Journal entry for: 10-29-2000

Hello Everyone,

      I am writing from the den of my grandparent's house in Kankakee, IL. Tonight we celebrated their 50th anniversary. It was a pretty cool thing to see. Besides a lot of relatives I never knew and will never see again, I got to see pictures of my dad as a baby, and that is always interesting... In other news, it's been a couple of pretty tough weeks for the Normals. As some of you have heard, our trailer was stolen sometime last weekend. In it was every piece of musical gear we owned, except a couple guitars I had taken out for a studio session. All of our drums, amps, keyboards, merch, as well as the trailer itself, are all gone. As you could probably see by our tour dates recently, we had a whole stretch of shows get cancelled, and were pretty bummed already, not to be playing, and having some hard times selling the record. I think we've come to realize that we were a bit naive, at first, in thinking that American Christians would buy something that would convict them, or at least try and make them think about their faith. We've been having a hard time staying above the cynicism that threatens to overtake us. And then all of our stuff got stolen.

      I don't mean to complain and whine. I'm just sharing with you what's been going on. Life isn't always easy, and unfortunately, I have no answers and no why's. I have a firm belief that "the Lord works everything for the good of those who love Him," but that doesn't give our gear back, get us shows, and pay our bills! Again, I don't mean to be pessimistic, just honest. Please pray for us right now. More for our attitudes and spirits than anything else. There is an old Adam Again song where Gene sings the line: "and do the faithful sigh, because they are so few?" I guess more than anything, that's how we feel right now.

      On the other hand, we've been really excited to see the response from the "secret" website. We probably ought to change the name, because it's not a secret at all. If anyone has any good suggestions for a name for that site, and for the group of people that will be involved, please let us know. We've gotten some really good discussions going, and I can't wait to start some more. Thank you so much, friends, for continuing to care about us and for taking the time to allow our music into your lives. You really don't know how much that means to us, especially in times like these. Being off the road for a while has given us some opportunities, though. Mark has gotten to work on that new website, and I have gotten a chance to really spend some time reading and writing. This past week, B.J., Cason and I spent some time in a studio, just making the music that was on our hearts. It was great to realize that we are musicians because we've been given the desire and ability to create. No one can steal music, and what we get from it, and how we can work out our lives through it, and the friendships that we've grown into because of it. We are so thankful for these things. I think we're writing and playing better than we ever have, and our relationships are growing tighter as well, through all of this. It has become an increasingly greater joy to get the time to simply make music again. You can get so lost in the business and the travel and all, that you forget why it is you do it. It's been a really refreshing end to this week. Anyway, to sum it up, thank you for your prayers and for your constant encouragement. Also, we apologize to those of you who have written to us and whom we haven't replied to. We are going to really try to get all of those letters answered by the end of next weekend. I hope that you are all enjoying the absolutely incredible beauty of Autumn, it has been blowing my mind, and we pray that we will get to see you all again soon (with new equipment!!) Until next time, faithful friends...

Grace and Peace,
Andrew