Dove Award winner Ginny Owens has appeared at Lilith Fair, the Sundance Film Festival and The White House. She spent this past year releasing two albums and a DVD and touring. Yet she still feels uncomfortable in her role as a singer. An introvert who dislikes the spotlight, she's found that serving others brings more reward than having fame. That's why she formed a nonprofit foundation that helps disadvantaged children, and that's why she's been building homes with Habitat for Humanity. Owens shared with us about life on the road, growing in her faith, her charitable endeavors and her new album, Long Way Home.

I hear you've been working on building a house this week.

Ginny Owens: I participated on a build in Slidell, Louisiana, as part of Operation Home Delivery, Habitat for Humanity's ongoing effort to rebuild Gulf Coast areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina. NBC's Today Show covered this particular build because it was part of their "Make a Difference Today" campaign to encourage viewer involvement. Then we start my house.

Your house?

Owens: All year, the Fingerprint Initiative [her nonprofit organization] has been raising money to build a Habitat home for a family in New Orleans whose parents both are disabled. We planned this before Katrina hit. The money we're raising is for the initial build of the house. The couple pays off the mortgage as time goes on. We start putting up the walls soon. I'm really excited.

How did you start working with Habitat?

Owens: I've always loved what they do, so I thought it would be fun to work with them. Almost two years ago, I started talking to them about how we could help. From there, we've worked on various projects together.

What are your main goals with the Fingerprint Initiative?

Owens: First, I want to be involved with local communities. Instead of just doing a concert in a community, I also want to serve the community. It's a worthwhile challenge to do something more than just leaving after a show. Secondly, I want to be part of projects that are already there, such as working on a Habitat house. We can adopt these projects as our own and be a part of the larger picture. We will create our own projects down the line.

What other projects are you working on?

Owens: I raise funds and awareness with International Justice Mission. We're involved with rescuing young girls from sex slavery in South Asia. We can't go over and physically help with that work, but we can support them in that huge and dangerous mission. We also work with Compassion International. At my concerts, we take the pictures and bios of high-priority children who nobody has sponsored for six months or more and hook them up with sponsor families.

Where did the name Fingerprint Initiative come from?

Owens: In my song, "I Love the Way," one line says, "Catching glimpses of your mysteries / I find your fingerprints on everything." God is so gracious to leave his fingerprints of grace on us, so we should go out and be reflections of those fingerprints, of his life and his love.

I read that you always feel slightly uncomfortable as an artist. What is it that makes you feel uncomfortable?

Owens: There's a lot of joy in being an artist, but if you're the sort of person who isn't driven by the spotlight, most everything about being an artist is uncomfortable. Signing autographs is somewhat weird. It's strange when people think you're going to have an answer for things. People asked me for my comments on the Hurricane Katrina disaster. My comments are the same as anybody else's—that it's a tragedy. Being expected to give words in these situations is challenging.

Is there ever a plus to feeling uncomfortable?

Owens: Being uncomfortable makes you work harder and think more. If you don't have that discomfort, you get lazy and don't take your work seriously. Being uncomfortable and celebrating that discomfort is probably the way we grow and change. It becomes the greatest opportunity for God to work in our lives and develop character in us.

Was it uncomfortable co-producing an album for the first time?

Owens: It was challenging, but it was comfortable. Monroe [Jones, her longtime producer] was great about letting me have creative input. It was fun to have the legal opportunity to have production input here and there. Having three other producers working on the project with me, the hardest part was trying to keep everybody sounding cohesive. If they wanted to go in a certain direction which wasn't cohesive, I'd try my best to convince them of another direction.

Describe the sound of Long Way Home.

Owens: It's eclectic, a mix of all my favorite types of music: R&B and rock and mellow. The band that plays with me all the time played on the record, so it feels very natural and comfortable. It's edgier than past records have been. With each album, I get a little more comfortable exploring things and stretching the realm of Christian music. Lyrically, it's very thoughtful. It's about working out the journey between here and the day that our faith becomes sight. All the lyrics are pensive and they're analytical of our journey.

The lyrics on this record are so candid and honest. What gave you the incentive to bare your soul so much this time?

Owens: I've always aimed for that sort of communication of my journal and my thoughts. I don't feel like this is the one where I bared my soul more than other ones. I think the difference is that as I get older, I learn how to articulate the things I think and feel. In that sense, it's very different. It gets easier with every record. You get better at writing when you do it more.

In the song "Waiting for Tomorrow," you sing about spending your life anticipating. Do you often daydream and worry about tomorrow?

Owens: Yes, but much less than I used to. I'm one of those people who enjoy getting older, because as a younger person I spent more time hoping for the future, for what would come next. Now I celebrate what I get to do today. I'm grateful for those opportunities.

In "Wonderful Wonder," you sing about your being blind. What's it like knowing that the first thing you'll ever see is Jesus' face?

Owens: It's overwhelming. It's almost too much to understand or comprehend. I can't even grasp that the first thing I ever see will be Jesus. I can't imagine what that will be like.

In that song, you also sing about spiritual sight, about not needing our faith anymore in heaven. Talk about that.

Owens: I always say that when we write songs, God allows us to articulate the struggles that we go through. I don't think we articulate much about the struggles we've gotten past, because I don't think we ever completely get past the struggles of life. That song is as much about the faith that I want to have as it is about faith that I do have, about the person I want to be as opposed to the person who I am. My songs often set the standards for who I want to be.

In "Let the Silence Speak," you talk about quieting down to hear God. Do you ever avoid hearing what God wants you to hear?

Owens: All the time. When you're as busy as I tend to be, you just forget what's important and why you do certain things. I'm an introvert, so I love peace and quiet and being alone. That still doesn't mean I like silence. That song's as much about my life as anybody else's life.

From the lyrics, it sounds like there has been a change.

Owens: It continues to be a struggle and something that I have to learn. It's a slow process. Yet, God is causing me to recognize it, to figure out that we're always listening to somebody's voice. If we're not letting the right voice speak to us, then we're going to be taking our cues from the wrong voices. If it's not the Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts, it's going to be something else. God has shown me that over the past few years.

You recorded your album in California, Texas, Tennessee and New York. How come so many recording studios?

Owens: We had some shows in California and I thought it would be fun to bring Monroe and some of the musicians to hang out and record a couple of songs. I wanted us to enjoy the music and not really worry about things that were going on at home. We were on the road so much that it made sense to do the rest of the record that way, in different places. When we'd have days off, we'd schedule studio time.

You travel a lot. Are you used to that?

Owens: I really hated it the first few years. The traveling part, the changes, that fact that things were different. There's something lonely about being on the road. Now, though, I have a team of people around me who are supportive. I have friends on the road and we're kind of a team. I have camaraderie with these people. I'm used to it and at peace with it. It's still a challenge sometimes. Again, it's about finding comfort in the uncomfortable.

For more about Ginny Owens, visit our site's artist page. Click here to read our review of her latest album, Long Way Home. Visit Christianbook.com to listen to sound clips and buy her music.

© Maryann B. Hunsberger, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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