I can't believe that the death toll of U.S. soldiers in Iraq reached 101 in the month of October alone! Those are staggering statistics and in light of the concerts blue sky nine just played at Fort Gordon and Fort Jackson, it really puts things in perspective...

I'm so thankful we had the opportunity to be able to witness to those soldiers going through basic training right now and that they got to hear the gospel (some of them responded) before it was too late. I see now how truly significant those concerts really were.

Please keep them all in our prayers. They really need it. Pray for them all to come home soon and for the Lord to protect them from their enemies.


Here's an article from wcbstv.com:

101 Americans Die in Iraq...

"Thank you. Your testimony gave me some things to think about. I have accepted Jesus in my life, but I have fallen from having a strong relationship with the Lord. I want to build my relationship with Him." --Victoria (wanted to join Bible study)

I loved you guys. It's one of the first times I've smiled since last week. Thank you so much. --Matthew

And the best comment I've ever gotten on my playing:

Drums were the best I've heard live --Emmit

WOW! I'm glad you think so Emmit, 'cause I know I'm not the best drums I've heard live!

I don't share that comment to boast, but I share that because I'm humbled. I KNOW that I, myself, am not the best drums to be heard live. But to know that I'm one that sticks out in his mind as the best he's heard live is really humbling. It signifies to me just how much the concert meant to these soldiers and how it touched their lives. I don't think I'll ever forget it for the rest of my life.

Thanks Emmit. And we're praying for you wherever you go in the future. We pray for your safety, protection, and salvation to be in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

Have an awesome weekend everybody!

blue sky nine just got back from West Virginia two nights ago. Our show at Potomac State College went WAY better than expected! Praise the Lord!

To give you some background about what the campus was like, here's an excerpt from an e-mail I received from Randy Bonner, a Campus Crusade staff worker in the West Virginia region:

Considering all that, we were a bit concerned and honestly, a little afraid of what might happen during our concert. We expected a lot of opposition to the gospel, but amazingly, the concert went very smoothly, and no students said anything antagonistic towards us during the concert. It was really incredible. And actually, most of our audience showed up during Teresa's gospel presentation and sat down to listen!

I remember a group of fraternity girls who wandered right up to one of the tables with benches in front of our stage area and listened to Teresa share. That was really cool to see.

Before the concert began, we had the opportunity to hear what it's been like for them being Christians on campus and we had a really sweet and tender time of prayer with them before the concert began. We prayed for their safety, their strength, and for them to continue to be lights for Jesus on the campus, though it was difficult and very spiritually dark there.

Seeing how the concert went and what happened that day was totally a testament to God answering prayer and evidence of His Holy Spirit working on the campus.

So what happened at the show??

At the end of the day, we found out that one person had indicated a decision for Christ! Praise God! Teresa also got to talk to a girl who immediately opened up to Teresa about her struggles, her life, how lonely she was on campus, and where she was with God. After Teresa talked with her, some students gathered around this girl and prayed for her. She said she's really interested in being involved with Crusade and joining a bible study!

Again, I was thoroughly encouraged by how firmly these students were standing up for what they believed and I could see the joy of the Lord on their faces even in the midst of persecution and tribulations. I mean, they even said their afraid of proclaiming that they believe in Jesus Christ to their professors, in fear that they might fail the class! I can't imagine that...

They are my heroes and I am humbled by their witness for the Lord. May Jesus continue to shine on that campus.

Please keep the students at Potomac State in your prayers.

Thanks for reading friends!

So blue sky nine finally finished recording this week!

We spent most of this week in the studio, laying down three songs from our set. The purpose of the recording is not so much to give out to people as samples of our music, but to keep as permanent pieces, or mementos, of the band.

We recorded Black Horse & the Cherry Tree (KT Tunstall), Miniature Disasters (also KT Tunstall), and Landslide (Stevie Nicks). Landslide came out pretty nice, though I would've definitely liked more time to really nail down my drum part.

It was frustrating to me because I can still clearly hear a lot of mistakes I made, but hopefully I did enough takes that we can kind of hodgepodge it together and make it sound good. But I tend to think, "give the drummer (or any instrumentalist) more time to nail it down, then you won't have to edit so much!" But oh well...

I think knowing that our recording is for personal use than to actually "market" our band, helps me to let go of little gripes about it. Otherwise, I'd be super picky and don't really care if it takes me 50 takes to get it right-I want to get it down right! And I (we) shouldn't rest until it is.


Anyways, we head out for Keyser, West Virginia tomorrow. Next week will be blue sky nine's last tour for the group as it exists today. I'm really bummed that we won't be able to play at Sam Bartlow's school in Wheeling, where we were originally scheduled to play earlier this coming week (for those who don't know, Sam Bartlow was a summer project student at Keynote this summer with the praise & worship group, Proof of Purchase).

It was pretty much all planned out but last minute details fell through and well...that's how the cookie crumbles :( BOO! I'm sad we won't get to see you Sam! And your new bf (boyfriend) Cory either! Alas...we hope to see her again one day, which I'm sure we will :) We're shamelessly trying to recruit her and she's pretty much sold on coming here anyways. hahaha...right Sam?


We'll be gone this weekend until Tuesday when we come back home. We'll stay here until Thursday, I believe, and then head out for Georgia on Friday. We have one show at Fort Gordon military base in Georgia and then that's all folks!

It's been an interesting season for the band and for my life as well. I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about :)

Good night everybody! Have a great weekend!

Hey all,

So sorry, but I didn't realize you have to actually be on staff to access this site. DOH! sorry about that...

I'll try to download the issue and post it directly on my site. Thanks!

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Hey everybody!

Just wanted to let you know that Keynote's 40th anniversary is mentioned on the staff website page of Campus Crusade!

Click on the link to read the full article:

Keynote story

I've listed some comments we received from students at one of our recent shows in Iowa at Des Moines Area Community College.

This is why I do what I do...

I've been to several different churches, and I believe in a creator. I feel no religion has it right.

There is a god, but they aren't who you worship. How do you know the bible isn't hearsay?

I'm just lost & confused. I will find the right direction one day. You guys got me thinking.

I have studied the bible but I feel that the stories are only that, stories. But they help me live my life with good morals. Studying the bible word for word won't help my life anymore.

These were some encouraging comments we received:

I don't know very much about religion, because I haven't been to church since I was 5. I want to learn more.

Your message is REALLY cool! It's very encouraging to know that someone is going around sharing the gospel.

At our last show at Grandview College we had a Rwandan student indicate a decision for Christ! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Considering it was a small crowd with not many non-Christians there at all, it was highly encouraging.

Even if all we do is just for one person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, it is all worth it.

We just played a concert tonight that started at 9p.m. As you can guess, we ended pretty late and I am just about to go to bed right now...it's almost 2 in the morning and we gotta get up at 7a.m.! BLAH!

Tomorrow morning we'll be playing at Des Moines Area Community College at 11a.m. and then the following evening on Thursday night, we'll be playing at Grandview College.

I'd appreciate your prayers for both these concerts! Thanks folks!

Check back for more updates :)

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church...
(Colossians 1:24)

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, "If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn't object!"

But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed-you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service.

We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

(Taken from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost For His Highest, September 30th entry)

Gosh, doesn't reading that just make you mad?! It upsets me because it's so true. "Use anything, speak to me directly, Lord, but don't use people!" It's a lot more humbling that way and I believe it takes a lot more faith and builds a lot more character and maturity.


Before my last tour through Iowa, I sat down with an older confidante, and dialogued about everything that was happening with me at Keynote. We talked about how I was doing, how tour was, but most of all, about what God was doing in my life and where He was leading me.

I shared that God had recently been increasing my burden for overseas missions and the pursuit of social justice. I told her that what I really wanted to pursue was music with a social conscience. I want to be part of a music ministry that couples music with outreach to the poor, or raises awareness of issues of social injustice that is happening in our world.

I told her about a Ten Shekel Shirt concert I went to up at Cornell University, back in 2004. That was actually the night Clearview, my former band, got to open up for them. That was a real treat!

Anyways, their concert was part of their "Stop the Traffic" tour, which involved raising awareness of the sex trafficking of children that was happening in southeast Asia. They had video footage of undercover ministry leaders whose specialties were to go into these areas and expose the leaders of these sex trafficking rings and bring them to justice. It was such an eye-opening experience and really showed me the unique power music can have in affecting change.


After I finished my story, I said to her, "that's what I want to do."


She thought that was great and encouraged me to not suppress the desires and passions God had put in my heart, and to go after them. He put them there for a reason and it took coming here to Keynote, to really bring that up to the surface. And it's true...if I never came here, I would've never realized what I really want to do with my life and the kind of ministry I'm looking for.

I've been pressed, crushed, and poured out. God is pressing and pressing me down, closing in on those things in my life that need to be squeezed out of me.

Back in New York, and just where I was in life prior to full-time ministry, lent me to take things like pursuing social justice and ethnic diversity for granted because it was all around me! But being here has been like a pressure cooker that God has used to make all these things bubble up to the surface.

He's used people, situations, and very difficult circumstances to bring all these things to light. I am being more well defined as to who God has created me to be. He is teaching me how to live out of that truth and how to live out of my identity in Christ. I should not be ashamed. I should not just try to "fit in" and suppress these desires and passions just because very few or no one at all, may share the same values as me.

No matter what, I do not serve Keynote. I do not serve man. I serve the Lord. He is my God and I am His son. I follow Him and am not tied or pinned to one particular organization or set of beliefs. All that I do should flow out of my relationship with Christ and He is leading me. Wherever He leads me is where I should follow.


God's still got a lot to do in me in my time here at Keynote, but I feel that this time here is just a season in life that may pass after this year's new placement.

Nevertheless, I cannot look beyond this time. I must prepare for the future while fully embracing the present, soaking in and receiving all that God has for me while here. I must face the challenges, stand up to the test, and go the distance. I am facing the wind, walking right into the storm, with my Lord strong right beside me.

May we rejoice in our sufferings, our crucibles, as we are crushed by His fingers so that we may be "broken bread and poured out wine."