, but we knew it was gonna mean we're gonna be living differently. So
Kimberly Faith:
You're describing true Christianity. Yeah. I mean, you really are. Yeah. It's it's it's full surrender.
Kimberly Faith:
Full surrender.
Jeanne Champagne:
And Because there was not anything that what's the alternative? Right.
Kimberly Faith:
Right. You can't it's kinda like when you get married, you know, you fully surrender yourself to that person, and and they're not gonna be okay with you going out cheating once a once a once a week or once a year or whatever. It's no it's either all or nothing with God. Yeah. He is he is Lord or he's not.
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah. Exactly. And and that's, you know, in your music, one of the things that I remember as a a young teenage girl and then also just even just reminiscing listening to the some of the I got a preview of the digital, which I I listened to it yesterday, and I I I tears just streamed in my face because that's what I remember about your music. It's so it's God's word combined with your experience of surrender. Yeah.
Jeanne Champagne:
It is just And combined with the listeners wanting to also surrender.
Kimberly Faith:
Yes.
Jeanne Champagne:
Because those that are touched is because their heart has an open side.
Kimberly Faith:
Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
Otherwise It's a good point. It's just a Pretty soft. A symbol Yeah. A sounding clang like they talk about in first Corinthians 13. Yeah.
Jeanne Champagne:
Otherwise, that that's all it is. It it
Kimberly Faith:
has no meaning. You know, I I it that reminds me of, I'm I actually we're we've got a podcast coming up about, what is, cultural Christianity and does it last. And, you know, Elon Musk made the made the the statement that he's a cultural Christian because he's good for population, and it's good for, you know, re refurbishing the earth of people. And there are some other reasons too, but, man, what is what is Christianity without Christ? Yeah.
Kimberly Faith:
That relationship is like a marriage without love.
Jeanne Champagne:
Tells, you know, that tells us, those of us who know the Lord, that some people, they're not there yet. Their understanding's not there yet. Right. Right.
Kimberly Faith:
And, I
Jeanne Champagne:
mean, I don't know that others didn't try to tell me about Jesus before. I don't know. Right. But I always felt like the Lord had to, like, uproot me Mhmm. And go, I I need to take this these people somewhere where someone's gonna tell them about me
Kimberly Faith:
Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
Because it's not happening here.
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah.
Jeanne Champagne:
But I will tell you this is kinda backtracking a little, but while we were traveling, one thing that blew Dennis' in my mind was we kept meeting people just like us. We thought we were the only ones. We we were isolated. I mean, you know, you didn't have the Jesus Revolution movie out yet. Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
Right. But but we we met these hippies along the way, and we would find out we were heading west and they were heading east. And when we would sit around the campfire and chat, because they were camping too, so it was like the natural thing to do, they were searching for something too. Like, people were talking about their emptiness Uh-huh. With one another.
Jeanne Champagne:
There was a movement. Right. There was a a holy spirit shaking of lost lives.
Kimberly Faith:
I think there's one right now.
Jeanne Champagne:
I agree with you completely.
Kimberly Faith:
I can't. I I'm gonna tell you
Jeanne Champagne:
look.
Kimberly Faith:
I got goosebumps just talking about it. It it and and this is why I'm I'm so excited to be here with you tell you know, listening to your story so that people can hear it because I think we have come to a place in our country where there's so much emptiness in the world. Yeah. The world is afraid, and it doesn't matter what your politics are.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yeah.
Kimberly Faith:
We live in a scary place. We are one second away from a nuke. Yep. We are one second away from destruction on a scale we can't even understand. Misinformation, disinformation, lies.
Kimberly Faith:
People want the truth. Yeah. And the best proof that the Bible is God's word is the testimony that it's right in somebody somebody's been changed. Like, when you saw you walking down the Yeah. Down the path and said, she's found it.
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah. I love that.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yeah. And my biggest fear, so to speak, something that held me back from letting go that day that I accepted Christ, was my fear that Dennis wasn't going to be a Christian, which I knew instinctively it was going to mean we would live in two different worlds.
Kimberly Faith:
Right. But Mom mom and dad had the same experience. If you listen to the the very first podcast, it's about that. Oh. And there's mom thinking, but she immediately started praying for dad, and he was saved the next day.
Jeanne Champagne:
Oh, that's yes.
Kimberly Faith:
It was her first answered prayer.
Jeanne Champagne:
Love it.
Kimberly Faith:
That was his salvation.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yes.
Kimberly Faith:
You know? And, and and so yeah. And so I wanna so where did you guys from living in the woods, where was it? Kingston? Yes.
Kimberly Faith:
Living in the woods in Kingston to developing this group called the Living Waters. Can you tell us how that happened?
Jeanne Champagne:
Yeah. So once we began to understand a little bit more about the work of God in our lives, we knew it would we didn't know anything. We felt that God was leading us to move closer to where all these Christians were that were talking about him like he was real, that we should be around them. And so we moved to Fayetteville, and, we started attending church. And we and early on in fact, Kim, it was your parents, John and Lynn, that were the first ones to reach out to us, brand new Christians.
Jeanne Champagne:
It was Emil, my brother, and Dennis and and I. And one of them, I think it was your dad, John, came to us and said, hey. Do you guys wanna be in a Bible study? We're like, what's that? I love that.
Jeanne Champagne:
I love that. You know, probably. I don't know. What is it? And, so we attended the whole it was a series, and it it was like, you know, a series of educational The basic Bible.
Jeanne Champagne:
Concepts Yeah. That helps you understand the Christian faith.
Kimberly Faith:
Right. And I call it the the the the, phonics and and spelling to learning to write Yeah. Or the multiplication division Yeah. To to learning physics. Yes.
Kimberly Faith:
Absolutely. Yes. And it learns you helps you to uplearn you.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yeah. I went to school. I'm following you.
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah. How to understand the basics so you can explain the more complex.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. And it also helped us to be able to share with family and friends in a way that they could understand. It wasn't just the way we understood it, but in the way that others can process it.
Jeanne Champagne:
It gave us the scriptures and the information that we needed to be effective as we shared the Lord with other people. So, that was a huge and to this day, I still teach that study.
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah. Me too.
Jeanne Champagne:
Like, it's like something that someone once said to me, well, don't you think you you should move on and, like, teach revelations or something? I'm like, no. Because this is what God called me to. Mhmm. Like, I love to share these concepts with others that either don't know the Lord or they never heard them because they're everything within your spirit shows you it's it's dead on.
Jeanne Champagne:
Right. I should say live on.
Kimberly Faith:
Live on. Live on. Right? Yeah. No.
Jeanne Champagne:
So yeah. So, after that, we were, Dennis and I sang this song, I believe, in church, this righteous, just, and loving God. We both, you know, we sat with our probably barefoot from the front of the church on the little stagey thing. We just because back then, I I didn't know how to play the guitar unless I was sitting cross legged. I'm not kidding.
Jeanne Champagne:
Like, I had to sit cross legged with my shoes off. And so later when I started standing to play, I always had to kick one shoe off.
Kimberly Faith:
I never I had to
Jeanne Champagne:
make myself wear both shoes because I I my tapping foot liked to be barefoot.
Kimberly Faith:
Your your
Jeanne Champagne:
birds are trapped. It's still this I still if I'm not out in public, I still want my foot tapping.
Kimberly Faith:
That's hilarious. So Well, you know, I recently recorded with with Imo. He played the the fiddle on a couple of our lullabies. And the one thing I remember from watching you all play live in church was his tapping foot. Yeah.
Jeanne Champagne:
Because he tapped with the heel.
Kimberly Faith:
Yes. He taps with his heel, and his knee is very exaggerated when he said,
Jeanne Champagne:
I love it.
Kimberly Faith:
And he's in the studio recording sitting down, and I can't stop watching his tapping foot because it's such a great memory.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yeah. Yes. That's so silly. But yeah. It's not.
Jeanne Champagne:
So we so it wasn't long later when Dennis and I and Ima were playing, music. We were in we were invited to play more play really, this book that I'm holding my hand are some of the first songs we played, probably none of them were these are the early songs that I wrote. They all they all just had to do with, like, the learning experience. One of one of the songs called you changed me
Kimberly Faith:
Uh-huh.
Jeanne Champagne:
And gifts from my Lord. Wow. And,
Kimberly Faith:
you know, just I haven't heard.
Jeanne Champagne:
I I mean, you're He's coming back for me. As I was learning, as I was sitting in these bible studies, I would inspire to, you know, just I've always even to this day, I always when something happens, like, I'm a journalist or, you know, like, I like to in the days when I could do it, I would write songs. Right. Now I have other ways that I deal with it because I'm physically not able to to do those other things. But,
Kimberly Faith:
So your first album is, is was written years ago, decades ago. Yeah. But, our your nephew, Jacob
Jeanne Champagne:
Mhmm.
Kimberly Faith:
Who has Inside Out Studios Yes. Has digitized Yes. All of your 30 I that I've got here a list of 31 songs Yeah. On three albums, three vinyls Yeah. That you all made.
Kimberly Faith:
And the first album, is He's Been Calling You, and that has eight songs on it. And it's going to be released, in March, I think, March 15. And so I I at some point, you became a group, and it it tell us who all the people in the group were.
Jeanne Champagne:
So not long later, maybe a year later, Wayne and Sally Gustafson, met the Lord and started coming to church, and they had been playing in, like, a a country type band for years. And so they brought a lot of experience and, and, of course, Sally, she can sing with anybody and blend incredibly. And
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah.
Jeanne Champagne:
Wayne's, musical, talents are multifaceted. And we hit it off with them right away. Like, to this day, all these years later, because that might have been, like, nineteen seventy nine ish. Mhmm. We're still best friends.
Jeanne Champagne:
They are our best friends. We are their best friends. Like, we're We
Kimberly Faith:
got some good friends.
Jeanne Champagne:
We still hang out. You know? We still hang out. Now we're, you know, white cotton tops and and, you know, it it never goes away. And it never goes away because when you're because Jesus is in the center of that relationship.
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah. When Jesus connects and is the foundation Yeah. You have something in common no matter what what storms come
Jeanne Champagne:
Yeah.
Kimberly Faith:
What what disagreements arise, you can always go back to the truth and the principles Right. Of love him with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love others as yourself. Yeah. Right? Yes.
Kimberly Faith:
I like to say love others like he loves you. You know? Big standard there.
Jeanne Champagne:
Sure is. Yeah. Yeah. Not long later, Emil married Connie, and Connie was a part of the group. She always had a beautiful higher voice, and she was really, really she was the one that would say to us.
Jeanne Champagne:
She would say it every time. We need to articulate when we sing. I always remember that. Doing that. And you know what?
Jeanne Champagne:
We needed it. Yeah. Because we we just we still had our old, you know, East Coast, you know Yeah. Putting ours where they don't belong and you eat a banana and you turn up the speaker. And, you know, we were still a mess.
Kimberly Faith:
We put in ours up and put in a banana belong drawer.
Jeanne Champagne:
Exactly. Listen, I'll tell this little shortcut story that doesn't have to do with much, but it'll bring a laugh. I taught first grade for many years and we were teaching phonics. I was still new to the area. I still had very strong New England accent and I'm teaching phonics and we're in, you know, a I r, I'm saying here in here and then h e r e, here in here and everything end in ea because that's how we talk.
Jeanne Champagne:
Right. And so I'm teaching the kids and they're going home practicing their phonics and they're they're saying it like their teacher. And, you know, and they're saying, you know, the beer across the street and, hey, have a beer and look, you're naked, so your beer and everything is here. And and somebody came to me one day in love, couldn't have said it more kindly and more. It was really necessary.
Jeanne Champagne:
And she said, we gotta talk to you about how you say some of the words because you are teaching phonics. I'm like, yeah. Like, what's the deal? And she's telling me I'm still not getting it. Sounded right to me.
Jeanne Champagne:
And then she explained how hair and here. It's like and, you know, the rat, the tortoise, and the hair. Everything was here. So, see, it's been a great lawn learning process.
Kimberly Faith:
That's funny. So Connie, became an emo. Obviously, we're part of the group.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yes. So there was the six of us.
Kimberly Faith:
Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
And that was the six of us for years. And, we went to we were invited to sing at a discipleship conference in Texas, maybe like that first year that Connie and all of us were a group. And, you know, we're looking like we're looking like six hippies. I I'm telling you right now, and we're going to a suit church, a suit and tie church.
Kimberly Faith:
Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
And we didn't know better. We Right. We were just going over there to sing about the Lord. So and I remember our pastor who was always very supportive
Speaker 4:
of
Jeanne Champagne:
the music and stood behind us when we did go to suited churches and the and they were, like, a little bit thrown off by these baggy jean frayed, which is all back in these days. But I know. Right? And, you know, and they wanted us to wear something different. Mhmm.
Jeanne Champagne:
And and I do remember the pastor saying, do you guys have any shoes? And we weren't barefoot, but we we were Birkenstocky maybe. Right. Right. Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
And so we're like, no. What are those? Alright. And it turned out that in spite of how we looked, God God went before us and allowed the music to still touch hearts. So powerful.
Jeanne Champagne:
So we were thankful for that. Yeah.
Kimberly Faith:
And and, you know, the thing about your music that I remember, just is the complete it I could see your born again soul when you sang the words that God had given you. That's what was so powerful. Thank
Jeanne Champagne:
you, Lord.
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah. I mean, I you know, they say the windows are the eyes of the soul, and and that just pertains directly to you. The thing I remember most about you and and our interactions, I I lived with you for a little while and you discipled me, and my parents discipled you. You discipled me. It's just Yeah.
Kimberly Faith:
And here we are. Discipled April. Right. It's just like and it's like, when you look in somebody's eyes and you see Jesus, I don't know that there's anything more powerful than that because the holy spirit, like, comes out of you and they meet in the middle. Right?
Kimberly Faith:
When you both share the spirit of the lord. Yeah. And, man, it's just so that's why I'm beyond excited about your music coming out digitally. And, I wanna if it's okay with you, I'd like to highlight a couple of songs from your first album. The first one that probably my all time favorite, and I every time I get my guitar out, I sing and play it badly, but I love it because it comes right from one of my favorite scriptures, and that's John one.
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah. And it's in the beginning. Yeah. Beginning was the word, and the word was with God.
Kimberly Faith:
The
Jeanne Champagne:
Tell us about that song.
Kimberly Faith:
Tell us about what were you thinking and how that song come to be?
Jeanne Champagne:
I do remember that Dennis and I were reading that book of the bible together. And I went to bed that night, and I was thinking about that song. And when I woke up in the morning, I heard all the parts. Wow. I heard them.
Jeanne Champagne:
I couldn't write them down fast enough, but I couldn't I I don't read music, and I don't write music. I can just hear it. So, there wasn't anything to write but scripture because it's just scripture. It is. It's just scripture.
Kimberly Faith:
One of the most powerful scriptures in the Bible in my mind.
Jeanne Champagne:
But I heard the parts. I heard Connie. I heard Ima. I heard I heard the parts, and I couldn't share it fast enough. And
Kimberly Faith:
When you when you write a music, do you feel like you're giving birth almost? Yeah. That's what I tell Jacob. I sometimes I I don't read music. I don't write music, but when I hear it, I gotta write it down or sing it in my mouth.
Kimberly Faith:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So fast before I
Jeanne Champagne:
forget it. Yes. And sometimes I I do sometimes I do forget it, and I think it's gone forever. And out of nowhere, it comes back. It's like because it's pretty easy.
Kimberly Faith:
For birth.
Jeanne Champagne:
It's pretty easy. Yeah. You're
Kimberly Faith:
like still too tired to give
Jeanne Champagne:
birth right now, Lord.
Kimberly Faith:
Yes. Yes. You you you know what? I know why we're kindred spirits. That is exactly the way I describe it.
Kimberly Faith:
I'm like, Jacob, I don't know how to write this song, but this is what it's supposed to sound like. And then he'll say he'll say, well, what does the music sound like? And I say, well, think about Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy. I go, what? And I'm like, you know, let's listen to it.
Kimberly Faith:
He goes, how do you even know this? I said, because I have kids. Right. And because I was an ungodly person, I listened to music. You know?
Kimberly Faith:
So, anyway, I love it. So you you wrote the song, and I'll you heard all the parts.
Jeanne Champagne:
I put music to that scripture. Yeah. So to say I wrote the song, you know? Yeah.
Kimberly Faith:
You put you let the holy spirit use you as a vessel.
Jeanne Champagne:
I guess I look at it like in spite of me, the Lord used it anyway, and I'm really thankful that he doesn't wait for us to reach this jump so high. I want you to jump this high. When you reach this height, then I'll use you. He he says, I want to use you now. Now.
Jeanne Champagne:
I want you in your imperfection because I can take that broken vessel that you are Yes. And I can breathe life into it. Yeah. And, you know, I've always always felt, and I still do even more right now with, you know, the reemergence of these this music that it has never been me or the group or you. It's never been that.
Kimberly Faith:
Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
If we if we open our life and our heart to just say, Lord, you know, I don't know how for me, I I many times find myself saying, I don't know how you can get anything out of me, Lord. Right. But I'm just laying this broken self. I'm 70. I have multiple sclerosis.
Jeanne Champagne:
I deal with a blood issue. I've got all this stuff. And yet, I can look at all of that and say, you know what? I am not gonna let the enemy tell me I'm useless until my final breath.
Kimberly Faith:
Yes.
Jeanne Champagne:
And then it still won't be because we pray now. Lord, in my final breath, let me be a light.
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah. You can glorify God in your final breath. Yep. And no one can tell you you can't.
Jeanne Champagne:
So speaking of final breath, it reminds me sorry. I don't mean to jump around, but I I do wanna acknowledge John Basler who faithfully did our sound anytime we played anywhere, including at church. Jay.
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah. Was his name John?
Jeanne Champagne:
John Jay.
Kimberly Faith:
We call
Jeanne Champagne:
him Jay. Okay. Sorry. He he was steadfast, laid lay quietly just did his job well. He was remarkable.
Jeanne Champagne:
So we we love him. We miss him. He he passed away just a little over a year ago, and, we miss him
Kimberly Faith:
a lot. Yeah. But we know where he is.
Jeanne Champagne:
We know where he is.
Kimberly Faith:
We know where he is.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yes. And I I also wanna acknowledge Ron Jacobs who who came in to play with Living Waters. Probably, I know he was on the last album, so whenever that was. Right. And, you know, he brought a lot of depth and, just his own really beautiful style of playing into the mix.
Jeanne Champagne:
That. Yeah. And he was, you know, he he he was the one probably more than anybody else that tuned in on the message of a song. Like, I used to when I would present a song, and when you work with musicians that know what they're doing, I was never that. I can play what I can play, and maybe I can fake it out that someone might think I can play, but I can, you know, I can I love you?
Jeanne Champagne:
I can fake it, but they they could play. Yeah. And they could play well. I mean, look, Imo with the violin and the mandolin and, I
Kimberly Faith:
mean, he's Like Jacob. Yes.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yeah. Mind blowing. Yes. And but the thing about coming into a group of musicians is you go, guys, I'm so excited. I got a new song.
Jeanne Champagne:
And I wouldn't even show a song because I probably played it a hundred times because I I I wanted the message to be right. Yeah. And I you know? And most of the time, it was just because I was a bit of a OCD. OCD.
Jeanne Champagne:
I wanted it
Kimberly Faith:
Perfect. Right. As much as you could make it perfect. Yeah. Right.
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah.
Jeanne Champagne:
And and then they would bring the beauty into it. But at first, when I would first present a song, I was like, okay. So I wanted them to listen to it first Right. Because I wanted them to get the feel of the message. Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
Well, I'd start playing it, and everybody just just jiving in there. But you know what? They really didn't have the same need I had. Uh-huh. They could do it.
Jeanne Champagne:
They just they just found their way as they played.
Kimberly Faith:
Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
But it used to just like, if they would just listen to the message first, it wouldn't be you know, sometimes you're singing a you're playing a song that has a very deep and you know? Right. A message that might be very serious, and you've got all the And they're big musicians. Like, it would always always become what it was supposed to be Yeah. Because they were in tune with the Lord.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yes. When Ron came, he tuned right in on it. That is the one thing I noticed about him as a musician is he he felt the message immediately. Right. So That's one
Kimberly Faith:
of the things I really appreciate about Jacob because he's obviously a very strong Christian. And when you have that Holy Spirit connection, then you trust the character of the person Yeah. Who's shaping what God has put in your heart. Yeah. Because it's the same character.
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah. It's the character of Jesus.
Jeanne Champagne:
Yes. Absolutely.
Kimberly Faith:
And, and that's what that's what I saw in William Waters. You all had the same love for Christ.
Kimberly Faith:
And it and then God took and wove this beautiful fabric of your music.
Jeanne Champagne:
And we always got along really well. You could see that. Like, we we we went on road trips many times. We did many, you know, Midwest. We played in many, many places for years.
Jeanne Champagne:
And so, I mean, we did crowded road trips, and we had a blast.
Kimberly Faith:
I'm sure you did.
Jeanne Champagne:
And, I mean, you know, Sally and I, we and email, we could whistle a tune. We would do the three part harmonies.
Kimberly Faith:
You know? That's hilarious. I I mean, I when I listened to the digital version that I got to preview, yesterday, I, as soon as I heard Sally singing and her picking up that bass Oh. I remember thinking, Sally is such a dainty feminine girl. And here she is just rocking the bass.
Kimberly Faith:
Yes.
Jeanne Champagne:
She still is. Yes.
Kimberly Faith:
She still rocks that bass. I love that. I was like, that's so Yes. Oh, that's so good. That's such a juxtaposition that God just says watch this.
Kimberly Faith:
Yes. You know? And I think it's God's sense of humor and his ability to weave the the the beauty, you know, of the sunset through the clouds Yeah.
Jeanne Champagne:
Just blows my mind. Yeah.
Kimberly Faith:
Just blows my mind. Well, okay. So I'm gonna wrap this up. We're gonna do this again. Is that okay with you?
Kimberly Faith:
Yeah. Yeah. I I really want in the next podcast that we do to kinda talk about the message behind a lot of the songs that you you've you've written and that your group has done, and hopefully, we can convince maybe the others to to join us on this, the the podcast. I wanna talk about the the last song on, on his he's been calling you, which is the title track. Yes.
Kimberly Faith:
And, in the context of you talking about that song, I like to to leave our listeners with the one thing that you would want people to know from your testimony, from your life.
Jeanne Champagne:
I think it's the very first probably sentence in the song that he's been calling us to come to him, that he he awaits us, and he's not waiting for us to be anything. He'll take us now. Yeah. As lost or as broken Christians, he he stands there with his arms open wide saying, I'm ready. I'm ready.
Jeanne Champagne:
So, you know, I guess if anything else, if I wanna leave anybody with any type of a message, whether you know Jesus or you don't know Jesus or you're not sure if you know Jesus that he awaits you. He's there right now even in this moment as we speak with his arms held out for all of us to come to him. He's a he's a great and loving God.
Kimberly Faith:
And how would you tell somebody how to come to him? Like, what is how do when you share the gospel with somebody and somebody says, how do I like the question you asked, how do I know Jesus? Yeah. How do I come to know Jesus? What would you tell them?
Jeanne Champagne:
I think the first thing that it would be comforting for people to know is it's not anything you can do. Mhmm. There is nothing you can do to know Jesus. He did it all. Right.
Jeanne Champagne:
He he saw broken man and he he never wanted separation. Separation from mankind is an outcome of his righteousness, of his purity. Right. So when we're separated, what can we possibly do to make ourselves righteous enough to be in his presence? Nothing.
Jeanne Champagne:
Right. He did it all. We owed a consequence for that that The choice. Thing that separated us in the first place, which is sin. We have a consequence, and it's eternal separation.
Jeanne Champagne:
And the Lord said, you know, the consequences of sin is death. Eternal spiritual death. Yes. Yeah. Eternal separation.
Jeanne Champagne:
Right. And Jesus on the cross paid that debt. He took upon himself my sins. My sins. Your sins.
Jeanne Champagne:
Right. He put them all. He took them on himself and he became sin for us who knew no sin. He he became sin for us. And and the
Kimberly Faith:
truth made the righteousness of God.
Jeanne Champagne:
Hallelujah to that. Yeah. And he he proved that that payment on the on the cross was received when he rose from the dead. And it's not a magic prayer. It's not certain words you say, though saying words might help us identify that we're having a transaction with God.
Jeanne Champagne:
Look. This is it, basically. God is standing there with a huge gift in his hand. He's holding it out to us. He goes, I have a gift right here.
Jeanne Champagne:
You open a little box of the gift and it says, forgiveness of sins, everlasting life, abundant Christian life. He says, I'm handing this to you and I am a God who cannot lie. If you take my gift, you will receive forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. Here it is. If praying helps you know you just accepted that gift, by all means, pray.
Jeanne Champagne:
But guess what? The moment that your heart receives his his payment on the cross, in that moment, you are born again. And that is how people come to know Christ.
Kimberly Faith:
I love that. He did it all. That's so clear. It's so clear. And, you know, you in your testimony, you described earlier the the struggle between, you know, you're pulling towards God gently, but you you were afraid of what you were gonna have to give up.
Kimberly Faith:
Yep. But, ma'am, what you give up is so small compared to what you receive.
Jeanne Champagne:
What we give up is what was strangling us.
Kimberly Faith:
That's even
Jeanne Champagne:
better. Like, take the noose off my neck.
Kimberly Faith:
Right. Right. Well, we're gonna end up this podcast with, playing the song, He's Been Calling You. And, if if you're listening to this podcast and you do not know Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, you have just been told how to receive the gift of salvation. If you have the gift of salvation, but you're living an empty Christian life, what's the point?
Kimberly Faith:
You can turn around or you can repent. Jesus said, I have come to give you life and to give you life more abundantly, more than you can ask for or imagine is waiting for you. But you have to be willing to do things God's way, not your own. And, oh, man. And if you are living the abundant life, I'll bet
Kimberly Faith:
you, you wanna share this with as many people as you can because it is a great testimony and a testament to the power of God to work far beyond what we can even understand. Yeah. And it's mind blowing. Jeanne, thank you so much for giving
Jeanne Champagne:
us this opportunity. Absolutely.
Kimberly Faith:
We'll do this again. Alright? Sounds great. Gotta run record, ladies and gentlemen.
Jacob Paul:
You've been listening to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. To discover more answers to the big questions in life, visit us at gofaithstrong.com.