We purchased new tour vehicles this year, we are super excited about them. They are Toyota Quantum's and have our new 13thFLOOR logo on the side. I will get a picture of ours with the logo when I can.
Ray and I are going to be touring in the Corolla, but we don't get a nifty logo on the side of our car. Oh well. Cheers.
Chris
Just a quick hello. We don't have internet right now, I am sorry I haven't written lately.
We had the longest work day ever a few days ago. We started Monday morning at 7 am and finished Tuesday afternoon. We worked 30 hours straight. I was so tired and I got 2 new eye wrinkles.
We go on tour Sunday, I am pumped, pray things go well.
Will write on a regular basis soon I hope. Cheers.
Chris
Hey people. I haven't been able to blog for several reasons and I apologize from the bottom of my heart.
We are in Skyne (pronounced 'skane', its Afrikaans for 'shine') Week at 13thFLOOR. Its our dress rehearsal week before we head off on tour. Its so busy, its 8 days where 1 team skynes all day (7am to about 2 am) and then the next day have rehearsals all day and then do the next shows skyne the next day. We have tonight off, so we are going to go to bed about 7 or 8.
The shows are looking good, I am getting a little nervous about tour coming up next week. Our first show is next Sunday night at 1830. I expect things to go well, but with a team of 41 anything can happen. Please pray for my friend Lelo he hurt his foot really bad last night. He is one of our best actors and hands down our best hip hop dancer, it will be sad not having him in the shows. He went for x-rays today and its not broken so hope he will be back in action soon.
I hope I will be able to blog more. Hope all is well with you. Cheers.
Chris
Here is a look at our first tour cycle:
4/28-5/6: NG Pretoria West
5/6-5/13: NG Nelspruit
5/13-5/20: AGS Polokwane
5/20-5/27: NG Wilgespruit Roodeport
5/27-6/3: Middelburg-Wes
If you know any cool places to check out in any of these towns let me know. Cheers.
Chris
Our Thursday night show this year is called Gijima (run or chase in Zulu), its about chasing after life and how our choices determine our destination. It is multicultural, just like South Africa and we are hoping to have a multicultural audience for the shows.
Most of the churches that book us are white Afrikaans churches so to get our Thursday night audience to be multicultural we are going to rent a bus or 2 and get high school students from the closest township and bring them to the show. Please pray for us that this goes well. With the problem of racism being very strong, I am praying this goes smoothly without opposition from the churches. It's going to be a big stretch for some of the people here.
I love the picture though. Imagine a show about South Africa, with all its diversity, followed by a time of worship where the auditorium will be full of white and black people praising the same Creator. I love it, it makes me smile. It may be the first time a particular church has had non white people worshiping within their walls. Beautiful. Cheers.
Chris
We are crazy busy this time of year. There are dance rehearsals, actors rehearsal, production band rehearsals, rock show band rehearsals, voice recordings etc....but today while running around my sound man, Bart, taught me how to weld. Yeah, I fused 2 pieces of iron into one mighty piece of steel. Thanks Bart. Cheers.
Chris
Mark Oestreicher is an amazing blogger. www.ysmarko.com. It's worth a few minutes a day checking out his site. Trust me. Cheers.
Chris
I love Grey's Anatomy, I think the writing is brilliant. It has gotten me thinking though about life direction. I watch these characters that are on a good career path (I know its fiction, but just go with me) and I wonder where am I heading. Ray and I are about the same age as the people in the show and I don't feel we have this road ahead of us that will lead to my final destination career wise.
However, I don't have a final career chosen in my head. I feel called to minister, but I think I just don't know what that will look like. I honestly don't see myself being a preacher at a church. Perhaps I will be, but today I just don't see that ever happening. I just wish I had a picture in my mind of what I want to do in 30 years so I could begin walking that path. Just thinking. Cheers.
Chris
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My friend Pieter Swarts is madman (he's tall, hairy and from Namibia). He just ran the Two Oceans Marathon. I would be proud of him if he just ran the normal marathon, but last weekend Pieter woke up early, put on is running gear (shoes, tank top, tiny shorts) and ran 56Kms. Thats like 35 miles!!!!
He was telling me about it and that the race has hills that are miles up and down. I drove the same route last year to go "whale watching", it took forever and I was exhausted, he must have wanted to die. Congrats Pieter. Cheers.
Chris
Rach and I just got back from our planning meeting for the rest of training. Each day is full of rehearsals and voice over recordings and other tasks until we go on tour April 29th. Its going to be hectic, but the teams will make it. I am looking forward to tour. The first few weeks are crazy, but after that its pretty smooth sailing.
It was a nice relaxing holiday. We watched the 1st season of House (a tv show) and about half of season 3 of Grey's Anatomy (another tv show for you who live in Siberia and have never heard of this series). Grey's Anatomy has great music, its worth watching to hear the music.
Our next little break will be in June and Ray and I will be in the States (hopefully). If any of you know someone who can get discounted airline tickets or buddy passes or owns a boat we can take or some other form of affordable transportation please let us know. I keep staring at the amount we need to pay for the tickets and it doesn't seem to be shrinking. Cheers.
Chris
Today began with an easter egg hunt that Rach organized. She made paper eggs, wrote clues for me and Gio (a girl from team that is staying at our house this week) and sent us on a hunt for our "prize". It was fun.
One of Rachel's clues was a word scramble. I will put the letters up here with the clue I got and the first to get it wins a special African prize.
Clue: 3 words
Letters: lnblcbonniehgjelseo
Today is also the last day of our holiday. It ends tonight with a production/schedule meeting for the last 3 weeks of training which includes the highly feared week of dress rehearsals. Then I start back with my 0630 tour leader meeting tomorrow. I hate the end of holiday. Enjoy your easter. Cheers.
Chris
Last night Guinness played her role as guard dog really well. At some point in the middle of the night I was woken by Guinness barking like crazy at something outside our house. Its such a startling thing to be woken by your dog. I am glad that we have her. Then I realized what she was barking at and I was a little less impressed with her guard duty, it was a cat. There is this cat that has been visiting our house at night and she hates this intruder. I guess I am glad that it was a cat and not a thief, however if it is only a cat I would rather sleep. Good work Guinness scaring away that dangerous cat, good work. Cheers.
Chris
There are times in a man's life when he feels more like a man. 1)When he can grow a proper mustache 2)When he holds a woman (not a relative) in his arms 3)When he fixes a household appliance for his wife (soon beansy, soon). Well, today I feel like a man.
Our LG WD-10160FU (washing machine) has been not working properly for a while and I called to have a repair man come fix it, but I would have to wait till Tuesday because of the holiday weekend.
So I stared down the LG WD-10160FU and said in a slow rugged voice, "son,(pause) looks like it's time to dance". It would have been more dramatic if I had a cigar in my mouth, but I did't, I did have coffee though which is tough-ish. anyways, so I did a little research on the "net" and found out the problem with my machine. Then I took care of the problem and now my LG WD-10160FU is in perfect working order. Your welcome Ray Ray.
The thing that makes me feel less like a man and more like stupid moron is that the machine wasn't broken at all. Apparently.....the child lock became activated and that was why it didn't work. However, I did press the 2 buttons (at the same time) to disengage the child lock, so technically it works because of me and my research, so the technically I fixed the machine, so technically I am still a man. That was a close one. Cheers.
Chris
Rachel and I stayed with a great couple last year when we toured Jo'berg and tonight they invited us to come eat dinner with them, so we did. They took us to this place called Rusty Hook, its a cool little restaurant located on a pond with a thatch roof and a great vibe. It was such a nice blessing. We ate and talked and had a great night. Cheers.
Chris
This morning I was washing dishes and between sips of coffee from from new coffee maker, I was thinking "what is the great verse in modern rock music?". I thought for a while and a then it hit me, it has to be verse 3 of Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive".
I walk these streets, a loaded six string on my back
I play for keeps, cause I might not make it back
I been everywhere, still I'm standing tall
I've seen a million faces an I've rocked them all(GREATEST LINE EVER IN THE HISTORY OF MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
I lay in bed at night and think what was it like when time stood still and Mr Jon Bon Jovi penned this verse. Was Jon sitting at home playing around on his piano? Was Jon driving on the George Washington Bridge that leads from NJ to NYC? Was it a spark of genius in the studio when the producer asked him to come up with a 3rd verse because the song just needed a little more. I wish upon a star that I may have this stroke of genius come upon me some day.
I'VE SEEN A MILLION FACES AND I'VE ROCKED THEM ALL! Amen.
Sunday is always strange for me. I am on holiday and I still have that Sunday afternoon dreaded feeling that my weekend is over. I think it started in high school and continues on today.
Sunday was also the day of the week when I met Rach. I know this because it was at church before leaving for camp. I was wearing a tie, it was one of a handful of time she ever saw that.
On a Sunday in high school something happened that impacted me even to today. I was driving to our evening service at church and on the side of the road was a person that appeared to be homeless with a bloody foot. This person was barely walking up this hill on the sidewalk by the road, like struggling up this hill. Well I had this thought that I should stop and help this person, but this other thought flashed through my mind as the justification to not stop, "I will be late to church". I drove on for another 1/2 mile then felt so convicted by not stopping that I started crying, turned around went back to help this person. When I got there he or she was gone. I am so embarrassed by this story.
I think this event showed me how church goers are not always following Jesus. If I say that I am desiring to look like Jesus and live my life like him, then on this day I was nothing more than a liar. This event made me decide that if I am going to follow Jesus then I going to give my whole life to this. I am not saying that I don't screw up from time to time, some days it seems like theres more screwing up than following, but I made the choice that I can't half-ass this Christian thing. People have been doing that for too long and I believe that is a major thing that pushes people away from God. Sad, but true.
Sundays have meant a lot to me. I pray they continue to be a day of inspiration for me and everyone in the world. Today I went the movies and saw Wild Hogs, I want a motorcycle. See it's inspiring. Cheers.
Chris
