Mike Rimmer spent a few days with US singer/songwriter JENI VARNADEAU checking out Stratford-upon-Avon, talking about cheerleading and learning about her new album.

Jeni Varnadeau

I cannot believe it! It is coming as a little bit of a shock that Jeni Varnadeau and her husband Rory Partin have visited England many times but it's only now when they're staying in my house that they confess they have never seen much of the British countryside. They've been to London, they've been to visit me in Birmingham, they have taken trips to Stoke to appear on Cross Rhythms radio and spent time in dull, overly planned avenues of Milton Keynes where their British record label is based but they've never just taken a trip out into the countryside.

Hmmm.what's to be done? A vote is taken. Is it to be castles or Shakespeare? The Bard Of Stratford wins and the next day we're heading there with a French friend of mine Anne-Sophie. For a long time Jeni has been making mission trips to Europe, using her music and ministering to teenage girls through the ChikChat programme she's developed. This time around, the married couple have been wandering around places like Belgium and Scandinavia but after spending a day with Anne-Sophie it looks as though the next trip will include a visit to France!

In fact, for most of the day the three of them talk in French. OK, I studied French up to the age of 16 but it didn't equip me for this! Jeni and Rory engage in an eight hour French lesson from Anne-Sophie to improve their communication skills. Me? I'm the Entertainment Officer! Possibly the most surreal moment comes when Rory and I have an argument in French! It soon dissolves into hysteria. Maybe we should make all politicians try and solve their issues using languages they barely speak and the world might be a better place. This is a theme we will revisit.

At heart, Jeni Varnadeau is a rock chick! A rock chick with a powerful sense of pop melody and a heart to communicate her faith. After releasing three albums on Pamplin Records in the late '90s and into the start of the 21st century, she's spent the last few years working as an independent artist but has now re-emerged with what is her best album ever, the aptly titled 'Something Changed'.

It isn't as if she's been quiet while she's not been signed to a label. She explained, "I released two albums, one called 'Melange' and one called 'The Book of John: Volume 1'. I've been touring in Europe every year. Doing concerts, doing ChikChat and recently with that, did some TV tapings. We aired our first little segment at ChikChat so that was really fun. I went to Egypt with the International Mission Board last Fall and they asked me to write their song for the International Day of Prayer and Fasting for world evangelisation. So this spring I am visiting churches trying to promote that event and share that song with people."

So she's not been busy then! Jeni explained about her plans to bring the whole of John's Gospel to CD. "This album is actually the first six chapters so it's 'Volume 1' because the book of John is 21 chapters and it would be like three or four CDs! It's really long. So I've recorded the entire book and I'm just waiting to see if I'm gonna release the rest of it or not. I have one or two songs to finish recording. The songs have been written. It's basically maybe three chapters or so and a song reflects the chapter that I just read. So we'll see. It's been recorded, we'll just see if I release it or not."

Jeni explained why she's recorded the project: "Because I'm passionate about God's Word and really excited about it." She said simply, "I'm not a big artist who does altar calls at the end of concerts. It's just not my style. But I had been having conversations with people and wondered if that was something I should do. I thought, well if I ever did that I would want something to give new Christians so that they would have a good place to start. And that's really why I made that CD, it was to have a tool for follow-up for a new Christian. But I also do a lot of Bible studies. I do precept Bible studies - precept upon precept. It's where you're taking a book and you go really in-depth and you look up the Greek and the Hebrew or whatever. I thought something like this would be a great tool for someone is trying to get in the habit of hearing or reading Scripture but would much rather stick in a CD than read the Bible."

A few days later Jeni Varnadeau is on Rimmerama chatting with Tony Cummings and me and trying to explain on air that cheer leading is actually a sport. At high school Jeni had been a cheer leader and taken part in competitions. We're unimpressed by the idea of it reaching sporting status! She leaps out of the chair and demonstrates some cheer leading moves to explain how difficult it is. Cummings and I are still not convinced. Tony tries to explain cricket to the American musician but that is lost as well. How is it possible to play a sport for five days and still only draw? The very idea confuses Varnadeau until I explain that if the warring nations of the world learned to play cricket we could achieve world peace. Anyone who is losing and plays for a draw and feels like they've achieved something must be a healthy addition to any diplomatic mission. The USA need to learn to play cricket and so do certain countries in the Middle East! Varnadeau isn't convinced and then her face brightens into a big grin. Perhaps cricket needs cheer leaders to make it more exciting, she wonders. Hmmm.

ChikChat is something that really inspires Jeni. She deveoped the programme herself as she explained, "It's set up as a four to six-hour workshop where I get to spend the day with teenage girls in a school or a church or something like that. I do a session where I talk about self-esteem. Then I do another session where I talk about your walk with God and how to have a relationship with Christ and how to have time in prayer with him every day and what that would look like. Just some practical steps that I was taught when I was a teenager that really, really helped my walk with Christ grow."

She continued, "So I share that with them and then we end the session with time for the girls to write a letter to God and have some honest prayer time with him. I do a quick little nutrition one-on-one and then lead them in a kick-boxing workout. That's usually their favourite part! Then it usually goes to lunch. And then after that, at the end of eating, we show a video that we've produced that's on skincare. It gives different tips on how to take care of your skin. It even shows you how to pop a pimple! So that's very important.

"We usually talk about boys after that. When we talk about boys, I've written a manual that the girls get with the workshop. They can take that manual home with them. For my last talk they get to fill in the blanks and kind of follow along in their manual. That's the only section of the manual that is left unfilled. So they have to go and fill in the blanks. But then throughout the day, through that, we'll have breakout sessions. The girls can get together in smaller groups, so that I'm not the only one talking all day! We have little breakout groups where we'll do anything from looking up different Scriptures about hot topics. Like controversial kind of things. To playing with makeup. To maybe putting a skit together about self-esteem. Just different little breakout groups that the girls can do."

As Jeni was telling me about the programme, I felt exhausted just listening to her describing it. "It's a long day", she admitted, "and then sometimes I will do a concert that evening depending on whoever brings me in, if they also want to have a concert. So then it's really a long day. And it's good. It energises me all at the same time because I get to pour my life into girls and hopefully make a difference in their lives, even if it's just for a day."

Walking away from Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford, we walked along enjoying the sunshine when suddenly Jeni spotted a tea retailer. Last time she was in the UK she bought catnip tea for her cat, Remy, and wondered whether she could get any more. At least I think she meant that Remy drinks it, but that doesn't sound right does it? Anyway, as she stepped into the shop, she discovered just what she was looking for and bought a box of teabags. Meanwhile the rest of us have been queuing up in a Starbucks where the air conditioning has packed up. You need a drink after that. We stepped back onto the street and headed for the next Shakespeare dwelling to explore.

Jeni has always travelled a lot and enjoyed it. It's in her blood. "Well I grew up with my dad travelling all the time," she explained. "He works, not for the government but for a technologies corporation that creates technology for defending our country and things like that. So he's briefed our Vice President's staff."

Sounds like he's a spy to me but Jeni denied it saying, "He's a genius." She didn't travel with him but she remembered, "My dad was gone physically a lot." I cheekily suggested that he was overthrowing governments of foreign countries. Maybe just small countries!

Jeni laughed and continued despite my distraction. She remembered, "He would come back and talk about these cool places. I remember him going to Holland and bringing back these wooden shoes back for us. Cheesy stuff but it was like really cool. So I must have got the bug from him. I'm not the kind of person that can sit still for very long. If I'm home for a month or two I get really antsy. That's way too long to be home for an extended period of time. So I think God just gave me the travel bug which has helped me to be able to do what he has called me to do. But when I go I just love learning about different cultures, but especially Europe. I just love the culture. When I go there I feel at home. Sometimes when I visit other countries I just love to visit them but I don't necessarily want to go back. But Europe is a place that I have to go back! There's just something about it. There's a magic about it that just draws me to it. I feel like I can connect with the people there."