Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, may I ask for a moment of your time!
Last Saturday, my lovely, talented and nearly indestructible wife Tajci (Tatiana Maria Matejas Cameron), after 12 years of travel hither and yon – to and fro – there and back again (and again and again) had completed her 900th concert in our “I do Believe” series of concerts in Strasburg ND at, it so happens in God’s Providence and sense of humor, Lawrence Welk’s home parish.
We’d like to take just a breath to think about nine hundred…900… nine hundred … Although it is only a number, to us, it is a milestone, a hurdle, a stop-and-look-around moment, due it’s proper place of gratitude to God to the thousands upon thousands of people who have helped us. I wonder, now and again, how many miles we have driven?!
It has been an interesting path that we have followed! We started working together when we were engaged. The first thing I ever did in working with Tajci is put up a shelf in her little office. She asked for a little shelf over her desk. At the time her appreciation for my own unique vision of what is necessary to ‘get the job done’ had not yet prepared her for the 12′ (yes twelve foot) long shelf I mounted in her bedroom. I am not exactly sure how it started. Tajci was struggling to call someone (microphone skills and phone skills are not in the same universe of talents). I am pretty sure I took the phone and made the call for her. It was LOVE for Tajci from that moment (kidding). We started by doing a “Double the Prayer” tour in Fresno and Salt Lake City with Tajci’s sister Sanja & her family.
Most of you know that “in the beginning” I was involved in film in Los Angeles. Tajci and I were both challenged by Pope John Paul’s “Letter to Artists” and decided to use our skills and talents to share our faith in earnest. Our first ‘real’ tour was started shortly after we returned home from our honeymoon. We left our apartment and drove, in a mini van, over 12,000 miles in a route that took us all over the country doing 32 concerts.
The “road” is not always clear. Sometimes we make wrong turns or God points us in a direction that wasn’t our intention. We are grateful beyond words to you and to the thousands who have helped us along by sharing a meal, a bed, a laugh, a donation, a word of wisdom. How can we express this journey… perhaps a book will have to do a better job than this email once we hit 1,000 concerts (my title will be “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Everywhere” – I am pretty sure that my perspective as the ‘behind the scenes engine” will be interesting to a few of you as will Tajci’s perspective!) Her words with so many after the concerts when hearts are open and tears flowing really capture the heart of what we are doing – connecting with God soul by soul – day by day – mile by mile.
God bless and keep you all until we meet again,
Matthew Cameron
