Quotes.

I read 2 quotes today that broke my heart. Firstly, "It's easier to get sex on the street than a hug in a church". Secondly, "I'd rather face God with an abortions than the church with a pregnancy".

Is this true? Take a second and think of your church and people who need help. The first quote was from a young gay South African man. The second was from a young woman. What would the reaction be if we met these people in the context of our christian life?

I don't know the answer, but how can we love like Jesus, where he loved the woman caught in adutery enough to not have her stoned, but also love to tell her to go and sin no more? How do we live that line of grace and obedience? Just a thought. I pray that the world can feel more love from the church. That people will know that Jesus' love is real. Cheers.

Chris

Hi, Nice To Meet You, So What Do You Think About Black People?

One of the things that shocks me every time is the amount of open racism here in SA. I know there is racism everywhere, however the way people talk about it takes me back. It has happened all over this country, we meet a new person or family and within 10 they are asking us about "blacks" in America and how "it" (racism) is there and how bad it is in SA to be white. I am just shocked. Of course it isn't everyone, but I hope so badly that this country can heal from this division.

We met a young girl the other day, just a kid, and she was telling us about her dance class and in her telling us of this dance class felt the need to tell us that there were 2 black kids in the class. However, she used a really harsh racist word to inform us. It just blows my mind.

I hope that nothing I do adds to the problem of racism in this world, I am so aware of the pain and isolation that it causes now more than I have ever been. It breaks my heart. Cheers.

Chris

Good Bye C-Kruis, It Was Fun.

As of yesterday Rachel and are no longer working with C-Kruis International. We have had a nice time, but it is time for a change. The change has nothing to do with us quitting our jobs, rather the corporate name of C-Kruis International will be changing to 13thFLOOR. The reason for the change is C-Kruis is an Afrikaans word, that many who read this blog don't know how to pronounce and we are changing in time for our launch of the ministry in the UK. The ministry that has been going the the States is called 13thFLOOR and we decided to take a easier to remember name. Its going to take a lot of effort to get the corporate change done, but we are excited about where the ministry is heading and hope that this is the beginning of a great new chapter in the history of this ministry. Cheers.

Chris

What Should I Do When I Grow Up?

I am struggling with the idea of what to do for the rest of my life. I am loving what I do now, but I know I can't tour forever. Well, let me rephrase that, I could tour forever, but Ray can't and I don't want to be on the road with kids or miss them growing up because I am gone all the time.

I am loving my music production and I think that I could work here in the office at C-Kruis working on music production and I think that is something where I could really grow and impact people. I am just so confused because I think it would be great, but the idea of getting up everyday and going to the office, then coming home everyday for the rest of my life seems scary. I think that I am trying to find where my niche in ministry is. I love the music, but I want to impact people. Please pray for me so I can have a clearer picture of what I am "meant" to do.

Cheers.

Chris

Beard.

Just after the new year I shaved my beard then me and a guy I work with, Tertius, thought we should grow our beards for the extent of training (end of April). Well, here is how its going. Sorry for the bad picture, its rays camera phone. If you want to rub my beard you can for a small donation. Cheers.

Chris

Home.

We are home. I am exhausted. We left early this morning, drove 7 hours to Bloemfontein, had a 2 1/2 hour meeting, drove 5 more hours home. This week I thought would be nice and relaxing, but ended up full of meetings and other commitments. I am tired.

The whole week ended up good though, there was great times of worship and many people learned a lot about themselves and God. It also cool meeting so many people working in ministry here in SA. We are doing different things in different places, but all serving one God and that is amazing.

I am going to rest tomorrow morning, but I have to get to work in the afternoon. My music for the new show is not finished. I was supposed to work in J-bay, should have not slept I suppose.

Cheers.

Chris

J-Bay Day #3/Goal Met.

Well, I said that I was in need of a break and a sunburn. Today my goal was met. It was my first day off in weeks and I am in a bit of pain.

Ray and I spend the day together on the beach with friends. I played cricket with the guys, it was fun. When it was my turn to bat they laughed at me because I took a baseball stance with the cricket bat (which I think looks like something you could row a boat with, or use as a cutting board), they were not laughing for long when I send the ball soaring like Sammy Sosa with a corked bat or Jose Conseco on 'roids. It was fun. This was part of the 6 hours in the African sun which led to my super rad burn.

The worship service tonight was cool. Ben spoke about our generation and things that he thinks are fears that keeps us from doing Gods work. 1-Fear of Brokenness (our own and other peoples) 2-Fear of exposure (putting ourselves out on the line) 3-Fear of Death. I think he is right. We are so caught up on comfort, convenience and getting "ahead" that we do ministry as a second thought. He gave a time for us to think of our own fears. I think that a fear I have that if I could deal with I would be more able to be used by god, is the fear of security. A vision that I see sometimes of myself, that scares me to death, is this picture of me homeless, alone, toothless and rejected by everyone that sees me. I believe in the devil, I believe that he would love nothing more than for me to quit ministry and get a job for the sole purpose of making money (I had a better hourly wage in high school). I know that this is a vision that he puts in my head to try to get me to quit, but there are days where this fear of security (financial mainly) is so strong I honestly consider leaving the ministry. It's sounds so stupid in black and white, but its true. I pray that god continually gives me the strength to continue to do what I feel he called me and gifted me to do. Please pray for me.

The week is going well. We have tomorrow then we leave before the dawn on Friday for the trek back to Pretoria. I will be glad to get home, I miss my dogs. Cheers.

Chris

J-Bay Day #3/ Homey Shoutout.

Today, weather wise, was much better. Not too warm, but not cold and no rain. I think tomorrow will be brilliant.

Our band led worship tonight again for the night session. It was a time where there were several stations set up around the church and we played while people could spend the time doing different "activities" like have elders pray for you or confessing sins or meditating on god's awesomeness or worshiping in song. I think it was good. We played for about an hour, it was long, but I think the night was great for some people.

Because of the worship stuff the past few days and the fact that this is supposed to kind of off for the MC from the teams, Rach and I are taking tomorrow off for a nice relaxing day. We haven't had a day off in a few weeks so we are due. She is the admin girl for this week so she has been swamped as well.. I am hoping the sun is nice tomorrow and we can just go swimming and get wicked sunburns, yeah baby.

I made a footnote on yesterdays blog (a first for me) regarding the fact that I want hundreds, no thousands of people to read my blog everyday and that I might get as many as 14 on a strange day when several people wrongly typed in my domain and they were actually were looking for garden advice or a used car. I would like to say there are several people, friends/family/a few people in Asia that I don't think I know, except my friend Andrea from high school, I hope you are happy. I really appreciate anyone taking the time to read my blog, Its fun for me. Thanks for your effort.

I having received the huge response that I was hoping for when I asked for someone to sponsor me fund for a recording studio. I really have a huge expectation that god will bless this need. I honestly believe that music may be my area to impact the kingdom. It's a passion that grows more and more with every breath I take to the point sometimes I sit around smiling with a stupid grin on my face thinking about the fact that I get to play music soon. When you get 5 guys playing perfectly on time, doing their part to create something that can stir a mans spirit, its breath taking. I am proud of my band, they have been working really hard for the worship stuff this week. I think I may take them for a beer tomorrow, they earned it.

Please pray for me with this music desire. Ray and I won't be touring much longer, this may be our last year, which is a bit hard on me. However, I could really focus my energy with C-Kruis on creating great production music and I would love that. We will see what the future holds, right now I have more than enough on my plate without thinking to much in the future.

I hope you have a nice day. Thanks again peeps who read my blog, poor spelling/grammer included. Cheers.

Chris

J-Bay Day #2.

I would like to give you an update on the time here in J-Bay. As you would remember yesterday, if you were on of the few people who read this blog(***See Footnote***) you would know that the weather was crap yesterday, well today it is worse! When I was in high school a hurricane hit down the coast from where I lived and we didn't get super bad weather just a good bit of rain and wind, thats what it was like today. Like 200 km's down the beach a hurricane was hitting the town of George (where my friends Daniel and Elzette live, I miss those guys.) So it was raining like a mug and freezing like its the middle of July. I sat in a meeting soaked to the bone in a hoodie that was soaked like a sponge, I was not content, I was grumpy. Oh well. I went and bought a cheap, crappy jacket that I hope lasts at least 4 days and some socks that come up to my calf and have colored stripes at the top, not cool old school stripes like you would buy at Urban Outfitters for $30 a pair. So, I am warm now in my house, with my crappy jacket and make-me-look-like-a-pathetic-loser socks. I am more content than earlier.

Besides weather info the fest started officially today. All the groups arrived and we had a worship service tonight and our band got to lead worship. I want to write a blog about leading worship one day. I started hating worship music a couple of years back, but ironically enough I am getting many chances to lead in various places and I love the platform of music to reach people and minister, I think it is great now. So I think that went well. My boss, Flaps, gave a little message about Moses (I wasn't paying much attention so please don't email me and ask specifically what he said, I have the attention span of a 7 year old, I hope Flaps doesn't read this either and punish me, I would feel bad if I disappointed my boss [I honestly only said that so he would think I am a sweet good man rather than a man that lets his mind wander during sermons to stupid stuff like how I can make my coffee turn out better from my french press, which I don't think I can, its near perfect, Juan freakin Valdez couldn't produce anything better himself, bring it Juan you wanna show down, I'm game, bring it viejo amigo.]). So everything went well.

I hope all of you throughout the world, are doing well. Please email me sometime and let me know how you are doing, I am interested. Cheers.

Chris



***( I have a friend named Suzy, her sister has a blog, she averages like a million hits a day, ok not a million but hundreds, I get like 12 on a huge day, how can I get more? Maybe if I were more interesting or wrote more about government or used big words or discussed 18th century celtic poetry. Whatever, I like that I have people that check my blog, makes me feel important, thanks mom and Beansy.)

Thats Doesn't Seem Right.

I went to sleep last night at 12:10, I woke up at 3:55, I fetched our friends to drive to J-Bay at 4:45, I drove the Corolla for 12 hours and 22 minutes to the bottom of the world and it's freaking FREEZING!!!!!!!!

Its supposed to be the last stretch of summer before autumn comes, however nobody told mother nature concerning the weather in this wonderful land. I surely hope it warms tomorrow because it will be hard for me to get my much needed sunburn through my hoodie (that was worn in The Hydration Method by Patrick Snow playing the part of Josh Kindell [was that the kid's name?]) standing in the wind and rain. Oh well.

We arrived safely and I am excited about the week.

Also, I am making my band grow beards and not cut their hair so we look tough as nails as most of todays top worship bands do. The slight problem is that nobody, save me, can grow a beard. They each have a dozen or so hairs spread somewhere on their face. I will hand it to them though they are sticking in there and giving it the old college try. I think we are sexy.

I really hope the sun comes out.

The waves were huge today, there was some storm off in the Indian Ocean and it caused the surf to be up. I think I might just have to show these people what world-class belly surfing looks like....if it warms a bit of course. I mean I may look tough as nails, with my cool beard, but I'm just acting. I'm just a scared little boy that needs a hug......from a freakin' polar bear.......thats how tough my beard makes me....bring it on cold ocean and strong winds......I will battle against you to prove I am a true champion of all things belly surfing. Boo-ya!!!!!

I am sorry for the last paragraph, I have no idea what that was about. I am tired, it's late, and I need sleep......and sunlight. Cheers.

Chris

I Am Hooked, I Need A Digital Sponsor.

I used to consider myself a bit old school. I prefer black coffee to mocha whatevers, guitar rock to boy bands, Pearl Jam "Ten" to anything else they did, though I love "VS" as well it's a great albulm, (I know, thats not too old school, but relatively speaking students I work with now have never heard Pearl Jam "Ten", shame), I like beards and I think one of the greatest things if for a man to build his house with his own 2 hands, whatever. All that to say, now I am in love with computer/synth/dj/techno music. I am writing new music for a new show and I like all my music to be heavy drums and guitar. I didn't even want a keyboard player in my band. But this new show is to be more urban so I am having to write different stuff then I typically would produce on my own. It's great. I own a cheap, stripped down, crappy version of Reason (computer software that can be used to build drum loops and virtual synthesizers) and I stole my teams synthesizer for crazy sounds (I had to write an Indian dance-groove song, major sitar baby) and I am having a blast. I love hearing the music I want in my head and its not just old school heavy guitar. My issue is I don't have a huge salary to buy gear. I can do a much better job with writing production music for C-Kruis if I had a good studio set up and not just trying to make the best of what I have. If any of you out there has a heart for electronic music or arts ministries in general and would like to sponsor me to help build up my studio please contact me. I want to take my music and my ministry to the next level and I think if I had "proper" equipment I could do that. Please pray for this need of mine. If was in medical missions people wouldn't find it funny that I wanted someone to donate an x-ray machine, please don't think it funny that I am asking for music equipment when music is a major part of my ministry. Please pray that the new shows music turns out well, I am almost done. Cheers.

Chris

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Ray and I shipped my coffee make from America and when it got here it was broken, it was a great machine, "I miss you Mr. Coffee ISTX85". So I kind of gave in and started drinking the instant coffee that 99% of people drink here, it was easier. I have to admit there is some decent instant out there, I bought the good stuff. Well several weeks ago I quit drinking instant coffee. I have my french press, that was purchased for me as a replacement for my Mr Coffee ISTX85. Well, last week my french press fell over and cracked, it didnt break all the way so I continued on in a state of coffee bliss. Then yesterday I was cleaning the little french pretty and it broke for good. It just fell apart in my hand, jagged glass. I was so upset. So I tried to make coffee today in a travel mug. I ground the beans, put them in the travel mug with the hot water, let it sit for a few minutes, shook it up, them poured it through a metal filter (from the deceased press). It was a hassle, but worth it. I am going to get a new french press at the mall today after I go to the bank. Cheers.


Chris

Mmmmm J-Bay.

This has been an exhausting 2 weeks. We don't live by normal office hours, we work the whole time we are awake. It's been so busy. We are writing a new show so on top of my normal work load I have been composing and recording new music anytime I have free. So its up at 5:30-work-go to bed at midnight-repeat. However, we leave early Sunday morning for a festival with other ministries in SA at Jeffery"s Bay. It's a small beach town on the Indian Ocean. As Tour Leader I don't have many responsibilities so I get lots of time to relax and get sun burned, I can't wait. We are leading worship the first 2 nights and thats it. Save me J-Bay. Cheers.

Chris

Just Thinking Today.

Today Rach and I were at the campus doing rehearsals and somebody came by and did something that was funny or strange, I can't remember exactly what it was, but I just though how great it is to work with so many artists. From my 17 year old keyboard player who loves playing classical music, but is loving to experiment with the synthesizer, to the American girl that joined team after we met her in Brussels where she was hoping to go to college and has just a great mind for visual art and painting, to the guys and girls on team that can dance like angels. I love working with the people I work with and for the ministry can brings all this together to tell people that God loves them. Just a thought. Cheers.

Chris

Hey Guys.

I haven't blogged in a few days, just wanted to say hi. We are in a hectic bit of training right now. We are learning a show called Lil' Me, it was written for 13th Floor, so its the first time we will do it here in SA. The music is great, but tough. Its going to be crazy, but will work it out. I will let you know how it goes. Rachel is at a late rehearsal tonight so she wont get home until about 1130. I hate when she has to work so late. Besides crazy work stuff, we are doing well. Cheers.

Chris

Valentines Ball.

We have a Valentines ball every year with C-Kruis. Tonight we had the dinner/dance at a lodge just down the street from our house which was nice. We were supposed to have a mask to wear, I am not sure who's idea that was, but whatever. Well, Ray and I went looking for masks and I liked this one. It wasn't the traditional feathery mask or Phantom of the Opera mask, but I though it was cool. I liked it because it was kind of a mask of me, red hair, black glasses. The evening was good and I enjoyed my mask, however it made my forehead sweat so I only wore it for about 5 minutes at the beginning. Have a nice weekend. Cheers.

Chris

Ray Ray's Day.

Today is Rachel's Birthday. I must say that I think that every year that rachel gets older the more beautiful she gets. I cant wait till shes 80, ooohhh yeah. Happy Birthday Rach.


Chris

My Name Is......

I was looking at a friend's Myspace page yesterday and he listed in the "people I would like to meet" section that Jack Bauer from 24 is the person he would most like to meet. Then a friend of his left a comment saying he loves 24 so much that he bought a puppy and named it Jack Bauer. Well, Rach and I have recently gotten hooked on 24 like some people get hooked to crack or diet pills and I was so impressed that this guy named his dog Jack Bauer (which is quite bold and Jack-Bauer-Like) that I wanted to name something of mine Jack Bauer. So I looked around the house to consider what to give this great name and my eyes locked on the perfect object. My Starbucks coffee grinder. I mean its sexy in design, like Jack Bauer. It's made of metal so its tough, like Jack Bauer. Its a little loud and over bearing at times, like Jack Bauer. It's always there when I need it, like Jack Bauer. And most importantly, it always, always, always gets the job done, just like freaking Jack Bauer. I feel like a new man now that I too have something that is special to me named after the man I would most like to be (list in order of importance: Jack Bauer, Ben Harper, Abraham Lincoln). I heart life. Cheers.

Chris

Welcome Home.

Rach and I went to pick up Damar yesterday, I am so glad to have her home, she's a great dog. She broke her right back leg so that leg is splinted up and wrapped so it looks like a cast all the way up to her hip. I don't say this much, but its cute. She looks like a pirate with a peg leg. I know that she is happy to be out of the cage that she has been stuck in for a week. We have to bring her to work with us for the next 3 weeks, to keep her away from Guinness so they don't play to hard. It's nice to have the family back together. Cheers.

Chris

Grace.

Today we spoke about God's grace at Reverb (the church we are starting) and at Face to Face (the touring teams church thing). Grace is like when you get rewarded for something and you didn't earn it. So when God loves us it is grace because we are all sinners and because of us being sinners he should have nothing to do with us. But the coolest thing is, he does love us and will always love us. Pieter spoke tonight about how nothing we do makes God love us any more or less and that is such a great thing to know because it takes the pressure off of us. God loves me, its great. Thank you God for loving me even though I don't always love you. Cheers.

Chris