Big Event.

We have a special show tonight in Pretoria at the Performer Theater. It was our annual Big Event which is a time to raise money for the ministry. More specifically, to raise scholarship money for previously disadvantage students. We as a ministry embrace cultural diversity and really want to raise the number of black, colored and Indian students on our team. One of the way we can do this is looking for people that can sponsor students. To spend a year with 13thFLOOR costs R37,000 (around $5,200), thats a lot of money and for some people in SA thats an almost impossible amount. We had a nice dinner, an opening concert by Christelle Combrink,an ex 13thFLOOR member and a performance of Gijima. The night went really well and we are hoping and praying that from tonights event we get several sponsorships for students next year. Cheers.

Chris

Last Night.

Last night was the first night for assignments and it was good. Only 1 blue team member went and she did a wonderful job. Her name is Sonja and her assignment was to do a monologue based on one of the martyr stories in Jesus Freaks.

Her monologue stared with an abstract dance depicting her being chained and eventually killed, then she did a beautiful monologue about faith in spite of her circumstance.

I was very proud of her, this year is Sonja's first year working in the arts and she is blossoming as a wonderful actress with tons of potential. She plays one of the lead roles in Gijima, our Thursday night show, and she nails the part week in and week out. I am so excited to see where she is in a couple of years. Cheers.

Chris

Pumped for Tonight.

We have a 2 fold ministry here at 13thFLOOR.

1. We do evangelism though the arts. We perform to audiences around the world showing snapshots of life and then telling them how God fits in this life and that he loves them and and and. Thats short run on sentence version.

2. We develop our team members. We offer curriculum for them in training, we offer counseling and therapy, we develop their leadership skills and teach them responsibility and and and.

Well part of that development is the big assignment they have to do during the year. They are given an assignment consisting of a written portion (like a 10-15 page term paper) and a practical. The practical can be making something arty or making a video or performing a song I made them write or doing or dance or a skit or or or.

I am pumped because tonight we start with the practical part of the assignments. Our teams have work really hard on these and I look forward to seeing all that hard work on stage. The team is setting up the venue with lights and everything now and we will go watch them tonight. Its gonna rock. Cheers.

Chris

Good Times.

I wrote about my friend Piet the other day who played at our Collision music fest thing. Today I was looking at some pics on the computer and found this one of us playing in Brussels. I love this picture. I might be one of my favorite pictures of all time. I like it better than an Ansel Adams picture of the Grand Canyon or one those lame motivational pictures with the crew team rowing on a lake or a river or whatever.

So, this made me think I want to post a couple other of my favorite pictures just for fun. Fun for me, it its fun for you great, if not, I apologize.



I love this pic because it was New Years 2004 in Time Square NYC. I love it because Ray looks super cute and I look somewhere between really, really excited or crazy and out of my mind with uncontrollable rage.




Here is one more pic I like. This is a different trip to NYC we are in Central Park looking rugged and handsome. A couple of facts about this picture.

1. Tim, who turned 31 yesterday, didn't bring a good hat and his ears were freezing all day.

2. Me, the writer of this blog, thought that winter in NYC was a good time to shave my beard. My face was so cold.

3. Chad, is getting married next month. Well, he was last time I talked to him. I hate when you haven't seen somebody for a while and then you mention their girlfriend and then they have to go into the sad story of why she left him or whatever. Beans, I hope your wedding is still on. I am heartbroken I can't be there. Ray Ray is too.


So there are some pics I like. There are more, but if you want to see those you have to come over to my house and bring me something, then I will show them to you. Cheers.

Chris

Happy Birthday Tim.

My buddy Tim Bomgardner turned 31 today. Tim is a good friend of mine who is married to Ray's best friend/my arch nemesis Suzanne Renee.

Tim is by far one of the smartest people I know. If you need to know anything get in touch with this guy and he can help you. From church history to home plumbing he's gotcha covered.

One time Traveling Mercies were driving together in my car returning from a trip to Nashville, when all of a sudden this crazy noise came from my engine. We pull into a gas station and first person I can is Tim Bomgardner. He asked for the details of the noise, what pitch, what rpm's makes the sound worse or better. Then he correctly diagnosed the problem from a thousand miles away. Thanks for that Tim, I owe you a beer.

So Happy Birthday Tim. Hope it goes well. For a uber mushy "happy birthday Time" go check out Suzanne Renee's Blog. Cheers.

Chris

Collision '07

13thFLOOR had the vision for starting a christian music festival in South Africa earlier this year. The idea is to have a multi-day festival with performances, speakers, worship etc...

Last night was our introduction into the world of putting on a music festival. It was more of a concert event, but it was great. There were 2 stages and the venue was cool, I think it went off well. It was also fun because I got to see some old friends. My buddy Piet De Wet (and Walton [from last years band]), the guy I performed in the streets of Brussels with, played on the small stage between acts, he just got this new guitar, its so cool.

Then a buddy that I tour in the States, Bouwer, performed with his band Straatligkinders. They were awesome. I like a band that performs, not just stands and plays their guitars and these guys were all over the place. Check them out, the are Afrikaans, but the music is good enough to listen to even if you don't know what they are saying. Pies said the lyrics are good, I trust his judgment.

There was a new band called Green Door. They have only been together a month or so. They were rad. They have kind of a Cold Play/U2 sound. I look forward to hearing more from them.

There were some other people and 13thFLOOR did a couple of dances (I used to think dancing was so lame, but now I really enjoy it, from ballet to contemporary to hip hop. So either dancing is actually cool or I am just actually lame).

The night was good, live music, live crowd, can't go wrong. Cheers.

Chris

Trash In My Garage.

The trash pickup people (what I call them) are on strike. I think that is fine, they are standing up for themselves and trying to secure a better life for themselves and their families. However, this at the same time is not very convenient for me because now my garage smells like garbage. I have several bags of garbage sitting in my garage festering in hopes that the pickup people and whoever they they work for get to some resolution quickly. I heard from a reliable source last night that we can take our own garbage to the dump, but now I have enough to fill my car because its been weeks. So I think I will wait till Tuesday (pick up day) and see if they are back, if not then I have to get rid of this somehow. I honestly hope I don't have to put all my nasty trash in my Corolla and haul it to the dump, it may ruin my car. Cheers.

Chris

Big News.

No. She's not pregnant.

A few months ago our friend/boss, Flaps, was talking to us about how we live year to year and need to start planning more long term, like not touring and kids etc... So Ray and I were thinking about this and started thinking do we want to stay long term in SA? Do we want to have our kids here? Do we want to be middle aged here? So we started thinking and praying and trying to figure out what to do.

We love 13thFLOOR, we love what the ministry stands for and how on the edge they are. We love the care for the team members and the whole system in general, so it would be something big that would have us think of leaving. However, there is one ministry that Rachel and I wanted to be a part of before we moved here called UCYC. Its a camp in Prescott, AZ that hired Traveling Mercies a few years ago for a summer. While we were there Ray and I (she wasn't Ray Ray yet, so I should have said Rachel or Butters, which was her nickname at the time. Thats another story) were saying how we would love to work with this ministry. How its a great environment to raise kids and how the leadership was solid and I could grow a lot working under such leadership. It was just a dream that we had.

So back to flaps. We had a meeting with him when we got back from America and he gave us till Friday to make a choice to stay with 13F or to go somewhere else. (That makes him sound like a jerk, he only did that because if we were to leave they need to start planning on who would take our positions.) I had emailed UCYC to see of there were any openings on staff. And on the Thursday night (our meeting with Flaps was on Friday). UCYC emailed back and said they wanted us to come work there.

After getting the email we spoke more with them in AZ about what I would do and what working there would be like and it all looked good. So Ray and I decided to take the offer and move to Prescott, AZ to work with UCYC .

We are stoked and sad. We didn't expect to leave SA So soon, but Its a great opportunity and we feel we have to take it. I believe that God is doing some big stuff with UCYC and I am excited about being part of the team. I will be working with the programing team planning and executing the summer jr high and sr high camps. Along with that everyone kind of helps in all areas of the ministry so I will get a chance to have my hand in other aspects too.

Its going to be weird not touring and going to work in the morning and not getting home at 11 at night, but it will be good. Rachel is super excited about not being on the road, but is sad about the prospect of not performing. We will miss South Africa dearly, but we believe we will find a wonderful home in the beautiful mountains of Prescott, AZ

So for now we are figuring out what needs to be done to move back to the states. We will be starting over, again, but it has always worked out before so I know it will again. Cheers.

Chris

Times are a Changin'.

I made a new header for my blog today. It pictures 3 of my favorite things

1. Damar. My happy 10 month old puppy.
2. My Coffee Pot. I have a hard time respecting people who drink bad coffee.
3. The English language. Wonderful language.

So, while I was uploading my new header I took a wrong turn into the land of HTML. I was thinking I would fool around a little with the HTML code and see what happens. So I was figuring some things out, being careful not so save of course, when something happened. Its save automatically and I lost my blog. So, for a while I had this crappy Chris-Custom-HTML blog. It was horrible, it was all black and no pictures, I don't know what I did. I was shocked, not mad just stunned because that meant I had to start from scratch. So that has been most of my day, fixing my blog. By the way if you were wondering my header 698 pixels wide. I know that because I spent about 30 minutes doing trial and error to get it to fit. Oh, well. I think I will go eat some more cookies. Cheers.

Chris

Cookies, Emails and Ants.

Cookies

Ray made some homemade chocolate chip cookies last night, they were awesome. I have been trying not to eat sweets lately, but these were too go. They were so good we both just had cookies for breakfast. Mmmmmm cookies for breakfast.

Emails

I was checking email this morning and I noticed I had over 600 emails in my inbox. Not new messages, just months and months of emails that I never deleted or archived. So now I am just archiving everything. Its taking forever.

Ants

Rachel and I are at home for the next few weeks, then we head out on our last 4 week tour cycle. Since we have been home I noticed we have ants in our home. Theres like a billion ants building up an army around my from walk way preparing to for attack. I hope they don't attack, that wouldn't be nice. So tonight I fight back. Ray is getting ant killer on her way home from work and I am going to go Jack Bauer on those little nasties. I may even throw in some cheesy one liners so the neighbors with think I am super tough. Cheers.

Chris

Anniversary.

Rachel and I were driving to the doctor's office yesterday, Rachel has a cold, and she asked what date we arrived in South Africa in 2005. Then we realized we had missed our 2 year anniversary of being here. We got here on September 8th with a couple of bags and a couple of guitars. Its crazy to think that we have only been here for 2 years because so much has happened, we have seen and learned so much. We started from scratch, again, and have made a nice little life for us here.

Over the past couple of years I have learned so much about myself. I have learned a ton about leadership and working with people. One of the biggest reasons I wanted to move here was to work with Flaps Van der Merwe, our CEO. He is such an amazing leader and he has taught me so much, he is a great mentor. Flaps can teach you a hundred life lessons in a 5 minute conversation. He is a great man.

So, 2 years down. Cheers.

Chris

I Want One.

Heres the deal. Men love toys. I started out as a little boy that wanted the new Snake Mountain because it had a walky talky thing that you could talk through, that was cool then. Then I wanted a bike with gears, like a 10 speed. Then I wanted a Oakleys so I would look like Jose Canseco in the outfield. Then I wanted a Sega because the Nintendo is too crappy for my great gaming desire. Then I wanted Reebok Pumps because the guy on the commercial bungee jumped that the shoes kept him on the bungee. Then I wanted a Frank Thomas White Sox jersey. Then I wanted a car. Then I wanted a car that didn't catch fire (I miss the Ford Fairmont, that was a sweet ride). Now I am just a big kid and I have a child like want. I want a freaking Toyota FJ Cruiser. I would look so cool in that, with a mountain bike on the roof rack and my great danes chillin in the back and my wife giving me a back massage while I drive. Oh man.

I know why it appeals to my child side. Because it looks like a Tonka truck. It doesn't look real, its a big toy for big boys.

So I was doing a little research today on this beautiful machine and I noticed something that made me laugh out loud. There is a screen thing in the middle of the dash, I don't know what it does, but its there and its cool. So I also guess there is a dvd player hooked up to this screen and in the advert there is a scene from a movie where one person has a knife to the other persons throat. This is funny to me because why would you take the picture of that scene and post it on cars.com? I thought is was funny, but I must say that made the truck cooler to me because it's that much tougher, you never see mini van adverts with a murder scene on the dvd player. Cool Truck.

so If you have been thinking of what you get me for my last birthday, I will take a silver, 4x4, 4 door one. Cheers.

Chris

We Thought You Was A Toad.

Is that General David Petraeus or Delmar from O Brother Where Art Thou.

9/11.

I am horrible at remembering birthdays, but growing up I always remembered 2; my Nanny (October 31 because of Halloween) and my aunt Pat (September 11 because of 911). Now September 11 has a whole new meaning because of the terrorist attacks in 2001. I can't believe it was that long ago. I am sure that our generation will forever be able to say, "I remember where I was when I heard about it".

I was in the bank. On my way to work at Campus Crusade in Atlanta. What a day. I can remember everything so clearly. I suppose its the way people felt when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened.

I hope your September 11th goes well. Cheers.

Chris

Rugby World Cup.

The Rugby World Cup starts today and I am totally stoked because America qualified. I have to be honest I didn't even know that we had a team, but we do and we are in the same pool as South Africa. I don't think they have a chance of winning, but I am glad the the US is a part of this international tournament. I also hope that this brings more fans in America to the awesome sport that is Rugby. If you get a chance to watch some matches you should, its a lot of fun. Cheers.

Chris

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Finished.

I finished Harry Potter 7 today. I am happy. This ends a saga that started for me in Illinois in 2001. I am still happy.

Chris

I'm Grobin Crazy.

Last night my neighbor was playing Josh Grobin's "You Lift Me Up" over and over and over and what made it worse was he was screaming a lot with it. I mean, I love a little Josh Grobin as much as the next guy, but flat vocals next door don't do him justice.

We are off on our last tour week for this cycle. We are going to Bela-Bela this week, which is supposed to be nice, I look forward to it. The tour is going well and many students have come forward to give their lives the God or to speak with our team members about stuff that is going on in their lives. So I am excited. Cheers.

Chris

New CD.

When Traveling Mercies first began touring with CIY Believe several years ago we got to meet a folk singing group from eastern Tennessee called Alathea. They have a new CD out now, you should check them out. Cheers.

Chris

It May Be a Problem.

I love a good cup of coffee. Its so important to me that I am heartbroken that 90% (fake statistic) of South Africans prefer instant coffee to freshly ground filter coffee. I work with a girl who went to America last year and would rather have a cup of instant coffee to a fresh cup of Starbucks.

So this morning I was had a coffee jones like you wouldn't believe. I was running a hot bath, was going to read some of my Harry Potter 7 and I needed some coffee to take with me. However, my power converter is broken and my Starbucks coffee grinder (that I named Jack Bauer) is on American 110 power while we run 220 here. So I went old school, I whipped out the old mortar and pestle and ground my beans by hand. It was tough to get it just right for my french press. But it turned out great. And the new HP book is awesome, I am not finished so please do not email me with an important detail in the subject line, I might completely freak out. Cheers.

Chris

Hopeless.

Our Sunday night show deals with a kid whose parents got divorced and he just feels like his life sucks. The point of the show is that there are things in life that we just can't "fix" and thats reality. I think the church has put on the smiley, Joel Osteen face for a long time and can't own up to the fact that life hurts sometimes.

So tonight I was doing the speaking after the show and asked the students to raise their hand if they were feeling hopeless so that I could just pray for them.
About 18 kids raised their hands. I feel so bad that there were 18 teenagers in a group of maybe 200 that are feeling hopeless about life. I don't know if its family stuff, school stuff, relationship stuff, I don't know. It's heartbreaking. The scary thing is I don't know what to do about it. I used to, when I was younger and knew everything, but now I step back sometimes and just feel so helpless in the face of so much pain in the the world. If you have any ideas let me know. Cheers.

Chris

The Beach, The Road, The End.

When I was a kid my family would go to the beach almost every weekend. I loved it. We made sandwiches, ate cookies and drank Fresca, it was awesome. I always hated when my aunt Pat would put sunscreen on me because if felt like sandpaper on my skin, you know what I mean. And I would pull away the whole time saying, "you're finished, you're done, come on hurry". I thought of this memory on my off morning last week in Richard's Bay. We went and enjoyed the beach and the waves in the ocean, it was so nice. It's always great to tour in a new place and get to discover something special about that town. Whether it be the beach or a little restaurant or gritty local market, its nice to see something that belongs to that town.

This will be our last year on the road. I love touring to different places and performing or speaking its what I do. However, we have made the decision that the road will end in November. My first taste of touring was to summer camps in 1998 with Florida Christian College. The traveling, loading the trailer, meeting new people, eating in gas stations it was addictive and I am sad to think this may be the end. I know I will have chances to travel, I won't sit at home everyday for the rest of my life, but it will be different. Like it will be something I do rather that something I live, if that makes since.

If you never travel, go somewhere. Get to know some locals and have them show you the local place that you can only find in that town. Its great. Makes the world feel smaller. Cheers.


Chris

Jana's Pics.

Jana, Rachel's mum, was here visiting us and went on tour with us to Namibia. Here is a link to here photos she took on tour with the Blue team, enjoy. http://Saudimumma.sendphotos.com/?J21Q6S

Chris

Richard's Bay.

We are in Richard's Bay and I have been looking forward to this trip for a while, I love being by the sea. I am getting to stay with my friend Lenny that I met while touring with Believe for Traveling Mercies. He had a video he made of us while we were on tour and traveling between shows. Its funny that a guy in South Africa has a video of my acting silly in Seattle. Thats fun.

Well today we had our sport afternoon at the beach. However when we got to the beach there was an announcement to tell everyone that there was no swimming today because there was a crocodile in the water. So we waited for the croc to leave, but he wouldn't. It was crazy seeing this big crocodile in the shallow surf of the ocean. I really hope he leaves tonight, because my friend Lenny is a great bodyboarder and he wants to show me how its done.

We are excited about the shows this week too. Please pray for us because the stage and whole setup is kind of funny for performing. It should be find though. Cheers.

Chris

Thump Tump....Thump Thump.

Rachel and I went to the mall to day to go to a movie and I came around the corner and in the window of the record store I saw a glorious red poster showing Smashing Pumpkins new album. I smiled and my heart rejoiced a bit in my chest to think that the gangs back together. I hope I can find someone here who has it so I can give it a listen. The world always spins a little smoother when Billy Corgan is singing. Cheers.

Chris

A Great Day.

Rachel and I are on holiday this week before heading to Richards Bay on Sunday and today was a wonderful day. Enjoyed a quite morning reading Harry Potter 7, then we went on a long walk with the dogs and we were talking about how we don't have a grill and then I found a bit of wire mesh on the ground and figured I could make a grill out of it. So I came home, dug a little whole in the ground where we tried to make a garden (which Guinness ate, including the palm tree) and folded the mesh to a platform. Well, it worked great, cost me nothing and we ate a great supper of lamb chops. Thats a great day. Cheers.

Chris

What Men Do For Love.

A few years ago I was convicted by a certain tv program to take better care of myself for my wife, she deserved better. So I started running and washing my face with special stuff and whatever. Now I am still trying to be the best I can for my lovely wife so while I was at the gym today (which I caught the 5 o'clock rush, I will never go then ever again, it was so horribly crowded), I thought of how I may up my sex appeal to my wife. So I thought I should give tanning a try.

So I sign up for the "Tan Can". Its a stand up tanning bed. So I finished my workout, purchased a protein shake and hit the can (Tan Can that is). So I stripped to my Fruit of the Looms, put on the funny little eye cover things, turned on the big machine, grabbed my protein shake and entered for my 10 minute session.

Well, 10 minutes later I exited, got dressed, drove home, washed the dogs, took a shower, checked some emails, ate dinner, took the dogs out, locked up the house and now I am SO SUNBURNED I THINK I MIGHT DIE. Its bad, really bad. I went from skim milk white to Folgers red in one 10 minute session. I hope all my skin doesn't melt off my body.

The things men do for love. Your welcome Rach, would you please rub some lotion on my back please? Thanks. Cheers.

Chris

Update on James.

While we were in Walvis Bay, Namibia we went riding on the desert dunes on quad bikes. It was awesome. We went up on huge sand dunes and saw some beautiful overlooks of the desert and the sea, it was a great time.

Well, while we were having a great time one of our team members, James Nteso, lost the trail of the person riding in front of him and went off the edge of a big dune. The dunes can be gradual on one side and then be straight down on the other, thats why we had a guide who knew the desert very well. So James went off the steep side with about a meter drop, then a long tumble to the base of the dune. Luckily he only broke his leg (a nasty brake I must say), but he could have been killed. He was rushed out of the desert in a 4x4 to the hospital (same one that Angelina Jolie had her baby), where the leg was stabilized, then driven back to SA for surgery.

We went to visit him at home yesterday and he is doing well. His whole right leg is in a cast, from foot to upper thigh. He will not be joining us for the next tour cycle, but perhaps the last tour to the Cape. We'll see.

Please pray that his leg heals well. Cheers.

Chris

Last Day.

This tour has been crazy to say the least. I will inform you later when we we get home and I have a chance to process what happened. We lost a ton of team members to different things; sickness, injury, father's wedding, sisters wedding and, and, and. We became a team of understudies. Even the band was used during the shows for different parts, even I had to dance last night.

This is our last day in Namibia, we head back tomorrow at 3AM. It will be sad, if you ever get a chance to visit Namibia do it. Its beautiful and the poeple are great. Cheers.

Chris

No Blogging.

Hey Folks,

Sorry to not be in touch lately, we are in Namibia and haven't had a chance to get online. I will write about the tour when we get home. Cheers.

Chris

Update.

Gala Shows

We are in the midst of our Gala Show week at the Little Theater in downtown Pretoria. Our team performed Gijima tonight and tomorrow we are performing the same show with a cast made up of different members from each team. Our band will be performing the music. It's fun doing the shows in a nice theater, on tour we perform in school halls which are not always nice. The red team will be performing 2 different shows before heading back on the road Sunday morning.

Namibia

We will be heading off to Namibia early Saturday morning, like 2am. It's a long trip through Botswana, but I am excited. We are going to have a bit of a difficult tour due to the fact that we are missing several team members. 2 of our Management Committee members will be missing, one tech guy (which leaves our poor tech team at 2 people), and another girl will all be missing. Please pray that all the missing people doesn't bring the team's spirit down and that we can manage well without the normal personnel.

Wilmien

Wilmien has been my Admin girl this year on team. She is amazing at her job and always keeps me at the right place at the right time with all the paper work that I would not be able to keep up with. Well, she will be leaving our team for the rest of the year to move to Europe and help with the new office there. Its so sad to have her leave us, but I know looking at the big picture its a great move for the ministry. Pauli will be taking her spot as Admin girl. I know she will also do a wonderful job. I am just amazed that there are people that actually enjoy admin work, but I am so glad there are.

New MC

We have a new Management Committee member, Phindile Ralarala. She is a wonderful 3rd year who is only 19 and has so much wisdom and potential. She will be a great addition to the MC for the rest of the year. Congrats Phindi.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
To learn more about any of our team members go here.

Cheers.

Chris

So Much Fun.

Tonight marked the end of our holiday so we went out to see a movie. We saw Die Hard 4.0 and it was full of ridiculous action, unrealistic stunts, cheesy one liners and it was FREAKING GREAT. I had such a great time watching this movie. Oh, I was so happy. If you have seen it and thought it was lame, then shame on you. I think there was like 7 or 8 minutes where there wasn't bullets flying around, a chase or something being blown up. Get your mind right (at about 14 years old) and enjoy. Back to work tomorrow. Cheers.

Chris

Upcoming Tour Dates.

Here are our upcoming tour dates. We are heading to Namibia for a few weeks, then back to SA to finish out the cycle before our next team weeks. I believe its going to be a good tour.
July 18-21 PRETORIA UNISA LITTLE THEATER
July 22-29 OTJIWARONGO, NAMIBIA TBA
July 29-Aug 5 WALVISBAAI, NAMIBIA GEMEENSKAPSKERK
AUG 5-12 WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA EROS GEMEENTE
AUG 13-18 OFF
AUG 19-26 RICHARDS BAY, SA COMMUNITY CHURCH
AUG 26-SEP 2 PRETORIA, SA ECHO YOUTH DEVELOPOMENT
SEP 2-SEP 9 WARM BATH, SA NG MOEDERGEMEENTE

Gonna be an awesome couple of months. Cheers.

Chris

Leadership Retreat.

We are on the annual Leadership Retreat this weekend. Its where leaders from the hub spend the weekend with leadership on the touring teams. Kind of a chance to get to hang out without dealing with work. We are at a camp facility almost an hour from Pretoria. Its been nice. We have just hung out, played Texas Hold'em till early in the morning, watched rugby and watched the entire first season of Lost projected on the wall. Its been nice.

Rachel and I have to leave early tomorrow to get back to Pretoria because I am speaking at Re:Verb in the morning with my friend Warren (the other team's tour leader).

Thats all from here. Cheers.

Chris

Happy Birthday Jana.

Rachel's mom is in town and tomorrow is her birthday!!! However, we are going out of town tomorrow so we are going to celebrate her birthday today. It started with breakfast in bed, Second we are going to see Harry Potter and then end the day with supper at one of our favorite seafood places called Ocean Basket. Happy Birthday Jana.
Cheers.

Chris

Real Dogs.

Rachel and I are on holiday this week. I have had a lot of work to do so tomorrow is really my only day off, but whatever. So I wanted a project to do around the house on my holiday. It could have been hanging curtains (which we started last week and never completed) or a bit of gardening or painting the office, but none of these seemed that great to me so I chose to work on the dogs walking on a leash. Sounds easy huh, well its not. Especially when you have a hundred pound beast trying to rip your arm out of socket to get to the Yorkshire Terrier that it wants to devour.

Something that has helped are the special dog collars that we purchased in America. They have spike type things on the inside that pinch if the dog pulls. Its sounds mean, but its better than them suffocating themselves on the choke collar as they pull in hopes of eating the guy riding the. Well, the collars work. Guinness and Damar have been out on several walks this week and I am so proud. Damar is doing better than Guinness though, we actually went for a jog today.

So now I am one step closer to having real dogs. Its so nice. Cheers.

Chris

Back From Township.

We are back from the Soutpan, a township about a hour away from PTA. We, the blue team, spent and week hanging out with people in the village. We had games for kids and showed a series of movies at night and spoke to teenagers about their lives and about how God is there no matter where you live.

I haven't posted since returning because I am still processing my own thoughts on the week. It was good, but I think that the exposure for the team of daily life in a township was the most rewarding. I hope that our team members learned a little more about their country and can share their knowledge with people who are ignorant of how many black people live in SA.

We were met with great hospitality from the people in the town. Some team members were blessed with meals with families and a good chance to hear others stories and learn about a new culture.

I was pleased with how the week went. It was physically difficult because it was cold and we slept in tents. It even rained, which is rare for the winter. We weren't eating well, we were given R7 ($.99) a day to eat on. We had no bathing facilities. However through all this the team was tough and I was proud of them.

Cheers.

Chris

Outreach.

We are going on our week of outreach starting tomorrow afternoon. There are a couple of reasons we are doing this particular outreach this year. 1
1.For the community- We will be hanging out with the kids and teens in the township, We will play a series of hour long movies in the evening and speaking on social issues here in SA and we will perform a stripped down version on our show Gajima on Friday night.

2.For the team- This week is a chance of our students to live among some less fortunate people that live in the same country as them. We will be camping at a church in the township which will be uncomfortable because its winter and will be really cold each night, but thats what it feels like for many people who live in small tin shacks. We will be walking everywhere, many people in this country don't have cars or money for buses so they walk very far everyday for food or water. And we will be given R7 ($.99)a day to eat on, which is average for where we will be staying.

We will also get to go help with an AIDs hospice that visits sick and dying people in their homes each day.

Please pray for the team for safety and that minds and hearts are opened for people who are not as blessed as many of us. Please pray for the community that lives can be impacted and changed by something that happens this week. Cheers.

Chris

Re:Verb

Once a month our "church" meets at my boss' house for a night of cheese, wine and hanging out. We are a small group of people, but its nice. Tonight a couple in our group blessed us all with a ton of sushi. It was great. Being on tour we don't get to go to Re:Verb often, but it was really nice having some sushi with friends and the Flaps gave a message. You can download it at www.reverberate.co.za
Cheers.

Chris

Gettin' Pumped

When I moved to SA I started working out. While traveling with Traveling Mercies I got sickly large. I didn't notice, but it was time to get fit. Well, this year started crazy. We just got back from Europe, I was music producer and tour leader, I was exhausted. So I didn't get back in the Gym.

So this training I lost any muscle gained last year and put back on some weight I had lost. Then we come to America for 3 weeks and lived in up on fast food and sugary drinks and it was wonderful. It was so wonderful I put on extra weight, like 7 pounds of good old processed americana.

Now, its back to the gym. Hittin' it hard, early, when its dark and cold. Its been nice feeling active. I think I have already dropped my holiday from my belly, now its time to work on the rest of 2007 that has been hanging on for dear life. Hopefully if I work really hard I can look like one of the characters on American Gladiators, like Laser or Nitro. Dream a little dream. Cheers.

Chris

PS
I always dreamed of being on American Gladiators and after I won every competition by kicking the guy off the climbing wall or getting all my balls in the little containers that wobbled buy never fell down or the joust, I would show how gladiator-like I really was by kicking butt in the shooter game where the gladiator, maybe Turbo, would shoot tennis balls at me, but always missed because I rolled just at the right time, then I would shoot the bull's eye with my dart from the cross bow or bazooka (or sometimes for extra drama I didn't hit the target until the last station, the tennis ball grenades). It was so cool when I won....in my dream.

Mmmmmm.

Rachel and I are in the process of trying to plan for the future. The road must end someday I suppose. We love working with 13thFLOOR and don't plan on leaving, but I was just looking at some other ministry possibilities today.

Well, I really like the west coast and was checking on some ministries in California when I got a craving for fish taco. Obviously there are no great little fish taco stands here so I decided to make up my own recipe.

I made homemade wholewheat tortillas, wild rice, and a fish/veggie mix. They turned out great. I don't really experiment with cooking too often so I was pleased.

If you want the recipe feel free to email me and I'll try to remember. Cheers.

Chris

Bath Day.

It was bath day in the Holohan home today. We gave the dogs their baths and that is always a mission. Guinness isn't too bad, but Damar gives us a little trouble. We get them in the bath tub and use the hand sprayer to get them rinsed. Then I keep spraying them with warm water as Rach scrubs with soap(side note:we are both in our beach attire). Then I give them a steady stream of treats to persuade them to stay in the bath and not run around the house. Guinness goes first, then Damar. Its a taxing job, but well worth the effort to have nice clean dogs. Cheers.

Chris

Team Week.

During the tour year we come back to the campus in Pretoria for Team Weeks. Well, this team week we had a time called "Conversations". Its where every member of the team spends 10 minutes speaking with every other person on team, all 40. Its a time for people to get things off there chest and say good things and things that bothers them about the other person. It is such a great time for the teams. I really appreciate the openness that is encouraged from the ministry. It's hard at times, but over all helps to build the team stronger. Cheers.

Chris

Old Friends.

Ray and I spent last night with the Kitts. They are old friends of ours and it was great seeing them. The McGuires also came over and it was just a blast hanging out with all our peeps that we haven't seen in a while. We had Wendy's famous pesto pasta with cookies and milk for desert. Fantastic. The night was ended with a little reality tv. Sometimes I really miss the suburbs. Cheers.

Chris

All Patched Up.

Ray and I got our fillings today. She went first and when she came out she couldn't speak clearly. It was so funny. Then It was my turn and I didn't think it was so funny. It's nice to have the teeth fixed. Cheers.

Chris

Date.

Ray and I went on a date today, it was fun. We went and saw a movie, ate Reese's Pieces, played Ms. PacMan, ate Cold Stone ice cream, walked around the mall. FUN.

While we were playing Ms PacMan there was a couple down from us playing another video game. They were around 30, I would guess, and while the woman and man were shooting plastic pistols at the monsters that were taking over the world she was holding a baby in her arms. I thought it made a beautiful picture. A smiling young women defending the life of her defenseless daughter from the radioactive creatures. I wish I had a canvas and some oil paints. Cuz I would have Bob Rossed dat shiz fo' show.

We are going to my moms for dinner tonight. Ray and I are fixing our world famous fried ravioli. We learned the recipe from some crazy NASCAR loving, red neck Italians living up in the mountains of Arizona. Thanks Kris. I am looking forward to it. We can't purchase the proper wrapping in SA, so its my first real batch in a while. I love them so much it makes me ache.

Tomorrow we are going back to the dentist for our fillings, we each get one. I am not looking to forward to that, however it will be nice to not carry the decayed part of my tooth around with me. Just another filling to go with the rest, I swear I brush my teeth, I swear.

Cheers.

Chris

Going Well.

Our visit in America is going well. We are trying to relax where we can and running around to see people at lunch and in the evenings. We are hoping to go visit my dad in Illinois this weekend and then see people in ATL and Savannah before flying home for work.

I hate that this trip is so short. There are things I want to do and people I want to see that just can't happen. Well maybe in 2 more years I can see those people. Cheers.

Chris

Big Sunday.

Now we can begin our holiday. From landing here on last Thursday our lives have been full of hectic wedding stuff. The wedding was Saturday, it was beautiful, congrats guys.

Yesterday I got to preach at Capital City Christian Church (CCCC), my home church. It went well. The more I get to communicate the things of God from stage the more I enjoy it. I had to wear a tie, which I have not done in a normal life situation since December 2004. I had to go purchase clothes for church so I would look "nice".

Then after church we went and ate lunch with some of our friends, Tim and Suzy Bomgardner, that were in town from NYC. After lunch we went and played blaster boats (pic above). It was a blast (pun intended, sorry Zoid). They shoot this little stream of water at your "enemy". It looks fun and nice, however I got freaking soaked. I hate being wet and I was drenched. So we played with our friends and then they went back to NY. Cheers Friends.

Then finally, last night we spoke with the missions team and a few other folks about what we are doing in our ministry. It was cool discussing what we do with people from our church.

Now we rest. We have dentist appointments today. Then more rest. Cheers.

Chris

In Tallahassee.

I made it. I was awake for 44 hours before my first night sleep. The wedding is today and it will be nice I think. It was raining this morning, but seems to be done for a while so hopefully it will be nice for the outdoor wedding today. Cheers.

Chris

I Think I Will Miss My Chair.

I left the team last night after our Homecoming show. The show and ministry went well and I think that the team will have a good impact in Middleburg this week. It was sad leaving them, I really like this team and look forward to the rest of our tour year together. Brandon, an American guy that works in the office, is going to take my place and do the ministry tonight and Thursday. I know he will do a great job.

I woke this morning, washed clothes, hung out the clothes and I am just waiting for them to dry so I can pack. Rone (roo-nay [roll that "R" ladies]), our dog/house watcher, is going to take me to the airport really early so I can be first in line and get the exit row seat. The exit row is my holy grail, I will fight dragons, climb mountains and sword fight business men for the exit row. Then I plan on sitting in the airport for 4 or 5 hours watching movies on my computer waiting for my flight. Not Bad.

So I am sitting in my wonderful chair in the bedroom blogging, drinking a cup of coffee waiting to leave. Its pretty lekker. Cheers.

Chris

Sad Chris.

Ray and I came home last night after the Rock Show last night. We were in Jo'burg, so it was only like a 45 min drive. Right now I am sitting in the chair typing and Ray is packing for her trip to the states. We will leave in about at hour for the trip to the airport. I am going to be sad and lonely for a few days, but I'm tough so no big deal. She lands in Tallahassee on Sunday morning. I will get there on Thursday of next week. I don't look forward to traveling alone, but it will be ok. We are flying Delta which is supposed to be the worst international airline in history. Drinks aren't free and the movies still play on a screen in the middle of the plane. Just makes the trip boring. I look forward to some summer temps and Chick-Fil-A. Cheers.

Chris

The Family.

Here's a current Family picture, the girls are getting big, they grow up so fast. Cheers.

Chris

Sport Afternoon.

On Monday's we have our Sport Afternoon on tour with the team. I like it to be some sort of team competition where some of the team members get too competitive and start fighting with other team members. We are christians and the sad thing is most people think christians are supposed to always be "nice", well sport afternoon is the place where we are allowed to be "normal". I like "normal".

This week we did an individual sport, Archery. We practiced in our contact person for the week's back yard for a while and then the competition began. We had several rounds to get down to the finals which was between myself and my lead guitar player (all band final, take that all you dancing nancies). Marnus ended up beating me, but I tried hard if that counts.

Then today me and my coordinator (my right hand man) when over to the guys house just to shoot some targets and talk about team members and stuff that drives us crazy and our host got out the compound bow and I got to shoot the cool stuff. It felt less Lord of the Rings and more Rambo, so thats cool.

The weeks going well, I am feeling really tired though. My brain needs a rest. Cheers.

Chris

Weather Update.

I blogged this morning about the cold weather in Jo'burg. When I wrote it was cold, but the promise of warmer temps through the day made it ok. Well, it got colder as the day went on and as I stated before there is no heat in the buildings. So we did a show tonight in a small hall with probably 100-150 people wrapped up in coats and hats (due to the freezing air [I am amazed anyone came at all]) while the band was nice and bundled on our little band scaff thing and the dancers froze in their t-shirts and other costuming.

My bass strings were like ice, but our rock was warm as the blood that flows through my beating heart, or whatever. Cheers.

Chris

Flipping Freezing.

Yesterday the temp was 1 low 12 high. Today it was -3 low and 12 high (Celsius). I know that doesn't sound too cold, but here it doesn't get this cold typically and there is no heat in the buildings, so I am freezing. I found a storage closet in the basement of the church where we are showing at this week thats a bit warmer. I hope you are warm. Cheers.

Chris

MOYO.

Tonight we did a team social at this super cool restaurant called MOYO. It's this super cool "aftican" themed place. I must admit that I haven't seen anyplace that looks like this in the "wild", but its still super cool.

It was also one of our girls birthday today, Jolindi. Happy 20th birthday!!!

It was also the official announcement of our newest couple on team. Lelo and Andri have been working through the 13thFLOOR system of dating and have had many talks with me about relationships and commitment and blah blah blah and tonight we got the chance to announce them as a couple. They are great together. I will get a picture of the happy couple soon.

Jo'burg is going well. I think is going to be a lekker week. Cheers.

Chris

4th Week.

We are in Roodeport this week, its a suburb of Johannesburg, and I think it is going to go well. The hall that we are showing in is small, but i think its going to be a great week. Our contact people are really nice and helpful which is a great start to the week.

Last week we were in Polokwane and the week was fantastic. There were almost 500 people at all the shows and a lot of people were touched by our shows. It was a great week.

Our host family this week is also cool, I just finished hanging out with them and Ray and I have our own room with our own en suite bathroom. Cool baby. There's also a nice sitting area in our room with a couch and chair. Its flippin nice.

Cheers homies, keep it pimped out on hiz fo' shiz.

Chris

Happy Birthday Me.

I turned 28 on the first of May. I can't believe I am 28. I know its not that old, but to me it sounds so old. I am also starting to wonder if I am looking old. I will watch a movie or TV show and if there is a 28 year old person I always think I look a lot younger than them, but maybe I don't.

I think this problem is compounded by the fact that I work with a team of young people where 75% are between 18 and 21. If you aren't good at math, 18 is a DECADE younger than me. When I started driving at 15 my piano player was 5. Thats nuts.

Oh well, thats part of growing up. Cheers.

Chris

Back Online.

I called customer service today and spoke with a nice young man that helped me get connected to the internet at last. Its nice to be human again. Cheers.

Chris

The Hills Have Eyes.

We had a movie night last night and on the recommendation of others we didn't see Spider Man 3, so we went and saw The Hills Have Eyes 2. Rachel hated it. Some people liked it some thought it was horrible. It was gross, I secretly loved it, don't tell Ray Ray. Cheers.

Chris

Happy Mothers Day.

Happy Mothers Day all you hot ladies. Sorry I forgot to write this the other day. I am a bad child/grandson/nephew. Cheers.

Chris

Tickets.

Ray got her ticket for our trip to America at the end of this month. We have been down in sponsorship several hundred dollars each month so we don't have the money now for my ticket. If you would like to help me come home to see family and my sister in laws wedding please email me. This is a issue that Ray and I need prayer for. We are struggling in our attitude toward our ministry right now. Not ministry as in our job (thats going well, we love our job), but why we are always just making it finacially and when we get ahead a little we loose support. It has happened for the past 6 years this way and I don't understand it. Please pray for our contentment and attitudes. Thanks.

Chris

No Internet.

I am going freaking nuts. Ray got a new cell phone and I can't get it to work with my computer to get on the internet so I can't check email or blog or do any mindless crap. Its so frustrating. All this stuff has happened and I can't share it will you like the racists or the satanic spot that we found. I know, big stuff. Hopefully I can get it working because I want to let you know what is going on. Cheers.

Chris

Nelspruit.

We are in Nelspruit this week, its a beautiful part of the country on the eastern side near Mozambique. For some reason the crowds are really small this week which is a bummer, but the shows are going well without any problems which is nice for the second week of tour. Hope you are all doing well. We will be going to Polokwane next week and then back to Jo'burg after that. Cheers.

Chris

New Vehicles.

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

Crazy.

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

Hectic Time.

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

On The Road Again.

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

Gijima

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

Big Day.

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

A Great Blog.

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

Direction.

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

Congrats Pieter.

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

Holiday is Over.

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

Happy Easter.

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

Guard Dog.

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

Mr. Fix It.

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

Rusty Hook.

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

The Greatest.

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.

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

My New Coffee Maker.

Ray and I stopped by a charity shop today and as I was complaining how the 2nd hand shops here suck I came across this chrome and red coffee maker. It was a diamond in the rough. It was pretty nasty and was taped together so there was tape goo everywhere, but after a good cleaning and several runs to get the pipes cleared out, it works great. Cheers.

Chris

Sweet Young Man.

Here is a picture of my short hair. My friend also trimmed my beard today so I look a bit presentable. Don't fear that will change in a few months. Cheers.

Chris

Art Night.

There is an American girl on my team named Kaitlin (I have never spelled her name, so if thats the wrong spelling, sorry) and she loves art. We met her when we were touring Belguim.

Tuesday night is an off night during training and she held an art night on the campus and it was great. People sang songs and painted and did other artsy things. She also started an art wall on the porch where we eat meals and I am so impressed with the talent we have in 13thFLOOR. Good job Kaitlin. Cheers.

Chris

Be Grateful.

A friend of mine found a free internet connection at a cafe inside a grocery store so this is my new favorite place to get work done (props to Warren). Its a crappy connection, but still free and it's in a grocery store so I can pick up some milk, bread or tampons if I need to. Very convenient.

Anyways I sitting here enjoying a mediocre cup of coffee and Ray's mum messaged me and in this message she brought up how she would like some Taco Bell when she gets to the States (she lives in Saudi Arabia) and I almost got depressed thinking how badly I want/need/desire/lust for/crave/would kill for Taco Bell. There are not words that can express this deep need for this, I am on en emotional roller coaster thinking about this. I am half way between tears of joy in anticipation and curling up on the floor in the fetal position not being able to continue with everyday life. Don't even mention Chick-fil-a, I may freaking go ballistic on Joyce (the sassy woman who works in the cafe at the Super Spar). That would be bad because she knows me and thats nice. I mean, I would hate to freak out about missing my American fast food and throw her in a shopping cart and crash her into the rack of condiments seeing bottles of All Gold Tomato Sauce and Mrs. Balls Chutney scattered to and fro while Joyce shakes her head wondering what just happened. None of us want that.

Be grateful for your easy access to some of lifes wonders, like Grilled Stuffed Burritos and cups of Pintos and Cheese. Cheers.

Chris

Meeting.

Today we had our first management committee (MC) meeting concerning tour and it went really well. I really love my MC and I am getting so jazzed about tour. There are a million things that need to be done to get a tour week to run smoothly and we addressed many of those things. From week schedules to who packs truck after Rock Show on Friday nights to who buys fabric for the front of the stage to make it look nice. I really am proud of our team, they work so hard and I know they will do great on tour. Cheers.

Chris

Muse.

I went to rent a nice dramatic DVD tonight because I wanted to mess around with recording some nice mellow instrumental music. I ended up walking out with Talladega Nights. Not what I had planned, but I love Will Ferrell. He's so funny. Cheers.

Chris

Boo Ya Sucka.

Thats right baby, all the inhabited continents. Thanks Argentina for showing a little love. I realize some people get like 2500 hits a day and I get between 6 and 14, but still they are well spread out, makes me happy. Cheers.

Chris

Too Late Now.

I have wanted dreadlocks since I was young, I always thought they were great. So a little over a year and a half ago I made the choice to grow my hair with the intention of forming them into dreads. So about 8 months ago I got my hair all knotted in sections and let it go with the intention of growing for 5 years. I have fine hair so the dreading was slow, but the progress has picked up recently. They were messy and frizzy and I liked them. However other people didn't like them and felt it their civil duty to say things like, "I don't like your hair" or "you look horrible" you know typical nice things like that. Why would people feel its ok to do this? People say this kind of crap to me all the time. I never walk up to people and say. "you're fat" or "your shirt looks stupid" or "you dance like a deer thats been hit by a car and didn't die, but has broken 2 legs and is trying to walk". Whats up?

A philosophy I have is "I don't want to hear about it". Fine, you don't like something I did or said or the way I sang that song, why must you tell me? Please just let me be.

That said, I cut my hair last night. I now have a nice clean hair cut to go with my Rev. Holohan title that is on my movie rental contract at the DVD shop. I think it was a bad Idea. I let others pressure me into not being myself and thats bad. I would advice one of my students to be strong in what they like, but I failed. I just couldn't take it anymore. I made an emotional decision that now I kind of regret, but its too late, can't change it now. It's a nice haircut though, my female vocalist Giovanni did it for me.

I am sad now. I threw away over a year and a half of growth, patients and wonderful frizz so "I don't have to hear about it". Oh well, my Nanny will like my hair better now. Cheers.

Chris