We caught up with Alisa Turner, to talk about her new music, how she got started in the music industry and some of the struggles she’s faced along the way.

Alisa, I wanted to talk about ‘My prayer for you’, one of the first tracks you released before your more recent album ‘Miracle or Not’, can you tell us a bit about this song?

Alisa: This song is the single of the EP and it’s interesting, this is the only song I didn’t write, although I really feel like it was written with me in mind.

I was standing in an airport and I get this text message of a demo of this song and I play it and I just start weeping uncontrollably. My eyes were blood shot, I was puffy faced and I remember thinking ‘oh my gosh, how can they send me this song. These people around me are going to think my dog just died!’ I mean I was just an absolute mess. And so I just remember texting Michael one of the writers on that song and I said ‘Michael you’ve gotta let me have this song!’ Even though I’m a song writer and a writer in general, even I sometimes struggle putting my feelings and my stories into words and it was really cool to experience a song that did that for me. This song had originally been intended to be pitched to another quite well known and successful artist who would have done a wonderful job on it but I felt such a confidence and a peace in my heart that this song would tell my story.

So after a few months of begging they let me take it and it really is such an honour to carry that song. The first line of the chorus is ‘May God give you eyes to see that He’s still greater’. I’m thankful I get to sing that over people. It’s such a reminder to me through the seasons I’ve been through and what’s to come, that those things that can get quite overwhelming, and that God is still greater than all of it. And He’s not great for the sake of being great, He extends that greatness to us and He’s going to walk us through it. He’s not a distant God, He’s so ever close.

Can we go back, where did music begin for you?

Alisa: Music began at a pretty young age. My Dad was a worship pastor, he loved the Lord, he loved people and he loved music, so my childhood was just surrounded constantly with music. You know, in the car, of course worship in our church… it was just such an integral part of my childhood. I learned to harmonise with my dad at a young age and started taking piano lessons and that kind of created space for me to learn how to be creative and how to start making up stuff on the piano, which is where my song writing took off.

The first line of the chorus is ‘May God give you eyes to see that he’s still greater’. I’m thankful I get to sing that over people. It’s such a reminder to me through the seasons I’ve been through and what’s to come… that God is still greater than all of it.

You’ve had this ongoing battle with Lyme disease, for those that don’t understand, what is it, how does that impact you and what’s that journey been like?

Alisa: So Lyme disease typically comes from a tick bite. At some point, we really don’t know when, I got a tick bite and typically with Lyme disease if you catch it early, it’s really treatable. It’s maybe two weeks of an antibiotic treatment but if you catch it late, like me, it’s almost a completely different kind of disease. The bacteria grows and grows and grows in your body and because I had never seen the tick bite, Doctors never thought to check for it. So throughout the whole span of my twenty’s I was growing sicker and sicker. At this point I was out on the road, doing music, playing shows, and I was doing something I really loved so even though I was getting really sick, I really fought to stay out on the road. You know, music and meeting people and sharing stories, it was so life giving to me so I stayed out on the road until the symptoms got so bad, the fatigue and the pain.

I started having seizures…. it [Lyme disease] attacked my muscles so my muscles atrophied so bad I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t swallow. I ended up bed ridden with a feeding tube and it got to a critical point and it stayed that way for so long. That was probably some of the most hard years of my life. I had fought so hard to chase these dreams I felt that the Lord had laid out for me to do but here I am laying in a bed and the rest of the world keeps going on.

You kind of feel stuck and abandoned. I remember having a lot of hard talks with the Lord, I was very honest and I was angry. It just seemed like there was no end in sight for a long time for that suffering. It definitely strengthened my walk with the Lord I had to learn to really lean on Him and to trust. That was a big thing. Some people will go through really hard suffering situations and you think, ‘well why isn’t the Lord taking this away or preventing this or making it better?’ but I’ve always had a peaceful understanding that we live in a broken world, broken things are going to happen but I can look back on that season now and I see so many ways the Lord provided for me through it. He didn’t take it away, but He definitely did not let me walk it alone. And I’m still in a journey of healing, I mean I’m far better than I used to be but it’s still a part of my life, I still test positive for Lyme disease so it is a season and a part of my story that I honestly so wish was over but with all my heart and in all honestly the Lord continues to provide and stay on the treatments that have helped my body heal and recover.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and your heart, we have loved hearing about your music, and your faith and strength through it all, and I know many of our listeners will be praying for you as you continue to battle on with Lyme disease.