Join in the Song… release and tour

It has been such a long time coming,… and with a little nervousness, I must say… I am so excited about this new music and what God is going to do with it!  We held two nights of worship, inviting friends and family to come out to hear the new music and have an advance opportunity to pick up the CD before it releases in June. Somewhere between 600-700 people came out to support us, which was incredible!  Thanks to those of you who made it!  It really meant a lot to us that you would come out (some of you twice!) and celebrate God’s goodness, and faithfulness with us.  The CD doesn’t even officially release until June 3, and we are getting great and encouraging emails from so many of you about songs that minister to you.  Thanks for that… it just gives me so much hope to know that God is using this new stuff in a powerful way, and He is going to keep doing that!  

So,… June 3… that is the big day of the release.  It is funny, because while I have done this so many times before,… this just has a much more intense feeling associated with it.  It is like I have worked so hard and poured so much of me into these songs this time, and wrote and rewrote and rewrote again,… getting as honest as possible in these songs, etc,… I have spent far more than I have ever spent on this project and spent so much time on it,… I just have this intense, overwhelmed feeling of release in putting it out there finally,… and hopefully, you, the listener, will appreciate it on a whole new level.  I feel like I am “starting over” in a sense… regrouping and reinventing and reemerging,… so we will see what God does with all this. First things first,… We leave June 9 for summer travels… 6 camps.   That is always a fun time.  Then, as soon as we get home from summer, we have a couple of weeks off until we are suppose to step out on a fall tour.  Yes, I said it,… and for those of you who were around during the early days of Fidelis, you know I said I would “NEVER” do that again… well, I digress,.. here we go… gearing up.  Even now, I am beginning a process in my mind that is preparing me for what it is that is in the planning stages right now, that will become the first leg of the “Join in the Song” tour… not totally sure what that looks like, but am sure it will be great nights of worship culminating with an invitation for all in attendance to join in His song,… the song of the Redeemed…  I am excited about this idea of touring, strangely.  I almost hated it when we did it for the fidelis CD… there is this dread that I will wake up in places again and not know where I am.  I did NOT like that feeling at all… and then, there is the issue of being enclosed with so many people in a van for so long.  Not that I don’t love the band,… but… really?    Have you ever been in closed, confined quarters with moody musicians before?    Ah well, I am sure that it will all work itself out and we will have so many more stories of how Great God is, the cool people we met along the way, the great (but few) moments of impromptu whiffle ball games,… (morningside… here we come… dustin stretch out this time) : )

This tour will be a little different though,… I will come home far more than I did on the first one.   Josh and I both will be home here and there.  So, yeah, here is what is different this time around,… I have 3 kids now… THREE! and Josh will have one on the way,… So, Kelly will be manning the fort with THREE CRAZIES running around, and Bethany will be great with child when we take off… poor planning?  No… strangely, I say God’s timing…

(The list is endless on this one trust me,… if it were up to me, this CD would have been out last June instead of this June!)  So, I know it is God’s timing,…

Alright,… this post has been long!  BUT—please pray for us… pray for the release,… pray for the tour plans, pray for tour sponsors… we need them badly!  Pray for all the needs of the ministry!  I feel like now, more than ever, it is so expensive to do what we do.  The costs that we have put out there is nothing short of a small heart attack waiting to happen (!)… and the costs of the tour will be tremendous as well, but,… we know this is where God is moving us to go, so we go…

I will post more details later!

Blessings!
John