5/12/09

the last time we wrote we were in nashville. the band van had begun its ascent on the great stairway to heaven and we were unsure of our bookings in the weeks to come.

oh my, how things have changed!

we are all the way back up in sunny sasktoon - canada and between then and now we have seen many great things. our dirty van continues to chew up the road (see its gallery of candid photos on facebook) it faithfully carried us from music city to richmond - virginia.

after having no bookings going into nashville, we played there twice to intimate, but influential, crowds. with a great number of opportunities for the future arising from those. we met a wonderful group of people there, and just one of these booked us FOUR venues for the very next week in richmond.

we had a great time there and drove on to covington for a cheeky little sunday night gig.

packing casualty number 2, 3, 4, 5 etc occurred this fine weekend. but don't fret it was only my passpont, wallet, ipod and other valuables. NO BIG DEAL... we drove back via my packing error on monday to new york city. negotiating city traffic for the first time all tour 3 of us felt our lives flashing before us... the other complained at the lack of indication in use by his fellow commuters.

our "week off" in the big smoke was intensely fun, but tiring and we could use a break from the breaks in our tough life of playing music for our friends in africa. i'm aging rapidly just thinking about how hard we have it!!!

that weekend we shared our stories with friends in new jersey, to begin our final month of touring.

heading up to michigan we found our lovely hosts so eager to avoid us fred had himself admitted to hospital with a "suspected heart attack" to get away!

praise God it wasn't as serious as initially thought, fred was finally diagnosed as not having had a heart attack but rather some pulmonary birth defects which are treatable and manageable. fred came home and promised we weren't stressful to be around at all.

grand rapids, michigan was great fun. we love you fred, margie, dave and donna!

by the way, check out jon troast

i forgot about the falls!

what can i say? we saw niagara on our way to grand rapids! there was water... lots... again, the strain of the lives we lead caught up with us and we had to take time out of our rat race lives and visit one of the most beautiful of God's creations.

sadly, the pansy canadians wouldn't run the "maid of the mist" boat trip in november. please explain?!

from michigan we drove to chicago and had a wonderful meeting with kathy bunker. kathy is a lady we hope to do much work with for her organisation "music for the world!" more news on that later! WOW. it's great!

some old family friends of joy's were our next hosts in pound - wisconsin.

we stayed a few nights and were truly blessed by the worship and time with their fantastic family. we had the impromptu privilege of sharing in their church that sunday morning. as well as our concert in de pere - st norbert college - which is about an hour away. we loved wisconsin and got to share with the people from the "zambia project" at the college. they are doing amazing things in zambia and once again it was great to find more people faithfully standing up and opposing the injustices around the world.

then we went to fargo...

after peeling ourselves away from the many attractions of fargo we set our course for minot.

many discoveries were made in this fine little town.
matt and joy unearthed a love for "rockband" on wii.
kt started, at least pretending, to enjoy animals.
i found a love for college basketball on cable.

and last but not least.... THANKSGIVING! oh the food!

the son of our good friends in seattle from earlier in the trip was our host/chef for thanksgiving. i don't understand the holiday i must admit, but... oh the food! we had much to thank God for as a result of our time in north dakota and the end of our tour of the states had arrived.

we are now relaxing in saskatoon and finishing our tour tomorrow morning at faith baptist here in town. excitement is growing to see some sunlight when we get home, and joy is (keeping to character) positively gleeful to stay in the snow for christmas.

thank you all for your prayers and support. this tour has been successful on so many levels. we can't explain everything in blog form, but thank God for song writing and music!

more to come...

15/10/09

the proverbial change of gears...

the band has spent an amazing few weeks in the heart of the country.

after a week of no church commitments, and i'm sad to say it... a distinct lack of bats to gaze upon, in dallas/ft worth we ventured a short way north to oklahoma. i provided the first packing fatality of this trip, leaving behind my beanie at rick's house. :(

the small town of guthrie was our host as we met and grew to love a handful of God's family in the community church. *big shout out to keenan and maria, our wonderful host family! you guys were a blessing beyond words!*

it was exciting to see such an active youth group there. bowling at midnight followed by ihop on our first night in town set us up for a few sleepy and hilarious days in OK.

our adventure found us in parsons - kansas the next week. home of the "progressive sleepover," a town so loving and eager to host us they had to share us around, which led to 4 host families in 6 nights!

once again God's sense of humour, and dare i say mocking, was brought to the fore regarding the touring band with enough canned foods for a small army. (an army without guns though... or guns that only shoot love?) we left town with our stash intact and pants tighter still, if that were possible.

we received many blessings in parsons. the community stepped up and organised a concert for us *would you like to see that back on DVD?* we had an amazing time playing music and sharing with people who were intent on loving our socks off!

we then set off to nashville - tennessee in the cold and rainy early morning.

nashville was always going to be a change of pace for us. our love of the small towns and apple pie set aside for now, we ventured into the traffic and craziness of music city to find one thing intent on not changing...the gearbox in the beloved band-van.

perhaps it is now the restriction of being stuck without a vehicle or the feeling of creative juices in the air of music city, but we are back to writing music. it wouldn't be right to leave a recording contract wanting for lack of creative material, right? ;)

"play that funky one again, matt!" has been thrown across the room more than i care to remember... hold onto your socks ladies and gents, we will have some great new songs coming your way in the future...

19/09/09

remember seven's first album is now available on itunes store, amazon music and other major online music stores!!! buy it now on iTunes Store!

15/09/09

remember seven have hit the road!

after 2 pretty busy weeks in canada we are finally on our way to america. we hope our time in saskatoon has prepared us well for the coming months. plenty of hours were spent rehearsing and playing for various groups. we unexpectedly got to share with a big youth group at ebenezer baptist, and also took a chapel service at 'teen challenge' (a year-long drug rehabilitation program for men). our time of sharing at ebenezer baptist and watrous baptist churches was well received, with many people partnering with our mission.

packing our van yesterday morning was a treat. matt and toby (aussie dads in training) somehow managed to squeeze all of our stuff (instruments, luggage, sound system, FOOD) into the back of the van...it will be interesting when we arrive in seattle and have to add 800 cds into the mix:-)

so with 4 cases of baked beans, 96 packets of noodles, 72 cans of soup and 48 boxes of mac 'n' cheese we rolled out of saskatoon to begin our adventure. 4 hours into the drive we discovered our van has cruise control...giddyup! we will spend 2 nights in calgary before beginning our trip to seattle where we have a busy weekend playing 4 venues in 3 days.

thanks for all your messages of support. please keep us in your prayers as we continue to venture forth on this exciting journey. xo

04/09/09

the band has spent half a week in saskatoon so far preparing for the 3 month trek around canada and the united states.

rehearsals have just begun and equipment is being gathered, repaired and setup ready to go on the voyage. the band eagerly awaits the setoff date as it approaches and our state of readiness grows.

first weekend up for the band is at joy's hometown church, ebenezer baptist. after the weekend here we have another nearby in the town of watrous.

beyond that we embark on the journey to calgary and then the united states.

please keep the band in your thoughts and prayers as we are preparing our hearts for the times to come when we plan to be pouring out our heart and lives for others. Pray for health and fellowship. xo