Everything is bigger in Texas... especially the hearts.

Just got back from Texas. What a blast. Putting it into perspective, there's no better feeling then travelling with friends and playing music. Well, ok maybe it sits third to seeing your child for the first time and sex. Yeah, I said sex, and if you're married you know it's true. We had a fantastic time in Houston/The Woodlands with plenty of fun, jokes, old/new friends, great food, and music. We were, however, short one man when J (our rhythm/keys player) realized the night before that his passport expired a week ago. Ironically, J is probably being the most responsible and well-travelled person in the band which made this mishap even more startling and dissapointing (especially for him). We recovered, however, by re-arranging some songs: Jeff played more electric, I played less lead, and Jill sang backup. Musically, it took teh students some time to get used to us, but late in the sets they seemed to have "got it" and there was a great worshipful atmosphere.

When we weren't taking extremly long detours to get to our destination, we were making fun of Tim's ugly/beautiful beard, complaining about the temperature of our family-van, and being totally blessed by our friends at Woodsedge Community Church. One of the coolest things about our weekend was the staff/leaders of Woodsedge and there willingness to be as helpful and encouraging as possible. Two things we heard all weekend was "How can I serve you?" and "How can I pray for you?". The student leadership staff and volunteers were rediculously kind to us and were always wanting to serve us in any way they could. We were so blessed and it made us feel like we were home. I (we) give so much thanks to Jason, Rocky, Tara, Greg, Todd, and all the other folks that were so willing to just plain ol' love us. It made our stay so welcoming.

I honestly believe that if all of our churches were filled with people like those above, our world would be is good hands. If the church was occupied with people who were so adamant to love/serve others we'd be in good hands. Not only that, but they are a church that prays for other churches in its community and they (as a congregation of about 6000) memorize scripture on a weekly basis. That's cool. God is blessing their church and for good reason.

Though I did miss Catherine and Noah very much, the experience was great and I'd love to go back; anytime, anywhere. Here're a few pics from our trip:
The best trunk-packer in the business; seriously.
Rehearsing in the Student Ministries Building (great venue)
Our tri-annual visit our favorite pawn shop: Guitars, Guns, & Gold
The band (minus J)under the lights.
We are that fast (somebody messing with shutter-speed)
Going to The Cheesecake Factory; some of the best food we've ever had. We realy missed J, but he may have been replaced by our amazing waiter named Gene. Gene wore white pants and had a lasting impression on Jillian.
Sunny A/B'd his signal (clean/dirty) between an AC30 Head and Bad Cat Cub IIr (lucky!)

this was my rig for the weekend: Fractal Audio AxeFX with Ground Control Pro (w/ tap tempo and 2 Ernie Ball expression pedals). Tim used an SWR Workingman Head with Aguilar 210 cab. Nice.
This is the view from the stage of our Sunday morning crowd.