Journal entry for: 11-18-2000

Hey Everybody,

      I hope you all are having a great time watching the leaves fall and smelling the crispness of the late Autumn wind. I want to thank all of you who have responded with encouragement and prayers regarding my last journal and our situation with the stolen gear and trailer. You have no idea how your letters have kept our spirits up. Paul says that "the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective", and we have already started to see the effects of your prayers. We had a great run this past weekend. We played six shows in four days and had great crowds, for the most part, and played really well, even on borrowed gear! It was great just to get to spend time together as a band again, and to get to play music again, which is what we've been called to do in the first place. Chris Taylor, and his friend Justin, have been with us this past week, and will be up until Thanksgiving. They've been a great support, besides putting on a great show, and it has been a lot of fun ge! tting to know them better. Hopefully a lot of you will get to catch them with us in the next week or so.

      I want to ask you again to please continue to pray for us regarding the trailer and gear. Our insurance company has been finding all kinds of wonderful loopholes so that they don't have to replace our stuff. There is a real possibility that we may need some help in this situation soon. Some of you have offered financial help, and at first we appreciated it, but weren't actually thinking about taking it. After some prayer, (and we plan on a whole lot more!) we have come to the conclusion that asking for help may not only be the best thing for us to get our stuff replaced, but also to really humble and encourage us. Please pray for us as we make that decision, and about giving if you feel you'd like to. I'll let you know as soon as we figure it out.

      In other news, we have had such great feedback from the message boards on the secret site that we've decided to put one on the main site as well. The band will still be more involved with the one on the secret site, but we wanted to open that avenue of communication and discussion up to as many people as we can, because it has been such a great experience for us, and I hope for the people involved.

      Also, we're playing in our "hometown", Nashville, TN tomorrow (Tues., Nov. 14th), which we're really looking forward to. It's always nerve-wracking and really exciting to play for all your friends, who are all real musicians! Chris and Matthew Perryman Jones will be there as well, so it'll be a great show. Speaking of Matthew, he and I, as well as Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken, Jill Phillips and Billy Cerveny, and some more of our friends, have all participated in a Christmas record which just came out two weeks ago. It's called "your King has come" and I think it's a dang good record. You can get it through www.grassrootsmusic.com, or www.detunedradio.com. Thought here would be a good place for a shameless plug...

      Well, thank you once again for your prayers and concern for us in these harder times. When people have been asking me about it all, I've been sort of surprised to find myself answering "It's been hard, but not bad, it's been really good. Really hard, but really good." We've gotten to start to see God as provider more, and we've gotten to see how much people have been appreciating what we do. We've become even closer as friends, and have a lot more passion to do what we feel like we're really supposed to do. I think, after this is all over, we'll look back at this time as a real period of growth. God has been granting us more and more faith, in accordance to His will, and we've been finding real joy in our struggles. I can't imagine how full of love and faith the persecuted church must feel. In some ways, I'm jealous of the opportunities they have for God to show Himself that we don't have, because we have so much stuff and comfort, which gets in the way of our need!

      Anyway, before my rambles get the best of me I will thank you again and pray blessings of faith, grace, beauty and love upon you. Until next time...

Grace and Peace,
Andrew