Rockin' out in the Middle East

Yesterday was the first day of the Spiritual Revival 2009 over here, and it was awesome. We have met pastors from all over the country who have traveled up to 2 hours on foot to two days travel on a motorcycle to be here. Much of our team has felt the calling that we are here to build these men and women up to be bold and have courage to share Christ with their friends and family.

I was able to bring a guitar with me from the states and when I got here I really didn't know what to expect. I wasn't sure what, if any music would be done, and on top of that would music that I played translate at all. Yesterday I took my guitar with me to the Revival and as I walked in I was stoked to see congas, a drum set, a choir (robes and all), and a guitar player already there. I walked up to the guitar player and asked if I could play with them and he graciously said yes. Now I had tuned in the morning before leaving the hotel after an early morning personal worship, so when I got there I know I wouldn't be too far out. I wasn't out of tune but they weren't in-tune, so I tuned to the other guitar player. After we tuned my acoustic he looked at me and asked if I wanted to play the electric guitar they had. I said sure, and we proceeded to tune the electric guitar. After we got everything tuned together, the guitar player went over to the keyboard and tune again to it (Which through me out of tune again). So after all this we began to play, and let me say that, these people know how to bring it when they worship. SING A SONG AND SING IT WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE. oh, yeah and during the first song the Low E string broke on me and through the guitar out of tune again. So, I just went to playing some ornamentation that fit into the song. BTW, after the first set I was able to tune everything and we when right on playing and praising, it was awesome.

Terry, preached yesterday about the importance of raising a Christian Family and following a biblical view of the family. Most of the Christians here are only 1st Generation Christians, so they don't have a patriarch or possibly anyone else in their families that are Christian, they are it and many need a guide to raise their families biblically.

After lunch I preached on Evangelism using Paul's example when he spoke to the people of Athens about their statue to the "The Unknown God". I did have a first yesterday, I had never preached through an interpreter, it was defiantly different. My interpreter is a pastor that traveled 2 days to be with us from his home by Mt. Everest. After I finished preached, I was asked to bring a message in song, so I chose "O Glorious Day." What a humbling experience, to raise Christ up with song in a foreign land.

Well, I thing you have heard a lot about my day, today is the 2nd day of the Spiritual Revival then we go on the road to the boarder (which is a 3 hour car ride) and we will do the same Revival up in the mountains during Saturday and Sunday...here they have services on Saturday. I am so stoked, please pray that God opens doors that we can't even imagine and we would be bold to walk through them.

oh, yea and I road on the back of a motorcycle through the streets of town, which was like riding through a mexican city, lots of traffic...IT WAS AWESOME!!!