Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Sad News, Happy News

Rescue Prayer Team,

Thank you for your continued prayer support! Those of us who are involved in the day to day operations of RESCUE are constantly reminded of the incredible blessing it is to have faithful people of God lifting up praises, concerns and requests on behalf of this ministry. Anyone who has ever been around a ministry that is striving to be an effective witness for Jesus Christ knows that in an ocean of opportunities to fail miserably, the prayers of God's people lifted to Him in faith keeps a ministry buoyant and able to be used for God's glory, even in our weakness.

Last week was a difficult one, but it was not without it's blessings. I am sad to report that Tommy Daniels is no longer singing with RESCUE. In the time we've been together rehearsing, traveling, and singing he's become as close as a brother to us. We will miss his sense of humor, his open arms, his smiley attitude, his beautiful voice, and his big heart. We'll continue to be in close contact with him and he'll drop by the office and RESCUE concerts from time to time. Pray for him as he follows God's leading for his life.

On a happier note, last weekend brought us two opportunities to sing with Jason Overstreet on stage as he temporarily fills the vacant vocal position. It was wonderful for me to be able to sing with him, it helped me to feel like I was a little more in touch with the "roots" of RESCUE. He's amazingly talented and was able to learn new parts to songs he used to sing to fit our current vocal assignments. We get to see his determined and godly example as he goes about the business of arranging, directing, producing, and running the sound for us during concerts and rehearsals, but it was really great to see him in action as he sang solos, gave testimonies from his heart, and greeted people after the concert as one of "us". We were also very thankful for Tim Lewis, who has been RESCUE's sound man in the past, as he filled in on the sound board.

On Saturday afternoon we sang at Bridge 2005, a day long concert in the park which was organized by Cathedral Of Praise Church. It's an annual festival dedicated to bridging the gaps between different ethnic groups and between the church and the community it serves. It was an extremely hot day in beautiful Irving Park in Portland's inner city. We had some equipment that didn't really like being out there in the sun, but after borrowing a couple of microphones from their sound technician we were able to finish out our program. One of the organizers told me after the concert that he was extremely impressed by our anointed ministry, diverse style, and uniqueness within our genre. He'll recommend us highly to the committee for next year's event.

On Sunday afternoon we performed a concert at the Evangelical Center for a conference in Milwaukie, Oregon. We had a great time singing to a very responsive group. After the concert and the barbecue, a couple of us went on a thorough search to find the Good Humor cart where they were giving away free ice cream for the conference attendees. As I walked, an energetic lady came up along side us and walked with us to the cart. She told me how certain songs we sang really encouraged her and helped her in various ways, and she began to weep as she tried to explain how much it meant to her that we were able to communicate from our heart to her heart, something very powerful and special about God's careful attention towards us, and His amazing grace.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Four Services and a Concert

Greetings RESCUE Prayer Team!

Some stories happened from last weekend that I just HAD to pass along.

Sunday morning as we were getting geared up for the third service at Southlake Foursquare, a man approached me and told me that he had been very blessed by RESCUE along with the message that was preached. He said it was just a fluke that he had been to service that day. He had been through immense personal struggles in the past few years and was feeling so far away from God that he wasn't sure that he'd ever find a way back. On Saturday he was having a barbecue with some friends who invited him to a nearby church and he wasn't sure he'd go, but he said he might make it to the service. That morning he decided that he would indeed go to the service. When he got to the church he found that he'd made some sort of a mistake setting his clocks at home because he'd missed most of the service. He knew that Southlake was nearby and on a whim, he decided to go check out the service there.

"The pastor's message was exactly what I needed to hear, and after he spoke and you started singing your last song,(Rescue)" the emotion began to show on his face, "well, let me just say, I believe I found my way back to the Lord today."

There was also a woman that some of us talked to who said that she'd been running away from God for fifteen years and the ministry of RESCUE that morning was instrumental in bringing her back to Christ.

Sunday night we had an amazing time at Southwest Bible Church! The afternoon had been very sunny and as we set up the equipment for the outdoor concert on the church's lawn I worried that it was going to be a little too hot for people to enjoy the concert. But as the time of the concert approached, the day softened into an incredibly beautiful evening. After the concert as we chatted with those who came by our table, a Brazilian woman asked us if we would allow her to take a picture of RESCUE. She said, as if she needed to sweeten the deal, "if you let me take a picture it will be going to Brazil!"

"Oh, really? How's that?", I asked.

She pointed to a little elderly couple next to her. The man was slender with big sunglasses and a ball cap, and his wife had a very open smiling face and a large cast on one of her arms. "These are my parents, and they're going back to Brazil tomorrow!"

So we happily brought her parents into the middle of the group, she snapped the picture, we shook their hands and chatted for a bit, and then they left - or so I thought.

A little while later, the woman's mother came over to me again and held me by the arm and seemed very insistent to tell me something. I leaned close and in broken English she said, "We were so blessed to see your group tonight. Our daughter has sent us your music and we are encouraged as we listen to it very much in Brazil. To come and see you tonight was, for us, a dream. We go back to Brazil tomorrow, please pray for us." I told her that not only would I pray for them, but that I'd give the message to our incredible prayer team.

God has given each of us a particular ability to reach the people that we come into contact with for Christ whether it's to encourage strong Christians in their walk of faith, to draw those who find themselves in a backslidden state to a closer walk with Jesus, or to be a sweet witness to those who've never known His love.

Lord, help us to be as passionate about the witness of our lives as we are about our profession, sports activities or hobbies. Help us as we allow your incredible love for those around us to inform every moment of our lives.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

New Recording Project

Hey Everybody! Exciting things are in the works for RESCUE, and we need your prayers! As you probably know from past Prayer Bulletins, RESCUE is facing a transportation challenge. Over this past week, "Over" has put in an incredible amount of research to find a more reliable and better suited vehicle to fit RESCUE's present and future transportation needs. While we now have a good grasp of what type of vehicle would fit this need, the challenge now lies in the finances to purchase it. We strongly want to trust the Lord for Him to fill this need, and do not want to get ahead of His will. Rather than purchasing something right away, we have decided to fix "Ginger", our existing bus, sell her, and put that money towards a better vehicle sometime in the Fall.

More exciting news: We are starting a two-part new recording project. The recording project will start this Thursday July 14th and "Over" will be buried in the arranging and production of the new songs. The first part will be a 4 or 5 song sampler which will be released sometime in October and there will be a combined release concert/fundraising event at that time to help raise funds for the new bus. The full length album will be released sometime in December. A project like this will require a lot of planning. As a ministry, RESCUE will need all of the wisdom and time management skills that we can get. We'll be working very closely with one another throughout this time, and we'll all need to give our very best in whichever role we are asked to fill. Even if all of the above goes as planned, it will still be a dismal failure if God is not in it. As we are bathing this new project in prayer, we ask that you would join with us.We had a wonderful Sunday at Crossroads Community Church in Vancouver, WA. We were extremely blessed by the overwhelming support of that congregation as we sang two songs in both of their morning services and performed a full concert that night. It was an incredible encouragement to us as members of RESCUE as we shook hands after the programs with the precious people of that church. As things were beginning to wind down Sunday night, one of the members of Crossroads shouted to us that we needed to follow him...NOW! We didn't know exactly what he was up to, or if we were being setup for something, but he just kept insisting. So we finally got over our irritation and followed him as he led us outside and pointed up into the skies. I was personally amazed as I saw the most brilliant and complete rainbow I have ever seen as it stretched majestically over Vancouver. It was dazzling and I saw that it was actually about three or four rainbows in one (I counted).

The gentleman who led us outside turned to us as we stood there with our mouths gaping at the sight, and he said, "I just couldn't let you miss something that beautiful." Lord, as we experience the dazzling beauty of your glorious light as seen through the particular prism of our individual lives help us to be at once insistent as we compel others to experience you, while also being open to the deeper and richer blessings of a more mature relationship with You.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

The Fourth of July in Sacramento


Hello Prayer Team!

We trust that your week has been full of God's blessings. Thank you for being a blessing from God to us as we encounter the challenges of the ministry of RESCUE with the confidence that your prayers are with us.

We had several great opportunities to be of encouragement to the Body of Christ this last weekend as we performed at an outdoor festival, a wonderful church service, and we got to see Pastor Scott Barham, Chaplain of Mule Creek Maximum Security Prison, while singing for his congregation's 4th of July Celebration in Sacramento. While talking with Dustin, Pastor Scott gave us the wonderful news that since we had been to Mule Creek, chapel services for that prison yard have grown so much that they had to move out of the chapel and into the cafeteria to be able to seat them all. PRAISE GOD! That is truly why RESCUE exists.

Friday, July 01, 2005

First Call Responders Banquet

Hello Prayer Team!

Last week we participated in a really amazing Friday evening performing at a private event which was an appreciation dinner for First Call Responders. Those are the people who are running into the burning buildings to save people while the rest of us are finding safety. The organizers told us that approximately half of the people in attendance were non-believers. We had the opportunity to sing the National Anthem at the beginning of the event for our very first time, and with the group of active and participating citizens in attendance, it isn't hard to imagine that their response to that performance was pretty incredible. We also did four more songs later in the program.

There was a local comedian who was the M.C. and he pretty much brought down the house. But the highlight of the evening for me was when a Naval official from the Pentagon in Washington D.C. got up to speak about people who risk their lives to save others. He was a Navy Top Gun instructor and is the pilot of the airplane in many of the action scenes in the movie Top Gun. He was in the Pentagon during the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and was the instructor of the committed Christian co-pilot whom, after being hijacked, struck the first building. The speaker was also in the very section of the building that got hit. Amazingly, he was spared. After crawling under the smoke and trying to save lives, having to be the one to tell the wife of a colleague of his that her husband perished in the attack, and making the four hour hitchhike home after the attack, his teenaged son gave him a bear hug and told him that he was SO happy that his life was spared.


External damage to the Pentagon


"Then, he backed away and looked at me and asked me a question I'll never forget, 'Well dad?', he said, 'What are you going to do with the rest of your life?'"

"He's older and is working right now, but if he were here tonight I'd have him come up to the stage in front of you who know how precious and fleeting life can be, and ask the same question."

He'd obviously decided that nothing in life was more important than sharing his faith in Jesus Christ with as many as he could.

After he'd finished, RESCUE got up on stage and finished the night with the song, "Rescue". We were so thankful to be a part of such a powerful evening and that lives were changed for God.