Guinness Update.

Here is a picture of Guinness on our bed trying to eat Rachel. She was unsuccessful. Hope all is well with you. Cheers.
Chris

Ray Ray.

Rachel has a good friend that is on out touring team called Kerrey. Kerrey is an American girl who is from Atlanta, GA. Well Kerrey and Rachel have given themselves nick names. Rachel is Ray Ray and Kerrey is Kay Kay. I obviously hate these names. So next time you think of Rachel just think of our entire touring team calling her Kay Kay. Cheers.

Chris

Back in the Game.

Sorry for not updating my blog in ages. However, I am happy to say I am back in the game. The South Hemisphere is doing well, we are having a nice mild winter and are looking forward to spring. We just finished a week in Bloemfontein and will be in the Pretoria metro area this week and I am looking forward to being near enough to my home that we can go home on the weekend. Hope all is well with you all. Cheers.

Chris

Off Again?

Hey,

Things are going well, here is an update: Jana is visiting, but leaving tomorrow morning, we are back on tour, I have had dreadlocks for a month and things are going well with them, I was chosen to be Tour Leader next year, Guinness started menstrating (I didn't know dogs do that, but suprise for me), and after dropping Jana at the airport we will return to the touring team in New Castle. Thats about all, talk to you later. Cheers.

Chris

Home Again.

Hey all,
We are home from our week-long mission trip to Sekororo, a township in the Limpopo provence north of Pretoria about 5 hours. We, a team of 8, helped out with a church that was having a week revival/youth meetings. We had a great time and got to meet a lot of great people. Rachel's mom arrieved on Monday and came up to spend that rest of the week with us. We had a great time and as always it's nice to be home. Cheers.

Chris

Mission Trip.

We are on a break from touring for the next few weeks, however, that doesn't mean we aren't busy. I am so excited about this next week, we are going on a mission trip. We were supposed to be going up to Zambia for a "Beat the Drum" outreach. It is an outreach that teaches about AIDs in the schools and small towns, its a really cool program and I am so sad that we can't be a part of it this year. Please pray that they will have a great trip to Zambia this year, they were in Swaziland a couple of years ago and had a very effective ministry. Well, we have broken the big teams up to teams of 8 and we will be splitting up and going to different places for the week. We are not supposed to have a great deal of information to where we are going, it's a suprise. Rachel and I are heading a team that is going 4 hours away from Pretoria and we are working with a church that is having a revival and a vacation bible school. We were told we are doing some music and drama workshops and helping with revival music. Thats about all we know. We will just see what happens when we get there. Please pray that all the teams have a great week in their different locations doing their different jobs. There is no cell service where we are going so we will be unreachable from Monday until Saturday night. Hope you have great week. Cheers.

Chris

Mission Trip.

We are on a break from touring for the next few weeks, however, that doesn't mean we aren't busy. I am so excited about this next week, we are going on a mission trip. We were supposed to be going up to Zambia for a "Beat the Drum" outreach. It is an outreach that teaches about AIDs in the schools and small towns, its a really cool program and I am so sad that we can't be a part of it this year. Please pray that they will have a great trip to Zambia this year, they were in Swaziland a couple of years ago and had a very effective ministry. Well, we have broken the big teams up to teams of 8 and we will be splitting up and going to different places for the week. We are not supposed to have a great deal of information to where we are going, it's a suprise. Rachel and I are heading a team that is going 4 hours away from Pretoria and we are working with a church that is having a revival and a vacation bible school. We were told we are doing some music and drama workshops and helping with revival music. Thats about all we know. We will just see what happens when we get there. Please pray that all the teams have a great week in their different locations doing their different jobs. There is no cell service where we are going so we will be unreachable from Monday until Saturday night. Hope you have great week. Cheers.

Chris

MMM

Hey Everybody,

This past week has been hectic here in SA. The Management of both touring teams along with office staff have a big week of meeting called MMM (Middle Management Meetings). We take a detailed look at everything that envolves training and touring and we discuss how to make C-Kruis better. Well these meetings start at about 0830 and run to around 2200 at night. Alot of really good stuff has been discussed and there have been some changes that I really think will improve C-Kruis as a ministry. I will admit that I am looking forward to tomorrow being a day off. Hope you are all well. Cheers.

Chris

A Chili What?

Well.....Today I was at the mall with my beautiful wife, we went to see a movie, and I was a little hungry for lunch. I went to this hot dog place and ordered a chili dog, which I have not had since we have been here in SA. When they gave me the chili dog I saw there was no chili on the dog. The line was long now so I decided to eat the plain dog. Well as I bit into the hot dog I realized that when they say "chili dog" they don't mean a hot dog with chili on it, they mean a hot dog with chili peppers cooked into the meat. How strange is that? Peppers cooked into the meat? Crazy. Well I ate the devilishly spicy hot dog and can't wait for the indegestion to kick in shortly. Oh....yep......there it is....feel the burn.....feel it.......thats what I'm talking about....is that the best you got.......bring it sister...... Oh well, another time of me not knowing what is going on in this wacky place. Have a great day.

Chris

A Chili What?

Well.....Today I was at the mall with my beautiful wife, we went to see a movie, and I was a little hungry for lunch. I went to this hot dog place and ordered a chili dog, which I have not had since we have been here in SA. When they gave me the chili dog I saw there was no chili on the dog. The line was long now so I decided to eat the plain dog. Well as I bit into the hot dog I realized that when they say "chili dog" they don't mean a hot dog with chili on it, they mean a hot dog with chili peppers cooked into the meat. How strange is that? Peppers cooked into the meat? Crazy. Well I ate the devilishly spicy hot dog and can't wait for the indegestion to kick in shortly. Oh....yep......there it is....feel the burn.....feel it.......thats what I'm talking about....is that the best you got.......bring it sister...... Oh well, another time of me not knowing what is going on in this wacky place. Have a great day.

Chris

Our Anniversary

Today is our 4 year anniversary!!! I can't believe we have been married for 4 years now. I know it's not that long in the grand scheme of life, but it's still long. I am head-over-heels in love with my beautiful wife and look forward to this next year. We were talking about how in only 4 years of marriage we have gotten to do some really cool things and see some really cool places, we moved to the other side of the world and have a house and a dog. I am pleased with life right now and look forward to each day. I think that is a huge blessing and I know that Rachel plays a huge part in me feeling that way, I am a lucky man. Hope you have a great day. Cheers.

Chris

Sleep Tight.

When Rachel and I got to SA we spent all our money on getting our house and car and all the little things that come with moving around the world. One of the things that we couldn't purchase was a bed. So we borrowed a bed from a friend of ours, who had one in the garage, and that is what we have been using since. On our second week of tour in Jo'burg we stayed with a family whos son runs a foam factory and they make beds. So Rachel and I got a killer deal on a new bed. WOOHOO! Now we have our own queen size bed and are sleeping very nicely. Hope you are sleeping nicely in your part of the world. Cheers.

Chris

What the....?

Rach finally got to go to a chiropractor the other day for the first time since we have been here in SA. For you who don't know, Rachel's spine looks like a treble clef. On the way back from the doctor we saw a mall that we have never been to, so we stopped to walk around and check it out. As we were approaching the mall from the north parking lot I saw a green “way” (pardon) on a sign sticking out from behind a pillar. The font looked like something I had seen before and as was got closer we saw there there is a flippin' Subway restraunt in this mall. What???Subway??? Yep.....Subway. So Rach and I had a nice early lunch, Rach- Club, Me-Meatball. We washed the meal down with a couple of chocolate chip cookies (another rarity here). I am just so excited to know that within 20 minutes of our home there is a little piece of America just waiting to serve me a footlong sandwich. Plus in this mall there is an olympic size ice hockey rink, for some strange unknown reason. Enjoy your day and I will enjoy mine. Cheers.

Chris

Home again.

Rach and I are home from our 1st African tour cycle. We spent 5 weeks on the road and it is nice to have a break. We are going to be on holiday for a couple of weeks and then we start 4 weeks of work here in Pretoria. We don't hit the road again for several weeks. We will be in the Free State for the next cycle which is really cold in the winter, so that is going to be tough. We were in really warm areas the past few weeks so it has been nice. Here in Pretoria it gets pretty cold at night, but the days are not bad at all. We will see how that keeps up for the remainder of winter. Its great to be home. Cheers.

Chris

Great Week.

Hey Guys,

We finished up our week here in Phalaborwa last night with a really good Rock Show. There were about 300 people and the crowd had so much energy that it made the show great. Today is our day off and we are supposed to do nothing, so that is what Rachel and I are going to do. We are going to sit around the house and watch movies and do nothing. We drive to Ellisras tomorrow. Its about 5 hours away and it is right nean the Botswana border. Talk to you soon.

Chris

On the Road.

Hello Folks,

We are in the midst of our 4th week of tour. We are in a town called Phalaborwa (pal-a-bore-va), located in the north eastern part of South Africa, right on the border on the Kruger National Park. We are enjoying ourselves and Rachel and I have a great host family this week. We are staying a little guest house in the back yard of some people from the church. Its great to have some privacy and to be able to get away and be alone. The other day we, the whole team, drove to a dam to see if we could spot any crocodiles or hippos. Well, as were were driving back we saw a ton of elephants on the side of the road. There were probably 15 of them and they were just walking by this little stream, it was crazy. One of them was really close to the road and we just sat there next to it in the car, just checking him out. It was so cool. It was just funny seeing them on the road, not in a park, walking on public property. The week is going well and the shows are being recieved really well. There are some really cool testimonies of how we are really hitting home with a lot of the students at the shows. This week wasn't booked until 2 weeks ago and I am glad that we are getting to minister here in Phalaborwa. Hope all is well with you. Cheers.

Chris

Just looking for some good Thai.

I would like to tell you about last night because I think that people back home don't think that we live a "normal" life because we are in SA. Well... we had the night off to do some packing and get ready for tour and Rachel and I were hungry, but neither of us wanted to cook and deal with the dishes. So there is this service called Mr Delivery that will pick up food and bring it to you for a small charge of Like R17 which is a little less than $3.00. Well, I called Mr D and they were backed up and the delivery time was like 2 hours. So, I called in the order to the restraunt and when I went to fetch the food I brought Guinness with me. So there I am on a nice cool South African autumn night driving to the Lotus Thai with Guinness. I picked up my food, ran in the grocery for some eggs and headed home. Pretty normal night huh? See that is just an example of how we live a normal life here. Just wanted to assure everyone that we are fine and life is good. Hope you all have great day. Oh yeah, the Thai was good, not great, if anyone knows of a good Thai place let me know. Cheers.

Chris

Tour Dates

Here are our tour dates:

April 30-May 6: Bronkhortspuit
May 7-12: Jo'burg
May 14-19: Mokopane
May 21-26: TBA
May 28-June 2: lephalale
July 23-28: TBA
July 30- August 4: New Castle
August 6-11: Harrismith
August 20-25 Bloemfontein
August 27- September 1: TBA
September 3-8: TBA
October 2-6: Klerksdorp
October 9-13: Brackenfell
October 16-20: Worcestor
October 22-27: Mosselbaai

Please pray we can book up the weeks that are not booked yet. Cheers.


Chris

Suprise Rock Show!!

We are at the end of training and we have not had a chance to do a dress rehearsal for our Rock Show on Friday nights. So we loaded up all the band stuff and sound stuff in one of the trucks we tour and drove around to where people were rehearsing and the sides of the big truck open up and we did a suprise Rock Show for our team. The idea was good, but right before we went our drummer had to go to a meeting and when we got there we realized almost everyone was gone working in other places. So we ended up playing with me on drums, no bass, and about 12 people watching. It was quit a schlep to load everything, but it was a ton of fun and I think the people on team enjoyed it. Tour starts Sunday. Cheers.

Chris

Come on..

Hey Guys,

I just heard some news that hurts me. I got an email from a guy I haven't spoken with in a long time. He was telling me that he was working at a church and that the church was having major issues and he got fired and then the pastor that fired him got fired weeks later. now this guy is working for the government just to pay bills and is wanting to do ministry again, however he is a little burned out right now and needs some time "away" from ministry. How many people have stories like this, being burned out with ministry or been burned by a church. Whats the deal? What needs to change? Why is so much hurt coming out of churches? I know that we are all sinners and we aren't going to be perfect, but do we really think that or are we just finding a "spiritual" excuse? I just know so many don't want anything to do with Jesus because of the way we treat people, not just people in general, but other christians, not to say the way the church treats "sinners" (e.g. gays, muslims, drunks). I just hate to think the thing that scares me the most is working at a church. I know not all churches are like this, but enough are for it to be a problem that needs looking at. I hope my friend finds a place soon where he can be himself and do what he feels God has called him to do. Cheers.

Chris