NewFire Tour Vlog Series Episode 7 (sort of)

Okay, this isn’t really a vlog. . . . but it would have been had i not forgot the video camera on our last trip. But as it is it will just have to be a blog. Lots of cool things to tell you about tho.

For NewFire’s last trip of the 08 year we went to North Dakota . . . in November . . . lots of snow. . . . lots and lots of snow. When we left Tulsa it was like 65 degrees outside. When our plane landed in ND it was freezing and there was piles of snow that were piled higher than the cars in the parking lot. It was quite a shock.

The ND trip was both the best and worst trip that I have had with NewFire so far. It was the worst because I was bad sick and running fever for nearly all the trip, and it is miserable to try and ride in airplanes and vans, play shows, and hang out with people when you barely have the strength to sit up. But it was the best for several reasons. And I’ll share some of those now.

Our first show there was on the night of the day we arrived. It was for the ND Teen Challenge program. (A Christian program helping drug and alcohol addicts get free from their addictions) Both the women, men, and their children. This show was actually my favorite show I have ever done with NewFire. It wasn’t one of our bigger shows, there were no fancy light systems, no big name artists, and there was only maybe a 120 of us there total. . . BUT, the Lord was there and His presence was more tangible in this show than i have ever experienced in another NewFire show. We started playing concert style. . . it wasn’t really working so Jonathan decided to transition into worship. When we did the Spirit of the Lord really moved into the place. All some of the men and women in the audience could do was cry. They were lifting their hands, singing to the Lord, and just sincerely enjoying the presence of the Lord. These people were so genuine in their worship it was very moving. In fact, i missed a cue in the set because i had stood up and started worshiping the Lord myself and didn’t realize Jon was trying to cue me. . . oops. Then Jonathan and Allison decided to give every Teen Challenge student something free from off the table, whether it be a CD, t-shirt, necklace, or anything else they wanted. They were really blessed. And it blessed me to get to feel like i was actually making an impact into these peoples lives.

The next day we played for a fund raiser dinner at the North Dakota State University Research Center. . . or something like that. I got to eat and meet some cool people. It was fun. It was a bit more formal environment. Then the next day we did two Sunday AM services at the promoters church and the services were broadcast on the radio. It was really neat to get to worship with another denomination than what I’m used to. It helps remind me that we are all in this together and worshiping and serving the same Lord. I love the unity of it. I didn’t really know how to handle some of the traditions and such cuz I’ve never really been in that environment, but nobody seemed to mind. And some really sweet ladies gave us prayer shawls and dedicated to pray for us. I love it when people dedicate to pray for me. : )

Then that night we had a concert at a Baptist church. It was a lot of fun. They had a “get together” i guess it would be a “Pot-luck” (i don’t know if I actually spelled that right) where they fed us and hung out with us. It was great. All great churches, all great people.

Then in the midst of all this there was a man named Dave and his wife. An amazing couple with an amazing testimony. Both of them were quite an inspiration to us, we talked about them a lot on our way back home. Dave had been the promoter for the trip and all the shows (and he did a great job) and he also was quite an encouragement to us in our Christian walk. He told us the story of how he got hooked on meth, cheated on his wife in the double digits of times, in multiple ways. Prostitution, topless bars, you name it. How he was a pathological liar, how they separated for THREE years, and yet God restored their marriage and their relationship with Christ. You would just have to hear the story for yourself, but it is very moving and motivational. Now Dave is one of the most honest and sincere guys you will ever meet. Very real and honest with the struggles he faces, and with His relationship with the Lord. He truly loves Jesus. And his wife . . . WOW, amazing what God has given her the grace to do. It’s very rare to meet someone that loves as genuinely and as deeply as she has learned to do. Both amazingly awesome people. They had us over to their house once. It was cool. I hope to see them again someday. It was truly inspiring to see what their lives had become. It gave me hope for every broken relationship and broken person.

I’m back home now for the holidays. Have been for about a week now. We’ll go back out on the road again in January, I’m sure there will be many more NewFire stories to come. Merry Christmas every one!! God bless, and remember there is ALWAYS hope no matter how hopeless a situation may seem.

NewFire Tour Vlog Series Episode 6 (NewFire and By The Tree)

This was an extremely fun trip. We had a lot more free time on this trip than we do on most, so we played cards, went thrift store shopping, hung out around downtown, found the good places to eat, and just generally had a lot of fun.

And I was personally very encouraged on this trip. If you keep up with this blog than you probably saw my post entitled, “Get Real! Confessions of a local church.” It is the post most viewed on this blog. In it I challenge readers to quit pretending and just be real with who they are and what they struggle with so that they can find true freedom. Well, at the 08 Extraordinary Youth Convention that NewFire played at on Friday the speaker encouraged the youth to “Get Real” and preached a sermon basically about confession. At the end during the altar call students began to stand up as the Spirit of the Lord moved on them and publicly confess their sins to the entire congregation.

The very first guy that stood up shouted that he was addicted to pornography and wanted to be free and that he wanted to quit cheating on his girlfriend. Keep in mind that he was not asked by the speaker to publicly confess his sins, he made the decision to do that on his own. Then a girl stood up and confessed to self mutilation, then a girl stood and confessed to living a double life. This continued for about 10-15 minutes with student after student standing and confessing and crying out to God for redemption. By the time the service was over it had turned into a massive celebration as so many students where experiencing a new freedom never previously experienced as a result of the Holy Spirit moving on them to publicly confess and experience complete freedom from guilt and shame. There was dancing, singing, and most importantly Jesus. He was most definitely there. It was very refreshing for me and I was able to get my worship on. It was great. Oh, and By The Tree was there too, they led the worship. They are pure hearted guys and very humble and kind. Go buy a CD of theirs or something.

Then we moved on to First Christian Church in Washington, MO where we . . . well, why don’t you just watch the video. It will speak for itself.

Here’s the vid.

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=80781ae01bf8ad43dc30