August - Sept 11th
So things here are going extremely well. Sorry we haven’t posted for so long but time seems to always be running out. We were gone on tour for a large part of the month of August. It was awesome and we got to meet so many new people. It was crazy how many amazing people we got to meet and share our lives with. Almost everywhere we went we met amazing people and got to encourage one another. All the shows went well and despite some last minute cancellations it went very smoothly. We have just adopted this “we will be where the Lord wills us” attitude. Some nights we played for around 200 kids and other nights only 40 but it honestly it didn’t matter. If there was a large crowd than we made the biggest impact possible and if it was only a handful of kids then we spent as much time as possible getting to know them. Along the way we met some very generous people, had the opportunity to council some pretty troubled kids, and spent many nights eating super late night dinner with some of our newest and oldest friends. We had the privilege of helping out a homeless guy in Gainesville and even sharing our faith with a runaway teenager late one night over Tacobell. Tour is always so refreshing because we just wake up and have no idea what God has in store. All we know is what city we have to point our truck towards. It teaches us to be consciously aware of what God might be doing around us and we lived with a heightened sense of purpose and direction. But this tour even more so than normal was filled with seemingly constant divine appointments and we were so blessed.
Musically speaking we got tighter as the tour went because we were still adjusting to the three piece but received a lot of encouragement from our good friends in Love and Reverie and Yearling. It was a blast to get to spend so much time with these guys as we have grown so close to them and love them so sincerely. We had a blast playing shows, exchanging got ems, and swimming across lakes.. Thanks especially to the many friends, both new and old, who came out to shows, hung out, let us crash at their houses, and just in general made us feel loved.
After tour, and some recharging family time for Jesse and I, we headed back to our wonderful home in Charlotte. It was so good to be home and to be back in all of these new relationships we had just started but it took almost a week to be back to routine because we spent three of our first few days in the studio with our friend Sid from Yearling recording a new song (go check it out at www.myspace.com/myepic). But things are back in full swing now.
Before we left for tour our new friend Jere moved in with us. He sold 3/4s of what he owned to do so and we are glad to welcome him in. He is one of the happiest guys I know and we have been glad to have him. Also while we were gone our friend Neal moved in as well. Neal is in his early thirties and has one of the most amazing testimonies I have ever heard. He was actually homeless till about a year ago and he has been a welcomed addition to our fold as well. He is extremely intelligent and has been crucial in us ministering more effectively to the homeless community here. Even though he is in college now and living with us he still spends most of his afternoons downtown with his homeless friends loving them and telling them about Christ. About two and a half weeks ago he came home and asked if I could help him pick up a homeless girl he had met (Neal doesn’t have a car). I was priveledged to help. Neal had spotted this girl not only because he can recognize who is homeless but particularly because She had a 20 month old child with her. We put her in a hotel for the week and have been neck deep in her life since then. She is also pregnant and due in December. Her mother died of AIDS and her father is into some shady business so she really has no one. We are currently trying to find her a more permanent situation so please keep her in your prayers. We have also had another new friend enter our family. Dave is another fine homeless gentleman in his late 40’s who was one of Neal’s closest friends when Neal was on the streets. He has been sleeping on our couch for almost three weeks now. He is a very skinny and heavily bearded fellow who laughs a lot. He has started to pitch in around the house as well. He often makes the sweet tea now and last night before the cookout he fixed our sink.
Our neighborhood cookouts have continued to be extremely successful in every sense of the word and in general everything is snowballing. More comrades, more need, more work, more grace, just more of everything. Also as of the 3rd T.J. has left us four Mozambique for the next four months. Please keep him in your prayers and we will keep you updated.
We have even begun to talk about finding a more permanent location for us in the community. As it stands now there are 5 of us sharing one bedroom, which is fine, but we really have no room to grow and it is becoming to cramped to really show hospitality. In addition Lindsey is three blocks away and we will have more girls moving here in the not too distant future. We recently became aware of a quad-plex for sale about three blocks away in our neighborhood. It would allow both the girls and guys to leave in the same building while still keeping up appropriate appearances. All four of the apartments are larger than the one we currently inhabit. It is an old brick building right next to the park in our neighborhood with a good sized yard. It would allow us to really plant a flag in this neighborhood for the gospel and really allow us to show the hospitality and generosity at greater levels than our current circumstances allow. It would be a big deal but we are more committed than ever to reach this neighborhood for Christ. We don’t have anywhere near the resources to buy it but we are beginning to pray intensely anyway because we know God can provide. If God wants us to have it our something else it will happen but we are gonna go ahead and do all we can in the meantime. If you are anyone you know has wisdom or resources that could aid us in this process please let us know. We covet your prayers.
May our hands be full of his works, and our lips full of his love,
Aaron and the boys
Musically speaking we got tighter as the tour went because we were still adjusting to the three piece but received a lot of encouragement from our good friends in Love and Reverie and Yearling. It was a blast to get to spend so much time with these guys as we have grown so close to them and love them so sincerely. We had a blast playing shows, exchanging got ems, and swimming across lakes.. Thanks especially to the many friends, both new and old, who came out to shows, hung out, let us crash at their houses, and just in general made us feel loved.
After tour, and some recharging family time for Jesse and I, we headed back to our wonderful home in Charlotte. It was so good to be home and to be back in all of these new relationships we had just started but it took almost a week to be back to routine because we spent three of our first few days in the studio with our friend Sid from Yearling recording a new song (go check it out at www.myspace.com/myepic). But things are back in full swing now.
Before we left for tour our new friend Jere moved in with us. He sold 3/4s of what he owned to do so and we are glad to welcome him in. He is one of the happiest guys I know and we have been glad to have him. Also while we were gone our friend Neal moved in as well. Neal is in his early thirties and has one of the most amazing testimonies I have ever heard. He was actually homeless till about a year ago and he has been a welcomed addition to our fold as well. He is extremely intelligent and has been crucial in us ministering more effectively to the homeless community here. Even though he is in college now and living with us he still spends most of his afternoons downtown with his homeless friends loving them and telling them about Christ. About two and a half weeks ago he came home and asked if I could help him pick up a homeless girl he had met (Neal doesn’t have a car). I was priveledged to help. Neal had spotted this girl not only because he can recognize who is homeless but particularly because She had a 20 month old child with her. We put her in a hotel for the week and have been neck deep in her life since then. She is also pregnant and due in December. Her mother died of AIDS and her father is into some shady business so she really has no one. We are currently trying to find her a more permanent situation so please keep her in your prayers. We have also had another new friend enter our family. Dave is another fine homeless gentleman in his late 40’s who was one of Neal’s closest friends when Neal was on the streets. He has been sleeping on our couch for almost three weeks now. He is a very skinny and heavily bearded fellow who laughs a lot. He has started to pitch in around the house as well. He often makes the sweet tea now and last night before the cookout he fixed our sink.
Our neighborhood cookouts have continued to be extremely successful in every sense of the word and in general everything is snowballing. More comrades, more need, more work, more grace, just more of everything. Also as of the 3rd T.J. has left us four Mozambique for the next four months. Please keep him in your prayers and we will keep you updated.
We have even begun to talk about finding a more permanent location for us in the community. As it stands now there are 5 of us sharing one bedroom, which is fine, but we really have no room to grow and it is becoming to cramped to really show hospitality. In addition Lindsey is three blocks away and we will have more girls moving here in the not too distant future. We recently became aware of a quad-plex for sale about three blocks away in our neighborhood. It would allow both the girls and guys to leave in the same building while still keeping up appropriate appearances. All four of the apartments are larger than the one we currently inhabit. It is an old brick building right next to the park in our neighborhood with a good sized yard. It would allow us to really plant a flag in this neighborhood for the gospel and really allow us to show the hospitality and generosity at greater levels than our current circumstances allow. It would be a big deal but we are more committed than ever to reach this neighborhood for Christ. We don’t have anywhere near the resources to buy it but we are beginning to pray intensely anyway because we know God can provide. If God wants us to have it our something else it will happen but we are gonna go ahead and do all we can in the meantime. If you are anyone you know has wisdom or resources that could aid us in this process please let us know. We covet your prayers.
May our hands be full of his works, and our lips full of his love,
Aaron and the boys
posted by My Epic at 1:51 PM
2 Comments:
the aklah house,
the other day i was sitting in my room, thinking about something very deep and important and african when the tranquility of the moment was shattered (or hightened, depending on perspective) by:
(in the key of jeremiah)"NOBODY GONNA SEE US TOGETHER, BUT IT DONT MATTER O..."
dead serious. perfect does not begin to describe the situation.
i hope things are going well in charlotte. please give my love to lyndsey and russ and kristy and lee and neal and jerry and skragles the cat.
life here is amazing. sometimes i forget where i am and then the kids will start singing together and drums somehow magically appear as everyone starts dancing this crazy rhythmic stomping dance as you know that only people who were born here, grew up here, live and breath and die here, can. then i remember, oh yeah, i am in africa. there is still a large transitioning period to undergo (such as learning portuguese), but ive loved every stretching moment thus far.
sorry, i really should get going though.
i miss and love you all.
teejay.
Wow, you guys are doing so much. Honestly, I mean it when I say this: God bless you, and the work of your hands.
I don't know what I'm going to do "when I grow up," but I know that I need to be actively making a difference in people's lives for God's glory. --And from what I can tell, that is what you guys are doing. Thank you guys for living your life with God's help in a way that is about others more than yourself. =]
Anyway, I found out you had this blog because thefreechristianmusicblog.com mentioned it. However, I did know of you before that--I got to see you play in Bartlett, IL and even though I couldn't bring one hundred friends, Heather said she really like it, and I did, too.
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