RESCUE at the Portland Convention Center

Last Friday night we had a great time at the beautiful facitilies at the Portlan Convention center, Portland Ballroom. It was a HUGE room but the sound was amazingly good considering the challenges. We were singingfor the 61st NW District Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Convention. We were very well taken care of and I finally had the opportunity to hear Guy Doud speak. He has been on Christian radio shows like Focus On The Family for years. He was awarded, "Teacher Of The Year" in 1986 by President Reagan, and has spoken all over the world since then. He is a very inspirational speaker especially on the subject of children and being godly examples and teachers to them whether formally or just in our daily contact with the children in our lives. If you ever have the chance to hear him speak, I would encourage you to do so.


RESCUE, at the Portland Convention Center for the 61st NW District Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Convention

We do a lot of concerts under very different circumstances and nothing much surprises us, but it was a very happy surprise for us that we had 3 or 4 tables of physically and mentally handicapped young adults right in front of the stage. I believe they were from a local organization that helps them which is supported by the NW District Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. They were very expressive and were always clapping when it was time to clap and were very happy to sing along with us. It was very nice to know that they really enjoyed their evening with us. The joy on their faces was unmistakable and it spread to everyone who was near to them. We were very blessed to be a part of it.

Mt. Shasta, Mt. Hermon, and Watsonville Trip

Dear Prayer Team,

Praise God for another wonderful trip to sunny California! We had incident free travel from Friday to Monday for the three California concert dates, we had the privilege of having Mike come along as our driver for the second time, and my wife, Kimberly, was able to join us for her first time on a road trip with RESCUE (this was a huge blessing for us).

On Friday we performed a concert in Mt. Shasta, California. It was a concert sponsored by the Coffee Connection and was held at the Evangelical Free Church there. I had to leave right after the program to go to the ER because I was having problems with my left leg (see, “RESCUE Praises”, below). Dustin and Steve filled me in on a conversation that they had with a woman who told them that a group of young people we had noticed in the front of the sanctuary was largely non-Christian but that they had RESCUE albums from the past and were very excited to come to the concert! Pray that the message that was delivered that night and the Word of God throughout the albums would work its way into their hearts and make them hungry for a relationship with God.

The next day we headed to the Mt. Hermon Conference Center in the Santa Cruz area. They are having their 100th Anniversary this year. It is a very beautiful place built in a fairly hilly area amongst the redwood trees. The back of the main meeting hall is made of large panels of glass that open up to allow overflow seating outside.


RESCUE sings at Mt. Hermon Conference Center

Doreen told me that we have wanted to be able to sing for this conference center for many years, but we finally got to go there because of a contact from the Cannon Beach Conference Center. Isn’t it great how God works? We stayed in the conference dorms and after the concert we spent some social time in their snack bar area eating ice cream and chatting with the staff there. We were very well taken care of and are very excited to have the opportunity to sing there again!

The next morning we drove to nearby First Baptist Church in Watsonville. Actually we met them at the Santa Cruz County Fair Grounds where they were having a big church picnic. We performed a full concert at 11:00 AM. A lot of people from Twin Lakes Church in Aptos came to see us that morning.


RESCUE onstage at the Santa Cruz Fairgrounds for the Watsonville First Baptist Church concert

Over told me that Dave Fields, the pastor of First Baptist Church of Watsonville, had been the pastor of a church in Idaho where RESCUE had performed an outdoor concert a couple years ago. Well, I should say “started” an outdoor concert, because not long into the program the skies opened up and it began to downpour. Thankfully, nothing like that happened to us on Sunday. It was sunny and beautiful. We had the opportunity to eat a barbecue lunch with the folks there and chatted for a long time with many of them. As I talked to one of the organizers, he told me that he was very happy with the varying age groups that enjoyed the concert. He mentioned that he’d heard that one of the older ladies was going to be seeing us in Mt. Hermon the night before and he was worried that she might not like us because she has a difficult time enjoying more modern styles of worship music. He went on to say that he was flabbergasted to see her Sunday morning at the fairgrounds, sitting second row, center, and bobbing her head to the music after having heard us the night before!

I believe that our style of music can appeal to many different age groups. No doubt! But, when I hear of people who would typically shut out a group like ours because of generational differences or because they might be turned off by the media image of Christianity, instead opening their hearts to us, I have to believe that it’s because of our active Prayer Team! All of those praying brothers and sisters, from the USA, Canada, Brazil, even Cameroon and so many other places around the world will make the way for God’s work to be done in people’s hearts!

Thank you Prayer Team!

RESCUE Praises:

1. Wednesday of last week I felt flu-like symptoms, but then something strange started to happen: my left leg started to blow up like a balloon! By Thursday it was all red, and Friday morning it was not getting any better. When I was getting on the bus for California on Friday morning, Jason saw my leg and asked what was going on. After I told him he assured me that we’d find a nurse or doctor in Mt. Shasta at the concert that night.

After we got set up in Mt. Shasta, a nurse named Toni took a look at it and wasn’t sure if it was heart related or if it might be something called cellulitis which could mean having to stay in the hospital for several days and get an IV administered antibiotic treatment. She told me that we needed to get to an ER as soon as we could. I had never had any heart problems but I am a big feller and it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility so I did what any good Christian man would do when faced with his own mortality and the possibility of missing concerts…I worried!

We got through with half of the concert and at the break Toni came running back to the dressing room with ice packs and she was very adamant about the fact that we would be leaving for the ER right after the concert. I went on stage for the second half and I felt like my eyes were as big as saucers as I contemplated what was going to happen. God allowed me to make it through the second half of the program and I don’t think that anyone besides Nurse Toni and the organizers knew that something was up.

After the concert I asked Toni if I could change clothes before going to the ER and she said I could. When Dustin saw my face in the dressing room, he knew I was worried, so he prayed over me and asked God for peace and a good prognosis. I felt a TON better. Kimberly and I joined Toni and she whisked us off to the ER.

Well, after getting thoroughly checked out, the doctor assured me that it was cellulitis. Somehow a germ had made its way into the calf of my leg and the human body has a hard time healing or fighting off germs in that area. I thought I was looking at several days of treatment in the hospital, but instead, he just handed me a prescription for two weeks of antibiotics and let me go! I started the antibiotics, and by Sunday I was feeling a lot better and right now you can barely even tell I had a problem! It was a HUGE answer to prayer!

RESCUE's Concert With Acappella

Sunday May 28th was another great experience for us as RESCUE sang a joint concert with the group, Acappella! The concert was at the Southwest Church Of Christ which is about a mile from where I work at my day job and I had lots of friends and family there that night. The pastor there, Jeff Hicks, is a friend of mine from my barbershop days and it was really nice to see him again!

It was great to meet the new guys from Acappella. Both groups joined together for devotions before the program and had a good time eating dinner together afterwards. It was nice to be able to talk with people who have a similar ministry to RESCUE. Acappella put on a tremendous program and sang their hearts out. They are great guys who obviously love the Lord!


RESCUE's turn on stage during joint concert with Acapplla


During our part of the program, we debuted our new video presentation of Brandon's introduction/percussion demonstration. People really responded well to the video! It makes us even MORE excited for the time when Brandon is able to join us in 2007!