Turlock soccer mom's radio 'Moments' range from 'mocha fast' to 'God kisses'

By SUE NOWICKI
snowicki@modbee.com

last updated: July 05, 2008 01:41:44 AM

Lynne Thompson of Turlock is a typical mom, busy with life and raising two children -- Cassie, 14, and David, 12. There's also her husband of 22 years, Pete, who works as a therapist with high-risk foster boys for Stanislaus County Mental Health, and a pet white rabbit, Prince Charming.

In her spare time, Thompson has free-lanced for Christian magazines for 13 years, including a Focus on the Family magazine called Focus on Your Child. Focus on the Family, a nonprofit organization founded in 1977 by James Dobson, a psychologist and internationally known Christian evangelical leader, reaches 220 million people in 155 nations.

Writing for that audience is heady enough, but for Thompson, the story gets better. She landed a spot doing "Soccer Mom Moments" on Focus' "Weekend Magazine" radio show. Her segments are heard about once a month by more than half a million listeners. Thompson also gathered 50 of the stories in a book, "The Official Soccer Mom Devotional: A Book of 50 Brief and Inspiring Devotions" (Regal, $12.99), published in April.

How did she hit the big time?

"I'd been writing fiction and never was successful," she said. "Someone suggested doing a newsletter on my Web site. I thought it was a good idea. I started a section called 'A God Thing,' little things that happened in my life about God and motherhood.

"I sent it out to people on my newsletter list, and that included a couple of people at Focus. They passed it on to Dan Robbins, who is the producer for 'Weekend Magazine.' He e-mailed me and said, 'Hey, those "God Thing" stories would lend themselves to the broadcast.' I said, 'Great!' I thought he just wanted to purchase them and have someone else read them. He said, 'No, go ahead and do a demo.' He wanted me to read them."

She was rather nervous about doing the recording, but after Robbins OK'd the first effort, she went to MIP Studios in Denair, run by Gary Shriver. There was a special hybrid phone line so that the Focus folks could coach her as she recorded the first segments.

Robbins remembers when Thompson first came to his attention.

"I was struck by the fact that she had a creative way of looking at life situations," he said. "We all can tell stories, but Lynne had a very clever way of turning a phrase. My immediate thought was, since I produce a radio show for soccer moms, I thought she'd be a good fit.

"I called her. She was scared to death. We coached her. I'll admit she's not the greatest radio host of all times, but I think her stories are something worthwhile. We've recorded maybe 50 of them now."

Thompson remembers when her first segment aired on the radio in the fall of 2006.

"We were in the process of moving and I was picking up doughnuts or something for the moving people," she said. "I was in the drive-through at Starbucks and I heard myself on the radio. I was like, 'Oh, that's me!' I made the Starbucks guy lean out the window to listen. It was very weird and exciting at the same time. I thought, 'Oh, good, now the things that the Lord has used in my life will encourage others.' "

Some of those stories include:

"I did one about a mocha fast, how I gave up mocha for a week to remember to pray for a friend of mine who was going through a tough time. Every time I wanted to go through a drive-through and pick up a mocha, I was reminded to pull over and pray for my friend instead.

"I taped one on God kisses. It talks about how God uses little markers throughout the day to let us know he's thinking of us. I used the story of how I was stranded in a broken-down car with my two kids. When the tow-truck guy showed up, he didn't have a clipboard. Instead, he asked me to sign the paper on a book. I looked at it, and it was 'Anne of Green Gables,' which is my favorite book. It was kind of funny, this big, burly guy with 'Anne of Green Gables'; it felt like it was a kiss from God, a fun coincidence."

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