san francisco

This past weekend we got to spend a couple days in San Francisco. Even in the brief time I got to spend there I loved it. Mild weather. Large bike scene. Cultural variety. Good food. Cheap bubble tea. Lots of Asians :). My kinda of town. It was awesome to get to play at our guitarist's home church and get to know some of the people there. I will be back San Fran!

vibrafun!

chris wong rockin' the vibraphone

back from taiwan, off to canada

After a week of training back in good ol' Willmar, MN I'm back on the road with tea
1421. Our first stop was in our team leader's home town in northern Minnesota. Our next move is to roll across the border and put the 'I' in CTI by spending the weekend in Manitoba, Canada. Calvin, our token Canadian, is excited to be heading to his home land.


Oh and in case you were wondering, my three weeks in Taiwan were a blast! It is a country full of wonderful culture, beautiful people and splendid sights. Our team was partnered with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) who organized where we would be playing and gave us an apartment in the city of Dansui to stay in. It is amazing how much more receptive the people over there are to our music than most of the groups in the states we play for. Met some really cool people throughout our stay. The majority of our concerts were with universities and churches in the cities of Dansui and Taipei, many of them outdoors. Playing 28 concerts in less than 20 days does not afford much free time. We did get a day off, though. We spent our time riding a gondola to the top of the jungled mountains near Taipei where we wandered from one tea shop to the next drinking in the different views they had to offer rather than the plethora of homemade teas. After riding back down the the mountain in a glass bottomed gondola we hopped back on the MRT and made our way to the second tallest free-standing building in the world: Taipei 101. YES. So freakin' cool! 89 floors. 37 seconds. A view of a city glimmering with the lights of buildings creating blocks separated by glowing streets. Staring down from 1500 feet above the earth gives a sense of being larger than life that is soon countered when feeling the structure that stretches higher than few others dare sway under the power of the wind. I have to admit: I loved Taiwan and wish we could have stayed longer, but it is good to be back in th US of A. 

Constructing homemade rods with Jordan and the legendary Dan Meyers makes for a good night. The Black Fury rods need to be patented. With all this effort let's hope the sticks last the fall tour. 

i'm starting to

believe the ocean's much like you

cuz it gives

and

takes away

Zoltan Bekefy

http://1x.com/photo/45403/all/latest-additions/nature039s-power

I’ve got my life in a suitcase…

Cornfields blur in my periphery interrupted by red barns and groves of hulking windmills that could uproot and romp through the fields blasting lasers across the sky. My life is now split between living in a van and sleeping in a different bed every night playing concerts more days than not. After three weeks of training in Willmar, MN I am now on the road with Team 14:21. The rigid schedule of the first three weeks of training has been replaced by days lacking routine, something new everyday. We played our first concert at the United Methodist Church in Epworth, IA where we were warmly welcomed and greatly appreciated. We were rushed, full of anxiety and barely ready to play our first show, but somehow we held together. To our amazement Pastor Corby informed us that we were the best group she had seen in the past five years. Wow. Our first show. That’s some of the best encouragement we could get. We played morning worship at the church the next day.

Only a week into the tour and we’ve already experienced so much. Among different church venues we played at a homeless ministry in Chicago. The neighborhood we were in was rough. When we got back to our host home for the night and told our dad where we were he was dumbfounded. “You guys are really gonna learn a lot about the world this year….” I didn’t really know what to expect going into the homeless shelter. I wasn’t sure how receptive they would be to the music and to the message. I was blown away. They let us play 17 of the 18 songs in our repertoire, perform two short dramas and give two testimonies all the while getting more and more excited as the night went on. This is only one of the many great experiences. I am so blessed to be doing this. So many beautiful people, great places and awesome times. It has only been a week. Feels like at least three. I love these people. Too many stories for this blog to handle. I will archive them in the deep recesses of my brain to tell those I meet along the way and those at home when we meet again. I don't want to forget any of this. Don't want to miss a single moment. 

I was talking to the chaplain, Jay, at the rescue mission we played for in Rockford about life and how we each got to be where we were today. He spoke of a life-long discipline that God had put him through so  that he would be best suited for his job as a chaplain at this rescue mission. 

"The closer I get to God the bigger He gets." 

This thought of trying to gain understanding and losing it more and more. In the introduction of Timothy Keller's book The Prodigal God he writes: 'Nevertheless, one of the signs that you may not grasp the unique, radical nature of the gospel is that you are certain you do.' Is that why it's called faith? Because the truth doesn't really make sense in our narrow-minded human understanding? 

'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.
.