Monday, August 22, 2011

'Lo'dere!


And so it begins.... A year of travel, music and ministry with Carpenter's Tools International. A year of experiences, challenges and growth. A year in which I will call Willmar, MN home, a place where corn fields stretch as far as the eye can see and pleasant accents beckon a smile to curl one's lips. If the first ten days are a sign of what's to come then this year will be a marvelous one. Our first full day in town we got to spend at the lake swimming, bbqin', boatin' it up and playing games of Calvin ball, an intense variety of croquet (two out of the three games were won by yours truly; that's right!). We didn't crack open the music until the middle of the week. The first few days were spent going over policies and preliminary paper work for the year. Now we spend our days practicing and practicing and practicing our repertoire of songs. The added challenge is that they have me playing to a click track to tighten up the songs. A task that is a lot harder than I expected it to be. We get weekends off, and this past weekend we got to hang out at another lake (lots of lakes in these parts). Another gorgeous day of kayaking, Quelf, rope swingin' and a lakeside fire blanketed by a beautiful sunset. Sunday a group of us learned how to set up all of the instruments and equipment then spent the day at Chen Garden, one of the only Asian buffets in town, and straight chillin.

We are growing together as a group and are already sad that the two teams will have to go separate ways soon. I find it amazing that we are all unique people from different places and walks of life but can come together on the common ground of music and God. I had a revelation recently that out of every other drummer in the world who may be more skilled or suited for this task, God specifically chose me to be the drummer for CTI Fulltime 2011-2012 Team 14:21. There is a reason I am here, and knowing this means I have to take full advantage of the situation I have been placed in. I have so much to learn. So much to see. So many ways that I can grow. So many ways to be stretched. Who will I be in twelve months? Heck, who will I be one month from now? This is going to be big. Most likely the grandest adventure of my life thus far.

Even in these few days I am learning, growing, moving toward something better. I'm slowly letting go....................
................. slowly learning that this is where I am meant to be......................
                          ....................True faith is to come..........................
                                                ..........................True faith is now.
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