Gladstone, Good Shepherd, Salmon Creek

Dear Prayer Team,

On Saturday (5/5) we traveled to Gladstone Park Adventist in Gladstone, Oregon for their morning service. We heard lots of, “amens”, as we sang and were very encouraged. That night we had a full concert and people from many churches all around the area filled the house.

After the concert I talked to a little boy that has been to a few of our concerts. He said, “You know it’s really a good thing to like a singing group. I really like you guys!”

I told him about when I was a kid, there were ministries that affected me a lot like a ventriloquist that came to our church and especially when my dad got to fly a skydiving Vacation Bible School speaker over a church and he jumped out. I got to be in the back seat! I told him, “There are all kinds of ways you can be a blessing to God and minister to people!”

He told me about his desire to one day have a skateboarding school where he could teach kids tricks and then say, “Without God you wouldn’t even be able to do any of that! You wouldn’t even have legs!”

I had to chuckle a bit, but I did have a little tear in my eye. He was just so happy and full of the moment. In the dressing room one of the other guys told me that the little guy had asked, “Can you believe that you get to sing with a guy who can talk like a DUCK???”

Now THAT’S a kid with some TASTE!

Another gentleman came up to Steve and I at the CD table and said, “Thanks, guys. You brought me back home tonight.” Steve said, and I agreed, that it doesn’t take many comments like that to make it all worth it.

On Monday and Tuesday (5/7-5/8) we joined Good Shepherd Community Church to sing for their annual Mother Son Banquet. Steve and our sound tech, Will brought their moms to the second night. It was really touching as they gave all of the men some time to personally express their love and appreciation to their moms. There weren’t a lot of dry eyes in the house on either night.

On Friday (5/11) we went to Salmon Creek United Methodist Church in Vancouver, Washington. We remembered that we had done a concert almost exactly a year ago at the same church and that it was the first concert we had after receiving our new in-ear monitors from Martin Audiology (they took a little getting used to), plus Over was very sick. We remembered that concert not being one of our best vocal performances but that we were warmly received nonetheless. This time we really wanted to make sure it was solid.

I woke up that morning with some extreme vocal problems and was worried about how it was all going to come together that night. Our regular sound tech, Will wasn’t there that night and Mike Z. was filling in for him, which would be a daunting challenge for anyone.

God really blessed our time there! It was actually one of my strongest nights, vocally, since I started taking on the challenge of singing more lead vocal parts! I have NO explanation for that other than God. Mike did a wonderful job! I just love seeing firsthand how God rescues…RESCUE!

We were also very happy to be a part of their effort to send youth to assist Katrina victims. PRAISE GOD!