I was driving down Greenway boulevard this evening (returning the girls to their host home) when it dawned on me. This is real. I am in Phoenix, AZ living with five other guys in an apartment, on just one of our many stops on our fall tour. I know that I have been on tour for over a month now, but it just seems to be getting more and more real with each passing day.

Today was crazy. We got to sleep in slightly this morning, and once we got up Dale cooked us a fabulous brunch. During the preparation time of said brunch, I was having an seemingly innocuous conversation over instant messenger with our manager Chris Reed. This conversation led to my discovering that we (Chris and I) needed to have a discussion later in the day about the upcoming album that we will be recording in about a week and a half in Willmar. When Chris and I talked it turned into a fairly extensive conversation with a lot of information being bandied about, which in turn I needed to pass along to my team members. Needless to say after all of that my brain was tired of communicating with other human beings. But, duty called and we had to go play a concert. (At this point in time I should insert that Heidi – one of our female vocalists – is very sick, so prayers would be much obliged.) Prior to the actual concert, though, we did a worship workshop with some of the youth at the church (Phoenix North Baptist) which went really well.

The concert was crazy. We were slightly rusty, however, the kids’ collective energy gave us everything we needed to get through the show. In fact at one point in time, a sixth grader did the worm across the stage while we were playing “Wait on the Lord.” [For all of you out there who don’t know what the worm is…it is a breakdancing move that involves writhing on the floor in a very uncomfortable manner and much flexibility.] Anywho, the bottom line is that once again the Lord proved faithful in His promise that His Word will not return void. “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. ” Isaiah 55:10-11. It’s amazing to see how far the Lord can go to make sure that His Name is declared, and so humbling that He chose me to help do that. Whoa…pretty heady stuff.

So now I am sitting here staring out at the lights of Phoenix realizing that I only have a week and a half left on my first ever tour with CTI. Crazy to think about, but then I realize that this only means that our overseas tour to Hong Kong is approaching even faster. [This blog will be a main form of communication for me while I am there so keep tabs on it.] We have been working on Cantonese songs and preparing in other ways for this upcoming tour. Here again I would ask for your prayers. We need to do nothing more on the Hong Kong tour than what Jesus called us to do after He washed His disciples’ feet: go and do likewise. I want the Lord to cultivate servant hearts in us, I want us to think of others first in all that we do, I want us to put on Christ and serve as He called us to…humbly. Recognizing that our only natural response to His love for us is to imitate His behavior. It won’t be easy, so prayer would be much obliged.

So if you’re still with me you’re probably getting pretty tired of reading this post by now so I am going to sign off. Friends…I love you all and can’t wait to hear from those of you who I haven’t been in contact with for some time. Family…I love you guys and miss you more and more every day.