God is the center of all I am and all I do and it is only by the grace of God that I can say that, for even as the words escape my lips, my heart betrays me. I do what I do, and share what I share because I believe that this story - my story - is universal in nature, and that there is real power in the word of our testimony. This is my story. This is your story. This is our story.

I was born in Minneapolis, MN. Although my parents have imperfections they taught me the most important thing: to love and be loved by God. My father has struggled with alcoholism throughout his life; although he was a very hard worker and a true companion of heart to me. My Mother served as a beacon of strength to me, but all too often when she was home my parents were fighting. We, as a family, were very involved in church, but there seemed to me to be an unspoken rule of silence that applied to our issues.

Despite all this, God broke through to my heart. I had a spot near our house, on the other side of a lake beneath a weeping willow tree. There I would sing to God and pour out my sorrows. He met me there every time, and would turn my laments into expressions of His sweet presence. So, I've been writing music all my life. Like breathing or laughing its just always been a part of who I am and what I do.

When I was 15 years old my family went through some grave difficulties. I went from being a happy, outgoing, honor role student to a miserable, withdrawn, terrified drop out. While my friends were dealing with normal teenage stuff, I was wondering whether my father was going to be dead or alive when I got home from school. Life had thrown me into survival mode. I felt forgotten by God, so to save myself the pain of rejection and dashed hopes, I forgot Him.

I quit going to church because I couldn't be real there due to the rule of silence that my family had kept. I soon found myself hanging out with the druggies, the dropouts, and the underside of society. At sixteen I left home and moved in with a young man who was abusive to me; I felt trapped. All was lost to me: my dreams, my hopes, my confidence, my passions, my songs and my God. It was bad. I was using drugs everyday - it became a way of life; drugs, robberies...violence.

This was the state I was in when I became pregnant. My pregnancy served as the beginning of my reawakening, though it also seemed to be my darkest hour. I saw the hell I was surrounded by and I determined that: "this just isn't good enough for this baby." Then my son was born, and I stared into the face of a real, live miracle. Then and there the thought slipped in, "Perhaps God hasn't completely forgotten me."

After years of silence, interrupted only by one song I had written for my son when he was born, at 20 years old I sang a song to the Lord and He met me there among the willows of my heart.

I didn't think after all I had done and been that God could use me, but I was so wrong. God impressed me with a passion to sing, speak and write of my life and His love over the course of a few years. Also, after years as a single mom, God has blessed my son and I with Nathan, my husband, who shares my heart and my vision with a passion that I have never encountered in anyone else. God is such a faithful healer. I am so honored to be able to carry this message.

Yes, God is the center of all I am and all I do, and it's only by God's grace that I can say that.


Stephanie Pauline's Professional Bio:

Stephanie Pauline has an all consuming desire to communicate the love of Christ and draw people to the hope and healing she has found within Him. She offers all she has to see that accompished; and she has quite a talent, and quite a story to tell.

With over 400 songs written Stephanie Pauline is a prolific songwriter and serves as an artistic catalyst, imbuing listeners with courage as they drink deeply of life's great store with her. While capturing tragedies, and fancies with poetic candor; Stephanie creates a desirous sound all her own. Her songwriting ranges from folk /pop/rock, inspirational Christian, to worship, and every now and then there's even a dash of country in there. Stephanie's sincere lyrics and compelling melodies draw people of all ages, and walks of life. "I invite others into an honest moment and hopefully encourage them in their own pursuit of truth and a passionate life abandoned to the only thing worth living for: love. I've been pretty pressed in life and I think it has produced a severity and vulnerability in me that people just lean into. It pulls things up from deep within them and unearths hearts." This depth both in writing, and in the emotional presentation of her material is due in part to the difficulties life dealt out in force in her young life to adolescence. After what she calls 5 years of darkness God recovered her and renewed within her an inborn sense of music that has accompanied her all her life. She says that songwriting came to her like breathing or laughing; it's just always been a part of who she is and what she does.

She plays piano and guitar, and has been an integral part of the recording of her three full length CDs, having co produced all of them. Her last two recordings brought her to Nashville and LA where she recorded with some of the industry's best. She performed over 80 dates from 2006-2007, and is gearing up for another 80 date tour in 2009. Her music is currently being played on over 500 radio stations world wide, landing three of Stephanie's songs in the top 10 on the CRW Global Inspo and AC Chart and also on the Euro NCM Chart this year. One of her songs has been used on a sound track in a film called "My Lawyer," and she has won numerous song competitions. Her talents have garnered her a few record label offers, a recent nomination for the Independent Singer Songwriter Association Award and the attention of industry professionals. In 2003 More than Music Inc. her ministry, and the hub of her music, was made an official non-profit, enabling her to receive donations to further the work.

The driving force behind all that Stephanie Pauline does is best stated by the mission statement of More than Music Inc. which is... "To revolutionize the culture at large, one heart at a time, through the means of multimedia, ministry, and money given until everyone on earth knows, and lives the love that is in Jesus Christ." Tied closely to all her endeavors is her goal of funneling the profits of her life's work to world relief efforts, and social evangelism. Stephanie Pauline has chosen to waive her salary since the non-profit was made a legal entity in 2004 to help enable that. Thirty percent of her concerts are performed in detention centers and treatment facilities around the country and she has been on several humanitarian forays, including a month long mission to an orphanage in Vijayawada, India. Stephanie has seen first hand the extensive destitution, both spiritually and physically that plague most of this planet and her heart's cry is to see healing and blessings flow all around the world. She has vowed to take these messages God has given her in the form of songs as far as He will allow her to go.

She is married, with one son, and a baby girl. She daily works to further her own authentic representation of the face of God in her personal life. Her music is simply an overflow of that.