Honduras
Ever house-sit before? I’m spending a couple days taking care of a couple tennis-ball obsessed golden labs! I feel like I’m gonna cough up a furball when I’m done over here! Anybody have a crazy experience while staying at someone else’s house?
-Josh
8,000 miles and an “Everything” bagel
Well folks, it’s that time! We’ve reached the end of our tour this month; and I have to say, it’s been one of the best tours we’ve had as a band. We started out early this month in Fargo, North Dakota with an incredible group of students preparing to fight an incoming flood. We were inspired as they rallied together in unity and purpose. We then ventured east across the country to worship together with thousands more students. We ended finishing things up Sunday night in Demotte, Indiana with a great community of believers.
As a band we’d love to express our thanks to everyone that was a part of our journey this month. From host homes, to youth pastors, promoters, and especially to everyone who came out to see us! We’ve loved getting to know you all!
At the moment we’re hanging out in a bagel shop in Boise, Idaho, taking a bit of a break from our 40 hour journey home. I’m downing an amazing “Everything” bagel in between sentences and reflecting on all that God has done this tour. I personally feel more than ever that He has a powerful purpose in what we do. There’s nothing more invigorating than seeing our small gifts used in a powerful way to touch people’s lives. I only pray that God will continue to open the door for us to share Him with others.
Part of what we did this month was visit a bunch of awesome radio stations! If you haven’t heard yet, our radio single “Sing Along” is beginning to hit the airwaves, and we’re excited to see where it goes! Make sure to keep an ear out for it on your local station. And if you haven’t had a chance to Pre-Order our new album, you can still do that, and we’ll mail a signed copy to you next month. Check out the link below.
As we prepare to finish up our 8,000 miles of driving this month, we ask that you would continue to lift us up in prayer. More than buying our CDs and shirts, we rely on people like you that will pray for us and tell other people about what God’s doing through our ministry. And if we’ve impacted your life in some way, let us know about it!
Thank you again to you all for making this great tour possible. We look forward to many more, and to seeing you all again soon!
-Josh
Sixteen Cities
https://missinginkshop.com/sixteencities/store/albums/pre-order
GROWTH
We’ve signed a record deal. We’re about to release our first national album. Our radio single comes out in the next week or two. We’ve toured all over the world, and the opportunities to go more places continue present themselves. We’ve had the privilege of ministering to tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people over the past 6 or 7 years. And there are many of exciting things ahead of us!
I remember wanting all these things to have happened about 4 years ago. I thought we were ready. I figured we’d be signing a record deal in about 2007 and it was only a short matter of time before we would have things figured out.
Apparently God had some different plans. And dang, I’m glad He did. As I look back at some of our old pictures, and the timeline of things that have happened in our lives, it becomes very obvious that we had no idea what we were doing. But even though we couldn’t see it, God was gracious enough to make us wait.
I’m terrible when it comes to being patient. I want things to be finished yesterday. I hate to wait!!! But there is something so important and natural about having to wait. Growth takes time.
This is totally random, but I absolutely love guacamole. I could eat it almost everyday. There will most definitely be avocado trees in heaven… But did you know that it takes anywhere from 5 to 13 years for an avocado tree to actually produce avocados?! If it was my tree, I’d be like pumping fertilizer into the tree, watering it every 10 minutes, singing happy songs to it, trying to speed it up! I want my guacamole!!! But regardless of what I do, the tree will take years to grow.
I think we can act the same way with God. We try to speed up his plans. We want things to happen on our timeline. But little do we stop to think about the reasons things aren’t happening NOW. We need time as people to grow and mature. He wants the fruit that we produce to be healthy and lasting. He sees the big picture.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Maybe it’s time to stop trying to speed God up, and instead step back and walk with Him. I bet He’ll show you how much room you have to grow. And I expect that when we all look back at ourselves in 5 years, we’ll realize how little we knew today.
~Josh
Silence
We’re hanging out at Suttle Lake Camp this weekend with the students from Rolling Hills Church out in Tualatin. There’s something so refreshing about escaping our daily lives, venturing into a world without cell phone reception and lightning fast Internet. The first thing I notice when I get to a camp like this? Silence. Phones aren’t ringing, beeping, vibrating; stealing our attention every 30 seconds. There’s a distinct lack of noise in general. It actually takes a while to figure out exactly what’s missing. But something definitely feels different! Where are the cars driving by, the construction going on, the TV cranking in the other room? It’s almost uncomfortable, awkward. But at the same time, it’s so beautiful. I don’t know about you, but I often struggle with feeling distant from God. I don’t seem to hear Him well. And very rarely can I get close enough to feel Him. It can be completely frustrating! It’s hard to always be surrendered to a God that I’m not communicating with. But I’ve been wondering how often God is actually speaking to me, and I’m unaware. Or how often is God trying to answer my questions and struggles, yet His still small voice is drowned out by the noise of my life? How often do I stop my striving, pursuing, struggling, and just… simply..… STOP! I thought this was an interesting quote from Mother Theresa. “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…. We need silence to be able to touch souls.” That quote is slightly ironic to me, since as a band, our job is actually to create music, sound, and noise. These things in themselves aren’t wrong by any means, or necessarily a distraction. In fact, our heart has always been to lead people closer to God through our songs. But I’m thinking for our music to have any type of power and impact, it must come from a place of being connected to God in a real and powerful way. We need to be able to share God’s words and his heart. And that connection to Him may just come from us learning how to be silent. ~Josh
