Here is a journal entry I found on my computer from the Extreme Tour last year;
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
We are in a small town in Nevada called Lovelock. There is evident spiritual warfare going on, or more like evil exercising its power over people and the town. We just went to an Indian reservation to tell people about tomorrows Extreme Tour event. Somehow it came about that we were carrying AJ on a chair down the middle of the street with him blowing his trumpet. One of the local guys knew some of the people there and told them "put away your guns they're just Christians".
One of the kids from the reservation killed himself about a month ago, then they burned the house down where he did it to get rid of the spirit of suicide. It was the second suicide in this area in the last 3 months. Everyone on this tour is on board and we have unity here, God is working through us.
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After we left Lovelock, we went to Gold Beach, Oregon, where the local church had been praying for us and for their town for some time. This small church that we partnered with stuck out as a great example of what a congregation of believers should look like.
We all had a great time of fellowship together and got slightly rested up. The girls thought it funny to put oragel in the guy's toothpaste one night -- for some reason I was the only guy that noticed...(I think I was the only guy that brushed my teeth that night out of the guys that got pranked).
One night we were all sharing and opening up after a Bible study, when AJ from the band Runaway Symphony opened up about his financial situation; he had medical bills and was 3 months behind in his rent; if he didn't come up with some money his roommate was going to be evicted. AJ had been waiting for God to take care of him for some time, and seemed like he was running out of time. He was a relatively new believer and this was shaking up his faith a bit, because he felt led to do this tour. We prayed about it, and the next morning someone gave AJ 1,000 dollars.
On the friday night we played in a parking lot outside of their local drugstore. The next city we were scheduled to go to cancelled, so we decided to spend the extra 2 days in Gold Beach. The church asked us to play at their church that Saturday, and then do a worship and testimony night for the church members on Sunday, we were more than happy to.
This church had been trying to start a youth group for some time, but kids were not coming. On Saturday when the Extreme Tour put on their show lots of the same kids from the night before came, and they even came to the worship/testimony night on sunday.
We knew that the church wanted to start a youth group, and there were kids there at the church both nights. We talked to the future youth group leader and the kids that were there. The kids were interested in getting a youth group going, so we agreed to come play for them again if they started a youth group since our time on the Extreme Tour was almost up.
a couple weeks later we came back (just our band; not the Extreme Tour) and played at their youth group kickoff night. We ended up staying for about a month and tried to help get it going. It mostly consisted of hanging out with the teens in that area, being a part of their family of believers, and getting rested up from our exhausting time on the Extreme Tour.
When we showed up, we were 5 dollars overdrawn in our bank account, and did not know what to do. We didn't expect to make any money at all; especially since we were only going to be playing one concert (and it was for a group of kids that had already seen us play 3 times). Not to mention we had a couple hundred miles to drive in order to get to our next tour. We prayed hard, and I even began looking for a job in the area online; any thing to make money or get a way back to Indiana, where I'd have a better chance at getting a job. We just were not sure if God wanted us to do music anymore, but we were there, and we were there to serve. We did not tell anyone about our financial situation except The Lord, but during those couple of weeks we spent there, random people from from the church were giving us money, and they had no reason to. The church took up an offering for us, and even had a goodbye dinner before we left. There was even a couple who blessed us with 1,000 dollars. We showed up to Gold beach with negative five dollars, and left with over 1,700. On top of that, we both needed new shoes, and L.A. Gear has some shoes that can only be ordered online that we really wanted; they just fit our style so well, but they are 100 dollars per pair. We prayed that someone would offer to buy us both brand new L.A. Gear shoes. One day as we walked into the kitchen of our host home, Jon (who let us live with them the entire time, as well as fed us like we were kings) had his laptop on the table and said that they wanted to buy us both brand new shoes, and to pick some out from online. It was a miracle. In addition to the physical gifts we received in Gold Beach, the spiritual atmosphere was awesome and it was such a privilege and blessing to be able to be a part of it. We still feel like they are family to us. By God's awesome power, today they have a youth group of around 10 believing teens.
After we left Gold Beach, we met up with Age of Trinity and Martay, whom we had toured with on the Extreme Tour. God was working through the tour so powerfully that we did not want it to stop, so we decided to start our own tour together to do after Extreme Tour was over. We called it the R.I.S.E. Tour. Before we started it though we stayed with our friends from the Colton and Zara Band for about a week and played a couple shows with them. We don't do this for the money, and that was clear on the R.I.S.E. Tour. We received very little donations or shirt sales, not even close to enough to cover gas. Basically, the gifts we received in Gold Beach funded the R.I.S.E. Tour, and our trip across the country to be home for the holidays (which is where we spent our off time recovering and writing new music and planning for the World Rejects Tour).
a couple weeks later we came back (just our band; not the Extreme Tour) and played at their youth group kickoff night. We ended up staying for about a month and tried to help get it going. It mostly consisted of hanging out with the teens in that area, being a part of their family of believers, and getting rested up from our exhausting time on the Extreme Tour.
When we showed up, we were 5 dollars overdrawn in our bank account, and did not know what to do. We didn't expect to make any money at all; especially since we were only going to be playing one concert (and it was for a group of kids that had already seen us play 3 times). Not to mention we had a couple hundred miles to drive in order to get to our next tour. We prayed hard, and I even began looking for a job in the area online; any thing to make money or get a way back to Indiana, where I'd have a better chance at getting a job. We just were not sure if God wanted us to do music anymore, but we were there, and we were there to serve. We did not tell anyone about our financial situation except The Lord, but during those couple of weeks we spent there, random people from from the church were giving us money, and they had no reason to. The church took up an offering for us, and even had a goodbye dinner before we left. There was even a couple who blessed us with 1,000 dollars. We showed up to Gold beach with negative five dollars, and left with over 1,700. On top of that, we both needed new shoes, and L.A. Gear has some shoes that can only be ordered online that we really wanted; they just fit our style so well, but they are 100 dollars per pair. We prayed that someone would offer to buy us both brand new L.A. Gear shoes. One day as we walked into the kitchen of our host home, Jon (who let us live with them the entire time, as well as fed us like we were kings) had his laptop on the table and said that they wanted to buy us both brand new shoes, and to pick some out from online. It was a miracle. In addition to the physical gifts we received in Gold Beach, the spiritual atmosphere was awesome and it was such a privilege and blessing to be able to be a part of it. We still feel like they are family to us. By God's awesome power, today they have a youth group of around 10 believing teens.
After we left Gold Beach, we met up with Age of Trinity and Martay, whom we had toured with on the Extreme Tour. God was working through the tour so powerfully that we did not want it to stop, so we decided to start our own tour together to do after Extreme Tour was over. We called it the R.I.S.E. Tour. Before we started it though we stayed with our friends from the Colton and Zara Band for about a week and played a couple shows with them. We don't do this for the money, and that was clear on the R.I.S.E. Tour. We received very little donations or shirt sales, not even close to enough to cover gas. Basically, the gifts we received in Gold Beach funded the R.I.S.E. Tour, and our trip across the country to be home for the holidays (which is where we spent our off time recovering and writing new music and planning for the World Rejects Tour).
We started another tour with Martay called the World Rejects Tour, which is what we are on right now (Sunday, April 29, 2012). But I think I'll write a separate blog for this year's tour =]
Awesome stuff! It sounds like you two have put yourselves on the line for God's ministry, and He's blessed you in your dedication. It was such a blessing getting to see CCAA this weekend,and I'm still amazed by the faith displayed by the ministry in doing this good work. Keep it up, and we'll definitely offer up our prayers and support as you move forward!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where you saw us play, but thank you, especially for the prayers!
ReplyDelete