“When I had no strength to take the next step, He carried me.”

Welcome to Episode 01 of #GraceNotes with vocalist and music educator Anna Bekker! Anna and I met as freshmen music majors at the Eastman School of music. Her testimony of choosing to trust God even when life’s uncertainties threatened to level her faith will bring tears to your eyes!

Do YOU have a story of God’s grace being glorified in your weakness?? Give us a heads-up using the “Contact” form right here on the blog, or email Grace at grace.utomo12@gmail.com. We’ll help you get started with everything you need to know to make your own video. We can’t wait for YOU to be the next #GraceNote!

Happy May, Blogging Family! I’m beyond excited to introduce our new testimony series, “Grace Notes!” Do YOU have a story of how God’s power has been magnified your weakness? Fill out our “Contact” form or email grace.utomo12@gmail.com for more info on how to make your video.

Plus, WATCH me play violin LIVE @ 3:47! Soli Deo Gloria!

Good Friday, Blogging Family! Today marks one week since we finished that blessed, insane month of speaking and traveling that I introduced to you a few posts ago as the Walking with Grace Speaking Tour. Highlights included Bob Jones University in South Carolina (virtual), Wheaton College in Illinois (in-person), and California Baptist University in Southern California (in-person), followed by a six-day trip to Georgia to meet my newborn niece.

Thank you so much for your tireless prayer support over the past 40 days!!! Just the thought of navigating an airport, with its myriad flashing lights and other seizure triggers, seemed well-nigh impossible last year when we were praying about accepting these speaking engagements.  They seemed even more out of the question when I imagined combining travel with the (to me) excessively-fatiguing act of standing and talking in front of a group of people for 60-90 minutes, often twice a day.

God’s fingerprints were truly all over this trip! Not only is it an irrefutable testimony that I am now no longer having seizures, but it’s also an incontrovertible proof that his marvelous strength was empowering me as I completed itineraries that fell miles outside my usual abilities. (Some of you may remember that I struggle with chronic fatigue and often take multiple naps a day.) 

As a thank-you for your relentless and enthusiastic support during this new phase in our ministry, I thought I’d share a few of our favorite photos from each stop to give y’all an insider’s look at life on the road and some of the moments that were special blessings to Ivan and me.  Thanks as always for walking with us! ❤ 

Thank you for indulging me with this jaunt down memory lane! My hope is that it injected a little humor into your day and brought to life a ministry opportunity that, while exciting, might have sounded a bit abstract or difficult to imagine happening in real time. We love you all and praise God for what he is doing in and through us all together as a spiritual family. Soli Deo Gloria!

Good Evening, Blogging Family! Tonight I am writing in from a quaint but primarily utilitarian AirBnB (private room/shared bath and common area) that’s a mere 10-minute walk from our alma mater, California Baptist University. It’s also a matching distance from Spanish Oaks, the apartment complex where we lived as newlyweds, and Magnolia Ave, the intersection where I was struck by a car as a pedestrian on December 3rd, 2016. Talk about coming full circle.

We didn’t have plans to return to Riverside that Memorial Day weekend we joined my parents in San Jose (7 hours north) in 2017. And we absolutely could never have imagined either the grueling neurological trials we had yet to endure, or the fact that God would supernaturally intervene to heal my seizures an additional six years later. Not to mention that He would also enable me to write and publish a book detailing some of the precious lessons he’s been teaching us through the ups and downs of my long-term recovery.

This opportunity to return to our academic and relational routes at CBU and engage a whole new generation of students about what it means to build resilience as Christians, rely on God when our human plans get turned upside down, and also steward our talents as followers of Christ, brings a plethora of emotions to my and Ivan’s hearts. Our schedule tomorrow (Monday) and Tuesday is below:

We’ll be talking about BIBLICAL RESILIENCE at 2:00 pm on the main campus (Yeager A112).

Then, join us at 6:00pm on the Health Science campus to discuss a CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO GOAL-INTERRUPTION (Building A, Room 7).

Finally, I (Grace) will also be giving a presentation on the CREATIVE WRITING PROCESS & PUBLISHING INDUSTRY on Tuesday morning at 8:45 am on the main campus (Yeager B251).

Thank you as always for your prayers and support, and we hope to see many of you tomorrow!

Hello Blogging Family! Here’s the recording of our chapel message at Wheaton College on Friday, March 15th. Thank you all so much for your prayers!

Good evening, Blogging Family! I’m writing to you from a comfortable, deja-vu-esque hotel room somewhere nearer Wheaton, IL, than Chicago. We’ve just arrived via Uber from the Chicago Midway airport (about an hour drive) and are about to sample the local fare [read: hearty Italian food. And no, I know from a previous life that it’s just NOT the same in California 😉 ].

Why am I painting this rosy domestic scene? In my last post, I mentioned that Ivan and I would be traveling to various geographic and online destinations throughout March, sharing bits of the story of God’s power in our lives that I share at length in my recent book, Walking With Grace: Embracing God’s Goodness in Trauma. Well, this week we are privileged to be visiting Wheaton College as special guests of the school’s program for Disability Awareness Week. We are beyond excited to attend the student chapel service tomorrow and share about how God’s amazing power has sustained me and set me free from so many years of trials and trauma.

And guess what? YOU’RE invited too!!

The chapel service will begin at 10:40 am CST and run approximately 50 min. You can join from the comfort of your homes via the link below. We’d love to have you with us! This opportunity to present at Wheaton is a huge privilege that we could have never imagined. As I like to say, all the glory goes to God, AND I also credit a large portion of his blessings to the fact that you love and pray for us so faithfully. Thank you so much for walking with us year after year. We can’t wait to share tomorrow with you!

https://www.wheaton.edu/life-at-wheaton/spiritual-life/chapel/watch-wheaton-college-chapel-services-live

Dear Blogging Family, it gives me great pleasure to bid you Good March! I’ve always been partial to the month because it marks both the beginning of Spring and yours truly, but this particular March is extra momentous because it will also encompass something I could have never imagined in a million years…the Walking with Grace Speaking Tour.

Yep, you read that right. Ivan and I may be coming to a city near you!

When we published Walking with Grace: Embracing God’s Goodness in Trauma last October, we were bowled over by the unbelievable amount of support we received from all of you whom we’ve known from Day One, as well as the plentiful newcomers and anonymous readers we had the privilege to meet for the very first time. My favorite part of the in-person events was learning more about your stories: the trials God was allowing in your lives and the marvelous ways he was carrying you through. Ivan and I both commented that even though we were ostensibly doing signings as a way to thank you for your support, we felt we were the ones who’d received most of the ministry at the end of each event. Your hearts for the Lord, especially in the midst of your own suffering, were truly remarkable!

We were benefiting so much from the overflow of your love for the Lord that we didn’t really consider what would happen to our Walking with Grace events long term. I knew intellectually that we would eventually finish our debut schedule, and supposed our lives would return to “normal” at that point. But God had other plans. 

Through many channels and seemingly “random” happenings, God’s made a way for us to do a hybrid tour of a few Christian universities around the country sharing some of the key lessons we’ve learned walking with him after my accident. Some of the live locations and events that are open to the public include:

• March 15^th, 2024 Time TBD: Chapel at Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL)
• March 25^th, 2024 2:00 pm: Yeager Center at California Baptist University (Riverside, CA)
• March 25^th, 2024 6 pm: Health Science Campus at California Baptist University (Riverside, CA)

If you are interested in attending one of these live talks, you can find out more about the host school, as well as the specific event, at Wheaton and CalBaptist. We’d love to see you there! 

As always, thank you for your prayers and support! I’ll be posting travel updates, pictures, and videos as the month progresses. 😀

Happy Valentine’s Day, Blogging Family! Today is a great day to pause and give thanks for the people in your life who are brave enough to tell you the truth, who put your needs above their own, and who are committed to sticking with you for the long haul – whether they be family, romantic partners, or brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ. Most of all, let us give thanks for the precious, spotless Son of God, who showed us what true love looks like:

“This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” 1 John 4:10

In today’s Valentine’s video, I share a new, jaw-dropping way God has physically manifested His love to me and Ivan. If you’ve followed us for a bit, you’re probably familiar with the cast-iron grip seizures have held on my life for the past eight years. If you’re new or need a refresher, Status Epilepticus and “They turned me into a Newt!” will give you a light-hearted snapshot of daily life with uncontrolled seizures, which could feel like living hell. Read those, and I bet you’ll have a hard time believing I haven’t had a single seizure in the past five months!

So in honor of God’s healing and today’s holiday, please take a few minutes to watch my testimony and join me and Ivan in giving thanks for God’s miraculous intervention – a heavenly Valentine neither of us could have ever imagined!

P.S. For a deeper dive on how God sustained us during my grueling years as a shut-in, feel free to check out my new book, Walking with Grace: Embracing God’s Goodness in Trauma

The video pretty much says it all. You can check out the video of “Joy to the World” I posted on Christmas Eve here. In my recent book, Walking with Grace, I write extensively about my violin journey, beginning as a young child all the way through my time at the Eastman School of Music and my eventual decision to step away from the secular performing arts scene.

You can also check out some old blog posts I wrote at different stages in my physical recovery and emotional grieving processes, such as “What’s Up with the Violin?”, “When You Need a Third Hand,” and “In the Hands of the Lord.” 

Thanks as always for your prayers! We are finally partaking of their fruit. To God be the glory!!!

Happy New Year, Blogging Family! I hope that God has blessed each of you with worshipful, joyful, and peaceful Christmas holidays and that you are spiritually refreshed and physically recharged for the New Year.

If you follow us through this blog, social media, or my new book Walking with Grace, you may already know some of the amazing gifts God showered on us in 2023. My husband Ivan led a high school trip to London and Paris in June, and I got to come along! (It was our first time in Europe.) My memoir, Walking with Grace: Embracing God’s Goodness in Trauma, came out last October after almost two years of sweat, prayers, and tears. Praise the Lord for his sustaining power, and major thanks to everyone who prayed and supported us along the way! This past November, I successfully completed my Master of Fine Arts in Writing. That MFA, which is a terminal degree, doesn’t really belong to me. There were so many times over the past four years where I should have flunked out or dropped out due to medical emergencies, inadequate learning accommodations, or even just basic poor health. This degree truly belongs to the Lord! Finally, the night before Christmas. I posted one more crazy amazing gift from the Lord: I believe God wants me to start playing violin again! This is a long story and will get its own post very soon, but in the meantime let us praise God for how much he has done already (check out the video!) and pray he will continue his miraculous work!

So how ’bout 2024? One part of me feels like a greedy little girl, arms overflowing with presents, straining on tip-toe with every fibre of her being to whisper a second list of presents in her father’s ear. What could I possibly ask of the God who’s given me life as a human created in his image? Not to mention given that life abundantly – ransoming me, his wayward daughter, and purifying me by the blood of his one and only Son? Nothing, I should ask absolutely nothing. Hallelujah that Father God doesn’t operate like that! He delights to draw near and listen, not just to me but to all his children, blessing us with more spiritual gifts than we could ever imagine. 

“³ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. ⁴ Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. ⁵ God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. ⁶ So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. ⁷ He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. ⁸ He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding. ” ~ Ephesians 1:3-8

Wow. Just wow. Let’s sit with this and let it sink in a minute.

Instead of finagling 2024 to see how much I can profit from it, I hope to spend the year drawing closer to Father God through a scheduled, daily time of Bible reading, prayer, and Scripture memorization. With God’s help, I also hope to make and keep more time available to serve my spiritual and biological families.

What about you? Do you have milestones from 2023 or goals for 2024? Please share below!