Don't take my word for it...

I'm going to switch it up since I had a ton of pictures last time, i'm going to use more words this time, though not necessarily mine. I think i've mentioned it a few times how I would love for all of you to get a chance to meet the kids and people i'm travelling with and see us perform. And it is so true but I also realize how difficult it is on your part since we don't exactly make it out anywhere close to the west coast, this year at least. I asked my parents to write a short blurb about what they thought of everything when they came out.

"I came as a spectator to see Daraja in concert...but it was more, so much more. Very soon after we arrived, it hit me - we were there to worship our King! Yes, worshipping in different ways-some sang, some clapped with the music, many stood quietly and listened-but we were all there giving honor and praise to God! I found myself thinking how, one day, this is how it would be in Heaven, all nations, all peoples standing before His throne and worshipping Him! I also found myself praying for these precious Daraja kids just like I have always prayed for our sons, that they would love and walk closely with Him all of their days. And oh, yes, of course, it was REALLY neat to see Stephen! God IS good!!!!" - Mom (Diana)

"WOW! It was really great to see & meet the Daraja Choir live at the Grace Community Church in Cranberry Township just northeast of Pittsburgh.

Seeing their worship set was truly inspirational. Listening to the words sung in the worship songs were very encouraging and helped us to focus on worshiping God for His goodness & majestic character. There were some very inspirational moments, one came from a video in the program that provided background on life in Kenya for 2-3 of the kids in the choir and shared about their background family/home situation which made their singing and worship songs even more powerful to see in their joyful spirits knowing that God will be providing for them was really heartfelt. Having the children in the choir come up uninhibited giving us hugs and engaging us in conversations really was a sweet time of fellowship and it affirmed what we were seeing and hearing.

The 410Bridge staff were great too. They were not worn out by all the travel and long days being with & caring for the kids. You could tell that the staff’s love for each other and the kids were overflowing all the time. Their genuine love for each other (staff & kids) give us a glimpse of what it would like in heaven with God. There would be singing, praising, abundant joy, hope and encouragement flow from every corner of heaven. All because He loved us first! Praise the Lord for what He is doing with 410Bridge and in each of the kids lives.

You’ve got to be there ‘LIVE’ to realize the fullness of the sweet fellowship, the overflowing love and joy of knowing God!"  - Dad (Bill)

I know the video isn't great, but maybe this'll help a bit too.


 
Been travelling through North Carolina much of this week. We're taking a plane to Ohio on Saturday and will be there the weekend then flying back to North Carolina come Monday. I'm  especially excited because i'll get to see my brother in Cincinnati!
 
Hearing some of the stories of how God selected these kids (yes, from hearing these stories it is pretty evident to me that God's got His hands on them!) for the choir from Grace, the wife of our choir director Abbu, has been incredible. It really does just add so much to their testimony and ability to lead worship. I hope to someday get a chance to know them all and then share them with you!
 
Thanks for following my journey so far and the continued support! Much love!

"Lord You are good and Your mercy endureth forever..."

Our concert at the Scranton Cultural Center, which looked more like a castle, was awesome.

"To the Glory of the Grand Architect of the Universe"

But of course, that's just a bonus to how awesome the worship time was.

This week we've gotten the chance to have our longest stay in a place to date. It has been an amazing 4 days in Cranberry Township, PA, which is about 30 minutes away from Pittsburgh. Part of the excitement in being here rests in the beauty of the surrounding nature. Either we don't have these back home or I just haven't really noticed but the trees changing color has been one of the most magnificent things i've seen in awhile! Look how gorgeous it is!

On Wednesday, I was blessed to have my parents fly in from San Francisco and get the chance to worship with the choir! I appreciate their sacrifice as they woke up at 6am PST and made it just in time for the concert at 7pm EST. They loved the kids and I know the kids loved them. If only there was someway that all of you my dear friends could meet these amazing kids and the rest of the choir!

So you're probably wondering what is up with all these cowboy hats and no, we don't normally have to dress like that. I actually forgot to take a picture with my parents after the concert but luckily they were around for another day which just so happened to be our host church's Fall Festival, a Western Round Up!

The kids were able to get in some cowboy/girl get up.

Mechanical bull! Yeeeehaw!

Over the course of this week I have felt absolutely blessed to catch glimpses of God's goodness and mercy in my own life:

• I wholeheartedly appreciate the love and support of my parents in sacrificing the time and money to come out to Pennsylvania. I hope that they really enjoyed meeting the kids and getting to be led in worship by them. How incredibly encouraging it was to get to see them! 
• The devotional time in the morning has been refreshing. Abbu's words of wisdom to everyone on what humility should look like as talked about in Philippians 2:3 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves." and this understanding that if we're not fulfilling God's purpose for our lives than we're wasting His grace.
• I've been blessed to spend a pretty good chunk of time with another wonderful host family who have been a loving, living encouragement to the boys and I. It's awesome when you get to see God's love lived out through His people, who are all over the place, time and time again.
• As I continue to get to know the kids more and understand their lives back home in contrast to the way they exude love and worship wholeheartedly, it is as our tour leader says it should be, it is becoming an encouragement for me to worship God with that same kind of freedom through the life I live.

Time for us to ride off into the Sunset as we start moving back south again, next stop Waynesboro, VA... Much love ya'll!

Just a typical Daraja week.

Let's see, to continue from where I left off.

The White House! I had gone when I was little but didn't recall anything so it was pretty exciting of a trip for myself as well. Our big secret service tour guide was pretty funny and had a lot of little random facts and stories about different presidents or rooms that made it overall pretty interesting. For us adults at least, I think it was too far of a connection culturally and probably even language wise for the kids. In seeing their responses we changed our course from touring the Capitol building to just looking at it and taking pictures with it.

During our lunch break, a man who worked with the security at the Capitol building told us some more interesting stories and details surrounding security detail around the area and what not. I definitely enjoyed it.

In the last week we've also been in New Jersey for a performance and now we're in Pennsylvania. It was great because on our drive from NJ to PA, we caught glimpses of snow on the ground and the kids definitely got excited about it, with it being their first time ever seeing it and all. You could just feel the excitement rising on the bus and then we gave a little lesson on the do's, don'ts and what happens with snow.

For those of you Office fans, we'll be performing in Scranton, PA tomorrow night.

So today was my very first day off, along with CJ, the only other guy intern, and Dan, the choir's new Kenyan choreographer. When our tour leader, Christi, first told us about off days I thought to myself "I don't think i'd want to take a day off." But as the day approached for me to have my first one, I gladly took it. Not to say i'm begging to have a day off though. And what a day it was...

Sleeping in till 10am. Magnificent.

Watching the snow fall outside the window. Beautiful.

For lunch, homemade Philly cheesesteaks. x2. Delicious.

Dan, CJ and I cutting each other's hair in the freezing garage. Beautifying.

Watching Florida barely sneak by Arkansas. Exciting.

Eating a steak the size of your head for dinner. Satisfying.

For one night not having to usher kids into their showers and off to bed. Relaxing.

Tomorrow is back to work. Of course it is enjoyable work though! We'll be singing a couple of songs in 2 different church services and then performing at the Scranton Cultural Center, which seats about 1,700. Nothing but another typical day with Daraja!

Worship Him tomorrow! And everyday after! Much love.

(for the record, all the really nice photos are courtesy of the great CJ Palmer, even if I forget to mention it)

"When God lifts you up, stay humble."

Wow. This weekend has been so crazy and incredible. I wish I could describe it all and share every little bit with you but that would take some time. Time which I don't have at the moment and time which I wouldn't want to take from you but let me share with you some of the highlights and moments where God really shone through!

- Friday morning waking up at 4:45am to sound check with Mac Powell, the lead singer of Third Day, at the Catalyst conference in Atlanta, GA. It was definitely some God strength that was imparted to all of us on staff and the kids as they definitely had more than enough energy throughout the entire day.

- Watching the kids perform Mighty to Save with Mac Powell in the late morning session in the Gwinnet Arena which seats about 13,000 people.

- Seeing the kids lead people in worship at the Center for Performing and Visual Arts in Newnan, GA.

- I'll go into more depth about this one. On Saturday, our kids got to perform 2 songs by themselves and then 1 song with Third Day at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre. Third Day was the headliner but there were also other groups there such as Jars of Clay and Glory Revealed. Originally the kids were to perform God of Wonders in the middle of Third Day's set with them but after Mac had sung with them during Catalyst and during their earlier performance, he asked if the kids would sing with Third Day the song Agnus Dei, the second to last song in their set. It was great, except the kids didn't know the song. So, about 2 hours before Third Day was to do the song, the kids got a private practice session with Mac Powell. Check it out.



The performance went well. From my standpoint I thought that it was incredibly powerful. The tough part was that we finished performing around 11pm and were planning on travelling to a hotel in South Carolina, which was a 2 hour drive so we got in around 1am.

- Sunday morning, once again God showed His blessings to us in the form of energy because after finally getting to bed around 1:30am we had to wake up around 6am in order to make it to soundcheck for a church we'd be singing at. This church had 4 different services that the kids would be singing in, throughout the day and each of these services had about 3000 people.

- Today we travelled from Anderson, SC through North Carolina and Virginia to where we currently are now in Gaithersburg, MD. Took us about 8 hours, which is kind of funny when you think of it because I know that it could take a person 8 hours to get from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

- Tomorrow is a bit of a vacation day, though i'm still waking up around 5:45am but that's in order to make sure we have a full day visiting the White House and Capital building! The kids are definitely pumped for that.

As great as all this was throughout this insane weekend, there's one thing that God put in my ear and has been reminder ever since. After the private session with Mac Powell and everyone was totally pumped up and excited, Grace, the wife of our Kenyan choir director and essentially the Daraja mom, said this "When God lifts you up, stay humble." That is so important to remember, even for myself though I have no role in the actual performances, I could still feel a sense of pride building up in me even in just the things that God allowed me to a part of. One of the most beautiful parts of these kids is seeing their humility in their worship leading because it is so true that when pride enters the scene, it really begins to rob God of the glory only He is deserving of. Humility is definitely a characteristic I am striving to truly live out.

Prayer would also be great in the area of making sure to find time for just myself and God. The schedules can be so busy at times that I have oftentimes not made that time though I know that's when it is most important to do so. My desire is for my character to be reflective of who He is and that really is something that will be born through my pursuit of Him. Time for me to really start making that happen.

Thanks for all the prayers, really felt God holding us up this weekend and I know your partnered prayers had a part in that. Much love.

New adventures don't ever cease around here...

First day of school for the kids was today. It was a full day of school. I'm helping out with the 4th grade class and got tested right off the bat! As we entered into division, myself and the lead teacher soon found out that a couple of the kids had forgotten their multiplication tables that they'd learned over the summer. Division without multiplication can become quite long and tiring so I spent most of the day trying to help a couple of the kids memorize their multiplication tables. It didn't go so well so if anyone has any tips on that, i'd love to hear it, hah.

Intern run concerts 1 and 2 done. There have been some microphone problems but other than that things have been going well. Got the chance to dip my toes into my different concert roles and they went alright even as nervous as I was. But that doesn't really matter because this is what makes these nights of worship special every single time...

Incredibly beautiful isn't it? Some of the best worship leaders i've met...

(Photos courtesy of CJ Palmer)

The busiest weekend is just around the corner! My tour leader, Christi, told us that in this upcoming weekend we'll minister to more people than the rest of our tour combined! Let me describe it to you so that you get an idea of how big it really is. There's a conference in Atlanta, Georgia for pastors and leaders of the church called Catalyst where there will be over 12,000 people. This will be our first performance Friday morning. I believe our soundcheck is at 7am which means we rendezvous at our host church at 6am which means i'll probably need to wake up around 4:30am to shower, wake up the kids, get them ready, make sure we have breakfast and then travel to our meet up point. Then we travel during the day to go to our one non-christian venue the entire tour. Quite the contrast of arenas if you think about it. Then the next day we'll be performing in a family picnic concert featuring Jars of Clay and Third Day. We will actually be performing with Third Day! Then on Sunday we will be travelling to South Carolina that night for possibly our biggest church performance, a church that has about 15,000 members.

Prayer for this huge weekend would be amazing! That energy and rest would be given to all involved with making each thing in order to assure the glorification of our great God is at the center of it all. Specifically for that one non-christian venue, Newnan, that eyes would be opened and hearts would be turned to the knowledge of all that our beautiful Savior has done for us. That everything would work out smoothly from transportation to host homes to sound systems and everything in between.

As nervewrecking as this time could possibly be, we know that the almighty God is on our side, so we say...

Bring it on!

"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone: my hope comes from him." - Psalm 62:5(NIV)

First off, thanks for the prayers and encouragement. Defnitely been a lot of learning experiences and there totally still are but i'm pressing along. Everytime I hit a rough patch in situations, just around the corner of it God seems to have a point of emphasis showing me the amazing company He has surrounded me with and through them, displaying and reminding me of His love and peace.

I hope the story is right... but the first weekend in LA, I was talking with the 3 boys I was chaperoning and learned that the 3 of them were from the same tribe, Kikuyu because they were all singing this tribal song. I thought it sounded really cool and asked them to teach me, and... I couldn't get it, hah. Then this week as we were headed to the Braves game, I happened to be in a van with 5 boys, 3 were the ones I had, and it happened that all 5 of them were Kikuyu so I asked them to sing a tribal song. It was different than the first one than sang but I like this one just as much. Even from just a video like this you can feel the joy these kids can bring, though of course it isn't always this easy. Without further ado, check it out. 

In my second host home of the trip so far I, and the boys i'm with, have been totally blessed by the family we are with. They are amazing people with obvious love for Christ that is seen in their character and how they interact with us. It has been very refreshing to me. They took us to little tail gating at a high school football game. Though one of my boys was more interested in cheerleaders than the game, another in thunder sticks and the other one just wanting to go home cause he didn't understand the game, it proved to be a fun night.

As of today, our Daraja family was made complete as the last boy, who is part of the choir but was delayed because of chicken pox, came in with 3 other Kenyan adults - the wife of our choir director and like Daraja mom, another motherly figure and teacher and our new choreographer. I look forward to getting to know them better as they seem like great people and i'm sure have a lot of wisdom they could impart to me. Something about running through a practice with all of them there just felt right. And I have set my bar low and have told myself i'm going to have one dance down by the end of the summer though my fellow Daraja staff members assure me that after 37 concerts, it'll all be a piece of cake. If any of you know me and rhythm... let's just say, I have my doubts, hah, but i'm going to give it a full, whole hearted shot!

As long as it has felt, the routine begins tomorrow. We've got our bus, a long story in itself because our old bus took 8 feet of water in a repair shop during the flash flood in Atlanta though I did hear a few horror stories about that bus so not so bad of a thing, and we'll begin travelling in it tomorrow. Then along with my role of being a parent i'll be helping out with loading the bus, setting up recreational games, assisting to teach the 4th graders, running the lyrics/videos during concert and then manning a table trying to get kids sponsored through an organization called BrightPoint for Children after the concert. On Sunday will be the first concert run by us, since the performance in LA was at a conference we didn't have as much responsibility.You know what that means? The fun is just about to begin!

I'm up later tonight because I get to sleep in to 9am tomorrow! I'm not being sarcastic, totally excited for that and will now go make use of it! Much love!