GMA Artist Focus - Andrew Peterson Meets the Queen of Iowa

Written by Mike and Paula Parker

Hands down, our favorite part of Gospel Music Week is the McCain Guitar pull, a private, invitation-only event that always kicks off the week. The phenomenal artists at this year's event included Tom Hemby, Matt and Sherry McPherson, Andrew Peterson, Muriel
Anderson, and the incomparable Phil Keaggy. As amazing as all of these artists were, the highlight of the evening for us was when Andrew shared the story behind the heartwrenching song The Queen of Iowa from his latest project, The Far Country.

"Last January, Ben Shive and I got a call to do a concert for a church in Iowa," Andrew explained. "One of the reasons they asked me to come was because there was a woman who was a member of the church that was dying of AIDS, and they asked if we would go to her house and play some songs for her before the concert.

"As it turns out this woman had been brutally raped fifteen years before, and had contracted AIDS as a result. Since that time she has gotten brain cancer and lung cancer and all sorts of maladies that should have killed her. No one could explain why she was still alive. The church found out her story and they just started loving on this woman and her family. She was not a Christian at that time, but several years ago she and her husband accepted Christ.

"We had to wash our hands really well and take off our shoes before we came into the room. There was this woman lying on the couch who had not opened her eyes in a week, but they told us they knew she could hear us because some times she cried. So we sat down and started playing the songs her husband had requested. We barely made it through, and as we played she opened her eyes and started crying.

"What a gift. On the way home on the airplane I tried to write down all the things that God was doing with my heart after that experience. And in my journal I wrote, 'Tonight I met the queen of Iowa.'"

Mike and Paula K. Parker cover entertainment for LifeWay.com from their home in Middle Tennessee. Visit them online at www.wordcrafts.net.

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