Nickspace!

When people asked me this week where we’ve played or where we were going, I would inform them of how I’ve felt like a pinball the last few weeks. I feel like we’ve just bounced between Stockton, Angels’ Camp and Modesto for the last 2 weeks straight!

Starting at Monday, we played in Angels Camp at Foothill-somethingorother. The youth leader we worked with is named Dusty, and his youth room is a renovated 3-car garage on the church’s parsonage. A lot of friends from around the area we hadn’t seen yet came out of the woodwork. We had a full room, and one of the best audiences I’ve seen in our band’s recent history. Props, folks, props.

Tuesday was a day off, so we drove to Modesto to visit our friends the Gendles of Generation New Hope. We ate a ton of food at their expense. We are very lucky they like us.

Wednesday, we met a funny 82-year-old woman at a music store called ‘Buck’s Music’ in Modesto, then led worship at 3 River’s Christian Fellowship. Their pastor Scott used to live in Oregon, and his family seems to miss living in the promised land.

Thursday, Joey and I got up before the sunrise and drove back to Stockton. Pastor Paul of Stockton informed us of some really cool flea markets we could hit that morning. Lu opted to sleep, but we went with our friend Josh, who knows those flea markets like a pro.
Later, we drove back to Modesto for Lu. We also met the Gendle ladies for a showing of a certain unnamed James Camereon Box-office giant in magnificent third-definition. It was glorious, but rather long.
After the flick, we drove BACK to Stockton to see Josh and Paul. We were supposed to spend the evening playing at an open mic downtown, but it was cancelled that night, so we went out and hyped the one we were setting up for Friday night.

Friday: If you missed that last paragraph, guessing what we did this day might be tricky for you. Pastor Paul wants to give his community something to do late on the weekend that’s safe and worth leaving your X-box for, so he converted his sanctuary into an all-ages open mic/coffee bar. They’re hoping for full bands, solo acts, comedians, magicians etc. It was their first attempt, and they had a turnout of about 30 or 40. We had a blast playing there.

Saturday, we went to the Gravity Church in Lodi, CA. Pastor Jason was really cool and let us stay at his house for the evening.

Today, Sunday, we got up at 5:30, got our affects, and drove back to, you guessed it, Angels Camp! We led worship again at Refuge with our dear friend Pastor Shawn. We left so early because we had to stop back in Copperopolis to pick up our recently pressed and FINALLY available Donkey Album! We’re finally actually kinda proud of something on our merch table. We didn’t get very many, so grab em while we got em.
Oh yeah, back to the day. After church, we finally watched some olympics. We went with our friend Mark from Sonora to an Angels Camp pizza place and watched the Gold Medal Men’s Hockey game between the U.S. and the Canooks. Needless to say, we were not thrilled by the outcome of the game, but we were very thankful that we got to see it.
Then we led worship for the evening service at Refuge, and got some dinner at Taco Bell for the third week in a row. I feel like it’s becoming a tradition or something.

Tomorrow morning, we’re driving far away to Bakersfield. I feel like I’m going to really miss being in this area. It’s starting to feel like a second home or something.

This week wasn’t filled with as many shows as it was memories. It’s late, however, and I’m feelin’ a might forgetful. I’ll try REALLY hard not to miss anything.

After our awesome hockey night with Pastor Shawn in Angel’s Camp on friday, we spent the rest of the weekend doing the only thing more manly that we could think of. We helped Shawn move. It wasn’t easy, but when you show up at a friend’s place with a monster truck and a trailer, you gotta expect that you’ll be helping him in the future. It wasn’t easy, but we were glad to help.

Monday, we went to Stockton. We stayed with our dear friend Pastor Paul at the Free Methodist church. On monday nights, they run a group program for juveniles that’re basically on the brink of prison. We had a few snags, but we love being there.

We stayed in Modesto until Wednesday, when we visited Salida Christian Fellowship in Salida. Joey and Lu were allowed to play our song ‘Beautiful’ at another Salida church for their Ash Wednesday Service. Afterwards, we went to (Salida’s)Pastor Paul’s house and played their Nintendo wii. If you’re interested, I’m terrible at baseball, but I’m not too shabby at wii golf. In fact, I’d say I’m downright incredible. I might’ve come in 3rd place(out of 4), but I looked good getting there.

Thursday, we drove through Sonora to Jenness Park. It’s a camp out far beyond the reach of cell towers. We led worship for over 250 junior and high schoolers. We thought we were playing a concert too, but the camp brought in the VERY talented rapper C-FLO for that. We had a lot of fun getting to know him. You should too.

http://www.cflomusic.com/

Book him somewhere/anywhere people like hip-hop. You shant be sorry.

Well, we did that pretty much all weekend. We got fresh snow the last day, which was of course this morning. The kids seemed to love throwing snowballs, which I guess is something I’ve outgrown.

We led worship at our favorite church in Angels Camp, Refuge, this evening. We’re looking forward to this next week. What did you do?

So in previous attempts to keep ya’ll up to date with the fun and interesting things in our lives, I would take pictures, and you could look through dozens of them and have a better grasp on what I try to explain.

Recently, I’ve picked up a new and fun VIDEO CAMERA. It shoots in high definition, and takes the space in my pocket my still camera once occupied. I still take pictures from time to time, but for the most part, I focus more on video. So long story short, you will see far less pictures on this blog, BUT, you can follow our youtube account and watch our much more enlightening footage.

Last Saturday, we left our quaint town of Brookings, Oregon, at 7:30 and drove all the way down to Copperopolis, California. It doesn’t sound like a real place, but it’s a small town around Sonora. They’ve had us in the past play rock concerts for their youth group on sunday nights, but because of the Superbowl, we led worship for their church, and watched the game with Pastor Sean and some friends. I was rooting for the Colts, but I think the Saints earned their victory. I think the real winners of this superbowl were definitely ‘The Who’.

Monday, We played some music for an Alcohol Anonymous group called Celebrate Recovery. Joey gave a testimony about how he has never drank. It was an interesting evening. It was a definite change of pace for us.

Tuesday, We drove over to visit some old friends in Paradise, Ca. It was an off day, and we were very happy to see Jim, Cheryl, and James Noland.

Wednesday, we played a show in Richvale. It’s basically a rice plant, a convenience store, and four blocks of houses. There’s one church in the middle of town, and they were very happy to have us play. We expected maybe a dozen people to come hear us, and we had over a hundred kids come out of the woodwork to come see us. It was our first real, electric rock show this trip, and we had a great time.

Thursday, we went to Willows, California to see as many of our friends in that town as possible in one day. We visited we a lot of friends from Mount Hope Bible Camp, and of course, our friends in Willows. We watched a very close girl’s high-school basketball game. The Willows Honkers barely lost in the last quarter. It was a hard loss.

Friday, after some pizza, we went back to Angels Camp, about 15 miles from Copperopolis, and visited our friends at Refuge. Our homie, Shawn McCammy took us on a Man-Trip with his Congregation to Stockton for In-N-Out and Minor-league Hockey. It was an incredible evening, and I can’t wait to see where the Lord takes us over the next couple months.