Washington Weekend

I love these trips. We spent less than 72 hours away from home. Drove through beautiful scenery. Played two great shows and met some amazing people. All in a tour bus you may ask? No people... I'm talking about two matching Toyota minivans, the real way to travel.

Last night was a great time with a not so huge crowd but everyone had great hearts. They were all super worshipers! And tonight we played at a fair with Jars of Clay. It was a big crowd but I felt so bad for them because they were standing in pouring rain our entire set. They were champions though and stuck in there. It turned out to be another great worship time. Tonight was our first night to play "May Our Praise" live. I can't beieve we haven't played is sooner seeing as it's my favorite song on the Opposite Way record. Any ways, it went over very well, and we didn't mess up with the tracks so that's always good.

Here's some pix from the weekend...


Flew to Seattle.


The drive today was amazing. Leeland wanted to get out and climb it but we didn't have time.


driving....


ate at Red Robin...


kept driving...


jake in his emo hoodie... listening to his ipod and he totally can't hear anything we're saying to him.


Leeland's getting some wind here.



We got to the fair and played to the great people in the rain. These girls were awesome; they made custom Leeland hoodies to protect them from the elements.


I know this is kind of random... but I have to fill you in. Marcus (our sound doctor) never wears shoes. We give him a hard time about it. He might have learned his lesson here.


Oh... and then we made him put his hair up in a pony. We can't decide if he looks like the bad guy from "Kindergarten Cop" or the jerk instructor guy from "Karate Kid"? Thoughts?????



I'm armed with my pillow and a boarding pass with a window seat. Time to get on the red eye and try my best to sleep on the way home.

love love love!

-jack

I love worship... I don't like 4am

So... we just got back from the Hillsong Conference here in Houston. It was amazing worship tonight! I was crying like a baby while we were singing "Hosanna". And "With Everything" was off the charts... God was off the charts. He totally overwhelmed me tonight with His love and His goodness. I love those moments when God sweeps you off your feet and just surprises you once again with how great his love is. Then when I feel the reality of that love all I can do is tilt my head up until my neck hurts... open my eyes and sing through the ceiling and just shout to heaven. This is worship people!

Any of you guys had an awesome worship experience lately? If so... tell us about it. If not, stop what you're doing right now and just tell God how amazing He is. Then begin to live for this incredible God. That's worship.

I've got to pack now and then go to sleep. We've got a 5am call time and that means I have to wake up around 4am. Fun!

Later gaterz.

-jack

my favorite things right now

yours?

-jack

Angels in the Outfield

So we find ourselves once again at the Anaheim Angels Stadium for the Harvest crusade. This is our second year at the crusade and it's such an honor to be a part of this. We're here all weekend playing three nights. Tonight was so special... 50,000 people packed into the stadium. We played with Kutless, Lincoln Brewster, & P.O.D. After Pastor Greg's message (which was so powerful and compelling) thousands of people came down and filled the outfield making decisions for Christ.

Here are some pictures from the last couple days.


We met P.O.D. Really nice guys.


Leeland and Shelly (our sister) decided to match tonight.















The crowd was packed tonight.




Pastor Greg gave the Gospel message.


Thousands responded and gave their lives to Jesus.

Pix from Malawi

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. We just got home yesterday. It was another thrity something hours of travel! We flew from Malawi to South Africa then to London... then we ran to our plane in Heathrow and almost missed our flight. After that it was another 10 hour flight home... and eventually we made it back to good old Baytown. I'm not going to lie; it was nice eating some Texas food! I definitely missed it. Here's some pictures from our trip! It was absolutely amazing.


A snapshot on the drive from the airport to the hotel. It's so dry... they haven't had one drop of rain since March!



The stage. The Fire Fox choir from Lilongwe was singing. Imagine the most jubilant and celebratory African music ever! It was so fun.


We went to the market and bought tons of little trinkets and such.



Leeland kind of stood out... so he's about to get bumrushed by some aggressive salesman. haha...








Marcus is making deals here.



The next day we went to the Village of Hope Orphanage in Lilongwe.


The kids sang for us.


We met some of the children and heard their stories. This beautiful girl is Esther. She's six months old, and her mother died in child birth. Her father wasn't alive either so the village chief asked one of the elders to kill her. The Village of Hope found out about it and rescued her.





The little girl in the green is Potso. Her parents aren't alive, so her uncle took her in. He couldn't afford to take care of her so he put her out in the trash. But God knew her name and made sure she would be taken care of at the Village of Hope.


We got to give the boys some soccer balls. Mike said it was the best game of soccer he'd ever played.

In just three days we fell in love with the nation of Malawi and the continent of Africa. We can't wait to go back and stay longer. Please be praying for the nation of Malawi. The church is strong and thriving amidst hunger, poverty and devastation. There are over a million orphans roaming the streets. We believe that God will give them a home.

-jack

Africa - Blog 2

I'm in Malawi and we're having a great time. God is moving in this nation and the people are so hungry for God here. They're walking for hours to come this event and tons of people got saved tonight. The worship has really been amazing as well. It was so intense! We sang "With Everything" a song on the new Hillsong record "This is our God". I've got to post the video because everyone was singing to the top of their lungs and shouting for spiritual victory in Malawi! So powerful. And tomorrow we're going to an orphanage here in town... so we're so excited to meet the kids. I think they have a special program prepared for us. Mike is hoping to play some soccer as well.

The internet is pretty slow here, so uploading pictures is almost impossible. It would probably take hours... but I'll definitely post some pix and video as soon as we get back to the states!

Oh... and today we went into the market and bought some souvenirs. It was hilarious! We were all bargaining and haggling the prices. Theses guys are pretty aggressive salesmen and when they see an American the price starts sky high. It was really fun and we got some pretty cool stuff. Jake ran out of Kwacha (Malawi's currency) so he ended up trading his leather wallet and his watch for some stuff! haha.... it was amazing. I think he got taken on that one.

Tomorrow is the last day. I'll be back with another update. Be blessed and encouraged and please be thankful for all the God has blessed us with as a nation! Trips like this totally put my life back into perspective.

Talk to you tomorrow.

-jack

Africa - Blog 1

So... we finally made it to Malawi. After 36 hours of travel we're here! We've only been here for a few hours and God has already started something in our hearts. The second we walked into the football stadium and saw everyone dancing and singing we started crying. There's just something about the joy that these people have. Their thankfulness and praise ushers in the presence of God in such a powerful way.

We sang "Save Your People" tonight and they went crazy! Everyone was jumping up and down and singing as loud as they could. We're playing again Saturday night and Sunday. Thanks for all your prayers and comments... we appreciate it so much.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow. Love love love!

-jack