Farewell To 2005 At Northlake Baptist

Dear Prayer Team,

It was a big night for RESCUE as we bid farewell to two of our members on Friday night at Northlake Baptist Church in Longview, Washington. We had many long-time supporters, prayer team members and staff there to watch the last concert of 2005. The atmosphere felt electric!

Everything seemed to run pretty much as normal that night until we went backstage after the encore. Then as we gathered ourselves and put our microphones away it kind of hit us all. There were tears and hugs and high hopes for the future for all of us no matter where the Lord leads. As Luke and Josh embark on the next exciting chapters of their lives, the Lord has given Jason, Dustin and I a very steady, rock-solid peace that He's still got a lot of great days in store for RESCUE.

In that bittersweet moment it would have been an easy thing for discouragement to grab hold of the three of us. I mean, in some way the dream that we started working toward last February could be seen drifting away. But, let me assure you that God has protected us from those feelings. In fact, he's been providing encouragement for us left and right! He always reminds me that although I have only been here since February, He'd been providing for and working through this ministry for 8 years before Dustin and I came on board.

That night was a difficult night for me vocally, as I was fighting a cold. I felt as if I wasn't quite able to communicate through music with the fluency that I normally would have. In some way I was kicking myself for something that I had no control over. So, as I was shaking hands with people and thanking them for coming to the concert, I was inwardly feeling a bit embarrassed that I wasn't able to sing to the level that I wanted to that night. That was when God stepped in.

A young man came up to me and shook my hand. He said that he was a leader in the youth ministry at the church and that he enjoyed the concert, but then he shared something that changed my outlook on the night. He said that his father had been out of fellowship with the church for a long time. In fact his father had been having great difficulty coming into close contact with the church or church functions. It took a lot of talking but he finally convinced his father to come to our concert. Maybe it was a non-threatening event for him, or maybe the novelty of a cappella singing was the thing that brought him in, either way he decided to come to the concert. He got very serious and looked me in the eye as he said, "Something about your voice really touched my dad. It was specifically your voice that pulled him in. In fact, he just bought an album because he enjoyed the concert so much." That may not sound like much, but judging by the expression of joy on his face as he explained the situation, I could tell that this was a much larger step for his father than I realized. I am sure that there had been much prayer and supplication on behalf of this young man's father. My heart leapt with him at the thought of what God had done through RESCUE.

As he gathered his family to leave I was struck by another feeling:

I was C-O-N-V-I-C-T-E-D

My focus didn't SEEM wrong. I just wanted to do a better job for the ministry. I didn't want my voice to distract from the message of the songs or from the impact that the concert would make on someone's heart. But in that moment my focus shifted and I could see exactly what was wrong... it wasn't about ME. God can use a donkey to bring a message, he doesn't NEED me. The point of this whole enterprise really isn't about what WE can do to serve God in some amazing way. I didn't read an advertisement for RESCUE before I joined that read, "Impress friends and neighbors with a life of music ministry! Show off your musical skills while building God's Kingdom!"God simply chose to use us in this way, and if we continually offer ourselves to him, sore throats and all, He'll use our broken vessels to bring His refreshing waters wherever He sends us and to whomever will hear.

Lord, thank you for reminding me again what a privilege it is to serve You. You have allowed us, in our weak and stubborn flesh, to be a part of what you are doing among your people. Thank you for reminding me that it really isn't about sounding good, or saying the perfect thing at the perfect time, it's really about us simply offering ourselves and being willing to go where you send us. You'll take care of the rest. You have proven that time after time. Amen.

I also want to mention that as we allow some time for God to bring us the bass and percussion voices that He is preparing for this ministry, we are going to send the prayer bulletin out every two weeks instead of weekly. Once we get the new voices in and are getting ramped back up for a full touring schedule again, then we'll go back to sending them out weekly