Return to River Valley Community in Grant's Pass

Last weekend was kind of a celebration for us as we headed down to Grant's Pass, Oregon to River Valley Community Church to sing in services on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, along with a full concert on Sunday night. The reason it was a celebration for us is because River Valley Community played a big part in Jason's development as a musician and it gave him a real hands-on education of what it is to work in ministry. About 12 years ago Over spent a couple of summers at River Valley as an intern/assistant for their Music/Worship Pastor, Dave Hastings who, according to Jason, was an incredible influence in Jason's decision to pursue music full time.
It had been about 9 years since RESCUE had last sung for River Valley Community. As we arrived and the weekend began to take shape you could just see Jason's gratitude to this wonderful congregation. They were so welcoming and kind to us and their talented Worship Pastor, Michael took care of so many details with an incredible servant's heart. It was SUCH a joy!

Over was very blessed to be able to stay with a family who he had been very close to when he was in town during his internship. On Saturday evening we all had the pleasure of having a barbecue dinner out on a deck overlooking a river with both of the wonderful host families. We ate and laughed and sang crazy barbershop tags until they were probably sick of us! It was truly one of those golden moments.

The worship services went very well for us and we enjoyed the pastor's preaching on the life of Noah. On Sunday night the house was full and the people were ready for a concert! We felt so at home and comfortable with this responsive and energetic audience. One very delightful moment for us happened when we asked the congregation to join us in singing the popular congregational worship song, "How Great Is Our God". Now, when it comes to vocal music, you can only harmonize as well as you can hear each other.

Toward the end of the song the crowd was singing so energetically that Over and I were having a hard time even hearing ourselves, let alone each other!

That was COOL!

After the concert we got packed up and headed home, chatting and laughing all the way. I caught myself many times this weekend just drifting away in thought thinking of the marvelous way that God has brought these five guys (including our incredible friend and sound tech, Will) together along with the tremendous support of many others. At various times I looked at each one of the guys with such admiration and respect and my heart just welled up with thankfulness.

After the long drive home I fell into bed at about 2:00 AM, knowing that I was getting up at 6:30 AM to go to my other job...

Gladly!

Vancouver First Church of God

We had a wonderful time tonight as we sang to our home crowd at VFCOG! This is the church which has graciously allowed RESCUE to rehearse in their beautiful sanctuary, it also happens to be Steve and Audra's home church.

Tonight's concert and ice cream social was a benefit for a team of middle-schoolers who will be making their way to Tijuana, Mexico to do some building and some other kinds of ministry while they are there.

We took our two newest songs for a spin around the block tonight for the first time and we really liked how it all went. We decided to end our concert with these songs which are actually a couple of worship songs, so that the audience could sing along with us. We had the words up on the screen and people just got right up and started singing with us. It was very moving for us because we have been working on these songs for a while in development and rehearsal, and it was just a real blessing to be able to join with an actual congregation and sense that real, heartfelt worship was happening.

We received a powerful testimony from a guy at the CD table who told us that through the use of meth he'd lost his wife and family stolen money and had incredible struggles. He told us that he had been beaten by a group of people and at that time he made a promise to God that if he would allow him to live that he would go through a recovery program to get off of meth. He went into a Christian treatment program the next day and has now gained back his wonderful wife and family. During that difficult time, he said that the music of RESCUE was a real blessing to him. He wanted to make sure that he told each of us before he left. We are amazed and humbled at the ways God has used this music to be of comfort to those who are going through great difficulty.

I won't go into details, but through some difficult circumstances and just plain ol' life, we were able to support a brother tonight. I just really thank God that he has put the four of us together in this ministry. I feel very honored to serve alongside these guys and their families!