On October 2, 2012 I had an unforgettable birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese with over 50 of my friends (and their children) . It was a blast and I would do it again in a heartbeat! Sometimes it’s just good to feel like a kid again! But as wonderful a time as I had, I am thinking of renaming the place a kid can be a kid “Chuck E. SNEEZE”! With that many children around, I knew that it was a cesspool of germs, but WOW! I was not expected it to be THAT bad! Not only did I get sick, but almost 10 of my guests did too!
Now don’t get me wrong, a cold is not really a big deal. I mean, we’re not talking about a terminal disease here. But as I flew home from Milwaukee that weekend, I knew I had become THAT girl on the plane! Ya know “that girl”, right? The one sitting a few rows back that spends the entire 2 hour flight sneezing, coughing, and moaning in pain? The one you roll your eyes at every time she blows her nose? The one you feel sorry for, but are silently cursing under your breath as you think about how you can NOT get bronchitis! To quote Sweet Brown, “Ain’t nobody got time for dat”! (If you are not familiar with Sweet Brown, please enjoy this 40 second viral sensation with almost 10 million views here . And for a really great laugh, check out the auto-tune remix and the quartet version)!
Riddled with just about the worst cold of my life, I spent Sunday through Thursday (Oct 7-10) curled up into the fetal position on my couch. My humidifier was on full blast, the trash can I brought into my living room was filled to the brim with used tissue. My coffee table was packed with Puff’s tissue, Airborne, Dayquil, Nyquil, Mucinex, Zicam (the lozenges, not the recalled nasal spray that causes loss of smell), Ricola cough & throat lozenges, Throat Coat tea, honey, a NetiPot, Alive multi-vitamins, Vitamin D supplement, and Echinacea Goldenseal! Phew! Did I leave anything out?! 😉
More than anything, the thing that made me feel better was sleep! It’s amazing how your body forces you to rest when you get sick! Thankfully I had 4 days at home before my next concert with Women of Faith in Orlando. By Wednesday I was feeling better than I had felt Sunday, but I knew that in order to feel comfortable doing my 40 minute concert Friday night, I needed a miracle solution. Enter “Winkie Juice”!
I had my bi-monthly discipleship group call on Wednesday October 10. This is a group led by my pastor of 10 years, Dave Buehring. I met Dave in 2002 when I attended Belmont Church in Nashville, TN. He was the assistant pastor there at that time, and has since started “Lionshare Leadeship Group“. Lionshare’s mission, as well as Dave’s passion, is to shape leaders and make disciples. God has used him in my life to help mold me into the woman I am today. I shudder to think of what would have happened if Dave hadn’t walked me through my time on American Idol, as well as the aftermath (that’s a whole other blog)! As a matter of fact, when I endorsed Dave’s most recent book on the importance of making disciples, I said just that! You can see my endorsement, as well as fellow Christian recording artist Jeremy Camp, and Youth With a Mission (YWAM) founder Loren Cunningham’s endorsement of “The Jesus Blueprint” here. Simply put, Dave is my “Paul”, and I am his “Timothy”. He disciples me, and he has been encouraging me to disciple someone else for years (I had always been resistant, thinking I wasn’t good enough, but am finally obediently discipling others…God is calling you to disciple someone too! Read “The Jesus Blueprint“)! Dave’s mission in life is to aid the body of Christ in fulfilling the Great Commission:
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 NIV)
So back to my discipleship call. I get together with Dave and a group of artists every other Wednesday for an online chat. We are walking through Dave’s book, “A Discipleship Journey” (I highly recommend it)! I shared my prayer request with the group about being sick and heading into a very hectic 10 days: I had Women of Faith in Orlando, was attending “The Gold Tour” with Britt Nicole, Group 1 Crew, and Royal Taylor in Ft. Myers, FL, shooting a music video for my new Christmas song “Somebody’s Angel“, flying to LA to tape “The Doctors” (be sure to watch this inspirational weight loss show on Thursday October 25th! You can check local listings or click here to see when it airs in your city), then was heading straight from LA to Charlotte, NC for another Women of Faith. Needless to say, I did NOT want to be sick through all of that! At the end of our discipleship call, Dave told me about this crazy concoction that he and his wife Cheryl said can cure anything…including bad colds! It’s called “The Master Tonic”, or “Winkie Juice”, named after evangelist Winkie Pratney. So Cheryl sent me over a container of it. When I first tried it, I thought I was gonna pass out! It was HORRIBLE! But ya know what? I felt a little better! So I kept taking it, and while I wasn’t 100% better by the time of my concert Friday night, I was at least 75%. And I not only made it through my 40 minute set, I felt God singing and speaking through me in a powerful way in Orlando!
On Sunday it was time for “The Gold Tour”! I am a huge Britt Nicole, Group 1 Crew, and Royal Taylor fan, so I was super excited! I hopped in a rental car and drove 3.5 hours from Orlando to Ft. Myers, FL with my friend Janice Gaines (She is on the WOF worship team, and is an AMAZING Gospel artist. Check out her website, and hear her music here. Be sure to launch the music player and listen to one of my favorite songs about heaven “One Day”. You can buy it here). Janice and I had an incredible time at “The Gold Tour”! If it is coming near you, run, don’t walk! Find the remaining few dates and locations here (you can also see Britt, G1C, Brandon Heath, Chris August, Jamie Grace, and myself with Tobymac on the Hits Deep Tour” this November & December! Click on the “Tour” tab above for details)!
While at the concert I met WayFM co-hosts “Jeff and Joy“. We had been Twitter friends (or as I like to call them, “tweeps” for a while, but had never met in person. Also, during intermission I shared my “Winkie Juice” with a few others backstage, including Derrick and Josh, members of the band For A Season. Listen to this hilarious clip about this interaction on Jeff & Joy’s podcast-> Mandisa’s Magic Elixir. Hahahahaha! So do you wanna try “Mandisa’s Magic Elixir”, AKA “”Winkie Juice”, AKA “The Master Tonic” now? If you’re man (or woman) enough, click here!
Have you ever heard of this tonic before? Ever tried it? If so, what are your thoughts? I’d love to hear from you! Leave me a comment or a question below!