A couple points of news

  So, point number 1, Team Guatemala and Team Singapore are on their way to the airport right now to begin their time of ministry.  Please keep them in your prayers over the next month as the work with Youth For Christ staffs in those countries.

  Point number 2, I will be leaving Willmar for good on friday, kinda sad.

  Point number 3, for those of you back in good ole danville/bismarck, I'll be back on Tuesday, give me a ring and we'll hang out.

  Point number 4, for those of you in j-ville/Illinois college, I should be back sometime in the middle of august, I'll get contact info out, when i have it

  Point number 5, I have a new xanga, www.xanga.com/bassman8476 this is my new xanga.  it is going to be used to chronicle the many messages that God gives me or teaches me in my life in j-ville.  I will no longer be using ctibass as of friday.

Sad, So Sad

  So my time is nearly up in Willmar.  Not counting today(cuz it's half over), and the day I leave (cuz i'll leave at like 7AM) I have 5 days left in Willmar.  5 Days.  I can't believe I've been here since August, and my time is almost done.  There were some points in the year when I thought that this time would never come, and there were times this year when I didn't want it to come.  Regardless of all that, the time is upon me.  As of  7 AM friday morning, I will no longer be in Willmar, and that saddens me.  I have grown really fond of my host family.  I have been staying with them since November, and they are just amazing people.  My host dad is really cool, he owns his own home electronics/car stereo/music store here, and is a great guy.  Some of my fondest moments of this year have been sitting on the porch talking with him about life.  My host brother is also pretty cool.  It's fun hanging out with him and talking about life, and all that stuff, and it's also cool to just sit around and watch tv together.

  Willmar will always hold a very special piece of my heart.  Though I will be moving 14 hours away, I know that God will lead me back here someday, I'm sure of it.  I will definitely miss the entire office staff here.  They are such amazing people.  I'm gonna miss walking into David's office and just chatting about nothing and everything at the same time.  It's still weird to me about how the president of our organization doesn't just sit in his office, but is working with you every step of the way, sometimes missing important family moments because of his love for us and this ministry.

  Well, training is coming to a close.  The teams have their outdoor concert (which actually gets to be outside this round) tonight, and then on monday they have a day of training and on tuesday they pack all their gear and fly out wednesday morning.  After that, I will take a couple days to pack and say my good-byes to everyone.  And before I know it, I'll be sitting in Chicago with Nissa and wondering where this past week went.

Currently Listening Everywhere By Michelle Branch see related

Hong Kong

  So I've been doing a lot of thinking about this past year.  One thing that has been on my mind a lot is our trip to Hong Kong.  As I stated earlier, we left in November, on the 17th to be exact and we returned on the 22nd of December.  We were there for five weeks, and over the course of those 5 weeks we played 96 concerts in about as many different venues as you can think of.

  Hong Kong was really challenging to me, and up until lately, I've looked back on it as a time of tribulation.  Why do I say this?  Well, Hong Kong was kind of hard relationally on our team.  For most of the year up until then, we rarely all stayed together, yet for the entire 5 weeks we were crammed into a tiny little apartment, all 8 of us, and at one point there were as many as 10 people staying there.  After you've seen the same 7 other people 24/7 for 5 weeks you really get to a point where you don't want to see any of them for a very very long time.  It was also tough because of communication difficulties that were happneing.

  Recently I've begun to look back on that time and search for what God was teaching me.  One major thing I feel He is teaching me is to look at it as a time of celebration not tribulation.  Why?  Even though the 5 weeks felt like a really long time, we were able to witness to a minimum of 27,000 people!  That is an amazing amount and the true amount is probably much higher than that.  We watched as thousands of people heard the loving words of Jesus's life and chose to receive Him.  We were able to connect with some great people.  While we were there, there was a team from Australia who were a bunch of amazing people.

  So from now on, whenever I think of Hong Kong, I won't think of how hard it was, I will think of how amazingly God used us during that time.  I urge each of you to pray for the city of Hong Kong and specifically for the Youth For Christ staff over there that works many long hours to reach out not only to the youth of Hong Kong but to everyone especially the elderly.

Currently Listening Feels Like Today By Rascal Flatts Skin see related

Thoughts on a Great Year

  So it's one of my two days off during round 2 training, and I've been doing a lot of thinking.  It's weird for me to think that I only have one friday, saturday, and sunday left in the great city of Willmar, MN.  I have been based here since I flew up here on August 17th of last year.  Way too many days to count have passed by since then, and God has shown me and taught me a lot of things.

  I have traveled from MN all the way across ND to Montana, then to Seattle all in about 2 weeks time.  We then worked our way down the coast to eventually find LA, then we traveled east as far as Houston TX.  Then we traveled from houston to MN in a day and a half, that was a crazy long drive with just a 6 hour break for sleep in there.  Along the way we met some cool people.  I remember playing ping-pong for hours with a host family in Spokane, WA and drinking way too many energy drinks ;)  I also remember staying at an amazing mansion in Fresno, CA where Kevin and I played tennis then I went superman down this zip-line they had, no one had ever done it before, so, me being the crazy guy I am, volunteered to be the test dummy.

  After returning from TX we had the opportunity to record six songs for a cd that we released with the other team.  This process freakin rocked.  I love recording, and hope to do some recording in the future, both as an artist and recording engineer.  The cd turned out amazing thanks to our wonderful full-time director who doubled as a studio engineer.  If any of you are interested, you can order the cd from www.ctimusic.org for just $15.

  As soon as we finished the cd we hopped on an airplane for aobut 16 hours and found ourselves in Hong Kong.  This was an amazing/tiring adventure.  Over 5 weeks we played 96 concerts.  Most days we found ourselves playing at least 4 concerts with some days being as many as 7, most of which were at different locations.  The time was a lot of hard-work, but we were able to share the gospel with at least 27,000 people which was amazing.

  We returned to the US on the 23rd of december just in time to fly home for the holidays.  After a short stint at home, I returned to Willmar to prepare for our winter tour.  After doing some over-the-phone fundraising for about 2 weeks, we left Willmar again.  This time we headed southeast with stops in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Georgia and eventually arriving in Florida.  We lucked out by spending three weeks of February in Florida.  It was a blast.  I tried surfing in February!! Now that's amazing, I'll prolly never do it again because I kept hitting myself in the head with the board, but it was fun anyways.

  We left florida and worked our way up the coast stopping in many places along the way before ending up in New York.  From New York we head back west stopping in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin before returning to Willmar.  In all we spent 10 1/2 weeks on the road from January through April.  We were then given a short break where I went and visited my best friend from high school for a week.

  After returning from the break, we set off for our final tour.  Our 2 1/2 week spring tour would be spent primarily in the great state of Illinois.  It was a nice tour because I was able to catch up with so many of my old friends from college and from the Jacksonville area.  I was also able to work out a couple things for my return to Jacksonville.  It was also during this tour that I finally worked up the courage to ask out the most amazing girl in the world.  She has been such a blessing to my life.

  When we returned to Willmar we switched modes.  We were no longer full-time musicians, we were now given new tasks for the summer program.  My job has been as a band trainer.  Round 1 happened at the beginning of June and Round 2 is going on as we speak.  It has been an awesome experience getting to work with the four bands we are sending this summer.  I have met some amazing people this summer and have learned some valuable things that I will take with me for the rest of my life.

  One other blessing that I had no idea about until about May was Bible Quizzing.  I quizzed at internationals from 99-02, but have not been able to be apart of Nats since then.  This year I was overjoyed to find out that Nats was going to take place at Crown College, a mere 2 hours from Willmar.  I was able to reunite with old friends and make some new ones along the way.

  Well, that's my year in a nut-shell.  Next time I'll share some of the many things that God has taught me along the way, but for now I've typed way too much.  So be sure to remain in your seat until the ride has come to a complete stop and have a great day.

Currently Listening Hey You, I Love Your Soul By Skillet see related

A New Update (it's been awhile)

  So I just wrote this whole blog about birthdays and how I think they don't even matter anymore, but I figured no one wanted to read about that, so I decided to go with a general blog.

Well, round two training has started and man is it tough.  During round one I was put in charge of a band after about a week, this time, it's right away.  I have found that the beginning of training is a tough time to be in charge of a band, and I'm now completely exhausted, mentally and physically.

It's now about 2 1/2 weeks until I travel to chicago on my journey home.  I'm starting to get really excited, and nervous at the same time.  You see, while I'm in chicago, not only do I get to see my wonderful girlfriend for the first time in close to 3 months, but I also meet her entire family, have my family meet her, and prolly have my family meet her family, all in a period of a couple days.  That's a lot to happen in a weekend, all pretty nervewracking things, but I'm excited.

I've also recently found out that i have a short one-week job when I first get back home which will be awesome for getting some quick cash for gas money and the like for trips to jacksonville and back up to chicago.  That's a huge answer to prayer.  Now all I need is to find a job in jacksonville to pay the bills while I help out at the church.

Ok, I've put a lot in this update, I hope you enjoy.  I'll prolly be posting another message-style blog in a couple days.  I've got a couple that I've got saved ont he computer here, and I want to hear some feedback on them, who knows they may end up being sermons some day. 

Have a great day, and remember to grab all your belongings when leaving the ride, the park is not responsible for items left on rides.

Currently Listening Another 700 Miles By 3 Doors Down Here Without You see related