The journey of two girls hitting the open road with one goal in mind: Encourage others in knowing the love of Jesus and invitng them to join us as we lead them in giving glory and praise to the Father by singing and making music to Him.
My team and I at training camp
who are going on the World Race in January
This past week I was in training for the World Race while Sarah was hanging out in the Atlanta area for the week. For me it was a week filled with worship, learning, preparation, and getting to know my teammates…who I'll be traveling with and doing ministry with for the next year in Latin America starting in January!
We haven't had a show in almost 2 weeks but the ministry has not ceased! We drove 7 hours from Atlanta to Memphis, TN on Wednesday. A friend from Colombia, Felipe (Pipe) Avila, is living there for several months and had a place for us to stay. It was with a Colombian family but the wife was American. However, she grew up in Colombia and was one of the first students to graduate from El Camino Academy (the school I worked at last year) back in the 90s. The family has two precious kids and one on the way and the husband is a musician. They were so welcoming and it was a wonderful time. Also, a girl named Jacqui lives with them. She's our age and she'll be moving to Colombia in January as a missionary for two years!! I love Colombia. :-)
Pipe!
Pipe was an awesome tour guide and showed us around Memphis. One day we went to the coffee shop where Jacqui works at. While we were there we had a conversation with a guy who works there. He too is a musician. He said he had a show that night, but we were going to have a campfire and play music in the backyard so we weren't going to be able to make it. We chatted a bit, and then we went downtown. We rode a loop on the trolly and then decided to go to the infamous Peanut Shop. As we were walking down the street we saw a man singing his heart out. Then we looked a little closer and Sarah exclaimed, "Hey! We know him!" We made our way over and saw the same guy that worked at the coffee shop. He told us how he just got a permit to sing on the streets of Memphis and wanted to try it out. It was just him, his girlfriend's bike, and his voice. That takes guts. He sounded really good and we asked if he'd sing us another song. He started singing about how he's a mess and how he's messed up but how he has been forgiven. He then went
Sarah and I in front of Gibson Guitar Factory in Memphis, TN
on telling us that he feels best and feels like he sings best when he's singing to/about the Lord. I asked him if he was a Christian and he said no but the Lord is after him. Then he said it's so weird and like one of the Sufjan Stevens songs that says, "He will take you if you run, He will chase you He will take you if you run, He will chase you 'cause He is the Lord" He was very open and shared that he knows God is after him but he's afraid that if he opens his heart to it that things will fall apart or will be taken from him such as relationships and other things he loves. I said "Oh, but it's so much better!" We were then able to share with him our story and our "Fearful Tour" message and how we have things we are afraid of but in the midst of those scary things we have hope and an awesome God who will carry us through. Then we talked about Sarah's song, "Be Still," and I remembered I had it on my phone so right there on the street he knelt down and put the phone up to his ear to listen to it and these are lyrics he heard that day, "Be still, my soul, and know He is God. Render your heart to the Lord. He's swift to rescue, slow to anger, mighty to save, He will deliver."
Afterwards Pipe got his phone number and will hopefully be able to keep in contact with him. Then the guy said, "Oh hey I'm so sorry if you don't make it to the peanut shop. It might be closed by now." Which then Sarah replied, "We're here for people, not peanuts."
We spent the past week in Nashville, TN. I'm going to be honest...at first I didn't like it because one of the first places we went to was downtown on Broadway Avenue. It's a very touristy place and as I was driving down the street there were huge signs for these bars and different types of music coming out of each place. Right away I got bad vibes. I was thinking how all these people in bars are trying to work so hard and make a name for themselves and lifting themselves up to be successful. Now I understand in the music world you need to put yourself out there but I just sensed a lot of selfishness leaking out of each of those venues. I went on a run a couple days later and a song on my ipod came on called "The Reason I Sing" by Jimmy Needham. It talks about going back to the reason of singing/performing is for the Lord and it reminded me of the heart of why people should want to singing and become "famous" to make famous the Name of our awesome God.
Anyway, with that being said we had a lot of time to rest and be still in Nashville because our shows weren't until the end of the week. It was great because we just came off of the two busiest weeks of our tour and needed it. We were able to spend time with Phil, a friend of Sarah's, and got to know his roommates too. They're all Christian guys who went to a small college near St. Louis and turns out one of my classmates form high school went to college with them too. Small world! I love little connections like that. They were flippin hilarious and really fun to hang out with. All very talented musicians with part time jobs. There was one day where we stayed up until 4 a.m. just jammin' and worshipping the Lord.
Jammin'
Jenny & Tyler playing @ the International
Justice Mission Rally we went to
One night Phil invited us to go see some live music at a local venue and it was one of his professors who was playing that night. It was really good quality music. VERY talented people and a lot of fun.
We stayed at Jenny and Tyler's house which was a very cute house in eastern Nashville. If you haven't ever heard their music you should check out their website. They are some of the kindest people I know and have beautiful hearts filled with the love of Christ and their music is also beautiful and filled with Truth. I've been listening to their music for a couple years now and Sarah's been following them pretty steadily too. It was a huge blessing staying at their house. They were gone though so we were more so house sitting for them which still worked out really well. Here's the link to their website: http://jennyandtyler.com
This was at the coffee house in Smyrna.
They're using an old piano
for the coffee condiments table!
We had two shows booked for Nashville. Both were at coffee shops. Unfortunately the Friday night one didn't end up working out but the guy took us out to eat japanese anyways. Ha. He was about our age and he shared his story of how he kind of had his "rebel years" but how Christ took hold of his heart and is transforming him. I love hearing stories of people who it's a black and white sort of thing where God just flips their life around where it's so evident that Christ is at work. On Saturday we were in a smaller town called Smyrna and it was really great. The owners are Christians so we were able to speak Truth openly and sing Christian songs. The place wasn't packed but it was great and we were able to have some really great conversations with the people that were there which is one of the main things what this music tour is about anyways.
Right now we're in Chattanooga and we have today off. We're staying at a pastor and his wife's house. They have a house church that we played at yesterday. Their backyard is so peaceful and beautiful. The view is breathtaking. I went for a run this morning and it's REALLY hilly here. It was a good run though. Sarah and I have caught colds so we're just been resting and are trying to recuperate before we play at a school and ex-convict ministry this pastor does. God has blessed us way more than we deserve and His goodness just keeps on being good. What an awesome, steady, unchanging God we serve.
