Do you ever wonder about dreams? Do you ever ask yourself if you truly believe a dream in your heart can come true? Or maybe you question God and ask Him if He will ever answer that dream. About ten years ago, Pastor Greg invited Dean and me to go to the high school play, South Pacific, showing in Elk River. For years I tried to make myself watch the movie, but I never seemed to get through it. But on that night, with Dean and our friends, I sat through the entire story and embraced a deep love for it. Like many things in life, I put aside the memories of a sweet story and filed it within the filing cabinet of my mind for quieter days of reflection that just never came. Last week when middle daughter, Chandra, came for a visit, she brought a gift for me … the South Pacific album from an antique store. Miraculously, it became a key to unlock the filing cabinet and release a pre-existing love for the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The day she gave me the album was cool and the air felt damp as I watched the drizzling rain from my living room. I poured a cup of hot tea from Grandpa’s old, green teapot and settled in for a few moments of music from the cherished album. As the song, “Happy Talk” began, I listened to the words as they aligned themselves to my own life’s journey. The lyrics of the song danced through the air and I was thrown into my own childhood memories. “You’ve got to have a dream, if you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true,” the music danced through the air. I remembered at ten years old, holding up Johnson’s Baby Shampoo bottles while singing the commercial, and holding the hairbrush as I belted out the Burger King commercial. I remembered being fourteen and loving the Folgers’ coffee commercial. I also remembered my twenty-something self walking up on a stage. I remembered the commitment to myself in the mirror declaring a dream I had for myself… someday, I would be on the radio. Day after day I memorized the tunes and the words for numerous commercials and continued to carry the dream within my spirit, until one day the dream began to unfold. As I sipped the comforting Darjeeling tea and watched the drizzling rain, the music continued and the words mesmerized me. I heard, “You’ve got to have a dream, if you don’t have a dream …” and it made me smile as I vividly remembered one special day. One fall day, the church where I served as worship director held an outdoor service. Hundreds of people, with their blankets sprawled out across the lawn, filled the hillside. I was on stage announcing some upcoming events when I heard the shouting jeer of someone saying, “Kathy, sing the Folgers commercial.” I smiled. It was nothing new. For whatever reason, my staff thought my dream was funny. Several others clamored for the jingle and I belted it out. The crowd cheered me on with clapping and laughter. Deep inside my soul … I held the dream. Someday, somehow, somewhere, I would be on the radio. I tried to shrug off the teasing and made my way off the stage, when a man approached me, pushing his way through the crowd, holding out a business card, and said “Hi, I’m here visiting my brother. I’m a jingle producer. You were great. Call me tomorrow.” I did just that and began a seven-year career of singing commercials and doing voice-over work for the radio. Years have passed since I married and moved to Benson, but the dream stayed alive, like a little cinder in the furnace of my soul. One day, several months ago, I told my friends at Bible study that I loved to write for our town newspaper and appreciated the opportunity to share my stories. I also told them that I would relish an opportunity to serve our community through a radio show. Something inside me expected teasing and fits of laughter, but instead, I was met with enthusiasm and encouragement. I made my way downtown Benson and entered the radio station KSCR for a meeting with John Jennings and Andrew DeVall. For one brief moment, I felt afraid. Not of Radio-Land, but of the same old rejection that shuts down hopes and tells people that having dreams for your life is only for little ten-year-olds who sing into mirrors. But once again, I was met with enthusiasm and encouragement, and I began my journey, once more, into the place where dreams meet reality. On Sunday, June 7, from 6:00-7:00 p.m., I will launch a radio show on KSCR 93.5 FM, called YOUR BEST with Kathy Weckwerth. My Best Life Ministries team and a few good friends will join me and bring encouragement, inspiration, motivation, and creativity to the local airwaves. The show will consist of one half hour of Christian contemporary and Gospel music, while the second half hour is talk radio.The program will also be a podcast to enable people to listen who don’t receive the station. In the encouraging words of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein,”You’ve got to have a dream, if you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true.” From a ten-year-old girls dream from back then … to the spark of an ember that still burns right now … here’s to all of us in dreaming and believing.