Mark (calls me): "I just found out I'm going to be at the same place as Amy Grant tonight. Do you think she'd remember you?"
Angel: "Where are you going to be?" He tells me, but it is garbled, he's out doing something Markish, outdoors. So I ask him again. He tells me, I barely grasp it this time, some university close to him. "Well, she'd definitely remember the waterfalls, she made "Lead Me On" there, the waterfall scenes. I met her. Yes, she'd remember me. I can't remember if I followed her down the path the first time she saw the waterfalls or if she followed me. But I was watching over her to make sure she was ok, very carefully. That path down to the waterfalls is treacherous."
Mark: "I could go to the Drama Department. They'll be involved. I could talk to them..." Mark is a World-class stuntman and I'm very used to how he thinks. He is SO good with people (I'm not, I wish most of them would just go away). I can see in my mind's eye what HE is seeing, thinking, he is looking for a path that will get him to Amy. I said "World-class." He lives like this.
Angel: "You've been there now (to Chapelgate; I took him last summer during the few days we were a couple of hours away, attending the Dinner with Dreamers retreat at the Johnny Cash Hideaway farm.)" "You've BEEN to the waterfalls, you could tell her that. Well, you didn't go all the way down, but you went down the path and saw the top." I had sat in the rented car, in front of the Grist Mill, with our lunches, at the time. The chef in what used to be my house, the Lodge, up on the cliff, had made them for us. We'd chatted with him and every time I tried to tell him how absolutely astounding Mark is, and his career, Mark had jumped in to downplay everything I said. I had gotten so aggravated at him. God has been doing really, really cool things with me and Mark, all our lives, and just in putting us together in our friendship. Miracle after miracle has been involved. It is an astounding story, and I wanted to express just how absolutely astounding and special it has been, is. Mark just says, "I'm just a lowly servant of the Lord," and he is but Mark is beyond incredible. So when Mark decided he wanted to go down the path to see the waterfalls I just held our lunches, peeked in my old Grist Mill, where a business group was in a circle, in the same place I used to hold my Christian open mics, quietly closed the door, gave Mark explicit instructions on how to get to the falls, which he ignored, and stayed behind. I've gotten older now. I love my waterfalls, they will always be MY waterfalls. God gave Chapelgate to ME. I gave Chapelgate to God. God gave me Mark and our adventures. God had given ME MY adventure, MY story, Chapelgate would Always be mine. God doesn't think like we think. Neither does his lowly servant, Mark. I'm shown that all the time. Mark walks with God, like me, like my story.
I quickly go to You Tube and my website and send him a picture of Amy and me sitting side by side on the porch of my Guesthouse at Chapelgate.
I find the "Lead Me On" video and send him the link.
Now he has tools to use to help him. I say something about how unusual this is, that he'd be in this situation. I wonder what God has up his sleeve. Mark is having the same thoughts I'm having, he knows God too. God leads his kids. "I know," he says.
Original photo of Evins Mill that I saw in "Unique Homes" magazine when I bought it; then I renamed it "Chapelgate," when my late husband and I bought it for our home.
Amy Grant, Michael Blanton, at my waterfalls, filming "Lead Me On." I'm taking the picture, watching with my 3 kids.
Mark and I at Chapelgate for the first time, Summer 2023
Mark holding Laileigh at our home, "The Island on Lake Travis." She is 4 months old. He has just told her to say, "Hallelujah," and she did. Then he taught her her first stunt, leaning out over the waterfalls. We walk up to the top for that. Eventually it will be in my videos section because I was interviewing him that day and filmed the whole thing.
Laileigh playing on the piano, age 1, at Chapelgate/Evins Mill. We went for her first birthday, and I took my daughter, Skye, Lai's mom, as well. We are in the Grist Mill in the area I had set up long ago to host my Christian open mics. They have a piano there.
Later, maybe 2 am or so, I wake up. I glance at my phone. Mark has written. "She remembered you and the waterfalls." He has sent me a picture of her standing in an empty auditorium, before her concert, by rows of chairs, about 10 feet in front of him. It is a picture of her back. He snuck a picture to prove to me he saw her, talked to her. I write back, "You DID it! Astounding."
The next day...
Angel (talking to Laileigh who has come into my room; I tell her the Mark and Amy story, I just wrote here. She is sitting on my lap on my bed.)
Laileigh: "Show ME the pictures of you and Amy Grant and the waterfalls." So I have Lai on my lap, my phone in my hand, I start going to my website to find the pictures and the phone lights up. It is Mark. It flashes through my mind, not for the first time, not for the dozenth, that Mark somehow FEELS, knows, when he is on our minds. He is that connected and I think our minds somehow have that ability. Lai and I do the same thing all the time, because of our love and connection. So I answer. Lai sees it is Mark calling and together we say, "HI MARK!!!"
Mark: "LAILEIGH!! You're THERE! HI Laileigh!"
Laileigh, Mark's "Hallelujah Baby," "Hallelujah Laileigh," (Our stories - Mark taught Laileigh her first stunt when she was 4 months old.) He has kept training her, taken her under his wing and special care, until now when she is now 6 years old. When she got this old he said, "We can't call you our "Hallelujah Baby" any more (He had taught her to say "Hallelujah" when she was 4 months, that same day as her first stunt, I had recorded it on video at the time and have it). So what should we call you NOW?? "Hallelujah Kid?" Laileigh, our clever girl, had immediately said, "Hallelujah Laileigh." And it was SO PERFECT it stuck immediately.
Laileigh: "HI MARK!!!"
Angel: "I just told her the Amy Grant story and we were sitting here looking for the waterfall video and the pictures of me with Amy Grant. We hadn't even found them yet and you called." This still surprises me every time he does this. God does this.
Mark: "I got to talk to her! and she remembered you and the waterfalls, why wouldn't she?!" He tells me how he had walked up to her, out of the blue, said hello, didn't say a word about who he is, not a word about how famous he is himself, walked up to her as if he is a nobody, a servant, just a servant of the Lord. "I asked her if she remembers Chapelgate, the waterfalls where she made "Lead Me On." I told her Angel is my best friend. She remembered. She said, "That entire place was simply anointed. It was such a blessing to me."
Angel: "Did you show her the picture I sent you of she and I sitting together and the "Lead Me On" video I sent you?"
Mark: "No, there wasn't time. I just had a couple of seconds. She's on a three week tour, performing every single night. She was tired. She looks good for... how old is she now... Boy, what a job. I'd love to be doing that every night. Can you imagine? Hey, my Mom is calling, I have to take the call from my Mom, I'll call back later. You should write a story about this."
Angel: "Amy is sensitive enough to have realized Chapelgate was anointed. I gave Chapelgate to God. Yes, it was, IS, anointed." I think about that. "Ok, bye!"
Laileigh: "You took ME to Chapelgate, for my first Birthday."
Angel: "Because if things had turned out different Chapelgate would have belonged to you. Chapelgate is yours. I gave you to God and I gave Chapelgate to God. You're anointed. Mark is anointed. I am. Chapelgate is. Our whole story is anointed. That's why I took you there for your first birthday, so you would know it is yours and that you are God's. Just like me, and Mark, and your mom. We all belong to God. I gave your mom to God when she was a baby. I gave you to God when you were a baby. Just like I gave him Chapelgate."
Then I go look up the word "anointed" for additional insight, the way I always do.
Anointed: consecrated or made sacred; dedicated to God, often in a ceremony that includes dabbing or sprinkling with holy oil: chosen by or as if by divine authority; chosen for a sacred, high, or special vocation or purpose; the person or people chosen or declared chosen by God: the simple past tense and past participle of anoint - to rub or sprinkle on; apply an unguent, ointment, or oily liquid to.
Laileigh, in my room, waiting patiently for me to finish writing this so I will play with her, "Boy, that's a long story..."
Angel: "I just finished it." I explain in 6 year old ideas, well, she's really advanced in her understanding, what I've just written and tell her what "anointed" means. "I just have to find the picture I want to use for my story. Then, I'll play with you."
Laileigh: "Use one of ME!"
Angel: "You?!! Ok, well help me look for one." We start going through all my computer files and photos. We reject several. "I've used this one and this one and this one before..."
Laileigh: "Look in the folder that says, "Laileigh 1 year old." I do.
Laileigh: "There! Use THAT one!"
I do.
Copyright 2024 Angel Isaacs All Rights Reserved
Written March 8, 2024 at 10:15 am