ahhhhhh...the beautiful Rocky mountains!!! I'm finally here! It was a great trip with minimal complications, which is a huge praise. We all got here safely, no equipment got lost and everything was pretty much on schedule.

This is a picture of the beautiful view from my dorm window. All the young, single staff are staying in the Westfall dorm on the CSU (Colorado State University) campus and all the Keynote men are all on one corridor of the eighth floor.


It's blazing hot here but fortunately my roommate and I got a room that's on the west side of the building, so we don't get the sun straight into our window in the morning, which is nice! And plus, our building is right next to the main quad where a lot of our conference activities take place. The cafeteria is also right next door, which is a huge plus as well.


We all got to campus around 4p.m. on Friday, which gave us about an hour to get ready for our all Keynote staff dinner that took place at a local church nearby.

Here are pictures of some of the students on our short bus ride over there. Hey...I had to get some pictures of people on the bus.

Kevin and Stephen Great face man


Students riding in the back of the bus


Keynote serves in many capacities at CSU and Crusade values our ministry to other staff at the conference very much. But because of that, we're always running around doing ten bazillion things and never have a chance to meet together just as Keynote ministry. So the dinner was designed to reel us in and give us a touch point for family time before we went off running around to all our setups, rehearsals, etc. It was a really fun time.


Pam Gaither gave us a rundown of what would be happening during the conference and Chris Zaugg, the Keynote director, exhorted us with a scripture passage to listen to all that God has to say to us as staff here. New guests visiting with us were introduced and also all new staff that had just joined the Keynote family.

I, along with about 10 or 11 others, was among the newbie crowd at CSU. There are Keynote staff here who have been to CSU before, but only as interns and not as official full-time staff.
10 or 11 new staff!!!!! SO exciting!!! We're expanding so much! Praise God!



Jake Fronzak. What hair man. What hair!


Here are all the students from our summer projects that came to help lead worship for the campus staff during their ministry days here at CSU. Ministry days are just when all staff from all around the country each meet separately to fellowship and receive vision for their ministries. It's a blessing that the students are here to help serve in this capacity! They're doing a great job too.

We had dessert, hopped back in the bus, came back to the dorms, settled in and got ready for the next day. And with that said....


Here, below, is a picture of the rehearsal space I rehearsed in with the Student Venture worship team for 12 hours this past Saturday!!! 12 hours!!! That's half a day! It was a very grueling practice but very rewarding as well. I don't think I've EVER rehearsed that much for anything in my entire life.


All in all, we had about 22 songs to choose from and we decided to go for about 15 of them. We went through about 11 songs during the course of the day, which was pretty good considering Ed Pithey, our worship team director hadn't played guitar for over 6 months and the bus ride over here from Indiana was the only time he had to practice the material!

Praise God he has great musicianship skills and was able to pick up everything very quickly and led the rehearsals very effectively. We had a couple of rough spots with some guitar solos, the timing of things and I had a bit of trouble playing along with the metronome, which I'm still getting used to.

It's so hard trying to keep in tempo, playing the right rhythms with this constant, "beep! beep!" going on in your head and being creative, all at the same time! The first few times I tried it back when I played with the Kazak's, it was hard to get used to, but by now, it's getting more natural and I'm able to just flow with it a lot better. Praise the Lord for improvement! I'm getting better at drums already! Praise God!


Of course we took plenty of breaks to keep us fresh and also so that our backs wouldn't give out from standing or sitting too long in one position.

Jen Barger's (bassist for our worship team) parents were nice enough to bring us a cooler filled with ice and also brought some extra drinks for us as well, which was super nice. Her parents have been on staff for something like 29 years!!! 29 years!!! Can you fathom that?! Her whole life she's been a staff kid...wow...I can't imagine.


Keynote Showcase
On Tuesday afternoon, BlueSkyNine, along with Chasing Elvis, got to play a showcase coffee house for fellow staff who were interested in possibly inviting a Keynote band to come play at their campuses for an outreach event.

I was hoping for more people to come out but it was only a handful, since most of them who came were by invitation. We had campus staff from Detroit, Kentucky, New York, and I think Ohio. There were probably more states represented there but I can't remember off the top of my head right now.

Here's Jimmy LeFontroy, of Chasing Elvis, introducing BlueSkyNine before they played.


And Chasing Elvis in the middle of their soundcheck


And the last act I got to see before I left was David Pendleton!


I was so glad I was able to see some of his comedy actl! He's really funny! To be honest, I thought his ventriloquism act might be a little cheesy, but it was REALLY well done and he has some really funny material.

David Pendleton is Keynote's full-time comedian whose specialty is ventriloquism. He has a cast of about four puppets that he uses for his routine and this time around he used Aunt Tilly for the showcase. Man...it was hilarious. He picked on various people from the audience to use as part of his routine and I can see he can engage a crowd really, really well. And this was just a small example of what he's capable of doing! Very exciting



Prayer
I was sick the first few days while here but I'm a whole lot better now, which is a huge praise. There has just been this really bad "flu bug" that's been spreading around campus and about half of the Keynote guys on the eighth floor corridor got it. It was NOT pretty.

If you could please pray for all our health and for us to take the necessary precautions, like washing our hands, to prevent us from getting sick too, that would be great. There has definitely been some spiritual warfare going on and it's just not pretty.

I firmly believe it's because we've been called here to serve the Lord and also to serve in worship that the enemy doesn't want us to be able to do that with joy and delight. Pray our attitudes would still be to honor and praise God no matter what. We need His grace and faith to be able to face each day.

As I've been here, I've also noticed how increasingly hard it is for me to have a consistent quiet time because I'm always running around. And that's definitely no good. I need to spend some quality time with the Lord so that I'm focused and in the right frame of mind for all that I do here. I can serve in my own strength and I just don't want to do that. Thanks!

Hey folks!

We're stopped at the Days Inn tonight, which is kind of a bummer because I went through all the hassle of booking us rooms at the Super 8 motel out in Salina, Kansas, but we cancelled those reservations and are now in Russel, Kansas.

We figured it would be better to go past Salina and tack on a couple more miles before we hit the hay. Totally understandable, but I went through all the trouble of booking us a place there! Oh well...

Anyways, it's been a long day. I spent most of it either practicing the worship songs our worship team will be doing at the staff conference on my little portable drumpad on the bus, or sleeping.

Sleeping was DEFINITELY in order. I'll take pictures of the bus tomorrow so you can see what it looks like. It's an actual tour bus! A real one with beds inside and everything else too! wow...very fun. Very sobering too, to realize that this is actually my job! And that I'll be on the road soon actually using the tour bus to tour. Very exciting.


Pray for us as the bus keeps stalling and in the middle of traffic while we were stopped, the engine stalled a few times. Pray it doesn't give us too much trouble tomorrow as we need to get there by 8p.m. for a special dinner Keynote is having.

The rest of our caravan followed fine and we didn't have many other problems besides that. I'm really looking forward to worship at the conference.


Once we arrive, the next morning, bright and early at 8:30a.m., my worship team will be setting up to rehearse THE WHOLE DAY. Literally. We'll be starting at around 9a.m. and ending around 9p.m. We'll, of course, have breaks in-between, but still...it's going to be a long one. Please pray for strength and efficiency in our rehearsals! Thanks folks. More stories soon!

Night.

Tomorrow morning we'll be leaving at 7a.m. tomorrow for Campus Crusade's national staff conference in Colorado! We'll be staying at Colorado State University's campus from the 15th until the 28th of this month.

I'm really excited for our first few days of the conference. What's happening is that there is what's called Ministry Days, which is when individual ministries of Campus Crusade come together for a few days to touch base together as a whole staff team.

Many staff from around the country in their respective ministries never get to see each other year round. So this is a very special time when they can all gather in one place and receive fresh vision from God, encouragement from each other, and great worship together at the conference. And the fun part is, Keynote gets to provide them with the worship aspect!

I will be playing drums for the Student Venture worship team. Student Venture is the youth ministry of Campus Crusade that reaches out to middle school and high school students. Collectively, there are probably around 400-500 Student Venture staff nationally.

I'm so excited to be playing drums for worship. All in all, I think doing what Keynote does in using secular music to reach out to others, worship just really hits home. It's just pure singing time to God. I love it. We'll be leading worship for Student Venture for about three days.

This weekend we'll be doing full day rehearsals, and I'm talking FULL DAY. We have about 22 songs to learn over the weekend! Granted we know most of the songs, we've never actually played together before as a team.


Please pray that God would unite us in one spirit and one heart to worship our God and lead others into His presence as well. Pray for my throat as I have not been sleeping well and developed a sore throat over these past two days (it's been really hard to swallow!). Pray for me to not get sick as I'm there as well. For those who've been to conference, you know how easy it is to get sick!

Oftentimes, before leading worship at conference I get spiritually attacked and the enemy likes to work and discourage us. Pray against the attacks of the enemy and that I would be strong in Christ.


Oh, and FYI, tomorrow morning we have one HUGE bus, one Penske truck with ALL our equipment in it, so please pray for that to get there safely, a smaller van with an equipment trailer, and two other mini-vans that are travelling all together tomorrow morning. Pray for travelling mercies! Appreciate it. Blessings to you all!

I'll be writing from Colorado! You'll be hearing from me soon :)

Hey all!

I have much much to share but before that I still need to catch you up to date with all that's happened during our student summer project time!

Here are some more pics from the last coffeehouse that we had:

Joey Caltabellotta (think that's how you spell his last name. Could've totally butchered it though). Funny kid. This is him with a crazy women's wig on, singing with Drew and the others.



Raul! The crazy Mexican bassist! This kid is seriously one of the best bassists I've ever seen up close. "Rock music is too easy" was what he commented on for the parts he had to play. Granted, rock music isn't that hard, true, the things he could do was WAY above and beyond that, so...Raul, vive le Mexico! Oh and Raul was the bassist for Mangofish.


Here we have JANIE!!!!!! Janie Sucupira is a really cool Brazilian woman who has come over here to Keynote from overseas to train with us for a while. She's a really good guitarist who is using her music to minister to others and share Christ in her native country. Janie, you rock! And backing her up on vocals and shaker is Ms. Denise Disarro! Denise is one of our staff training directors for Keynote. She's really cool too!


And here they are in B&W:


Zeke! I had to take this picture. Zeke is Tim Johnson's dog who always comes to hang out with us during our coffeehouses. He's such a well-trained, loving dog. When Tim is inside the office, Zeke will sit patiently outside our office front door until Tim comes out again. He won't budge! Talk about faithful and well-trained. Man. Wish Shogi was a little more like that! Alas, my pup is a rebellious one. But I still love him.


Miss Crystal!!!!! This girl can SIIIIIING! Wow...I was listening to her and really thought she should be on American Idol. Well, this last season wasn't too great, but you know what I mean. God has blessed her with a great set of pipes! You go, girl!


And of course...the moment you've all been waiting for...drum roll please...
The Griep 'n' Fletch 'n' Wu!!!!

Yes, we were the dualing violin with guitar trio that night. Rob, Owen and myself whipped up a version of Orange Blossom Special with some improv thrown in the mix. It was really fun, though the last part of it started to slip away from us. Oh well. Hopefully nobody really noticed that! Here we are, fierce in action.



This shirt is just hilarious. Sorry to all you Cornell and Ithaca College folks out there. This is a shirt worn by our very own Cory Martin who bought this shirt while out on tour with X-Nelo. I can't remember his exact reasoning for doing so, but I think it was because they were playing a show at another rival school and thought it might be funny for the non-Cornellians to see it.

It hits close to home for me since I went to school in Binghamton and know a lot of Cornell folks! hahaha...enjoy.

Nice.


And here are some pics of the students' last day before they left on tour!

This is Swerve, or part of Swerve, in the kitchen. Hillary, lovely face. Very camera shy as you can see.


Here am I with them. Much better Hillary


Hillary normal. Hillary weird again. She never learns.


Mr. Stephano!!!! Stephen is a great drummer. Also speaks spanish and is a music major, mainly in percussion. Killer stuff dude! He's got the Latin beats going on man. Groovin'


Sean. hahahaha...caught him in an embarassing moment.


And here's Mary Alice! awww...she looks so nice. And then there's Hillary again...can't you just be normal? Ruining my shots. seriously...GOSH!


Mr. Adam Smith also joining us in our conversation


Now, you've already seen the Kazak's but you haven't with Pakhit, their drummer who is actually in this picture! It was so sad that he was only able to stay here for a week because of his difficulties with his visa but I'm glad that he was able to come for at least that many days.

Dennis is to the left of me and Pakhit is the one next to Dennis. Last day I saw all of them! so sad!!! Sniffle, sniffle. They're putting out a CD soon, which I can't wait to hear. Again, so privileged and honored to have played with them.


And here is Proof of Purchase, our worship group packing up the tour bus before they left for Ft. Collins, Colorado where they lead about 500 or so students in worship at a youth conference! Blessings to them. God did awesome things while there.

They had their share of struggles and ups and downs as well but it was all worth it the end.




And so that's about it for summer pictures and my crazy three week training period that was like a whirlwind. I can't believe all this coming and going to and from New York started in late May. It feels like forever already!

Now I'm in the middle of preparing to head out to Ft. Collins, Colorado, where Campus Crusade's national staff conference will be taking place from July 14th to July 28th.

Please pray for God to prepare my heart for the messages and all He wants me to hear. Please also pray for me as I'll be playing drums on the Student Venture worship team. Student Venture is CCC's youth ministry and during their ministry days, from July 14th to the 17th, Keynote staff will be helping to lead worship for these wonderful people!

I'll be sharing more about what God did through the student summer project groups and also sending my newsletter to those that are on my mailing list!

And on that note, if any of you would like to receive my newsletters that aren't currently on my mailing list, PLEASE PLEASE feel free to e-mail me and I'd love to get those out to you. And if I don't know you, please introduce yourself to me! Blessings to you all.

You can e-mail me at chrisw@keynote.org

Night!