Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Colorado, Singing Christmas Tree, Texas and Arizona

Dear Prayer Team,

It’s been a crazy month full of some great highlights and God’s blessings have been evident throughout! I am writing to you after having our first weekend off in a while, and it was very sweet! I love traveling with RESCUE and seeing what He’s going to do next, but it’s really important to touch base and enjoy some time with our friends and family.

On November 11th we were in Highland Ranch, Colorado at St. Andrew’s United Methodist church for morning services and an evening concert. We had such wonderful host families, and we felt very ministered to by them. This church took a bit of a risk having us in, since we were only known through our CD’s and they weren’t sure what they were going to get live. We had a really great time with them and the response from those in attendance was outstanding. We received this testimony email from someone in the concert:

“Hey guys.”

I was at your concert earlier tonight at St. Andrew and I would like to tell you how grateful I am that I attended. Just by chance I had an extra ticket and I invited my friend to come with me. This friend had recently told me that she was thinking about suicide and I had to talk her out of it several times since then. Jason when you were talking before you performed Come As You Are, you said to lay all the burdens we had on our shoulders at God's feet. She leaned over and thanked me for inviting her, and now I would like to thank you for making such a difference in her life. I got tears in my eyes because I could see so clearly God at work in your ministries, and because you and I together saved her life. You said many things that I could not, and for that you have my gratitude. God bless.”

Please pray that God would continue to give hope to this woman in her most desperate hour.

On November 23rd through 25th RESCUE performed at the Portland Singing Christmas Tree at Keller Auditorium, which I believe is Portland’s largest performing arts theater. RESCUE has been a part of this event several times in the past, but I had not had the chance to be a part of it since I started sing with the group almost three years ago. It was a thrilling time for all of us! We had the chance to share the stage with an amazing choir and some outstanding talented soloists, and we performed for thousands of people during the 6 shows that we did. The first half of the program was a joyous celebration of the traditions of Christmas (we sang a new arrangement of a Brian McKnight song called “Home For The Holidays” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”), and the second half was a heartfelt retelling of the story of Christ’s birth (we sang “Mary Did You Know”). It was a powerful presentation and was a bold proclamation of Jesus in an extremely public forum. In fact the event was listed as the number one show in the local newspaper’s A&E section for that weekend. What a wonderful thing to be a part of. RESCUE is VERY thankful that we were allowed to add our part to this program. Amidst the mass exodus following the programs, many people made the effort to stop by our table and supported our ministry by picking up a CD this year. God is GOOD!

On December 2nd we had the great opportunity to sing in a largely Hispanic church in Mission, Texas called, Primera Baptist Church. The church is about three miles from the border of Mexico and has been trying to get RESCUE there for quite some time. Finally everything came together and we were able to join them for morning services and an evening concert. This fairly small congregation was full of such sweet hearted saints of God, it brings tears to my eyes as I remember them. I didn’t know how our music would translate to them and if it would have any effect at all. God had His way, and as far as I can tell everyone in the house, including us, was blessed by what God did that weekend. Just the fellowship alone was worth the trip down there. This is a congregation that has mobilized their resources to buy property where they have made a place for missionary teams to sleep before they cross into Mexico for ministry. They house many hundreds of saints per year as they bring help to those in need across the border and even those locally who are in great need of the saving power of Jesus Christ! We were humbled that God would allow us to be of encouragement to such a wonderful group of people.

On December 9th and 10th we spent some time with our friends from last year in Phoenix, AZ at Calvary Community. You may remember that this large congregation is meeting in a beautifully converted old mall. We did four services and a 45 minute concert on Sunday night. I remember taking note last year that this was an extremely responsive congregation, but this year was incredible! They were so gracious and kind to us in so many ways and the congregation just seemed to accept and embrace us from the first moment. We are not deserving of such an outpouring of sweet fellowship, but we are very thankful that we get to have these times of refreshing for the many difficult times that come in the period of a year. We heard many, many testimonies of CD’s that were being purchased for those who were in great need. We heard of children afflicted by physical problems that said that the RESCUE CD’s that were played over and over in their hospital rooms were the one thing that they could count on to bring them comfort.

The testimonies that we hear from our brothers and sisters about the ministry of RESCUE speak nothing of us, the weak, wounded and flawed vessels, but they speak countless volumes of a caring, loving and concerned Father in Heaven.

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