Journal entry for: 12-17-2001

Well, hello there everyone,

     I hope you all are having a great time getting ready for Christmas. I've been so busy recently, I've barely had time to realize what we're about to celebrate. This afternoon, however, I'm heading North to Illinois for the weekend, and seeing my parents' house with the Christmas tree up will probably set me in the right frame of mind. It usually does. My girlfriend and I are going there to celebrate my dad's birthday and see the Christmas cantata that he directs. It should be a nice time to rest a little, and just enjoy family, friends, and the season.

     The band just got back from our first trip to Europe, and it was awesome. We played two shows in Germany and one in Holland. We found the audiences to be really wonderful and open, and we had great shows. The first three days of our trip we spent in the German city of Freiburg. One of our best friends, Mike, is on staff with Campus for Crusade there, and we hung out with him for a few days, crashed six guys in a real "missionary" apartment (meaning: the bathroom is in the kitchen...), and got to see a beautiful city. We did a show there, got to climb the spire of an incredible cathedral, see a little of the black forest, do some Christmas shopping in the square at the Christmas Market. It was great.

     Then we hopped on a train, (after grabbing a little McDonald's, of course...) and went to Dusseldorf, Germany. Of course, stuff got messed up and we ended up in a train station without a ride nor any ability to speak any more German than "Thank you" and "Excuse me". So we think that we jumped a train, our tickets may or may not have been valid, we couldn't read them, and got to a different station where we had a ride waiting. Did I forget to mention that we did all this while carrying guitars, a week of luggage, and cd's and t-shirts? We looked like five walking piles of bags for most of our journeys! The train that we took to Dusseldorf was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Most of the trip was along the Rhine, (and "over the rhine"), and besides being a beautiful river, the hills on both sides of the river stretched up into the fog. The hills were lined with vineyards, and every now and then you would see an old German village and a number of castles, something I'd never seen before here in the heartland of the old U.S. of A. It was pretty incredible.

     The next day we played a festival in Zwolle, Holland, which is another beautiful city. It was weird, we were in another country and we played with All Star United, Luna Halo, the Violet Burning, and Pax 217, all bands we know from here in the States. Wild. And let me just say, Pax 217 were amazing. They get better every time we see them. I'm pretty stoked about the fact that they've started a new record. I'm a fan. That night Mike, and I, and the Pax guys went out to a little pub and sat and chatted for a while. It was great to see those guys again.

     So the next morning, we got in a van and rode to Amsterdam, where we flew to Atlanta, and then to Nashville, where we finally slept. It was a great trip, and all the better for getting to be there with some of my best friends, and to make music.

     Well, that was our trip, however, there is a lot of other stuff going on that we're excited about as well. The record, now finally titled: "A place where you belong", is set to come out Feb. 26 in the Christian market. It'll come out April 9 in the mainstream. You can now see the cover of the record at the front of the webpage. We're pretty excited about the artwork, as well as the record. We're going to do a little two-week tour around the release of the record, which will be a lot of fun. It's been a while since we've been on the road.

     Later this Spring, Mark and I are going to do an acoustic tour, and we're really excited about it. We've wanted to do something like this for a while, and it finally made sense. We're going to be focusing on the songs some more, play some stuff far back in Normals' history, as well as the newer stuff, and we think the shows will be really fun for everybody. We're talking about doing some shows with Derek Webb as well, where we would open, and then Mark and I would split on guitar and bass duties and be his band. We're looking forward to getting to try something new like this, lay back and have a good time, and we hope you will enjoy it as well.

     Well, I guess that's about it for me today. A little verse to share with you: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." Proverbs 1:7 I read this the other day and it really convicted me. I definately seem to despise discipline sometimes, and I have gotten so busy that I fear a lot of things, but not the Lord. I guess I would ask you to pray this for our generation, and for me: We have allowed ourselves to get such a short attention span, and to spend our thoughts on what is marketed on us and around us. I mean, our country is at war right now, and we already seem to have forgotten! We're still fighting, but we seem to care more about Harry Potter and Britney Spears than the fact that people are dying everyday because of what happened in September. It's amazing. And how can we expect to fear the Lord, to spend time in prayer and meditation and the study of the Scriptures when we're so quick to jump to the next excitement as a people. Please pray for me and for our generation that we would learn how to slow down, how to value what is truly important, that the fear of the Lord would be our wisdom, our knowledge, and our discipline.

     Anyway, there's my early morning thoughts for today. Have a great Christmas. Look for our record late February. Come see the band play, and then Mark and I. Pray. Read Philip Yancey's "What's So Amazing About Grace?" because it's one of the best books I've ever read. Rest well in the Lord. Have no fear, but the fear of God. Finally, have a wonderful time celebrating the birth of the only innocence this world has seen, the innocence that laid in that manger and now lays on our heads and our hearts. What a precious gift. Let us not forget it. Thanks again for your prayers, encouragement and support.

Much Love, Grace and Peace...
Andrew