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"I'm real. What you see is what you get. I'm passionate. I'm energetic. I love God. I love people. I love life,"
Carolyn says. Carolyn's upcoming album, Broken Into Beautiful, marks the beginning of Carolyn's solo career, a personal testimony of her own incredible faith journey filled with great sorrow and joy.  Family Tragedies The "baby" of a family with seven children, Carolyn grew up traveling the world, singing with her family's music ministry, The Goads. At the age of six, the family was traveling together when Carolyn's father Jack suffered a brain aneurism and lost control of their vehicle violently throwing Carolyn and her mother Martha from the van. The accident killed her mother instantly and severely injured Carolyn. In the hospital, surrounded by the prayers of her brothers and sisters, Carolyn was miraculously healed from a fractured skull, but the emotional pain of losing her mother was nearly unbearable. "Mother was the glue, our cheerleader, our greatest love," Carolyn says. Seven years later, tragedy struck again when Carolyn's father Jack was killed in an explosive accident that burned his house to the ground. "We had to pick ourselves up and put life back together again," Carolyn says. The family persevered, forming Goad International Ministries, in order to meet the needs of hurting people around the globe - the same mission Carolyn has been pursuing for over 30 years. From Desperately Single to Hopeful As Carolyn grew into her independent twenties, she began to look outside of God to medicate her pain. "I vividly remember telling God that I wanted control of my relationships," she says. "Four years later, I was in the most pain of my life." Heartbroken and abandoned, struggling with self-esteem, rejection and loneliness, Carolyn fully surrendered her life to Christ. Those painful experiences prepared Carolyn's heart to minister to single and married women, vowing to serve God and live fully in her singleness. "Waiting is an action word. I got healed and got busy for God, and went out to help hurting people," she says. After a period of intentional singleness, Carolyn met Sean. "I am living proof that prayer works - the Lord brought me everything I could ever ask for in a man," says Carolyn. "God provided me with my husband Sean, who is beautiful inside and out, and our relationship has been centered on God's amazing, redemptive love." Carolyn and Sean have been married for eight years and are the proud parents of their five-year-old son, Preston, and a two-year-old daughter, Olivia Isabella. Broken Into Beautiful It's out of these real-life experiences that Broken Into Beautiful was born. "I was able to create something that truly speaks of my heart and passion to help women," Carolyn says. Produced by icon producer Jim Cooper (Building 429, Petra, Decypher Down), Broken Into Beautiful is a record full of deep, radio-friendly songs of the human experience that nourish the soul. In January 2006, in the middle of recording the album, her brother and best friend, Rick, died at age 42 after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer. Again, The Goads faced great loss. "Praise the Lord," a song on Broken Into Beautiful, has become Carolyn's battle cry. "I know pain, but I also know the realness of God," Carolyn says. Carolyn's New Life Today, Carolyn continues to aid those in need, providing much-needed help to Zambia, Africa, delivering food and constructing a rescue crisis center. "We have a choice, whether in front of thousands of people or the person next door, to reach out and touch a hurting person. As long as I'm living, I'm going to shine," she says. On top of being an established author of eight children's books and the upcoming release of Broken into Beautiful, today Carolyn is busy developing a television show for women, covering relevant topics affecting women today. "God is real. God is alive. God is faithful. He'll meet you at the point of your need if you'll release it to him. No matter what you're going through, Christ is bigger," she says. |
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| Copyright © Carolyn Pankalla 2008 | ||