Journal entry for: 2-1-2001

Hello Everyone,

      Welcome to February. I hope that your new year has been off to a great start. Things have really been pretty good for me, and for the band, recently. As most of you know we had a lot of time off following our Fall tour and the theft of the trailer. We weren't really excited about the down time, in fact, at first it was pretty discouraging, but now I think we're all pretty glad it happened. At least for Mark, Cason and I, we have been on the road pretty much constantly since we left school two and a half years ago. It has been so great just to get to be home long enough to really be able to be involved in the lives of friends outside the band, and with our churches. Besides that, we got to spend some time with other passions besides the Normals. We were able to play with other artists, write, read, Mark got to work on some other websites and a couple of the guys started a little side business building road cases. It might not sound that exciting, but it really was great to be able to kind of live a normal life for a while. We are excited, though, that our Spring tour with Caedmon's Call will begin in just a month. It'll be great to get to be back on the road, and to play music live again. Plus, we'll get to spend a lot of time on the West Coast, which we've always wanted, but have never been able to do. Hopefully we'll get to try out some new material as well.

      These past two months or so have really been a swing back up from the lows we experienced through the Summer and the Fall. It's been amazing to see how the Lord has answered prayers in our lives personally, and with the band. God has truly become more real to me recently, through His provision, His blessings, and the grace that I have seen in my relationships. The more I've been learning about theology, the more confused I've been over a lot of big issues regarding my faith, (what faith IS, where it comes from, God's sovereignty, my responsibility, etc...) but God has encouraged me to keep wrestling with these hard concepts and ideas by the love that He is showing me in other areas of my life. I don't know, I think if I wasn't seeing Him like I am right now, I would probably just give up asking all those questions. Hmmm... well, there's your deep thought from Andrew today... Anyway, we would like, also, to publicly thank everyone who has helped us out financially from the theft. We're almost completely caught up, and it has been amazing to see God provide in so many ways. The best part of the whole thing has been the notes and letters that people have sent. We have been truly moved and encouraged by some of the things said, and we really can't express how much it means to us. It's amazing that people would give so much so that we can make music, one of the few truly unnecessary things in the world. So, again, thank you.

      Well, that's about it for us now. We're excited to get back on the road, and the shows we've had so far have been great. Personally, I'm excited that I found some rare Mark Heard cd's online today, and that Mark Knopfler's on Craig Kilborn in a few minutes. Thanks again for your prayers and your support, and we can't wait to see you again soon. Until then...

Grace and Peace,
Andrew