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