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.