Here are some more pictures during my first three weeks at Indiana!

Mandrebo's house:
The Mandrebo's are Keynote supporters who were so gracious as to offer their house for a Saturday of fun for all the students and staff!

They have a HUGE backyard and just acres of land. Their house is basically a mansion and was a real treat for all the students and staff.

Some people swam, played volleyball, a vicious game of soccer and just hung out and enjoyed some great BBQ.

Here are some volleyball pics. I tried to get some action shots, but they didn't come out quite so great :)

Nice dig Crystal!


Ball way up


Where'd the ball go?


Seth with the return:


Good set by Stephen


Nice set Mr. Smith!


Scandalous picture of Joy and Rob. They were playing the slap game but taking a still picture of them makes it look like they're doing some strange meditation ritual or...hmmmm...I will say no more! Blackmail pic...MUHAHAHAHA

hehehehe...so scandalous


This is Joey on the left and Sean on the right. Nice shirt Sean! Sean was the bassist for the group "Young Isaac." They were supposed to come through NY for a day but it never happened :( boooo...they were scheduled to be in Jersey the next day so it was a little out of the way to spend a day in the city. Hopefully next time guys!




After our fun time swimming in the pool, throwing frisby, playing volleyball, soccer and every outdoor you could possibly think of, except kayaking, we all headed over to the bonfire for a time of praise and worship.

Carole Bongard also had the students share what God has been doing in their lives and what had happened earlier that day on our evangelistic ventures.

Many students shared about old folks they met at nursing homes and how God had used them and their music to touch their lives. I personally didn't get to share the gospel and see anyone accept Christ, but I did meet a lady who I gave the Four Spiritual Laws track too and she seemed quite open to hearing more about Jesus. How I wish I had more time...maybe I'll go back again.






The last Friday night Coffeehouse!


On the Friday of our last coffeehouse, Russ, the bassist for the Kazak group, left to go back to Kazakhstan. Apparently he had already missed a ton of school and had to get back to finish a bunch of finals he had to study for and take!! I couldn't believe he still didn't finish! But it was great getting this picture with him before he left. I will miss him and the rest of the Kazak group a lot!



The featured artist for the night was Mr. Blacksoil Project himself,
RAHLO!!!




Rahlo did a really short set with his mixes and beats coming from his G4 laptop. Pretty cool sounds considering! Awesome stuff.

At first hearing of his songs I thought they were o.k. and a little cheesy even. But after hearing him live, MAN! The dude is actually pretty good.

I say that not with the attitude of thinking that he wasn't that good in the first place, but that Christian rappers and Christian rap in general is EXTREMELY difficult to pull off well in a non-cheesy way that people can relate to, has punch and a message that moves you. His stuff was "bumpin'" and he definitely brought it.

The next day he performed at the Indianapolis Music and Arts Festival with a group called "Missing Six," I think they're name was called, and he was even better! I really hope he comes out to the East Coast and goes to some college campuses here. I think a lot of people would dig his stuff and give a chance to what he has to say about his personal relationship with Jesus.

Still can't belive He's 6'6", he has SEVEN kids and his wife is 6'9"!!!!!! WHAT THE???!! Where do you find a woman that tall around here??!!


Still more to come...

Hey all!

FINALLY! I get to update my blog! This is going to be quite an entry so buckle your safety belts! I'll speak through pictures :)

Here are some of my co-workers (laborers)!
On the right is Jill Ritchie, who is currently with Piper Down as a keyboardist/singer and on the left is Laura "D" DeBettencourt, who is SoulSeed's sound tech and also Piper Down's booking agent. They're super cool sisters who have been taking care of me. This was in the parking lot at Costco. They kept saying to me, "why are you taking pictures at Costco?? Do people really want to see that?" Apparently so!


Next is Mr. Seth Irby.
For summer project he's headlining with Captain Oblivious and he actually IS Captain Oblivious for many reasons. hehe :) Love you Seth.
In all seriousness, Seth is a great singer/songwriter and an excellent performer. It's funny because every time Seth performs, he seems to break all the rules that we learn in our communication drill classes. But it all works out in the end "Cause it's Seth." Great guy. Gotta love the lip ring, which he mentioned he wasn't allowed to wear at his Korean friend's wedding. Good to know for future reference.


This is a picture of one of our summer project groups, Mangofish!!!
Laura "D" is in the picture 'cause she and myself invited ourselves over to Mark's (a Keynote intern) place for dinner. haha. nice.
Up top on the couch is Phil (electric guitar) and Hillary (lead vocal/keyboard), in the loveseat next to "D" is Thomas (lead vocal/keyboard), then there's Bobby on drums, and Mr. Raul!!! The crazy bassist from Mexico. The kid is CRAZY good. Got chops out to wazoo. Rock music is way too easy for him.


Next is a picture of a bunch of students, most from the summer project band Swerve.
Chris Wachoziak is on the bottom left looking towards the camera. He's the drummer from Proof of Purchase. A real heart for God. He said this about quite times: "Getting up early in the morning to meet with God has literally changed my life." Praise the Lord! Next to him is Stephen, the drummer for Swerve. My Latino brother! You can play baby! He's got the Afro-Cuban beats going on. Awesome stuff. Standing up next to him is Ms. Mary Alice who is a killer keyboardist/organist. Sitting down with the camera is Jake, electric guitarist, standing up is Joey (funny kid. does a great Chewbacca impersonation. Studly man. Truly studly). And with her back turned towards the camera is Miss Lindsay Haddix, whose parents are currently raising support to be on staff! Pray for them to report to Keynote soon! Lindsay has a GREAT voice and is one of the three vocalists in Swerve.


I just love the face Mary Alice is giving me in this picture. "What...are you doing?"


Here we have some more students! From left to right is Chris Gibson in the blue shirt who plays electric guitar for Captain O, Mr. Kurtis, who is a KILLER drummer, some of the fastest hands I've seen, and next to him is Mr. Jake, crazy electric guitarist who can play a mean rendition of "Neon." All three of them are in Captain O right now touring in Australia! Pray many people come to accept Christ and that they rock it out for Jesus!


And here they are performing an original song Chris Gibson wrote for one of the coffeehouses:



PIPER DOWN

Here is Piper Down!



On lead vocals we have Mr. Seth Irby, on electric guitar with the crazy hairdo we have Mr. Sam Leo who wears soda cans strapped to his feet, back on keyboards there is Jill again, Dan Bongard on drums, Rob Cashell on the bass guitar and Mr. Matt Burgoyne who is a newlywed on electric guitar. These guys are INTENSE. But I like their message and how Seth shares his story with the audience. Awesome stuff.

Here are some more great shots:



Seth on the chair-nice




Students getting into it:


And now for our newest formed summer project gospel group, SOULSEED!!!!WOOHOO!!!
So many people on staff told me that they have been praying for a gospel summer project group for years and years and years. So to finally see the fruits of their labor in prayer with their own eyes was EXTREMELY exciting.
This group was brought here in part through Crusade's IMPACT ministries, mainly geared towards African-American college students. They can SINGGGG!!! And play too. Man it was so good to hear some gospel music played at the coffeehouse. More pics of them to come!


Here are some more pics from our coffeehouse on 6/3/05:
Mr. Joey C. from Swerve again:

Mangofish:

And Mr. Seth Irby again with Chris W. from Proof of Purchase, our worship band





Each Friday night we had a "Holy Grounds" coffeehouse as they called it and I was part of the logistics team for the time being while training. I had to do a lot of things like pack up the tour boxes for each group, which contained flashlights, an atlas, batteries, paper towels, duct tape, comment cards, buckets of pencils, etc. Basically everything they needed to operate as a band. I also got to be on food duty for the June 10th coffeehouse, for which we got some good ol' fried chicken!!! WOOHOO! Here are some pics from our fun dinner time:

students here are just waiting in line for the food to be served. In the hat with the pink shirt is another Hillary, another vocalist from Swerve. The girl can sing! Really funny girl too. Don't ask her for her elephant jokes. TRUST ME. Besides, mine are better :) hahahaha...you know I love you Hillary!
And next to her is Lindsay Cole!!!! The coolest MPD coach in the world! Lindsay helped a lot while I was raising support for new staff training and after Cory got really busy with things, she sort of took over and helped with several things in my MPD.

Here we are standing around some more...

And...the food!!! Finally!

Praise GOD for fried chicken. Man...I really wonder what God is going to give us to eat since there won't be any killing up there, thus, no animals killed or cooked, right? Man...God...no steak either? whew...wow...He's gotta come up with something good


Students eating on the grass


This is just classic. Gotta love it. Great shot Steve. hahahaha...And next to him o the left is Sean, bassist from young Isaac, and a clearer shot of Lindsay Haddix, vocalist for Swerve again.


And our featured band for that night was...CHASING ELVIS!

Up front on vocals and guitar is Jimmy-really funny guy and very down to earth. Good brother who prayed with me about some things I was going through. Thanks man! Mr. Randy Pahl is no electric guitar, Mia Pahl on the bass guitar, Mr. Dave Roux on drums and Arlee Brandt on keyboard and vocals!! They were definitely fun to watch.


Next up...the group I played drums with for this coffeehouse...
OSOBOE MNENIYE!
The title is basically translated as "Minority Report" from Russian

These were the Kazak's from Kazakhstan and I had the privilege of sitting in with them as their temporary drummer for this coffeehouse! Unfortunately, their drummer Pakhit got stuck in Russia because of a missing document he needed to get into the U.S. Needless to say, he was stuck there for about two weeks more until he was able to fly out here to Indy. And by the time he got here, there was only about a week left in the summer project :( So sad...but I'm glad he at least had that much time to stay in the U.S. and receive some training and exposure to other groups and Keynote music.

Here I am on drums!
Checking my tempo on the metronome...


Looking somewhat like I know what I'm doing


Looking like I don't know what I'm doing


Looking a little bit more like I know what I'm doing


Here's the whole group! They are really so talented. Domira, their lead singer/keyboardist is such a great songwriter!!! Man! I love their stuff. It's very unique in style and they have a lot of variety in what they write and do. It was really an honor and a blessing playing with them. Dennis on the left is on electric, Asselyah is on vocals on the right and Mr. Russ on bass guitar who had some REALLY sweet bass grooves. Good stuff. He just bought a Fender jazz bass when he got to Indiana as well. :) hehe...I know you're enjoying that thing Russ!



Here we are in a group pic afterwards with our communication drill coaches Dana Russo on the left, and Denise Disarro on the right! Chris Kellum, our other comm. coach was taking the picture.


Again, it was a fantastic night and I was ecstatic to have been able to play drums with them and perform for the coffeehouse. It was nice to do something musical during this whole time of training! I was mostly doing other things besides music since I wasn't placed in a summer project band or helping with one directly. If any of you would like to see some clips or have a copy of the DVD for that night, please let me know and I'll see if I can get you a copy!

There are SOOOO many more pictures, which I will post up very soon. Again, sorry for not doing it earlier. My PC didn't have Ethernet connection for the longest time and I wasn't able to upload pictures at work! More to come very soon!

Thank you all for praying for me! The operation went smooth with no complications and I recovered fine.

They drugged me up really good with a ton of anesthesia so when I got out of the operation I was really really out of it. Last thing I heard before the procedure was, "o.k., we're putting an oxygen mask on your head now." Next thing I know I wake up and the nurse says to me, "we're gonna need you to move over to the recovery room right now." I was like, "whhhaaaaa???? huhhhhhh???"

My housemate Rob drove me back home and helped buy all the meds I needed for recovery as well. After we stopped by Wal-mart I got back home and just plopped in his leather chair for the rest of the day pretty much. I was so zonked I just felt like a vegetable and couldn't move because I felt so naseous.

My body just couldn't take all the anesthesia and I ended up throwing up twice before I felt well enough to eat anything. Yes, it was pretty gross.

I had a chocolate milkshake and some cantaloupe, which in hindsight was not a good idea. The meds had not worn off yet and my body couldn't hold anything down. That ended up coming back out and my body was just completely deplted of all fluids and food.

My housemate Rob called the doc to get some advice on what I could eat and they told me just stay off the painkillers and get some ginger ale to help with it. By the way, does anybody know why ginger ale is the cure all for all sicknesses??? Have you ever thought about that? Whenever I was little and sick, my mother would always get me ginger ale and I would feel better. So strange.

Anyways, so I was able to have some ginger ale and bread before I went to sleep.

The next morning I felt pretty fine and just stayed in and took it easy. I ended up watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and jamming a bit with Rob and Owen (Rob's former housemate) on the Orange Blossom Special. For you fiddling boffs out there, it's a classic fiddle tune that is a sure crowd-pleaser. We ended up playing it last night and it seemed to be a pretty big hit.

So anyways, I'm just taking antibiotics and ibuprofen and seem to be recovering fine. By tomorrow I should be able to start drinking out of a straw again and I just hope I don't get dry sockets or any other complications. Pray that I get any food stuck in there and there are no longer any infections in my teeth! Thank you all so much! More updates to come! And when I can finally access the internet with my own computer I can post up pictures.

I've been wanting to put more posts on the site but unfortunately my computer isn't hooked up to the internet yet and that doesn't enable me to post a WHOLE BUNCH of pictures that I've been wanting to post up!

So I've been waiting to post them because I want to show you all tons of pictures I've been taking but just haven't had a chance to. Just wanted to let you all know just in case you're wondering.

But I do have updates that concern my own health!

I had some excruciating tooth pains last week, which kept me up for two nights in a row. I can take a twice dislocated ankle, jambed thumbs and knee injuries, but tooth aches? MAN...they DEFINITELY take the cake. I must confess I literally almost cried it hurt so bad.

I had a sneaking suspicion that it was a tooth infection and unfortunately I was correct. :( I went to the dentist and it ends up that my tooth infection is in one of my wisdom teeth that is in the upper left corner of my mouth, #16 as they've labeled it.

Because it's a wisdom tooth, and in order to get rid of the infection they would have to drill and then put a crown on it, etc., my dentist here suggested that I just have it extracted. And since I have two other wisdom teeth that seem to be not so great where they lie, he said you might as well get them all done at the same time during the same operation. So, lo and behold, YES, I am having oral surgery this coming Wednesday!!! Please pray for me!

I'll be in operation starting at 10a.m. I can't eat anything six hours before and the operation shouldn't take any longer than an hour I'm guessing. They're going to knock me out with intravenous anesthesia so i won't be awake for the operation at all. I may be completely out of it for the rest of the day so I'm planning to take the day off.

Please pray for a quick recovery, for the Lord to guide the dentists' hands as they operate on my mouth and for these nasty tooth infections to be gone!!!! Cast them out Lord! In Jesus' Name!

Thanks all for your prayers and support. Things here have been going great. I just finished my training and the students are now in the midst of full day rehearsals. They'll be out on tour starting June 16th! Pray for them to be well equipped and to be sent out in the Spirit of the Lord to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ! Good night!