my two favorite people...

So the little guy looks like his mom. I thought so, but here's the proof. I hope you all had a great Christmas!

nice

This is what the future looked like in 1978.

sshhh!!

I'm up a little late. Mark sent over some song ideas we had recorded on the road but had since forgotten. Well, at least I had forgotten. It's fun to listen to something you did but don't really remember. It caused me to look through my iTunes library at the 'album' entitled junk which consists of at least one hundred song fragments. Junk is a very fitting name for this collection, even though it has been cleaned out plenty of times during this age of the mp3. I came across one recording though that I really enjoyed hearing again. It's from a night I'm pretty sure all the guys remember fondly... the night we wrote the song 'eternal.' I'll try to explain it in a way that doesn't sound pretentious - but we came up with the bones to at least 4 songs in a period of 2 days last year when we were in desperate need for some new material. We had already recorded a good portion of the record, but we honestly lacked some key elements - of which included Half our lives, turn on the lights, we need each other, and eternal. Those four songs were demoed in rough form during 2 nights we took off from the road late in the summer of '07. But the one that came out the best then was Eternal - at least in my opinion. It felt like the most pure thing we had ever written or created in a day's time. It was a real highlight for me in the whole twelve years we've been together actually! For the first time ever the five of us got in a room and created a piece of worship with no strings attached and with no commercial ploy in mind. Maybe I should re-word that... We love making music, we are privileged to share and record it, but this song was all of us in a room making a sound that reflected the love of Christ for us. Even as I listen now I get a bit worked up over it. So yeah, here it is for you to hear... It's one take, 2 mics in a bad sounding room, matt singing through a guitar amp and no sauce to cover anything up. This was the first and only complete take. I'm pretty sure I could get in trouble for posting this, so keep it on the down low ;) It's a video file but it's all blank - just give it a listen...

Merry Christmas!

Today I think I stole a guitar. From Matt. I don't think I need to worry about him getting on a computer to read this though. But little does he know I found a PRS of his in the van today and I'm laying claim to it for a little while. At least 'til he notices.

Hmm, what else has happened lately... Some good friends from out in California sent us an AWESOME hand made gift for Josiah. It's a 'watch me grow' book that looks like a tree and it has room for a year's worth of pictures. The Goldstone's always send us these incredible hand-made Christmas cards too. I'm not kidding, but I know for a fact they could start their own company and give hallmark a huge run for their money...




Random, but tonight I heard John Tesh on the radio. What a perfect radio voice that guy has huh? He was talking about PB+J at about 9pm. So I pulled over and bought some at the kroger. Not my kroger though, because I really don't like that one. That's a different blog. Also went to Best Buy tonight and noticed how ridiculously big and bright their shopping carts are. It's like they're just asking to be filled with large corrugated boxes full of non-biodegradable packing wrap and shiny black boxes. Don't worry though I just bought a dvd with some best buy bucks, the cart was for the little man. Which brings me to my next point. I never knew about the funny noises a baby is capable of making. I mean, it's pretty incredible. I'm told it's normal, but sometimes I wonder if it's my baby in the crib or a terradactyl egg hatching.

Really?

So if you were to tell me at the beginning of this year that by Christmas one of the following statements would be untrue I don't know which I would pick.

a.) I would have a baby boy.
b.) I would pay $1.42 for a gallon of gas
c.) I would be nominated for a grammy award
d.) I would see over 2000 people sign up for the Mocha Club
e.) I would have no gray hair

Well I guess hair dye would be the logical solution to the trick question. But it's been a while since I've opened a bottle of that...

So yeah, I'm pretty shocked right now. We had a good little trip to Nashville this weekend to let it all sink in. Pete got married on Saturday. What a great time. It was a perfect day and the bride and groom looked pretty awesome. Dan was in the wedding so he looked cool too. Hopefully those guys will share some photos. I've already seen some and they're ridic. Yep. We got to see a bunch of friends and the very accommodating mr. Jeremy Camp let us stay at his house for the weekend. Dominique said it was like a vacation. I think that's fair to say.

Home right now and it smells like fresh baked cookies.

Can't wait to work on some new tunes this month. I think we may have some good ones on our hands ;)

I need Africa more than Africa needs me.

So this week the good people over at mochaclub asked if we could help get the word out about what they've seen to be reality in Africa. For those of you who don't know what mochaclub does it's actually pretty simple. They use monthly pledges of only $7 a month from people all over the U.S. to greatly impact the people in places like Sudan, where in the past 3 years over 2 million civilians have been forced to leave their homes. The mocha club relies on the support of it's members to bring relief to multiple areas through a wide variety of projects - And they do all of this with only $7 a month! On the last tour we brought out our friend Sammy to help raise support. The response was overwhelming and enough money was pledged to provide water for A LOT of refugees who would otherwise have no clean water.

This brings me to what it is our friends at Mocha club have seen to be true in the midst of these war-torn regions, and that is not the images of despair that so often gets flashed on our televisions, but communities of people grateful to be alive and grateful for what little they do have. In seeing this it becomes evident that finding happiness is not about finding sweet deals on the internet or waiting in a line outside a department store the day after thanksgiving. True happiness is something I understand more by having the privilege to give 7 dollars to people who really don't need anything more than clean water to be 'happy.'

SO... help my friends at mocha club and help yourself by checking out the following info....

I NEED AFRICA MORE THAN AFRICA NEEDS ME

When I think of Africa, the following images immediately come to mind: Starvation. AIDS. Child soldiers. Genocide. Sex slaves. Orphans. From there, my thoughts naturally turn to how I can help, how I can make a difference. “I am needed here,” I think. “They have so little, and I have so much.” It’s true, there are great tragedies playing out in Africa everyday. There is often a level of suffering here that is unimaginable until you have seen it, and even then it is difficult to believe. But what is even harder is reconciling the challenges that many Africans face with the joy I see in the people. It’s a joy that comes from somewhere I cannot fathom, not within the framework that has been my life to this day. [read more]