The fam and I are getting packed up for leaving to the U.K.. Tonight we’ll be playing a show in PA and then heading to JFK to fly out. It’s gonna be a long night. We fly at around 7:00 am, so that means we have to be there at 4:00 am. I’m praying that I actually fall asleep on the plane. It’s gonna be great!
Gearing up for the U.K.
Published by July 5th, 2007 in Weese, Shows, New Places and New Faces and Travel. 0 CommentsFlorida - Day 1
Published by June 18th, 2007 in Chris, Shows, New Places and New Faces and Travel. 2 CommentsBo bhuti na bo sisi,
We’re here at the Island Water Sports surf camp in Cocoa Beach, Fl. Juan, Dave, and Dan are counselors, and Mrs. Toro, Nick, Luis, Marcos, my brother Graham and I are at Steve Millers house, which he has graciously allowed us to crash at this week. We lead worship last night with a bunch of really awesome kids, and so far today, I think everyone has officially surfed their brains out.
Luis and I are going to hit you guys up with a double post tomorrow with pictures! So, I leave you on the edge of your seats till then.
God bless.
Tuesday Art Project - DOUBLE WHAMMY
Published by June 5th, 2007 in Chris and Projects and Fun Stuff. 2 Comments
It’s been a while since the last post, but I’ve got a cool little post for you guys today. I’ve been working on two cool crafty things recently.
Firstly, my brothers Reid and Graham, and I have been working to make these traditional Japanese things called “dorodango’s.” They’re really just balls of mud that you dry out and polish to a shine. Fittingly, dorodango means “shiny mud ball.” This is the basic process of making a dorodango:
- Get a handful of mud.
- Form said mud into a ball.
- Cover the surface of you mud ball with dry dust. Gently rub the dust into the surface of your dorodango-in-progress until it feels dry(ish).
- Put your mudball in a plastic bag and place it on a towel or something soft. The plastic bag will act like a sauna, drawing the moisture from the center of your ball.
- After a half hour or so, take your ball out of the bag and repeat steps 3 & 4, leaving the ball in the bag longer each time.
- After the ball is pretty dry (for me, it’s after 2 days or so. Use your better judgment on this because I could very easily be doing this wrong), take some really fine dust and rub it onto the surface of the ball for an hour or so.
- Polish your dorodango with a soft cloth.
The drawn-out process of making a dorodango illustrated 1Cor 9:26-27 very well for me. I started out with a ball of mud in my hand. Nothing more than an ugly, squishy, slimy ball of wet dirt. At the beginning of my first one, I knew what it was supposed to look like at the end, but I had a tenuous grasp on the creation process and no idea what problems would pop up on my way to completion. Day after day, I would crouch in my garden, pouring dirt over top of a dirtball. My neighbors would peer over at me curiously, and eventually suspiciously. I continued on, not because of the ball of mud in my hand, but because I knew that it would eventually be a dorodango.
Seconably, I finally made a successful silk screened shirt (pictured above). Just to give you a quick rundown, it took me six separate tries, and six different catastrophic mistakes, to finally get a successful print.
I love you guys. God bless.
I’m still adjusting to being back in America, and to be honest, I wake up every morning hoping to see Bulembu out my window. So much happened on this trip, a lot of which we didn’t get to post about. We’re working on a really comprehensive rundown, but for today I just want to leave you with one quick story.
The day before we left Africa we had the opportunity to lead worship at the little church in Bulembu. After the sermon was done, as we started to play a closing song, something amazing happened. The Holy Spirit fell heavily on that place. He came into the packed, sweltering church through the broken windows. He came through the cracks in the walls and the wide open door.
We danced and sang together long after the service should have ended. Men and women, black and white clapped their hands and raised their voices to God, unhindered by self-consciousness or fear. We danced in the aisles and up in front of the altar, all for the glory of Jesus, our Lord.
In a town where we were told that up to 14 out of 15 people were HIV positive, they sang and danced and praised God. That was truth, that was beauty. That God is bigger than circumstance.
That was victory. That God conquered death.
We’re Leaving…On a jet-plane…
Published by May 20th, 2007 in Swaziland, Weese, Adventurous, New Places and New Faces and Travel. 2 CommentsSo it’s getting close to midnight here. Just wanted to drop one last line from Africa, we’ll be pulling out of Bulembu sometime between 10:00-11:00am tomorrow to make our way to Johannesburg. I believe (don’t quote me on this) we’re flying out of South Africa Somewhere around 8:00pm local time.
This trip has been, well, indescribable. The boys and I have learned siSwati songs. We’ve had a rhino and elephant charge at our vehicle. God has allowed us to bless the people here with much needed supplies for the children here. I’ve gotten to worship the Lord through music and hard work all over this country. I saw some crazy sunrises and sunsets. But more so, the Lord has spoken promises through His written word, and through the people here and the team in such amazing ways. I’ve been so blessed here. Jesus is so good, God has just poured and poured and poured…”awesomeness” into such a short amount of time that this post wouldn’t come close at all to accurately portraying it. I’m not really sure what I wanted to post about…except to say, “the Lord Jesus is Great, and worthy to be praised”. I guess that’s all for now. This may be our last post from the Dark Continent, unless we can scoot over to this office where I’m getting Internet from in the morning. But if we don’t get to write again, “may the Lord bless you and Keep you”. God Bless you. Goodnight.
