the echoes of the saints lingering in my thoughts...

So 2 Fridays ago was bittersweet. I had gotten some great news in terms of my CTI trip (team and overseas tour destination was told) and got some pretty hard news about a friend of mine, Victor Paek. Victor was a 16-year old, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, who had been attending our church for about 9 months. Victor passed away last Friday during a multi-organ transplant and I was getting only bits and pieces of what happened as I was driving to Atlanta.

So. Sunday. The atmosphere at church was unexplainable. We were all mourning the loss of Victor. Yet, we were glad that he went to be with our Lord. "No weeping, no hurt or pain, no suffering, You hold me now..." One of the things DL spoke about was the impact Victor had made in all our lives. How everyday was lived as if it was his last. I know that's cliche and whatnot but it really spoke to me.

I realized a few things. One of the big things is this; I keep saying "I have xyz number of days until I'm in Willmar for CTI and have this worship opportunity." how sad is it that i have to depend on a missions opportunity to get super excited to lead worship? don't get me wrong... serving on harvest_PT is great. i enjoy it. but i can't remember the last time i said "zomgzzzzz 27 hours until I get to lead a friday night worship service!!!"

i wanna live to make His name high. Today is the day! Keep praying for me y'all. 8 days left in Orlando.

Some small updates on my trip.

I found out my team. They're all pretty awesome people. I'm not sure what to expect. And I realized that I made a huge boo-boo. I'm on an 8-person team... I miscounted the number of vocalists on the team. eek! So pray for all 8 of us.

I'm only at 2% of my support right now. Oops.

I also got my music. There's some songs on there that I know but a lot of it's new to me or hard for me to pick the parts out. Anyone know how to play the song "Never going back to OK" by The Afters on electric?

For those of you guys who wanna come see me off at the airport, I leave on August 14th, which is a Friday. I'm flying Southwest Airlines. Flight's at 9:35AM but i'll be there at around 7AM or so to get all my gear and luggage checked in and such. So 7AM next friday! come one, come all.

That's it for now. Much love. oooh! Keep praying for the Harvest Ecuador team.

Cheers,
Jon

Hey all!

So I just got back from a short vacation in Atlanta. We didn't really do much... just ate well.

On the drive over there though, I got a call from CTI updating me on my trip.

They told me that I will be on team 14:22 and our overseas destination is Taiwan! And I will be getting my music next week. Not sure what to expect.

I also met with the senior pastor of our church and told him about my trip. It's good to know that the Korean congregation, however different we may be, will be supporting my trip through prayer and possibly financial support.

Speaking of financial support, I got a letter last week from CTI telling me to get the ball rolling raising it. =/ oops.

Keep praying for me! It's much needed.

Cheers,
Jon

New Blog, New post

So... I decided to make this blog to journal and write down thoughts in regards to my music ministry opportunity.

Hmm... what to write. There's so many things going on in my mind, it's hard to write down.

Dang y'all. I leave in 27 days to head off to Willmar to meet my teammates and start practicing together. I still have to raise a big bulk of my financial support, get my music and start memorizing everything, and all the other logistical stuff.

Got a lot of stuff prepared on my end these last couple of weeks. Found a possible laptop to take on my trip. Pedalboard is mostly completed (need some more decent cables... might try a few lava cables instead of the George L's). Got the callaham parts for my strat and installed them. Equipment end is good (still need to stock up on strings though). Man... I didn't know just how much went into being a traveling gigging musician. It's been a real interesting informative journey though getting everything together. Training packet was completed and sent in too.

I feel so out of the loop here though... part of me feels like I already left. I want to hang out with people before I leave but it seems no one wants to? I know that sounds mad depressing and all. =/ maybe it's just me. Forreal y'all. let's hang out. Let's grab a bite to eat. Watch a movie. Visit Guitar Center. Go crab hunting. Go-cart racing. Whatever. It's all good.

It all seems so unreal. 27 days isn't a lot of time... I'll have 3 Friday Night Fellowships and 4 Sunday services to lead worship during. Maybe less if I have a chance to visit friends outside of Orlando and all. It'll be interesting leaving Harvest_PT for a whole year. I've grown so close to a lot of you over these last 5 years or so. I've grown so used to having a group of young, humble, extremely talented servants to play in a worship team with. I really wonder what my teammates at CTI will be like and wish they were like you.

Man. I need prayer big time. I dunno what it was but this last week was so discouraging. There was actually a day where I wasn't looking forward to going and having second thoughts about it all. Maybe it was the day I got my Hepatitis A shot. hahaha. But in all seriousness, I'm honestly really nervous about it all. I kept having these "what ifs" pop into my head. "what if i'm not as talented of a musician as they need me to be." "what if they send my music a week before I leave and i don't have anything down (because they still haven't sent my music)." "what if i don't mesh well with my team... i know i'm not the easiest person to live with..." One thing that encouraged me though is the amount of prayers lifted up these last few weeks for our summer missions teams. Shoot. If people fervently prayed for these short term trips... ya know?

So yeah. Not much else to update everyone on. The day approaches. Keep praying for me. =)

Cheers,
Jon