Epic Thoughts

New News

2011-05-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody,
We just wanted to update you guys on what’s been going on with us lately. First of all, to any of you who have seen us live, we have obviously experienced some changes as a band in the last year. Last winter, Jesse and his wife, Brooke, felt the Lord calling them to Detroit for some amazing ministry opportunities. Jesse was not excited about being less involved with the band but was very excited about where the Lord was leading them as a couple. We all prayed about it and felt that it was indeed where the Lord wanted them. So last march Jeremiah and his wife, Megan, and I all helped Jesse and Brooke move to Detroit. We were sure that it was where the Lord wanted them and equally sure that we were still supposed to make another record. A month later Jesse flew to meet us in Atlanta and we recorded “YET”. Last June we were blessed to begin having our friend Matt Doran play the drums for us. Matt used to be a member of The Heel the Serpent and was already a close friend of a lot of the guys in our community. Then after our summer release tours for “YET” Jeremiah also felt that the Lord had removed his grace to continue touring. He and Megan have felt called to move towards fostering children and other opportunities for some time but had just been waiting on the Lord’s timing. We had recently completed a tour with our good friends and label mates A Hope for Home. They had decided to focus on recording more and touring a little less. We prayed about it as a band and asked A Hope for Home’s guitarist Tanner Morita to start playing bass for us. Both Matt and Tanner’s entry into the band has been so smooth and truthfully this has been such an easy transition. Actually this is very old news as Matt, Tanner, and I have already done 4 tours together. Jesse and Jeremiah will always be a part of this band and honestly have had so much to do with keeping things together through the transitions. Don’t be surprised to see Jesse and Jeremiah around from time to time but we just wanted you guys to know that Matt and Tanner have been official members for some time now. I just wanted them to start getting the credit for the work they have already been doing as full members of My Epic. Special thanks also to the other guys in A Hope for Home for being willing to share Tanner with us. They will be putting out a new record this fall so please look for that.
Secondly, starting next week, we will begin to post an explanation for each song on YET. Many people often ask about some of the stories and meanings behind Yet and I wanted to put that out for those of you who are interested. So, beginning next week, we will start posting those one at a time.
Lastly, we will have a really big announcement next week…so please stay tuned.

2009-07-06T16:18:00.001-07:00

2009-07-06T16:11:00.002-07:00

2009-07-06T16:11:00.001-07:00

A Lot Of Catching Up To Do...

2009-04-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

So we haven't posted for a year and a half. I know it's bad but i can honestly say its not from a lack of much to say. Quite the opposite. It seems like centuries ago since i kept up with this thing but i am going to try to do better. We have seen probably over twenty different guys make extended stays in our house since we last wrote. Some have ended in heartbreaking drug relapses others in miraculous salvations and many of these relationships have never ended. In the last six months we have seen two close friends give their lives to Christ. One used to be homeless but now spends the day helping us work and reading the Bible ("Way better than Harry Potter"). The other is a fifteen year old kid from the neighborhood named Micquan. He has a crazy zeal for the Lord, raps about his salvation, loves to open the word with us, and tells everyone he meets how Jesus is changing his life. So much more has happened then i could ever make sense of. The cookouts have carried on and we continue to learn new ways to serve and love this community. We have fixed houses, housed the homeless, fed the hungry, built wheelchair ramps, loved the lonely, and whatever other crazy thing seemed to be in the spirit of the gospel. We have gone from being the new neighborhood fascination to the trustworthy veterans. We are learning so much about the value of our consistency and the value of a simple, constant, and blameless life lived before God and man. We are in love with our neighborhood and so privileged to get to serve it. Anyway i will try to post some more retroactive blogs.

Also we are now a non-profit so anything given towards our ministry can be documented and count as a tax writeoff. You send donations to either;
515 East 18th Street
Charlotte, NC 28206

or click the yellow "donate" button on our band myspace. It's on the left side under our individual pictures. We will make sure to send documentation of all gifts so please send return adresses.

As always the Lord is providing for us but we can always use help. Especially as the summer comes on and our community prepares to undergo two new marriages.

Praise the Lord. The Just shall live by faith!!!
grace and peacce,
Aaron and the crew

August - Sept 11th

2007-09-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

So things here are going extremely well. Sorry we haven’t posted for so long but time seems to always be running out. We were gone on tour for a large part of the month of August. It was awesome and we got to meet so many new people. It was crazy how many amazing people we got to meet and share our lives with. Almost everywhere we went we met amazing people and got to encourage one another. All the shows went well and despite some last minute cancellations it went very smoothly. We have just adopted this “we will be where the Lord wills us” attitude. Some nights we played for around 200 kids and other nights only 40 but it honestly it didn’t matter. If there was a large crowd than we made the biggest impact possible and if it was only a handful of kids then we spent as much time as possible getting to know them. Along the way we met some very generous people, had the opportunity to council some pretty troubled kids, and spent many nights eating super late night dinner with some of our newest and oldest friends. We had the privilege of helping out a homeless guy in Gainesville and even sharing our faith with a runaway teenager late one night over Tacobell. Tour is always so refreshing because we just wake up and have no idea what God has in store. All we know is what city we have to point our truck towards. It teaches us to be consciously aware of what God might be doing around us and we lived with a heightened sense of purpose and direction. But this tour even more so than normal was filled with seemingly constant divine appointments and we were so blessed.

Musically speaking we got tighter as the tour went because we were still adjusting to the three piece but received a lot of encouragement from our good friends in Love and Reverie and Yearling. It was a blast to get to spend so much time with these guys as we have grown so close to them and love them so sincerely. We had a blast playing shows, exchanging got ems, and swimming across lakes.. Thanks especially to the many friends, both new and old, who came out to shows, hung out, let us crash at their houses, and just in general made us feel loved.

After tour, and some recharging family time for Jesse and I, we headed back to our wonderful home in Charlotte. It was so good to be home and to be back in all of these new relationships we had just started but it took almost a week to be back to routine because we spent three of our first few days in the studio with our friend Sid from Yearling recording a new song (go check it out at www.myspace.com/myepic). But things are back in full swing now.

Before we left for tour our new friend Jere moved in with us. He sold 3/4s of what he owned to do so and we are glad to welcome him in. He is one of the happiest guys I know and we have been glad to have him. Also while we were gone our friend Neal moved in as well. Neal is in his early thirties and has one of the most amazing testimonies I have ever heard. He was actually homeless till about a year ago and he has been a welcomed addition to our fold as well. He is extremely intelligent and has been crucial in us ministering more effectively to the homeless community here. Even though he is in college now and living with us he still spends most of his afternoons downtown with his homeless friends loving them and telling them about Christ. About two and a half weeks ago he came home and asked if I could help him pick up a homeless girl he had met (Neal doesn’t have a car). I was priveledged to help. Neal had spotted this girl not only because he can recognize who is homeless but particularly because She had a 20 month old child with her. We put her in a hotel for the week and have been neck deep in her life since then. She is also pregnant and due in December. Her mother died of AIDS and her father is into some shady business so she really has no one. We are currently trying to find her a more permanent situation so please keep her in your prayers. We have also had another new friend enter our family. Dave is another fine homeless gentleman in his late 40’s who was one of Neal’s closest friends when Neal was on the streets. He has been sleeping on our couch for almost three weeks now. He is a very skinny and heavily bearded fellow who laughs a lot. He has started to pitch in around the house as well. He often makes the sweet tea now and last night before the cookout he fixed our sink.

Our neighborhood cookouts have continued to be extremely successful in every sense of the word and in general everything is snowballing. More comrades, more need, more work, more grace, just more of everything. Also as of the 3rd T.J. has left us four Mozambique for the next four months. Please keep him in your prayers and we will keep you updated.

We have even begun to talk about finding a more permanent location for us in the community. As it stands now there are 5 of us sharing one bedroom, which is fine, but we really have no room to grow and it is becoming to cramped to really show hospitality. In addition Lindsey is three blocks away and we will have more girls moving here in the not too distant future. We recently became aware of a quad-plex for sale about three blocks away in our neighborhood. It would allow both the girls and guys to leave in the same building while still keeping up appropriate appearances. All four of the apartments are larger than the one we currently inhabit. It is an old brick building right next to the park in our neighborhood with a good sized yard. It would allow us to really plant a flag in this neighborhood for the gospel and really allow us to show the hospitality and generosity at greater levels than our current circumstances allow. It would be a big deal but we are more committed than ever to reach this neighborhood for Christ. We don’t have anywhere near the resources to buy it but we are beginning to pray intensely anyway because we know God can provide. If God wants us to have it our something else it will happen but we are gonna go ahead and do all we can in the meantime. If you are anyone you know has wisdom or resources that could aid us in this process please let us know. We covet your prayers.

May our hands be full of his works, and our lips full of his love,
Aaron and the boys

7/1 - 7/15

2007-07-31T18:08:00.000-07:00

After a week at home for back to back weddings Jesse and I returned home to Charlotte to find things in full swing as usual. Since it has been awhile since our last post I will try to just hit some highlights. Our wonderful train hopper friends stayed for five days and we all became extremely close. They left us sadly on the Friday the 29th and have stayed in touch since on their way to Seattle. We had many so amazing conversations and fun times together and truly consider them family. Also on Monday the 25th we had our first free neighborhood cookout. That night just as we began to cook it started pouring and people kept coming so we ended up feeding around fifty or so people like 60 hotdogs, 40 hamburgers, and ten pieces of chicken. We got to know a lot of our neighbors better and even a bunch of our friends from the art community came as well. God really is blessing this simple idea of a neighborhood cookout and we greatly appreciate those who have graciously given to support this type of generosity. I wish I could say more about the already dozens of lives we are being let into and the amazing stories of each person but I don’t want to betray the many confidences we are being entrusted and trust is not an easy thing to regain. We have had three more cookouts since and things have gone incredibly well quantity in size but never in quality.
Also somewhere along the way during the last three weeks we have been making many new friends who have greatly enriched our lives as well as widened our ever increasing circle of friends. Inside the Art Warehouse (Area 15) where we often work there is a bike co-op where some civically minded bikers from around town fix up bikes (often very nice wealthy nadyme-downs) and sell them for profit in order to fund two key services. They do free bike trips every weekend for under-privileged inner city kids. They also offer free bikes to inner city kids if they go through a 6 week program one night a week where they learn bike safety, maintenance, and repair. It’s pretty sweet and we had gotten in the habit of going down and hanging out some nights, working on our bikes, and chilling with the dudes that work there and in this process we made one of our best new friends, Lee. He is just a totally rad guy and works in the city as a bike messenger and has begun to introduce us all of the many bike messengers and bike enthusiasts here in Charlotte. They call themselves the Rag Tag Armada and we are finding them to be intelligent, amiable, and inviting.
Also our inner circle has acquired two new key members. A few weeks ago while our friend Laura was visiting we met her friend Christy who happened to be looking for a new local church body and somewhere to serve more deeply in a “community that can’t financially give back” as she put it (I had to ball park the quote, sorry Christy). She spent all day with us and our train hopper friends; going to church, to the Italians ( community/church dinner), and just hanging in the neighborhood. Monday she came back and was crucial and helping pull of the first Liberation Cookout (as we have come to call them). Christy is finishing up her masters and in the weeks since we have had the priveledge of getting to know her boyfriend Russ, who is also a student. Christy lives only a few blocks north and Russ has already decided to move into the neighborhood with us. They are extremely kind, funny, and wise and their love for God is evident and they have already become critical in many major decisions we have had to make in the last few days.
And so you are up to date in general although generally speaking a week here feels like a month. So much happens every day I cannot overstate how much we would really like you all to come visit. Mondays cookout went great and Wednesday we met as a family to discuss how best to help a new friend of ours. We met her through the cookouts and she is 25 with 5 young children. She is really sweet and in a tough patch and we really desire to help her out more long term. God has really been using Lindsey in her life and we are looking to all engage and really help out so we covet your prayers there.
Also this week I had the opportunity to help one of our neighbors out. Robert is 50 and had a serious construction accident breaking both feet, legs, and ankles. It has been a year and a half since and due to the extent of the injury and lack of medical insurance and no income he cannot work and sits most days in a wheel chair outside his house. Monday I took him to run some errands and sure up some of the details of his lawsuit, which is pending regarding his accident. After his first accident he was hit by a car when crossing the road on his wheel chair and the second suit has complicated things. We had a good long talk amongst driving and he told me he would love to come visit my church but first needed to buy a new shirt cause all the ones he had are stained or ripped. I told him it didn’t matter at our church but I knew that wasn’t really the issue it was more about respect and dignity. So Saturday night after the whole gang met up with Lee for dinner we dropped by the store and attempted to by Robert a new polo shirt, we had trouble deciding so we picked him up two we all agreed had the best chance of suiting his taste. Last night his great nephew, Gary, who is 17 and becoming one of our best friends, came over and hung out with the whole gang. We had a blast and played a really fun game Lindsey taught us which had us all laughing but Gary definitely stole the show. Afterwards Gary, Lindsey, Christy, and Russ headed for their respective homes and Jesse, Jeremiah, and I decided to take our good friend mike on a late night center city bike ride. Mike has been one of our best friends since early on in high school and has been visiting for the better part of the week adding his usual and welcomed joy into the mix. We rode till 1:30 or so in the morning meeting up with a few of our newly acquired bike messenger friends and enjoying the beauty and Chaos of an unseasonably cool July night.
This morning Mike and I picked up Robert and Gary and met up there with the rest of the gang at church who had biked there. It was a great Sunday as Matt spoke on the importance of truly loving oneself in the equation of loving our neighbor. It was very powerful and he quoted several passages from 1st John as well as from a great book I read some time ago called “Blue Like Jazz”, which, I highly recommend. The whole service was great and I am sorry I can’t do a better job relating it. Afterwards we took Robert and Gary with the whole gang and us to lunch and then took Robert to the hospital for a checkup and some meds.

6/18-6/23

2007-07-03T21:24:00.000-07:00

Monday it had been decided that we would have Carlos and his wife Arlene over for dinner. As with most things with Carlos this turned into a straight up Block Party. Our current family, which consists of Jeremiah, Jesse, myself (Aaron), and our close friends Julie who recently graduated and her younger brother Wes, had already grown a little since our friend Andrew was again visiting not to mention Brooke, Jesse’s girlfriend, was in town for a few days. Carlos invited his friend Tarik a new neighbor of an Egyptian upbringing who is a young architect in town and who is extremely burdened with bettering the lives of our neighbors. Carlos also invited his good friend Chudy who came here from Nigeria and who runs a body shop and is also an artist. We also called our friends Matt and Michelle (with whom I previously blogged about having our crew over for dinner a few weeks ago) who in turn brought two of their friends Dan and Grant. So in total our intimate shindig turned into a block party for 15. Fortunately Julie, Brook, and the rest of the gang pitched in and we had just enough kabobs and jasmine rice to go around which is especially incredible since our oven kept tripping the breaker almost getting the better of the ever-patient Julie. Jesse and Jeremiah beasted the grilling, Wes made the sweat tea, Andrew made pita chips and humus dip and I showed up last second from a hard days work just in time to pour drinks and chat everyone up. After the amazing dinner we sat around in the living room and talked about what it looks like to really help the people in our neighborhood. Carlos brought up the true point that often churches come to a neighborhood like this and give out hot dogs for a day and while this is helpful it doesn’t solve any of the lasting problems. The churches go home feeling better and stomachs are full for a night but no lasting change occurs. We continued talking about what real justice would look like. Sometimes people need financial help, sometimes they have been denied work because of broken social issues, sometimes they were raised with broken philosophies and need a true unconditional relationship, but in any case it is the call of the Christian to bring justice and mercy to those who are broken, needy, and hopeless. But no matter how big or lofty this metaphorical "hotdog" is it still is, at best, an 80 year solution. We really have no hope but Christ and there is the constant balance we try to strike between meeting the temporal need and addressing the eternal one. A hungry man can’t listen till his stomach is quieted. About halfway into this conversation our neighbor Harry-O Busted into the door. Harry-O is a sixty something retired, veteran, disabled, black man from two blocks down. We see him hobbling very amiably every day on his way past our house to ride the bus to get some fast food and liquor and it should be stated rather euphemistically that due to the constant cup in his hand and daily liquor trip that he is always “feeling good”. Harry-O has a dominating presence and he often attempts to speak in rhyming poetic verse. Harry-O took full advantage of his large crowd and honestly between the slang and spirits we only understand him about half the time. He asked what we were talking about and since Harry-O never really gives you much of an opportunity to answer the minute he heard the word Christian he went into a tongue in cheek almost mocking rhyme on being good Christian boys. We didn’t know how we should respond to his words but when he was done he said Jeremiah looked like John the Baptist and that he was gonna sit down and that someone else should talk. Out of context and culture we had no response as we presented him with 15 plastic smiles. He continued with the Harry-O show for a while; a joke, everyone laughs but none louder than himself, and then he gives everyone a high five… every time. He finally left and a discussion between Matt and the rest of us ensued past midnight. It was a meaningful discussion and we appreciated all of the wisdom that was conferred upon us.
Tuesday morning found most of us quietly sitting in the chill room each quietly reading and spending time with the Lord. The rest of the day was rather uneventful but we accomplished a lot of work at the warehouse and continue to embed ourselves in this neighborhood. However one exciting thing of note happened. Our good friend T.J. moved in permanently to visit us. He had come to visit us a few weeks ago and has decided to become a part of what we are doing and will be with us till he leaves for four months in Africa in September. He is an amazingly brilliant, softhearted and funny guy. Wednesday morning we had another addition to our fold as Carlos’ friend Levi has moved in with us for a month or so. He recently left Charlotte for JAX but he wanted to come plug back in with his ministries here till his fall semester starts back up. We had a few more beds to spare so we are more than glad to take on another guest at this time. Wednesday afternoon we lost Andrew again as he left to go back to Lynchburg and spend some time with his brother and sister-in-law before they moved to KC. So we said another temporary goodbye and then the rest of us (Me, Jesse, Jeremiah, Julie, and Wes) headed to our friends Nells and Naomi’s house for dinner. Nells is actually Scott’s (one of Watershed’s co-pastors) brother and I have known him since two summers ago when we he had first moved here to help his brother and Matt start Watershed. He also owns the custom countertop business where Jeremiah works (he is actually the only employee and he loves it). Nells and Naomi are just super pleasant and fun people and we had a great time having dinner and playing with their two children and their three dogs. It was a blast and they are such good parents and will be increasing this fold very soon as Naomi is great with child.
Thursday was another killer day and ended well with dinner at our friends John and Kayla’s (we say yes to all dinner offers). They are close friends of mine from Watershed and I was excited for them to get to know the rest of the crew. John has been teaching middle school at an inner city school a few blocks from us for sometime and this winter they decided that in order to truly minister to these kids they needed to move into the neighborhood so they left their cozy uptown apartment and moved into the neighborhood next to ours. Dinner was great and we talked for sometime about life, ministering to an underprivileged urban community, and we even gleaned some wisdom from their young marriage. It was a blast and they came over to check the place out after dinner. We only live about 5 blocks away and when we got home we found our friend Neal sitting on the steps. We had a great time hanging out and conversation and Mario-Kart lasted well past midnight.
Early friday morning Jeremiah and T.J. had decided to take the day off and went on a 40-mile bike trip to the Catawba river and back. The rest of us went to work but since Jared didn’t need me today I volunteered to help our friend Matt out. He is coordinating the Gala, which is to raise funds for the Optimist Park Neighborhood Association, which will help to better the lives of the people our neighborhood. Once we have a neighborhood association we will be able to speak publicly in governmental forums about our neighborhood and attain tax money for beautifying and other valuable projects in this community. Matt is Larry’s (the coppersmiths) assistant he is really good at organizing these crazy art parties and I helped him prepare all day building easels and painting surfaces as he wanted to do a dry run tonight for the event which happens next week. As we worked we talked a lot about what God is doing in this community and what he is teaching each of us. We talked quite a bit about Harry-O’s addition to our Monday party. Matt said he was doing slam poetry, which is a tradition in the African –American culture of standing and speaking in rhymed verse and then sitting down to another’s response. This is done in a very ecclesiastical format and Matt said he used to go to poetry slams and speak Paul’s words from the Bible in poetic slam format and thus sneak the truth into the mix. Matt told me he was ticked that he hasn’t practiced in a while because he would have loved to answer Harry-O back in kind instead of flashing another confused plastic smile. Just for the heck of it I had Matt write his poetic response to Harry-O and even though he didn’t think of it till he was laying in bed later that night I am praying that God will continue to let us love Harry-O and speak truth to him.

You sound about as Christian as an apple pie
Even Demons know the turh while they live the lie
Don't come pussy-footin round these wildcats like we're some dandy lions
You are trapsing through the garden of the Army of Zion
So go on whistling in the dark by the light of these sparks and that's your decision
But if you continue living on your own
You wouldn't find your way home if you were a Harry-O-Pigeon

This once again sparked the ongoing conversation of knowing when to let love be the language and when to speak the hard words we know this world needs to hear. All these discussions usually come to the same conclusion; we can’t get away from being spirit led. I helped Matt all day and at the end of the day our whole crew went as guinea pigs. It was a blast as about 30 of us painted and manipulated each other’s shadows onto canvas and went crazy with paint. Once again many amazing conversations ensued and Neal spent the night again. It was crazy to think that today at only our 1-month anniversary of moving in we only had one extra bed left out of our 8 still free!

Saturday began with some work and then Jeremiah, T.J., Julie, Wes, and I headed north to hangout and help out with a scavenger hunt at my old youth group in North Charlotte. It was a blast seeing my old kids and catching up as they are growing up. Saturday afternoon Jeremiah and I hung out with Harry-O he took us to his house to show us some bikes he had (he had seen us working on ours and wanted to be a proper neighbor). As we walked to his house he told all the neighbors we were his white bodyguards and we continued to invite everyone to our new weekly barbecues. We had a discussion about continuing to find balance in ministering and spending time in the different worlds we have been given (watershed, the neighborhood, and the art warehouse). So we decided to start having cookouts every Monday and inviting anyone we meet in the neighborhood. Relationships are the key and we are going to whatever lengths necessary to infiltrate this place. Later that day we biked downtown because there was a huge concert outdoors and we new we could watch for free and we honestly just love biking around uptown (downtown). We ran into some friends and T.J. and Jeremiah split off briefly. When we met back up they said they had seen some travelers digging food out of the trash and had bought them some food and given them our number incase they needed a place to stay. Travelers, for the uninitiated, are people who live homeless by choice and travel the world by hopping trains and hitchhiking. They are extremely street smart and see so much in such a short time. Both T.J. and Jeremiah were highly involved with a community of travelers in Lynchburg and had made a number of traveler friends even though the cast constantly changes. They called us an hour later as we sat with our bikes downtown and we met up and took them home to our place for the night. And thus we met Brendan, Acacia, and Sean. Brendan is originally from Miami, a piercer by trade, and 20. He has been traveling since he was 15 and met Acacia in San Diego in the past year. They have been traveling together since then and were married by another traveler a month ago. They both met Sean in Buffalo two months ago and the three have been together ever since. They are all three so kind and it didn’t take us long to be playing Mario-Kart and laughing like old friends. Before we went to sleep they were telling us of their stop a week ago in Philly. They had been staying in a squat (abandoned building known by travelers) in the extremely dangerous Westside of Philly when two other travelers, who they had briefly met named Conner and Echo, brutally killed another traveler. They were shaken up by it and since the police were arresting everyone in the vicinity who met the “traveler’s” description our three friends had been arrested and questioned for 6 hours. It also just so happened that fox news was getting helicopter footage of the event and Brendan showed us the actual helicopter footage of them getting arrested. This led to a sweet discussion about how precious life is and the inevitability of death. We gave Brendan and Acacia the Chill room and Sean took one of the open beds in our bedroom and thus ended a quite eventful Saturday.

6/11-6/17

2007-07-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

Monday- Monday was fun filled as usual, this do in great part to the fact that Mama Rund was still visiting. Her impending departure on Tuesday was on all our minds, and she, as well as all of us wanted her to be able to experience Charlotte for all that it is. On Saturday, as you have already heard, we played a show in Roxboro and afterwards were approached by a young boy named Tavis who wanted us to sign our autographs on the copy of our CD he had acquired. He turned also to Lindsey asking for her autograph, but instead she asked him to sign her arm. Tavis had inspired all of us through getting to know him and hearing his story. He was born very prematurely and his family was told that he would not live very long and that he would never talk or walk. And now Tavis is a talking, horseback riding young man, and with one more surgery will be able to walk. So to finish my previous thought; one thing Mama Rund had never experienced was someone getting a tattoo. So we went and she got a little one. Just kidding, Lindsey wanted to have the signature Tavis had signed on her arm tattooed permanently because of the inspiration and meaning the story held, and so she did. All day and on the way there Mama Rund seemed pumped and ready for the adventure, but once we arrived and breeched the door of the tattoo parlor everything changed. She immediately went into “Mom Mode” and started freaking out. She complained of being hot but she was the only one who felt even remotely hot. But she endured the event, and then we all went and grabbed some ice cream across the street. Our beloved friend Andrew also met up with us Saturday at the show and it has been great spending time with him.

Tuesday- Tuesday was a sad day indeed seeing as how the time had come to send our beloved Mama Rund home. She was a joy to have here with us, she and her family are a blessing to all who they come in contact with, and have meant a great deal to Aaron, Jeremiah, and I. WE MISS YOU MAMA RUND!!! The day was pretty typical Aaron, Jeremiah and I all went to work in the morning and when we came home we spent the last few hours we could with Mama Rund then all went out to Azteca (an amazing Mexican Resturant) for dinner before taking her to the airport. Tuesday night TJ and I left for Lynchburg. He needed a ride back and I wanted to spend sometime with Brooke. We got in late after a small few hour voyage that consisted of some conversation, and a few “Godspeed...” ballads. It was amazing to see Brooke!!!

Wednesday- Wednesday began lazily. When I got up me and TJ went down to the Thor Construction Factory and hung out for a bit. Catching back up with some friends while also meeting some knew ones. After that we went out to the property our friend Tyler lives on which in quite breathtaking. To me it seemed like a little slice of west Virginia paradise transplanted into Lynchburg. So we spent some time hanging out with him and his dog “Diggity” Before returning back into the city. After Brooke got out of class I met up with her and we spent the afternoon together. When she left for work TJ and I met up with our buddy Andrew and a few other friends to enjoy a nice home cooked meal together. It was goodtimes. That night we watched the “Vice Guide to Travel” which was a very informative and crazy look at some cultures and locations across the globe that few people travel to.

Thursday- Thursday morning Brooke and I went to Biscuitville for spme breakfast. I mean how could we not. Afterwards I caught back up with TJ because Brooke had a summer term final. We cruised around and took care of a few loose ends and then went on to campus for a bit (Liberty that is). We caught up with our good friend George and spent some time sharing what has been taking place in our lives as well as critiquing and recommending some of our new musical finds. I spent the rest of the evening with Brooke, which was amazing just being able to snuggle up on the couch and talk. Meaning while down south Julie and Lindsey road tripped down to Georgia to pick up Wes, Julie's little brother who has since been living with us. They hit a mess load of traffic but eventually where able to find their way back to the “Q.C.”.

Friday- On Friday me and Brooke got up and headed back to Charlotte. I convinced Brooke that it would be a good idea for her to come down here seeing how she had been stuck in Lynchburg forever and also Charlotte always has a plethora of things to do, and Lynchburg kinda doesn't, especially when all the college students are gone. So a little over three hours later we arrived and I began showing her around. We first went to the house and I gave her the tour. Then we left and headed over to Tremont Music Hall to see our very good friends in “Love and Reverie” play. It was a great night and it was a blast catching up with all of them.

Saturday- On Saturday I awoke to my phone ringing, which on the other end held one girlfriend very anxious and ready to experience and soak in the city I now call home. And that is just what we did. We explored down town, went through NODA, enjoying some time at “Freedom Park” (and crazy enough stumble upon a wedding there). For dinner we went back into the city and ate a very nice meal. After dinner we cruised around a bit more and then went back to the house and all of us ended up going to our neighbors Kevin and Kobe's house to watch a movie.

Sunday- We woke up and went to church. Jeremiah and Aaron played in the band, and it was hilarious watching them try to “throw down” to some Michelle Branch. Afterwards we all went out to eat at Camille's the new place that everyone meets after “transit” (our Sunday morning service). The afternoon was just your typical lazy Sunday comprised of everyone falling in and out of sleep. Later that evening we all headed over to “Italians” at our friend Jostens house. It was great as usual, and many laughs were shared.

Here are a few pics, there will be more to come...
-Jesse

6/3-6/10

2007-06-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Aaron had to get up at around 6:30 to continuing helping our friend’s church lead worship, so needless to say, he was long gone by the time Jesse, Ryan and I woke from our slumber. Ryan asked us to take him to a coffee shop to finish reading Velvet Elvis, then Jesse and I picked Lindsey up and headed to Watershed. After Transit (the name of the Sunday morning service), there was a Threshold (the name of the leadership group at Watershed) meeting that we stayed for. It was an interesting discussion addressing the situation of diversity both in Watershed as well as the community at large. Lisa, from 24/7, as well as several other intelligent folks of varying races and ethnicities helped us understand what it is like to be a minority in America. We discussed what steps ‘A, B and C’ are for us as individuals and as a community of believers to begin to break down the walls of segregation that have been built up over the generations. Much depth could be gone into here on this topic, but I will spare the wordiness as I am confident that the outcome of that discussion will be slowly materialized and written about in dates soon to come. We returned home from Watershed to find Aaron half asleep, which we did not hesitate to disturb, being excited to see him. Getting woken up two goofy guys jumping in his bed, Aaron was quickly reminded of a lesson we have all had to learn which is that we can’t hold anything too tightly for ourselves, even our time (and our beds).
Monday was a great day and around 10 in the morning we heard a knock at our door. It was our neighbor Kevin wanting to hang out. He was bored because he is still unemployed so he came in and hung out for a while. We all had the day off so we went over and chilled at Kevin’s house for awhile as well. We still can’t believe how quickly we are being let in to the lives of our neighbors. We were excited today because we were going to get to see our friend Andrew who had a fortunate layover in Charlotte on his way back to Lynchburg. As some of you may know we lost a very close friend and amazing servant of Christ recently. Her name was Emily and we continue to wrestle with God as we begin to heal and look for his purpose in this. We met Andrew only 5 months ago as he and Emily had met and fallen in love and were going to be married this summer. God has expedited our friendship and we have come to love and respect him greatly. Sadly his plane came in late and we didn’t get to see him so we went and practiced instead.
Tuesday was another great day, which ended with having Kevin, his girlfriend Coby, and her son Budda over for dinner. We had a good time hanging out, telling stories, and getting to know them better. Wednesday and Thursday were days full of work and band practice because we actually have show planned for Saturday. Truth be told we are still making the transition to a three piece but this show is for the youth center Jesse helped start so we were trying to pull something together in time. Also on Thursday our good friend T.J. arrived. He was on his way back to Lynchburg but had decided to grace us with his presence for a few days. TJ is a very smart and very funny fellow and we honestly prefer having our house full as much as possible. We had a great time showing the TEEJ around the Queen City and as we began hashing out our songs in our practice space TJ took his own midnight tour of the city on our moped. Our practice space is located on the other opposing outskirt of town about twenty blocks south and ten blocks west. Charlotte is fairly large but its actual downtown (which, they call Uptown) is only twenty or so blocks in each direction. We live on the northeast corner of Uptown and our practice space is on the Southwest and one of our greatest pleasures has become the bike ride to and from practice. The ride back is cathartic as Charlotte is absolutely striking at night and there is something so surreal about flying through the heart of an empty city after midnight with the sky backlight by the glow of skyscrapers. Flying past buildings, jumping off curbs, and dashing through red lights…oh the little things.

Friday began a weekend for the history books of our lives here in Charlotte. Many of you may be familiar with a rather large and tragic event that has recently taken place in the lives of Aaron, Jesse, and I which was the death of a very dear friend of ours, Emily. While this has been one of the tougher things in any of our lives to come to grasps with, the opportunities and memories that have followed in the wake are nothing short of irreplaceable. It was a normal Friday for all of us here until about 5:00 when Emily’s mother and younger sister (from here on out to be referred to as “Mama Rund” and Julie) got in town for the weekend. I can safely say that words would only fall short if I tried to explain how excited and full of joy we were to see them and know we would have several days to spend with both of them. I think Mama Rund had mixed feelings about being here especially when she heard within the first few minutes of being here that hearing gunshots in our neighborhood is not all that uncommon. This bit of information was probably exposed too soon, but as with everyone else, by the end of the weekend she was in love with the neighborhood, or house, our church, the community, and especially “Franco” (one of TJs nicknames). That Friday night, we all went to movies in the park, an event that Watershed puts on the second Friday of every month during the summer. While I’m thinking about it, if you haven’t checked it out yet, the website for Watershed is www.watershedcharlotte.com, much of what we talk about and have been involved in can also be checked out there, it’s just another good resource for looking into the lives those of us living here in Charlotte. Back to the good stuff, after the movie we all grabbed some dinner and retired for the night. The next morning we all got up and those of us in the band went and packed the truck up for a show we were going to be playing later that night in Roxboro, NC. On the way back, Jesse and I stopped at a little corner store/daily yard sale because we saw a stack of mattresses there. After talking to the guy for a few minutes, we left with five mattresses in and on my car for ten dollars each. We had been trying to find mattresses to fit our five empty bunks and this seemed the perfect solution, so now no one has an excuse not to visit us. The whole crew was kind enough to come with us to our show and make the experience even more community filled than we were anticipating. We played at the Youth for Christ warehouse that Jesse interned for this summer. Those we love dearly at The Warehouse were nice enough to invite us up to play for their end of school celebration. While we were there, Andrew, Emily’s fiancé, met up with us to spend the rest of the weekend with us as well. Andrew seemed the perfect finishing touch to our crew and we were more than excited to see what the weekend had in store for us. After playing the show, we grabbed some dinner and headed off on our three and a half hour journey home at 11:00 pm. When we arrived back in Charlotte, we wasted no time scurrying off to our beds to get some much needed rest.
Sunday morning, we all left together for Transit up at Watershed. Jesse played drums this Sunday and Matt O’Neil spoke. They began a new series called ‘Happy?’ and I really encourage that you listen to this particular message (June 10) on the Watershed website. I would love to go into detail about it and tell you why you should listen to it, but I will simply say that you will not be disappointed if you do listen to it and you would be missing out on a great example of what attracts us so much to this particular community of believers in Charlotte if you decide not to listen. My apologies for the shameless plug, but we all left Transit with an overwhelming joy and excitement and I just want to share it with as many people as possible. Back again to the story, after church we decided to go for a bike ride around the city, so Lindsey, Julie, TJ, Andrew, Aaron, Jesse, and I all set out on our bikes and our moped to explore the city. I think this is when it really hit us how amazing the group of people we were surrounded with truly was. We all cruised around the city laughing, singing, talking, and talking up several lanes of traffic just enjoying the beauty of friends, the city, and a much needed day of rest. We ended up at the Carolina Panthers’ football stadium where we took and break and laid in the grass. There is something surreal and even transcendent at times about taking part in God’s creation while surrounded by some of the more massive and extravagant structures man has erected. Before long, without realizing it, we had all fallen asleep, exhausted from the weekend. After we woke from our nap, we headed back home and got ready for Italians. Italians is something that is done almost every Sunday evening and is just a little dinner party that a lot of Watershedders get together for to enjoy an evening of good food, conversation, and laughter. This particular Sunday it was at our good friends Blair and Jonathan’s house. I personally did not know them very well, and several people with us did not know them at all, so we all had a very good time getting to know them better and thoroughly enjoyed their hospitality and spaghetti. After returning home, we sat and talked a bit then proceeded to bed for yet another much needed night’s sleep.
-Jeremiah

5/25-6/2

2007-06-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

I don’t even know where to begin; the last week has been so unbelievable. I don’t even know a better explanation than to say it was ridiculous. Friday was a details day of tying up the loose ends of preparing our house for “maximal hospitality”. As the day drew to a close Carlos, our neighborhood mentor and close friend, dropped by (which isn’t hard since he lives next door) to hang out for a while as we ate dinner and began to talk about the climate of our neighborhood; mostly minority, low income, and broken families. Carlos has been a counselor for most of his life and even though he is not officially in practice currently, he truly is the counselor for the whole neighborhood. He is truly a person of peace and of great favor in the entire community. He is a humble networker who constantly carries a smile and gentle spirit about him. Many times since we have been here Carlos has said “We are all broken”, but I think on Friday it really hit us for the first time. Many of my greatest struggles and largest areas of brokenness are not the kinds that are obvious to others. I have found this growing an insipid amount of pride in my own heart. Anything in me of value is because of God’s grace and not just the salvific kind but also every condition by which I thrive. It is only by God’s grace that I was born to Godly parents who provided my needs and placed me in circumstances that did not readily precondition me for certain addictive and destructive behaviors. Of course I am not saying that we do not make our own choices but only grace has delivered me from a life entangled in the garbage of this world. It brings a whole new fervor to Paul’s words when He states that he can boast in nothing but God. We are all broken until God comes to finally and ultimately redeem our entire being and I am constantly reminding myself of this fact.
Late Friday afternoon a huge opportunity presented itself to us. Carlos came to us and told us Jared needed some help completing his art studio. Carlos owns a warehouse (along with several other investors) about three blocks from our house in the center of our little Optimist Park neighborhood. This warehouse is mostly filled with artists and their art studios so needless to say it is filled with some of the most unique people I have ever met. I will have to tell you more of this environment and its content later but for now just think of a grown-up Sesame Street and your pretty close. Jared is certainly one of the more interesting people I have ever met. Jared can do it all but he is known for a product or “medium”, as artists call it, which he has created and patented. He creates these amazing works of art all over the city and has made quite a few art-cars that can be frequently seen around Charlotte. His work is amazing and he always uses his art to beautify practical objects, basically he stays really busy (check his work out at www.skratchworks.com). He was hoping to hire just Jeremiah to work for him and help him finish his studio because its getting hot and the warehouse is not air-conditioned. He is building his own enclosed workspace within the warehouse that he can personally air-condition. He is also on a time crunch because he has a deadline to finish designing the Pineville Dinner Theatre for it’s opening in 6 weeks! So the faster we close in his space and cool him off the faster he can get to work. However we informed him that we come as a package deal and he was stoked, he really needed the help. Saturday we woke up and spent nearly 14 hours straight building what can only be described as artwork itself. Jared is one of the sweetest people I know and the whole day, though hot and trying, was a blast. Jared is in his mid-thirties and though not a Christian he certainly admires all people of faith, as he is a person of great spirituality. He is committed to community and creativity and is one of the most talkative pseudo-philosophers I have ever met, so needless to say we get along extremely well. It was a great day and we honestly felt so privileged to be able to put feet to our thoughts about community, generosity, and the Christ-like life. We worked straight till midnight and then all three of us along with Jared, Carlos and our neighbor Sarah went out for a late dinner.
Come Sunday we got up and rode our bikes to church. It is only like 20 blocks so the drive went fast and church was surprisingly full for Memorial Day weekend. Afterwards we were going to ride our bikes to meet up with a lot of the other Watershedders at a deli in town but I mistook the directions and got us all lost. Plus Jeremiah’s bike is a lot faster so he took off and I couldn’t get a hold of him. Seven miles or so later Jesse and I found it and after lunch we rode the 8 or so miles back home. It was a good ride and it mistakenly gave Jeremiah a good chance to learn the city. The rest of the day was essentially spent recovering for the week ahead and then we went to practice for a bit.
Monday we slept a little more of the last week’s business off and then got up to help Carlos with some yard work that his wife wanted done and then we went over to help Jared a little more with his studio. In the middle of it Carlos came and we all decided, along with another new artist friend of ours Matt, to go to a deli near by and talk about community. So for the next hour or so we sat around a table and began the process of dreaming of a better world. The conversation was long and meaningful and I wouldn’t really know where to start except to say that the only way to really effectively change when it comes to community is to live it out. Far too many of us have intersecting lives but no real investments in one another. The American Dream is an autonomous one with only the scope of the self and thus it can never fulfill. Worse still our churches have bought into many of these ideas instead of living our lives together and being a community of intense devotion and generosity. There are few precious moments when we embrace the communal spirit of truly putting others first and it invigorates but for most of us is has yet to birth conscious continual patterns. Anyway, it was a good talk and we continue to expand our understanding of these ideas as we strive to be faithful with what little we know. After helping Jared some more we headed to a cookout at Scott’s (one of Watershed Church’s co-pastors) house. Somehow we took on the burden of grill masters and as the crowd poured in we had some amazing conversations and continued forming new relationships there including with Scott’s 70 year old neighbor who seemed to be enjoying himself immensely and kept taking every opportunity to tell us how he was so impressed with our church and its community. Afterwards we took our new friend Neal home but first he helped us find Wal-Mart for some much needed supplies. Neal is an amazing person and has one of the most incredible testimonies I have ever heard. He has had one of the hardest lives I could imagine and he was living homeless on the streets for some time till God intervened in a big way and, like a lightning bolt, redemption had begun. Neal has been going to Watershed for several months and with Matt and Scott’s leadership has moved in with a roommate, received a scholarship, and gone back to college. It was a great night.
By Tuesday we had all found jobs. Carlos hired Jesse to be the facilities manager for the entire warehouse! He loves the job since it is only two blocks away and he works with all of the wonderful people there to create a better environment for everyone. Jesse is a really hard worker and Carlos has already told me how awesome Jesse is like 30 times, encouragement is one of his gifts. I found a job too. After all the help we gave him, Jared said we had taught him a lot about community and that we inspired him in a lot of ways but the biggest thing was the way we treated each other and him. So he offered to hire me till we leave on tour at the end of July for around 20 hours a week. Meanwhile Jeremiah loves his new job helping our friend Nells build these really rare custom countertops and like all things involving construction he is great at it. It is crazy how God has provided on this front as we all slid into perfect job situations almost immediately without any effort. The key for us is the minimal hours. We want to be able to spend as much time in the community as possible and to be able to give generously of our resources. These jobs allow us all to have the time and resources to continue in even greater patterns of generosity. Of course none of this would be possible if we weren’t embracing minimalist and communal lifestyles which are constantly teaching us about the nature of the human soul and how much our hearts treasure things over people and how little we really need to live. Also thanks so much again to those of you who have chosen to support us financially. We will try our best to tell you of all the ways these provisions are empowering us to bless the community. You have helped us build our communal base of assets and we treasure and carefully steward every penny knowing that every resource is from God’s gracious hand.
Wednesday night we had the privilege of going to dinner at our friends Matt and Michelle’s house. Matt is an amazing artist and a big bear of a guy who works as an assistant to Larry who is a coppersmith and another tenant of our beloved Area 15 Warehouse. It is important to note that all of these warehouse artists are the most interesting people I have met; Larry, Matt, T.J., Eric, Darryl, Phillip, Jorge, and even Carlos are truly larger than life. As time passes you will come to know them better if I can keep up but just imagine some of the sweetest, most talented, quirky, and deeply philosophical people you could imagine and multiply it times a hundred. Jeremiah says it’s like meeting characters you only thought existed in movies. They are each so individual and I don’t ever want to cross any lines of confidentiality but they are an interesting mix of Spiritualism, Mysticism, and even Christianity who love and respect each other intensely and are strongly committed to community and creativity. But I digress, Matt and Michelle have been married for three years and while they are both artists, Michelle works as a nanny currently and Matt works daily for the undisputed best coppersmith in all Charlotte. It was a great time getting to know them and afterwards we went and practiced for a while which turned out to be extremely productive and quite the time of worship.
Thursday was surreal. I came home from work to find that Neal had taken us up on our offer to drop by anytime. He and Jeremiah were finishing the last touches on our study/chill room (a converted bedroom) and the last of the eight bunk beds in our actual bedroom. Our good friend John Austin was also supposed to come over for dinner and I was excited to begin to see others finding our house as a place of hospitality and generosity. Somehow we all were chilling in our front yard before dinner and our neighbor Kevin came out. So far we had literally only said two sentences to Kevin so it was a welcome surprise to get to talk to him more and by the time I had finished preparing supper we talked Kevin into coming in as well. He had already had dinner so he enjoyed our specialty “ the sweet nectar of the gods” (sweet tea). As we talked we found out that Kevin is recently unemployed from the same factory where his girlfriend, with whom he lives, still works. Also, we finally found out the name of his son who has often watched us from the window, Buddha. Kevin is a really nice chill African American dude and Jeremiah said he reminds him of his summer as a missionary in Jamaica because he is so laid back. So there we sat, amazed at what God was doing, in our tiny living room sharing our dinner with three of our new friends watching worlds collide.
Later that night we went for some ice cream and Neal informed us that his new living situation is not working out well. His roommate still engages in many of the unhealthy behaviors he is trying to escape. Neal has even thought of returning to the street temporarily and using some of the facilities at his college for necessities in order to keep himself on track both spiritually and in his classes but after talking with Matt O’neil (one of Watershed’s co-pastors) he was convinced he should come talk with us about his situation. Neal asked us if there was any way we could help him out for a while and help him find another more long-term situation. We were so grateful for Matt pointing him to us, as this is exactly why we built eight bunk beds in our room. We are not able to be a halfway house or homeless shelter as we do not have the training or means but this kind of opportunity to show intense generosity is something we have prayed for. We are especially stoked because Neal is already growing so much and is such a brilliant person we are looking forward to seeing how he will challenge us and how he will continue to flower in a Christ-centered community environment. I thanked him because I knew it took a lot of humility to ask for help and for allowing us to be a blessing to him. He will most likely move in near the end of the month and we cannot believe how God is blessing. We prayed that God would grant us favor in this community by the time we left for tour at the end of July but as usual our vision is too small and God has granted us favor in this community almost immediately. At the end of the night we also had the privilege of meeting several other of our new neighbors as we sat out in the street just talking and laughing.
Friday was another day of work but Lindsey finally became a permanent resident of our community and lives here. She will be living for the next two months in a corner apartment in the warehouse with a girl named Sarah. Sarah is a part of a mission organization of athletes but since her roommate will be temporarily gone till the end of August, Lindsey will be living there. Just another small example of God throwing answers in our laps to questions we have barely begun to formulate. The four of us had dinner together and walked around Noda (the unofficial arts district of Charlotte, just up the street from us). Every first Friday of the month all of the art galleries and shops open up and it’s like a big creative arts block party.
Saturday was another huge opportunity for us to embed ourselves in this community. Watershed was having the first day of The Justice Project, which is its eight month investment of kamikaze servanthood and radical generosity in our neighborhood. Watershed, in association with several other local churches and philanthropic associations, has decided to pamper different fragile communities in an effort to bring justice and better qualities of life to these places. Optimist Park, our neighborhood, was selected as the first and this was a large part of the reason we became aware of the neighborhood even before our visits here and all of the divine appointments that happened therein. So Saturday we got up and assisted a rag tag crew of about thirty people from our church in good ole fashioned sweaty labor. We replaced a dilapidated floor for Mrs. Nina, did several necessary construction projects in Mrs. Ruby’s house as well as a few minor projects on other scattered houses throughout the neighborhood. More than anything else it was great to get to meet so many more of our new neighbors and actually get to serve them and begin the process of proving our love for them. We were excited to see how kind everyone was and get to meet many of the families behind many of the teenagers and other young people we have met in our community. God’s timing is infinitely perfect and it seems as though the whole universe were orchestrated to give us a speedy entrance into the favor of our new community.
Later in the day I (Aaron) had to drive about 30 minutes to South Charlotte to help a friend’s church who was in need of a lead guitarist. We also had another interesting opportunity as a community family to welcome in a new member and be the hands and feet of Christ. Carlos had previously told us of a new friend of his from South Charlotte. Ryan is an amazing artist and musician who helps out with another ministry in southern Charlotte. Ryan’s wife and kids were going to be away for the weekend and Ryan feared that without this accountability he might fall into many of the unhealthy behaviors which have remained a thorn in his side despite his tremendous heart for the Lord. It was an amazing chance to put community to the test and within minutes we all felt as though we were old friends. It was a night full of deep, poignant discussions and reflection. We mostly sat in our study with Ryan, read books, listened to music, and talked. It was amazing.
We awoke in the morning to find that Ryan had fallen asleep reading one of our highly recommended readings (Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell) in the ‘comfy corner’ of our study/chill room. How blessed can we be to make friends to share our hearts and beds with instantly and have people who have just met us sleep so soundly in our house.
-Aaron

The Move

2007-05-24T20:43:00.001-07:00

5/22/07

So the first three days have come and gone and it is already proving to be all that we thought it would be. Thanks to many of our amazing friends (Mike, Andrew, Maria, Jessica, and Brooke) we managed to pack the whole truck on Monday. Also we want to thank many of you who have already invested in this vision as it allowed us to rent a storage truck and trailer and transport our lives to our new home in Charlotte. We were surprised that our stuff actually filled the whole truck, it seemed like we had more “stuff” than we thought. But the truth is we all used this opportunity to rid our lives of almost everything of non-necessity. We ended up with bags and bags of clothes, supplies, and toys that probably would have gone to the goodwill. But leave it to God to place a burden on our hearts that also puts a burden on our trucks. We have been dreaming for some time, among the myriad of dreams, of having a free store. It would be a place in the community where the most needy could come occasionally to find the necessities they need and where we our lives could begin to intersect with theirs. The idea has already begun to evolve and will probably be one of our first big initiatives but I will address this more later. It seemed as though half our truck was full of stuff we plan on given away but none the less we set off Tuesday morning with our trucks full and our hearts full of excitement and anticipation. It only took us three hours and some change to get to the rental place and we had our lease signed and keys in hand in no time. At four o-clock we pulled up to our new home and it hit us like a ton of beautiful bricks “We don’t have to go home, we are home!” We unpacked our stuff into the house and set about the business of bringing order to chaos.
I guess it would be appropriate at this time to tell you a little about our new home base. It is a two bedroom duplex built in 1954. It has only one window ac, a tiny kitchen and a mudroom. We have decided to liquidate the mudroom and make it our dining room and we are all going to share one bedroom and make the other for study and relaxing. Late Tuesday night as we continued to unpack Carlos came to see us. I will go further into our story of falling in love with this place and the vision God has given us for it at a later time but it would be hard to overstate the importance Carlos has played in this story. He has been a huge encouragement, grown to be a close brother, and his advice and practical help have been invaluable. He hung out for a while and we continued to dream about what our lives hopefully will be and about what God is already doing in this community.

5/23/07

Today I (Aaron) got up early to go to meet with Scott and Matt (Watershed’s co-pastors) at Starbucks. I guess this is as close a thing to a staff meeting that Watershed ever has. It was a wonderful reunion and our hearts burned as they told me of all that has been going on lately and I informed them of all our “news”. After an hour or so we prayed over the prayer request cards from Sunday and we couldn’t help but get choked up as we prayed through so many praises and needs. It means so much to read a name aloud and meanwhile have our minds register not just that name but also a whole story. There is something so amazing about living amongst people who really value and treat each other as epic novels worth closely rereading and investing themselves in. The rest of the day was spent continuing to put our house in order and meeting our neighbors. We met a man named Roy with a box full of trinkets for sale. It was a short conversation but the exchange was pleasant and he gave us free incense even though we didn’t buy anything and now the house smells great. Our five-year-old neighbor has also taken up the habit of people watching and even though our contact has been limited thus far there is a good chance he will be a close playmate in the near future. Before we knew it night had fallen and still worn from the move we crashed.

5/24/07

This morning began late, as we are still tired from the end of school and moving. We headed straight to Sam’s to finally buy some food as we have been living off scraps so far. We loaded up on the essentials, ate as much free samples as possible (lunch), and headed home. Jesse and Jeremiah got to work on building our kitchen table and I continued to make sense of the house. A few weeks ago, while helping a lady move her fabric store, Jeremiah accrued five large handmade tables. Monday Jeremiah and I had stripped the wood and packed it into the truck first. We had planned on using this wood to build three sets of three man bunk beds for our bedroom. The plan is to have plenty of room to show hospitality to others and nothing will happen in the bedroom except for sleep. Not even our clothes will be kept there. Also we had built a platform in our old house for stadium seating and we had dismantled and packed this as well. This has been transformed into what has already become known as our “Nordic-Viking-man-table”. It looks amazing and cost us nothing. When we finish the bunk beds we will have furnished our entire home with free furniture and furniture built from pre-used wood. It is amazing how much stuff gets thrown away and how much can be redeemed with a little time and effort.
Right as we were about to eat dinner we were lucky enough to have a visitor, Lisa came to visit us. Lisa is another person of peace in this community and she runs a prayer environment here called “24-7”. It is a beautiful place here in Optimist Park where people come to pray, spend time with God, and share a common vision for what the Lord is calling of his people. Lisa had come to share with us that the neighborhood association is reforming in an effort to be more focused in bettering Optimist Park. Apparently there are many avenues to obtain local, state, and national funding for projects that would continue to breath new life into this community. However, as with most things, such opportunities are not possible without leadership and structure to cast vision, plot details, and create structure. Lisa asked if one of us would consider stepping up to be a part of the cabinet. After much discussion it was decided that I (Aaron) would be nominated as either vice-president or secretary. We do not want to be perceived as the new guy know-it-alls but Lisa correctly pointed out that half this neighborhood is just as new as we are and with the new buildings going in we represent the new guard. I hope this will be an avenue to even more effect the kind of change we have been praying for. Hopefully it will be an opportunity to glean the wisdom and gain the respect of the others in the neighborhood and elicit their aid in redeeming every aspect of this community.
We are trying to be as intentional and careful as we can to be the best stewards of everything we come in contact with. Whether it is money, materials, food, or even people we want to be as responsible as possible to make the most of every opportunity. Right now we are almost overwhelmed by all of the options before us but God has given us a subtle peace and we continue to tackle the things before us.

Oct 1st - Raleigh, NC - The Brewery

2006-10-06T14:18:00.000-07:00

We woke up a little later Sunday morning and went to Jeremiah..s Dads church and then headed to Raleigh. We met the rest of the boys there and two other bands who were also on tour. Everyone played well and Josh and I once again battled it to another tie. The crowd was smaller but no less intense and Yearling once again showed how a band does it at home. And by the way, their drummer Mike, who is a rad dude (just like the rest of em) is such a sick drummer that at the end of their set in the middle of the song he switched into one of Jesse..s signature beats from En Machearus. He flashed us a smile and then switched right back out without a hitch. What a showoff!!! Improvisation in rock music; who would have thought? After the show we all went out for a huge family dinner and we were lucky enough to be graced with the presence of Sid..s girlfriend Sarah, the brothers Sweat, and our good buddies Derek and Ron who work at the Brewery. Sid took us all to a rad restaurant and we all sat outside together like a huge family. It was a loud hootenanny of a good time and I know we must have looked like the after party of a big fat greek wedding. It was just such a good time to hang out with such genuine dudes. If you have not yet taken the time to check out these amazing bands than do it..no do it now, I am serious.

www.myspace.com/yearlingmusic
www.myspace.com/loveandreverie

Sept 30th - Richmond, VA - The Backdoor

2006-10-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday night was amazing as well. We played a small venue called the backdoor near Richmond but the kids showed up in force and we packed the room with over 130 people. Before the show we all (plus Jeremiah..s brother and Tony..s wife Melysa) packed with the Yearling dudes into their van and destroyed some Chik-fil-a. Yearling threw down the gauntlet again plying a nearly flawless set and dedicating one of our favorites to Jesse that they had been previously scolded for not playing the night before. We played and it felt like another home show cause the first few rows were spot on with the lyrics. At the end of ..The Common Curse.. (you know, the acapella one) a bunch of the L&R guys and Sid from Yearling crashed stage and sang along. It was rad and just such a worshipful moment. Jeremiah even broke his bass but Hessler from L&R let Jeremiah bleed all over his bass for the rest of the set so it didn..t even matter. After wards L&R once again threw it down and played an amazing set. However Josh especially was all over the place because I challenged him to a duel of throwdown ability. I had thrashed it pretty dang hard but Josh showed up with a late-ninties-Brett-Favre like ferocity. But it was agreed by all that it was a draw, and I am proud to share the crown. Everybody was great and we got to meet so many awesome new people, even some dudes from Longwood came to see us for the second night in a row!!! Afterwards we were all chillin in the post-show glow and Travy McThickbones was sitting on L&R..s fender on their trailer and it broke. I only mention this because Travis is one of the kindest gentle hearted dudes and he is not the kind of guy who ever seeks out confrontation or enjoys giving bad news. But after he Deputy-Dogged it in to tell those guys, everything was cool. They weren't upset and instead saw it as leverage in cut down battles. Later we headed out to the good old ihop with some friends before crashing at Jeremiah..s parent..s house which is an amazing old manor built in like 1904.

Sept 29th - Lynchburg, VA - LU Schilling Center

2006-10-06T14:07:00.000-07:00

What an Amazing Weekend!!!
This past weekend was absolutely amazing! We cannot overstate that fact. We have been looking forward to this weekend since tour finished and it shattered our expectations. First of all let us say thank you so much to everyone who showed up and showed us so much love on Friday. We promoted the heck out of this show and we really hoping for a good show and we were so flattered and humbled by the response. Thanks again to Rocky for having us on the radio and especially to our many friends at Student Life for all the hard work and sweat you put into that night. You always make us feel so loved and it means so much to have such genuine people coming along side of us and being such servants. Both the guys from Love and Reverie and Yearling did an amazing job and put on a great a show, straight up rock and roll! We had over 300 people show up and make the most of an awesome night. We were excited and admittedly a bit nervous to shake the dust off from our c.d. release show last April (unanimously accepted as the worst show in My Epic history) but everyone was so supportive and Friday night we really felt it. We appreciate all our friends and fans so much and watching you guys clap, sing your guts out, and lift your hands in worship sent shivers up our spines. It was so encouraging and we enjoyed getting to meet so many of you and transition you from fans to friends. We felt like it was one of the best sets we have ever played and certainly one of the most enjoyable, if not favorite of all time. Afterwards we went back to our house with both bands and had a wonderful lasagna dinner thanks to Jesse and Travis.. wonderful girlfriends Brooke and Ashley. We stayed up till 3 in the morning playing Mario Kart and just talking, it was amazing and both those bands are made up of singularly amazing dudes who together form supergroups of kindness and radness.

“This is Rescue” Commentary

2006-08-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

Shadows

I’ve heard rumors there is more, that if we venture to the source, it will phantom every meager thing to which our hearts are sworn. And they say, “shelter’s in the fold” and, ”there’s risk in chasing after truth,” but those souls are cynics if they claim that we have much to lose. This is all just sound and fury, product and sum of faulty yearning. The Harlot life, i hold closely, a senseless refrain of lust and longing. And I have only ever known the shadows and reflections, the temporal and contingent. If this isn’t love, it’s the closest thing that I have ever known. Am I to let go?
Even if it’s false, at least it feels like hope. Could love be more than feeling
And second-hand romance I salvage from hearts as dark and damaged…? Could it be someone who gave up everything to show that I am fallen but worth the scars it took to prove that this is love? This is all I’ll ever need.
This is Love. Oh, This is Love.

Notes –
Aaron -This song was the second brand new song we wrote after Travis joined the band in the fall. I always thought of it as being similar in structure and sound to The Antidote, short, catchy, riffy, and thick. Travis had already written the three-chord-riff in the beginning and the end as well as the long reverby riff build at the end. I had already written the hammer on riff that I play at the very end and that was actually the first part we wrote. Once Jesse busted out the beat for that part we were all like “Well, that’s the end of the song”. The rest of the song kinda flowed out of that. We quite often begin with the end of the song; we write the most massive intense thing we can and then find a way to get to it, like a maze. I wrote the piano part, Jesse and Jeremiah timed out the wash-out in the middle, and we all just kept tweaking it till it felt finished.

Travis- This song has always been one of my favorite ones to play live because it gives me a chance to go a little nuts and get lost in the music. We’ve always used it as a show opener and even called it that before there was a name for it. The beginning and ending riff was one that I came up with after deciding to part ways with the previous band I was in before My Epic asked me to join. It really just kind of flowed out on the guitar just as I heard it in my head. Rarely does that happen for me. I wanted it to flow gracefully and be in a major scale. Once I showed it to the guys, Aaron immediately took to it and came up with some really sweet pull offs and riffs that took what I had to the next level. Everyone just took what I gave them and ran with it and the finished product couldn’t have turned out any better, even if we tried.

Jesse- Well this song was kinda spurred on, as I remember it, from the beginning three-chord-riff Travis wrote. Travis said he wanted drums to be complex and progressive at the begging and we went from there. Aaron came up with a bunch of lines, and I just laid the drums to match. I definitely think it is the most radio friendly song on the new album, you can really see a wide spectrum of our different influences throughout the song. My roommate refers to it as the “make-out song”, because of the piano and three part vocals(“This Is Love”). He swears he saw a couple making out during it at a show but he is a filthy liar so who knows? But speaking of the three part vocals, that was a new element we embraced whole-heartedly when Travis joined…I like it!

Jeremiah- I think we try to make every song a good bit different from all the others, which is why we have such varying lengths of songs. While I really love long builds and almost jam-like sessions in the middle of songs, I appreciate the beauty of a song that just hits you right from the beginning, it doesn’t wait around, it simply gets to the point and ends, simple and clean. I love the way this songs fits so well to the lyrical content. We did not want to beat around the bush with this song, and I don’t believe we did.

Lyrical Notes –
This song was actually one that began lyrically in the spring of 2005. I was going to be speaking to a youth group in Greenville South Carolina and I was thinking a lot about what it means when we say “God loves you”. That term is repeated over and over again by the lips of the average church-goer but what does it mean for the rest of us. God loves me? What a weird thought. Love is a word that carries such different connotations for so many different people. It is an action and thus we all base our understanding of it on our experiences with it. What does love mean for the recently heartbroken, the unrequited lover, the abused child, or the betrayed friend? When these people hear that “God loves you” it isn’t exactly the huge selling point so many Christians believe it to be. Some think, “ I have experienced love and I have no desire to be hurt by it again”. But the important thing I wanted to portray with this song is that God’s love is not comparable to man’s love. God’s love is perfect, unfailing, and unconditional. We were not created to exist apart from it and without it man spends his life searching for the elusive joy that he has romanticized into his youth. For many people, they get married, have kids, and then assume this must be it. But God’s love for us is so much more expansive. We cannot expect to find the love we need in people just as messed up as we are. The title is an allusion to Plato’s allegory of the cave (click here for more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato%27s_allegory_of_the_cave ). The basic point of the song is that we have only experienced the shadows of God’s love through the lives of others and that it cannot even compare to the way God love’s us.

…And We Were So Close to Perfection

Don’t they see the sky burning and claiming every hope? Can’t they feel the earth breaking and scattering the fold? This act surely is past the scope of clemency and any shroud of mystery. Lets return now; say the word and we’ll retreat to better scenes. Coastlines and mountainsides, perfection dripping from the seams. How could miracles reveal the mysteries and end in tragedy? Don’t let them boast. They’ll claim the victory if you give up the ghost. I stand awaiting the call for the rescue. One word and empires fall. You’re calculating the point for your next move, but this is taking too long. Has courage fled for newer brides, and traded truth for alibis, that I alone of dozen strong should witness your demise? Before your mothers eyes,
whisper “relief.” I know you have the power! Is this the way it’s supposed to be, the shepherd slain by all the sheep? They’re cursing your name. You’re fading away. When will the empire fall? They spit in your face. It’s more than I can take. Is this the end of it all? Don’t touch him; this man has done nothing wrong.

Notes:
Aaron – This song really went through three distinct phases. This was actually the last song we finished writing before we went into the studio to record our first demo in 2005. Jesse and I wanted to record it right then but as usual Jeremiah talked some sense into us and the song really developed further. When Travis Joined he wrote his own parts to the song, the actual structure was never changed but when we went back to a 4–piece I think the song really got stronger as we eliminated the fat and choose the best of what Matt and Travis had previously played. The third one came after we had finished recording all the instruments and went in to lay the vocals. Andrew, our producer, thought my melody on the chorus was anticlimactic and that it was too cliché for our sound. He begged us not to give up on it now after we had worked so hard on the rest of the album and this song in particular. We wrestled with it and it was actually the last thing we worked on in studio together. Travis immediately had the idea for the high vocals and we actually laid those first. Andrew came up with the basic melody for the first chorus, which I modified a bit, and Jesse had the idea and melody for the sort of gang vocal part. The different melody on the second chorus was something that kind of came out of thin air, I just thought we should do something a little different and what you hear is what came out. I worked hard to finish the lyrics in studio but since the rest of the song was already written it didn’t take too long. That being said this song is the reason we had to spend an extra day in studio but I think it was well worth it. The ending is basically our version of a breakdown in three-four, let’s see all the hardcore kids two-step in waltz. Thanks also to Kent for begging us to lengthen the build near the end, good call. This song was a real team effort.

Travis- This song was already pieced together before I joined the band and out of all the songs on the album, this was the one that I thought was changed the least by me. However, the more we played it in practice, the more I fell in love with it. Every time Aaron sings the last lyrics of the song, it almost always brings me to tears because I can hear the agony that Jesus’ followers felt at his last few hours. I tried to tastefully add parts that would intertwine with the rest of the music and add detail to what was already there. I have to say, there is nothing that I’ve played musically that has more heart and intensity than the ¾ waltz at the end of the song. The ending swell was an idea that I had and a “Travis Signature” as Aaron would say. As the song progresses in intensity and crescendos, I wanted to have something subtle that would reflect on what is happening at that moment, much like when you see an intense battle scene in a movie and everything slows down and becomes silent. This song shows My Epic at our potential and gives a glimpse into our hearts as believers, as musicians, and as friends.

Jesse- This song has been a process over the last year. We originally wrote it with Matt, and the first time we played it we sucked it up bad!!! But this song has seen a lot of growth, and when Matt left we were left with the dilemma of three guitar parts and two guitars. So then we went back to work dropping a line here, add a new one there, and of course, some new vocals. It even saw some last minute changes in studio, which I absolutely fell in love with. I really like the way this one turned out; I feel this song just gets better with age.

Jeremiah- This song was a particularly encouraging song to me. My Epic has never written a song I have been disappointed in by any means, but naturally, some songs will impact you differently than others. The direction this went right after we had written “The Antidote” and “Wise as Serpents” is exactly where I was hoping it would go. The flow of the song is easy to get lost in, but in a good way. When we play its easy to go to another place and almost forget that I am even playing, which is what I like every song to do. One thing I believe is that anyone who ever sees us live will leave knowing that our music is truly worship for us and playing live is one of the best times of worship we can experience, and this song is almost like my poster child worship song. This may fit into the lyrical content part, but in the end when Aaron sings “don’t touch him”, it is one of the most intense parts for me and I just lose it inside. I have to admit, at first, I was not too keen on the three-four part in the end, but now I would die to keep it in, it is the perfect release of everything built up inside of me throughout the whole song, I just hope others could have the same experience.

Lyrical Notes:
The concept for this song was another one that hit me almost immediately after we had finished writing the song structurally. The sound-scape just screamed intensity to me and I imagined John, the only disciple to watch Christ die, standing at the cross remembering all that had led to this event and not being able to understand what was going on. I wanted there to be a brokenness and desperation in his words as he cannot fathom how this man who had displayed such great power could allow it to end this way. The disciples never really understood all that Jesus had told them concerning his death and resurrection until after the fact and often when I read John’s account of the crucifixion I see him trying to convey how earth shattering it must have been. “All I have invested myself in is crashing down”. Most of us have experienced this in some other facet of our lives but the beauty of the cross is that this was far from the end of the story.

The Common Curse

The fragile details from which I am made are falling apart and starting to fade, and this is the curse I’ll carry from birth till the grave. From one came all. Democracy of the dead, chained to the consequence of lives we never lived. But we hold blame. Inherit, but we as well choose to initiate, and this is the price of our valued volition: enslavement to vices and vexed by the intrinsic, no measure of man with the greatest precision is yet to conquer. This is the curse I fight when I’m awake but treasure in my dreams. Why is the architect now becoming part of the structure and how could this be any solution when they’re resisting every attempt at repair? They’re killing him. This is Rescue, this is Absolution, this is Mercy, this is our Redemption.

Notes:
Aaron - This song is actually like the fifth evolution of the very first thing we had written as My Epic. The first four sections, including the first heavier section, is actually verbatim what came out of the first few writing sessions between Matt, Jesse, and I. It is also the same parts we auditioned Jeremiah on, before we even had a name, Old School. We wrestled and wrestled with it and avoided playing it because it never felt finished until Travis joined. Travis was fiddling with a reverse delay concept and Jesse and I had been listening to a lot of the newer Hillsong United Live album and really wanted the song to end with a really passionate but simple worshipy chant. Though many of you may have never experienced “worship” per se there is still something beautiful about a lot of people all directing their complete intense devotion towards one thing at the same time. For a long time we were singing “hallelujah’s” over the ending as I wrestled over a list of concepts and words to accurately finalize this song. Our friend Kent came to practice one day and helped with the phrasing a bit and once I wrote the line “This is Rescue” I knew it was going to be a significant statement for us as a band. It was actually the first and only idea we ever had for the title of our e.p. This song I think suffered the most when Matt left and we went back to a four piece but eventually we worked out the kinks. This is one of our favorites to play live because the ending always catches people off-guard and turns the smokiest of bars into sacred ground, if only for a few moments. No matter what it is always a very genuine and vulnerable moment for us as a band and we hope it conveys our hearts. We know that if every other piece of equipment undergoes a technical snafu that this part will still sound the way we intend. There is something indescribable about losing yourself in the moment and signing your lungs out.

Travis- - I think it’s hard for me to put down in words a note about this song that would do it justice. This was the only song out of all the ones on the CD that already had a name before I joined the band. When we started practicing in August of last year, I was trying to be creative and add some stuff to this song that would enhance what was already there, yet still keep it structured and musically provoking. When writing, we struggled with the reverse delay riff for fear of not being able to pull it off live the way I had originally wrote it. With a few modifications, it turned out the way you hear it in the finished product. I think we couldn’t be happier with the way the lyrics turned out. Aaron has told me before that he always loves hearing me get lost in the song when he can hear me singing from the top of my lungs during the “this is the curse…” line, and yes, I love it.

Jesse- As Aaron said, this song is Old School. It was the first thing Aaron, Matt, and I worked on after Shaddai broke up. The song you hear today is quite different then its original emersion. We actually played the original version at our first show with Forever Changed, along with the two songs off our first demo. We knew then that it wasn’t on par with the other stuff we were writing, so we decided not to record it, and then it seemed to get lost in all the new songs we were cranking out. When Travis joined he heard us jamming on parts of it, and asked what it was. So we played it for him, and revived it. We totally dissected the song adding new parts and removing anything we didn’t love. Again came the triple vocals, and this time even Jeremiah decided to join in. The first time we played the chant part at the end all of us just sat there for a minute so caught up in worship. This part still pricks my heart to this day, every time we play it the hair on my neck stands up. It just communicates so well the purpose and drive of every member of this band, and at that moment we all leave our separate entities and become one voice pouring ourselves out before our Creator.

Jeremiah- Wow, it is hard to believe how long this song has been around really. I remember how scared I was thinking “I can’t keep up with these guys” when they asked me to come start trying stuff out. I was in a band before My Epic, a high school band that stretched ourselves as far as to the point of three or four-chord progressions, and that’s it. I had no clue anything about the bass when I started in this band. I was talking to Aaron the other night and telling him how being in this band has grown my faith in an incredible way, mainly because of the incredible story of how we came together, but also because I can honestly say there is no way my talent has helped the band whatsoever, it could only be God that could have caused any of this. Okay, don’t want to get too sentimental here, but I could go on for hours about this song, as I am sure the rest of the band could too. I guess you could say, that this band for me is “rescue”, and this song makes that as tangible as possible.

Lyrical Notes:
At one time the title of this song was almost the name of our band. When we choose our name this became the working title for our first song. Through all of the versions of this song I always had the idea of this song being about the fall of man. Essentially this song is about man existing differently than he was intended. Many years ago I heard one of my favorite speakers talking about how essential the idea of creation is to the current plight of man. We were created by God to fulfill certain goals and have certain relationships but now, due to the fall of mankind and introduction of sin, we look in the wrong places. Mankind still yearns for this fulfillment and purpose but doesn’t know how or why. I wanted to point out that even though we inherited this condition from Adam we still choose to initiate it. We have become enslaved to our misguided attempts to fulfill ourselves and no work we can ever do can undo it. We were designed by God to be in a relationship with him and nothing else comes close. This is probably my favorite song lyrically and I can’t really take the credit. My favorite lines are definitely the “why is the architect…” portion which I wrote at 3:30 in the morning the day before we had to record them. The rest of the song was finished and I was wrestling with how to bridge the song so that it would completely convey my thoughts. After sitting at my kitchen table for over two hours I wrote down that whole part at once and went to bed. This is a pretty accurate representation of how this band works and why we give all the glory to God, even though sadly, I know to some it sounds trite and cliché.

The Making of a Recluse

I am the victim here; let’s keep that one thing clear. I’m the innocence that disappeared. I’m marking every offense, amassing evidence. Even skeptic eyes will give consent. I’ll cradle my fury and never let go till the reaping has come in degree to the sown. If this burden’s too heavy, I’ll bear it alone. Don’t call this revenge; this is justice. Its what I’m owed, owed. Walk with care. These dark paths, God forbid you should know. Fabricate a barricade to be sure that remorse won’t visit. I’ll be the haunting figure, the shadowed form, and what I choose to bind you’ll never loose. I’ll take everything from you. If mercy should come to save, I’ll state my case. You had this coming. There is no sacrifice too great. It’s worth everything to me. It’s worth everything!

Notes:
Aaron - This was the first thing we wrote after Travis joined the band and we got back from summer break. It definitely had our manager Jono worried that we were taking a harder direction. But the truth is I had written the ending riff long before Travis ever joined. When he came down last summer to try out in July I played the riff at the end and almost immediately he came up with his part. Jesse was there too and we knew it was what we wanted. Once again we had written the ending first. Travis and I wrote on it separately for the rest of the summer and when we came back together it was just a matter of piecing our ideas together in the context of the full band setting. In my mind this song has always been Jesse’s song; it was his favorite forever and he constantly wanted to play it. He’s so metal. We had long known this would be the heaviest song on the record and I had told Andrew I wanted it to be like a little monster that jumps the album, beats the crap out of it, and runs off before anyone knows what happens.

Travis- I can remember seeing Jono’s face when we played this song for him at practice one night. I think he was a little worried that we weren’t going in the right direction, but as it turned out, this was the heaviest song that my epic has written to date. We wanted it to hit hard and be intense. I think that’s one of the great things about this band: We are now at the point musically where we can choose the direction a song is going, rather than try to incorporate all the different elements we enjoy into a certain pattern. Once we decide the direction we want the music to be directed, it just seems to flow easily. This song is a perfect example.

Jesse- Although this song actually didn’t take long to write, it was definitely a long time coming for me. Sometimes I just wanted to throw down, and when my brother originally showed me some of the lines he was working on for this one I knew brutality was sure to ensue. When Travis joined (having been an ex-member of Aldora) I was eager to work on this song. I think we achieved writing a heavy song that showed a new side of My Epic, but that still fit nicely in the line up.

Jeremiah- As I mentioned earlier, we try to make every song independent from all the others, but we still keep a common element to them that keeps it “My Epic”. We don’t even know what that element is, but it comes out in every song, however I have a hunch as to what it could be. I think this song really shows that concept. It is definitely a different sound than our other songs, but I don’t believe it strays from who we are. I guess I could parallel this song to everyday life. People go day-to-day being who they are and doing what they do, but occasionally, something will come up and cause us to briefly deviate from our everyday activities. We could be the most peaceful of people, but sometimes, all that seems to express how we feel is just to let out a scream. It may simply be alone in the darkness of our rooms, or even inside of our hearts and never come out audibly, but we still let it out in some form. While this song is not meant to be an angry song by any means, it is simply a way for us to express ourselves and our passions in a way no other song seems to fulfill.

Lyrical Notes:
This song always sounded bitter to me, and not just cause it’s a bit heavier. I have run into a lot of people in the past few years that are just so bitter. Some event or person has taken advantage of them or left them out in the cold and they can’t move. They are like people whose attitudes are stuck in the past. Everything else has moved on but they can’t let go. Last fall I had a conversation with my good friend Tara. She was telling me her idea for a book someday and that it was going to be called “The Making of a Recluse”, it immediately struck a chord. As she continued talking I realized we weren’t talking about the exact same thing but it fit so well. So thanks to her and look for the book in a few years, It’ll be good, she’s quite smart. The rest of the song found its identity from the title. All of us need grace and forgiveness; and most of us need a lot of it. The thing about forgiveness is that if you don’t give it you can’t experience it. And when we don’t let go of things they take control of us. We think we are punishing someone by harboring anger but truly it comes to hold us and poison us. We accomplish nothing. The very forgiveness we so desire we wont give away to others. And the worst part is the longer time passes without reconciliation the more it eats away at us poisoning us until we are begging God for the justice we think we deserve. How contrary to the very concept of grace. In the end I wanted to portray this “God-complex” of justifying in our minds. We call it justice instead of revenge and build walls to keep ourselves from truly coming to grips with the hypocrisy of our actions. It is truly sad when anyone moves past grace to embrace justice thinking revenge will satiate them.

En Machaerus

I’m think I’m ready to go,
(Why am I left in this place?)
though I can’t grasp yet,
(Of all the miracles known…)
With all the power you hold,
(When did my diligence fade?)
isn’t this desertion?

These prison walls are far from golden streets and desert paths where kingdoms preached repentance’s call, but now you’ve ceased to speak in me the mysteries. Forgive the doubt of baffled eyes. I thought that you would save my life. I pray in chains but no reply. Could this be where the ending lies? If you can claim the skies and calm the seas, give sight to lifeless eyes, and set the captives free, I know that you can raise the dead to life and comfort me. If Heaven’s son can bear the weight of every shame and die for grace, then Abba, I, I too will find the courage not to sway beneath the blade. This will be the end of me, and I will see your glory.

Notes:
Aaron - This is definitely our favorite song; from the very moment we wrote it we knew it was. It was the last song we wrote for the album and began as several piano riffs I wrote while at home on Christmas break. Our mom has an upright piano at home and I always play it like crazy when I am on breaks and then Jesse would always remind me that we didn’t have the equipment to pull it off. So in January I bought a piano. I took my piano parts to our first practice after Christmas break and most of the song just came out because we had already all talked about how we wanted the song to sound. Travis’ guitar lines were far beyond what I was imagining and Jeremiah just sort of invented his bass lines almost out of thin air. It was one of those songs that sort of created by resting in our ears and leading us to recreate what we hearing. The minute we finished it we played it again, and again, and again. Andrew also immediately identified it as his favorite in preproduction and said he planned to fight us in studio over this song especially. Originally I had intended the beginning to be much the way it is but somewhere during practices it had become call and response. Andrew said it sounded like “Rod Stewart”, he was right, we changed it back, and it made the lyrics work even better. This song also spawned our largest, and, truth be told, only real disagreement in studio. It wasn’t a fight, no voices were raised. Once the music had been completed it really hit us as to how huge this song was and how it had actually surpassed any expectations we had for it. So as a group the rest of the band came into my room where I was struggling over the lyrics and told me they didn’t think the ending should have any vocals. They were very passionate as was I. I had never imagined it that way and couldn’t hear what that would be like. They left me to think about it and as I prayed about it I knew I couldn’t go against everyone else and the more I listened to it I began to agree. I simply sped up the progression lyrically and quickened the crescendo of my vocal intensity. Everybody else was right and proved once again why being in a band is such a beautiful thing, the hive mind is amazing. When I say we love this song I mean that in a totally non-bragging sense. We still get chill bumps over this song and have no idea how it came out of us. Thank you God.

Travis- I am honestly humbled at how this song turned out. I know it was something none of us expected, but this is really a song that God gave us. There’s no easier way to explain it. My first recollection of the beginning is when Aaron came up with the idea of having the two vocal lines in the beginning of the song and had written some of the melodies on keyboard and showed them to us in practice one night. From what I remember, everyone’s parts just seemed to flow easily. I came up with most of my parts right on the spot, so did Jesse and Jeremiah. My soaring line on the end was also something that just kind of came out of nowhere. Aaron said that he wanted to have a really epic sound at the end and told me just to play around with his idea. I came up with what you hear on the CD almost instantly. Trust me, I’m not that good. I am so proud of the lyrics on this song and its portrayal of John the Baptists. Aaron crafted them with “the greatest precision.” I don’t know how we could end any live show with any other song as of now. This really gives us the freedom to worship and get lost with the music. I always close my eyes and think of heaven at the end. That’s really all I can say because I’m horrible at explaining my emotions and how these songs are enriched with the truth. All I can say is, they are. They are directly inspired by what God has placed on our hearts and the talents He has given us. I often listen to what I’ve been apart of and find conviction, hope, and love sewn through the melodies and words.

Jesse- This song has been in the works for a while; Aaron and I had been messing with the beginning riff for some time. But once we all sat down to write it together it just happened. This song is definitely what I feel to be our most intense and experimental. I think Aaron was right about the chills…I am just so thankful that God allowed us to write a song in which I can worship him so intimately. The building of the music and the crescendo at the end just seem to lead me write into God’s presence, and likewise I hope this song will touch others in this manner.

Jeremiah- I almost feel vain thinking words could even come close to describing this song. This was truly God. Everything just fell into place, not one of us could look at this song and claim anything. We love how beautiful it is, we feel it defines epic, which is rather appropriate. The way the lyrics fit this song is another thing we cannot claim. After we wrote it, we looked back and are finding new ways, almost daily, of how this song is impacting, moving, and growing us spiritually, all we can do is thank and praise God. This song, to me, is like that outfit that just seems to fit perfect, shows all your best features, and fits all occasions. Again, thank you God.

Lyrical Notes:
When we first wrote the actual song I had always begun and ended with the words “I think I’m ready to go”. I don’t know why it just came out and from the first time I said it I thought of John the Baptizer from the Bible. For some time I have found John the Baptizer to be one of the most intriguing characters in the Bible and his story has continued to haunt me, especially this past year. The actual concept for this song began to emerge after I read the book “The Barbarian Way” by Erwin McManus and also out of several conversations with my parents over a book my Mom had read called “The Prisoner in the Third Cell”. John was the forerunner who was given the task of proclaiming the coming of the Messiah. He knew from a very young age what he was called to do and dedicated his whole life completely to fulfilling his call. He was obsessed with pleasing God, the repentance of the people, and the savior that was to come. Jesus would later even say that John was the most faithful man who had ever lived. He began his ministry at a very young age and one would think that as soon as this messiah appeared he would stand by his side and be rewarded for his faithfulness. Yet shortly after Christ’s actual appearance he was thrown in jail to await his own death. He had spoke out truthfully rebuking the current king for taking his brothers wife as his own. And so rotting in Jail he sent word to his king, his savior “Are you the one or shall we look for someone else”? In context this question makes no sense. John had seen Christ do miracles, received a personal sign from God making it clear, and even heard the audible voice of God verify this fact, so why ask the question? The real question was this; “if you can do all that why am I still in jail?” If I have been so faithful and you are so powerful why am I here? He couldn’t make sense of it. And Jesus’ words back were piercing, broken, and hard to swallow. He told the messengers to tell John that he had indeed done many great miracles and that the truth of God’s grace and forgiveness was being proclaimed but that John would be blessed if he did not take offense at Christ. Essentially what John was being told was; “I love you John. You have done nothing wrong. But I’m not coming to get you. This is my will for you and you will be blessed if you can understand it”. It struck me at how Americanized and spiritualized the Christian faith has often become. Persecution, suffering, and sickness do not mean we have done something wrong often times that’s exactly where God wants. We beg for God to take away the storm when he is the very one who sent it. If every grandma whose health we prayed for got better no one would ever die. Brevity brings relevance. This whole life is part of the process of God molding us. We all have to learn to trust God no matter what. If God did not spare his own perfect innocent son from the most unspeakable of horrors, why should we expect any better? We must remember that God turned this most heinous act into the greatest act of love of all time. If he can do that what makes me think I know better than him. Even if he takes my best friends dad away at 19 or allows a 5 year old to drown at a church picnic. Trust means nothing when things are good; it only matters when things are hard. John came to this conclusion and died faithful. I God is worth following than he is worth following no matter.

Day 16- July 31st – The Warehouse – Roxboro, NC

2006-08-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Jesse

We awoke around twelve thirty this morning drained from the ten plus hours of driving we had done the previous day, and really starting to feel the effects of 15 days on the road!!! After packing the truck for the millionth time we headed out on what was going to be one of the final legs of the tour. After one lunch stop at chick-fil-a, and a short hike we arrived in Roxboro at the Warehouse. The day went by much to quickly. It was so great getting to spend another day with all my dear friends who I had spent every waking moment of this summer with until tour started. For those of you who are a little lost right now, the “Warehouse” is a youth center that was started by Youth for Christ of Roxboro this summer. It is where I had the privilege to intern this summer. This tour was very near and dear to my heart for many reasons. First, of all because it was spent with three of my best friends, whom I love dearly. Second because it has been an elusive dream of mine and Aaron’s since we first picked up instruments, a dream we have finally been able to see come to fruition. And third because the way it started and ended. We started the tour playing at the Master’s Inn Camp where I spent all last summer working as a youth counselor, and we ended the tour as you already know in Roxboro with all my kids and newfound partners and co-laborers in ministry. We spent time with all the kids and hung out for what only seemed like minutes, and then played our hearts out. This has been an amazing tour, seeing the generosity of others and how God has blessed us so richly as a band has been overwhelming. Growing together with other believers in Christ whom we met and found strength and encouragement in along the way, and every night joining with my fellow band mates in some of the most passionate and intimate worship that I have ever felt with my creator is simply indescribable in human language. I thank everyone so much…for those we met who blessed us is so many ways, and to those who supported us physically and spiritually. But most of all I thank God for the way he has so richly blessed me when I am so undeserving. This summer truly has been amazing!!!

With A Heartfelt Thanks,
Jesse

Day 15 – July 30th – The Carpenter’s Cellar – Greenville, SC

2006-08-23T18:21:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Aaron

Today was a long day. We woke up early and my ears were killing me. I would later find out that I had developed a double middle and outer ear infections from all of the many varied bodies of water we had been swimming in. We got on the road by 10:00 and stayed on it till 5:30ish when we finally arrived in downtown Greenville. The venue was cool and right in the center of downtown, which is quite nice. It was a small coffee house venue down a dunguneous set of stairs. We find that extended amounts of car travel leaves us very lethargic and in the exact wrong physical condition to “throw-it-down”, as Jesse would say, so a good blood pumping load in down a treacherous flight of stairs is always appreciated. The venue was cozy and everybody was really cool including Mark who runs the joint. We set up in no time and began our usual routine of making new friends, which is always great. We were met at the venue by a close personal friend of ours; Dave Schlarb. If you know Schlarb than you know it was quite the pleasurable time. Right as we took the stage and finished tuning up 6 of my dear friends from Charlotte showed up. Apparently they hadn’t gotten enough when we played Charlotte ten days ago and decided to make the trek of over 2 hours for the concert. It was awesome and so reenergizing for a bunch of road weary travelers who have spent a fortnight less than 6 inches from each other most of the time to once again see more friendly faces. It was a great show and a fun intimate venue. Very few things are better than when the crowd knows the lyrics. I appreciate the help and it really gets us jacked. Afterwards we had to immediately pile everything back into the truck and head for Durham because Travis has to be a work at six in the morning tomorrow. So after another 4 and a half hours of driving and a combined 12 hours total of driving we arrived at Travis’ house close to 2 in the morning.

Day 14 – July 29th – The Broken Veil – Valdosta ,GA

2006-08-23T17:47:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Aaron

Today we slept in a bit and then headed back to the beach with some of the Miller’s and my good friend’s Shain and Cainnon. They were in my youth group when I interned in Jax during the summers of 03 and 04 but they are men now. We had a good time frolicking in the ocean and got some good footage courtesy of the multitalented Cainon so look forward to seeing some video in late august when I get back to school and have time to edit. We met up with the OFH boys around 3 and headed to Valdosta. The venue is a converted gym and we were pleasantly surprised to watch a nice crowd turn out. The OFH boys had played there twice before and have built and good fan base there. My ears were beginning to hurt but still worked well enough to really enjoy the first band who was made up of a group of 16 and 17 year olds from Orlando. I have never seen a band so young so well polished. When I was their age I was stoked that I had figured out the new MxPx track. In fact, if a 17 year old version of My Epic (which would probably be called “The Ambidextrous Lane Conspiracy Avenue”) and There for Tomorrow played in a battle of the bands we would get beat like Jesse did the time he lied to my parent’s in the sixth grade (it was brutal, he had it coming). It was our last night with the OFH boys and we really wanted it to be a good one but I think the beach had been a choice. We started tired and my ears were hurting. It was the only show this tour that really felt like a labor. I still loved playing and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but we pressed on and finished out to the best of our ability. The OFH guys said they didn’t notice but we are perfectionists. The OFH did there thing and when they played there song “Our Strength is not Measured by Numbers” and fulfilled my hardcore fantasy. I jumped on stage and grabbed a mic at the climax and screamed out my lungs with Sam. It was good times. Afterwards all of us went out to a Valdosta landmark; Little Ricky’s Pizza. We had a great time hanging with our good friends in OFH and getting to know the boys in There for Tomorrow better. We spent the better part of two hours devouring pizza, singing along to whatever the karaoke machine served up, and dancing on the table. Afterwards we said our tearful goodbyes to the boys and headed to the venue owner’s house. The venue is actually owned by a young couple who have a real passion to reach the youth of their city in a unique way. They were really sweet people and we stayed up for a few hours just talking to them about…well…everything. We really can’t overstate how amazing this tour has been. Even on our worst night we still get to share our hearts with so many awesome people who have just been so generous.

Day 13- July 28th- The Murray Hill Theatre- Jacksonville, FL

2006-08-23T17:41:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Aaron

Tonight was amazing. Murray Hill has been the show on tour I was most looking forward to. When I worked in Jax for two summers as a youth intern I went to many amazing shows at this venue and had long wanted to play it. We arrived at the Miller’s house at 3 in the morning to many familiar faces. The Miller’s was the family I lived with for two summers while working at East Point Church. They are an amazing and generous family and truly are another family to me. In the morning Momma Beth woke us with an amazing breakfast and I enjoyed catching up with them and introducing them to the boys. We called Patrick from Emerson and headed to the beach. We had a good time frolicking in the sand and body surfing although Travis and Patrick were continually freaked out by phantom Jelly-fish and hypothetical sharks that continued to brush up against their legs. We arrived at he venue at 6pm for load in and Tom, who runs the venue met us there. It was our last night with Woodale and we had known for some time it would probably be the climax of the tour. When the door s opened a steady stream of familiar and unfamiliar faces entered the venue and by the time we played there was probably 120-130 paying attendants, which was really good especially considering we were up against an Anathallo concert a few blocks away. We played well and it was probably our most emotional show to date. The whole show just crescendoed perfectly and exploded at the end. When we finished I was shaking and could barely get my stuff off-stage. Everyone responded really well. We sold a lot of merch and even Tom the venue owner said he was really impressed by our sound and how well we drew. As we packed up and said goodbye to our friends we also had to say goodbye to the fellas from Woodale, which meant Matt, and Adam chasing us around with airsoft handguns and shooting us close range. Somehow that ended in Jeremiah volunteering to be shot in the nipple which of course led to great footage. We said our goodbyes and went back to the Miller home where we crashed. It was an awesome night.

Day 12- July 27th- Club Red- Gainesville, FL

2006-08-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Jesse

Today we actually got to feel what real road worn bands endure. We played last night in Orlando and since our next show was in Gainesville figured we would drive to the Runds after the show and just sleep in. We arrived at 5am and slept till 2pm. Once we finally awoke we packed up and cleaned up again, and then headed to Johnny’s Bar-B-Que for some good southern cooking. It was amazing, and our waitress Melissa was the best!!! We then headed to Gainesville and met back up with the fellas in Woodale. The show started at ten and we had a small but intimate crowd it was fun, and we had a great time getting to know the other bands and just hanging out. We had some good talks with the other bands about our faith, especially Aaron who got to share with Adam, the manager from “Last Winter”, they were all great guys. Afterwards we pulled another late night drive to Jax, to our great friends the Miller’s house. All in all it was a great day!!!

H.A.G.S, Jesse

Day 11- July 26th- The Liquid Cellar- Orlando, FL

2006-08-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Jeremiah

Today we left the lovely DeMaso household and headed to Orlando. The Demaso’s were so good to us and let us get plenty of rest and fed us well. We were in high spirits when we got to the Liquid Cellar on time after getting stuck in Orlando traffic at rush hour. However, we got a little worried when no other bands were there, no PA, and the bartenders had no idea about a show. We called Woodale and them know, and then we just had to sit and wait and try not to worry, we had been taken care of all tour until now, why would tonight be any different. Well, tonight was no different, we enjoyed some Chipotle, which most of us would say is a personal favorite. We then went back to the Liquid Cellar and met up with Woodale and their manager. Shortly there after, all our fears were gone. “Fro”, the guy in charge of booking at the Liquid Cellar (he is also the guitarist for the band Last Winter), showed up with the PA and got everything rolling. We got to play with Hot Vegas (who I personally enjoyed very much, everyone should check them out), The Denver Mile (another very good band you should all check out), and of course, our good friends, Woodale. It was a fun show, good times with people we love. Tonight we returned to the Rund’s house to stay again. I am very excited to be here, I love this family very much. We got in at 5 am, and are ready for some good sleep, so good night to you all.

Day 10- July 25th– New Purpose Community Church- New Port Richey, FL

2006-08-23T11:24:00.001-07:00

Posted By: Travis

Today we were able to rest in the comfort of the DeMaso home and enjoy having some chill time. Brian Demaso has been Jesse’s roommate for the last two years and he helped book us this show when our previous Tampa date fell through. The Demaso’s actually paid to have our album pressed and we are forever grateful to them. This morning we went to Guitar Center to get some strings and Jesse needed a new head and snare for his drums. The DeMaso’s just got a new pool and we put it to good use since it was probably one of the hottest days of the tour. When we got to the church, I didn’t really know what to expect because it looked like a big white dome. Once inside, it actually looked really sweet. It’s a temporary tent. We unloaded the gear and did a sound check. Afterwards we took another dip in the pool since we had some time to kill, had some pizza, and then headed to the show. We met up with the Woodale boys and the show went well. Also we just received our new video camera in the mail thanks to the Demaso’s so keep an eye out for tour footage. The show went well except that several times during our set we overloaded the generators that run this church tent and shut everything off. We powered through and finished and everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves. Afterwards Mrs. Demaso cooked us an amazing dinner and we hit up the pool again.

Day 9- July 24th- Demaso Family House- New Port Richey, FL

2006-08-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

Posted By : Jesse

We awoke this morning to a breakfast feast fit for kings provided by Mrs. Rund. After eating a little breakfast, chatting with the Runds, and being serenaded by a hammer dulcimer and Irish flute (also provided by Mrs. Rund) we headed to Lake Swan Camp for some tubing. This was a new experience for Travis who shockingly enough had never been tubing before…I know we couldn’t believe it either!!! He managed to do quite well though, however just like the rest of us he got trashed quite a few times. Jeremiah definitely proved him self yet again to be “Mr. Athletic”. Despite getting thrown about seven feet in the air multiple times, he held on…it was amazing!!! Later that day after getting showers and packing the truck, which by this point we have become pros at, we headed south to New Port Richey to spend the night at the Demaso’s house in preparation for our show the next day. We arrived a few hours later and spent the day with Brian, chrisoning his brand new pool. It was a great day filled with good times and great friend, some old and some brand new. God continues to bless, and not playing a show this day actually turned out to be a much need break!!!

H.A.G.S., Jesse

Day 8 – July 23rd - Gainesville – Rund Family Guest House

2006-08-23T11:20:00.001-07:00

Posted by: Aaron

So this morning we were woken by the smell of Dunkin Donuts. It continues to astound us at the kindness and generosity of others. We got cleaned up and said goodbye to our wonderful friends in Our Finest Hour till we meet them again in a week in Valdosta. We were supposed to play with them again tonight in Byron but the show fell through and it was fine cause my voice was feeling sore this morning, not from overuse though but because we have had overhead fans the last two nights and though I love the cooling effect they produce it always wrecks my throat. Jeremiah had arranged with a friend who lived in Gainesville to stay for the night and since we don’t have to be in Gainesville till the 25th we figured, why not. So we left around 10:00 am knowing it would be a long drive. Jeremiah drove first and we had decided to have worship in the truck. We sang our lungs out for about a half hour to some of our favorite worship stuff and then listened to a sermon Jeremiah had on his Ipod. It was nice and we all just couldn’t help reflecting on how good God has been to us so far. Later on we read some more of “Mere Christianity” which, like all Lewis, is amazing even the second time. We once again passed over a border which is a new tradition inspired by our good friend and crucial My Epic team member Micheal “Mikey” Sanders. Back in our last band Mike drove almost the entire way to Illinois shirtless, it was quite funny. When we finally arrived at Emily’s house we were in for quite the surprise. Her mom had cooked us an amazing dinner. Jeremiah met Emily last summer on the way back from working as a missionary in Jamaica at an airport and she was on her way back from Australia. They have had a wireless friendship ever since and very graciously asked us to stop by if we had a chance. Dinner was amazing and they have an awesome house right on a beautiful little lake. After dinner we jumped in the lake and marveled at how awesome our lives are right now, thank you God. They also had a small boat with an outboard motor and we tooled around for a bit and at some point I double-dog-dared Travbag to take it all the way across the lake by himself, since the boat only went a mile an hour it was really funny and looked a lot like the boat chase in “Princess Bride”. Afterwards we went inside and spent some time with the family. They are an amazing family and we had a good time talking about God, his recently-deceased Godly father, and life on the road. The rest of the guys hung out and talked for a while but I wasn’t feeling well so I hit the hay. It continues to astound how God provides.

Day Seven – July 22nd – The 7 Venue – Douglasville, GA

2006-08-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Jeremiah

I am getting quite lucky, every day I get to write about just happens to be an awesome day, and I can honestly say that I use the word awesome in the truest sense of the word. We got to sleep in a bit this morning which was really nice and greatly appreciated. We then headed out with OFH to meet up with Emerson and make the trek to The 7 Venue. On the drive there it began storming, which was a bit nerve racking because we couldn’t see the trailer in front of us until we were right up on it, but we made it through. After we made it through that, we got caught two traffic jams, one caused by a tractor trailer flipping, throwing boxes of plastic cups all over the road and median, but fear not, I believe the driver was okay, at least physically, I am sure he was pretty upset emotionally. After that, we got stuck in one of those really annoying traffic jams where you get stuck in it forever then randomly, for no reason, the traffic just disappears. However, during the traffic, we got our first awesome experience of the day, it was a lightning storm directly in front of us, we were able to see many bolts, very exciting. We then got to the venue, it was truly a great venue. We highly recommend it to all bands as well as all fans of bands. Please, go, no seriously, go, now, to The 7 Venue. The show was great, amazing bands, definitely check out an awesome band from the Farrow Islands called Braquet (www.myspace.com/braquet) they were very good and if you get a chance to support them while they are in the states, please go do that. When we were playing, we were all having a blast and flipping out, and when I got a little too into it, I ran a little too close to the edge of the stage, and crossed that thin little line between being a rock star and a complete fool by falling off the stage into a drumset, but all is well, we were able to finish the song and the set without any major diffic ulties. Tonight, a friend of OFH, Amanda is letting us stay at her house, and a nice house it is. She has been a great hostess, thank you Amanda. Alright, time for another day, the next two days are off nights, so who knows what we will get ourselves into, but either way, I know it will be good times. I love you all, come say hey to us at our next show, we appreciate it. Have a lovely day.

Day Six – July 21st – Studio B – Glennville, GA

2006-08-23T11:19:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Travis

Today we woke up to a wonderful breakfast at the Benzon’s residence, packed our stuff and headed through Charlotte to see all the wonderful sites of “uptown” and have lunch at the infamous Penguins for some burgers/pickle chips/union rings. Today we have quite a long drive ahead of us. We met up with the guys of Our Finest Hour to play at Studio B in Glenville, GA. It was fun to be able to meet up with the guys even though it wasn’t much of a turn out. The owner of “Bob’s Pizza” and Studio B was a nice guy that gave us our guarantee even though he was losing money. We really appreciate the enormous amount of generosity we’ve been shown by so many people we’ve met. We were able to find a place to stay for the night and were entertained by a pit bull/lab named tigger (in more ways than you’ll ever know). We then settled down for the night and are looking forward to playing the 7 venue in Douglasville, GA.

Day Five- July 20th- YiFi- Charlotte, NC

2006-08-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Aaron

This morning we had to wake up early to begin the trek to the Queen City of Charlotte. At least for those of us who are college aged and who consider 7am early. We packed up our junk after downing some egos and orange juice thanks to the kindness of our host Matt and his roommate Casey. It was good to see Matt and once again feel whole as a band as we still greatly miss him. Most of today was spent on a semi-grueling 8 hour drive. We only stopped twice for gas and food and thanks to my mom saved a lot of money by downing tuna kits for lunch. Thanks mom. It definitely does wear on us to ride in such cramped quarters but the pride of the gas saved “hardcore rock toughness” of doing so almost out weighs it. Don’t get me wrong though; its uncomfortable. As soon as God blesses us with the means for a van we will gladly step up. We arrived plenty early at Charlotte North to do sound checks and the like. This was definitely the smallest venue we will play. It is actually the back conference room of the office space of the church I worked in last summer. Nick (the youth pastor with whom I worked with last summer) did a great job of setting everything up and helping us get ready. It was a real small and intimate setting. We set up some lights and many of my friends from my last two summers began to arrive. Emerson played there best set yet and everyone was really having a good time. We sold a ton of merch and were just having a blast. Our set went decently well until we got to the Antidote and then the place exploded. As soon as the first synth notes rang out everyone started screaming and the crowd sang along till the very last note, it was awesome. The rest of the set went well and the energy was awesome. It was all in all just another great night. Afterwards there was a lot of hanging and talking and it was just a great intimate night of 60 or so people packed into a tiny room. Later team “Mymerson” headed over to Tambi’s house to spend then night. She is the church administrator and her son Josh is one of the teens I worked with last summer. They were really kind to cook us a ton of food and just basically spoil us, all in all, another great night.

Day Four- July 19th- The Rock @ McLean Bible Church- Sterling, VA

2006-08-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Jesse

Initially the plan was to get up lazily and play some Frisbee golf before making the treacherous hour drive to the DC area. We still had one task left to accomplish from the previous day, getting the racks and the “space case” on the truck. And of course with our personal band engineer Jeremiah it was a task we successfully completed. However after all day Tuesday spent on the river, and seeing as how we were dealing with a heat weather advisory we all figured the river would be much better than a round of Frisbee golf. So we moseyed on down to the river and spent the short hour we had jumping off rocks and laying in the rapids, enjoying the splendor of our creator…if you are a little jealous you should be, it was amazing. Reluctantly we got back in the truck and headed home to pack up. After eating, packing up, and saying our goodbye’s we set off. Upon arriving at McLean we met up with our boys in Emerson. The show went great and we were also able to visit with some great friends who made it to our show. Mr. Matthew Hogan himself former My Epic guitarist and world renowned architect came to see our show. We spent the night at Matty’s and as usual it was amazing, we love him dearly. It was another great day in a string of days that our sure to be lifetime memories. Great friends, great fun, and music what could be better? God continues to bless and we are so thankful for all the great fans who have supported us at our shows and the new ones we have been able to meet and get to know. Thank you all so much for your love and support and your interest in this band, we truly our so thankful for all of you!!!

H.A.G.S. , Jesse

Day Three-July 18th-The Stone House-Fredericksburg, VA

2006-08-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Jeremiah

What a day… This was the first day of tour that we didn’t have a show, but we feel it was time well spent either way. We got into Aaron and Jesse’s house late last night, 4 am to be exact, and went straight to sleep. We wasted no time this morning getting started on the day. We got up, had lunch and left for some kayaking with Mr. Jim Stone himself. We had a blast swimming, rope swinging, rowing, eagle watching, and “chuting”. After a few hours of that we came home to some amazing food cooked by Mrs. Stone, which we wasted no time devouring to the pleasure of our grumbling tummies. After dinner we decided to see if we could get the racks put on top of our sweet tour vehicle, a ’96 Tacoma extended cab with all of our equipment packed in the most indescribable way (if you have ever seen it, if you haven’t, it is a must see, please wait around after a show to see one of the most amazing packing anomalies you will ever see, and yes, it is an anomaly). Since we don’t want to have to pile all of our clothing and other necessities on our laps the whole tour, we decided to add some racks and mount a turtle shell to the top for those things, but as we opened up one of the boxes, we realized we were missing some pieces, so at about nine, Aaron called and found out that Dick’s had what we needed, we thought, so Aaron and I hiked on up there with his sister Olivia, little did we know what was in store (literally). We got there and Aaron found the guy he talked to on the phone and we began looking at all the boxes and realized that they did NOT have what we needed. As we talked to Ian (the employee), he told us about a possible option…we looked in a bigger box and it had the pieces we needed among a bunch of other pieces for a little more than we wanted to spend, so he asked us to give him a minute to go talk to his manager to see if they could cut us a deal, since we didn’t need 95% of what we were going to have to buy. Well, as many know, God does some amazing things at some very unexpected times. Ian came back and said, we could just go ahead and get the one part we needed out of the box and they would work out replacing that part, so we asked how much and he told us nothing, he said we could just take it for free. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but unsigned musicians who are in college don’t really have an impressive amount of disposable funds. One thing we have all learned as a band from this tour is that, without a doubt, God is completely in control of this tour. We would love for you to ask us in person (possibly at a show near you) why that is, it is far too important to all of us to try to put it within the restricting confines of a blog. We left Dick’s, headed back home and enjoyed some apple pie and ice cream and now I am going to go get some sleep. Good night or morning or day to you all (depending on when it is you decided to grace our blog with your presence). We love you all and I personally hope to see and meet many of you in the very near future.

Day Two-July 17th-The Masters Inn-Altavista, VA

2006-08-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

Posted By: Travis

Arriving back to camp late last night, we all headed to bed around 1:30 a.m. on the floor of the patmos house (little cabin near the climbing wall). I think most of us didn’t really get much sleep since we’re spoiled when in comes to sleeping comfortably. Jeremiah wanted to sleep outside on the deck and apparently did for awhile until he got too cold. With the exception of Jeremiah, we all slept till about 10: 30 a.m. and had the suprise of being awaken by a female presence in the room. One of the workers, Casey, was coming around to collect trash and was surprised to find a bunch of half-naked dudes laying around. I’d have to say the most exciting event of the morning involved an electric mosquito zapper racket, a few nipples, and Jeremiah’s finger. Jeremiah worked up the nerve to stick his finger in the racket to see how much it would hurt. Once he found out it wasn’t so bad and had heard that it had been done before, he wanted to see what it would feel like to get his nipple shocked. And yes, it was hilarious. That’ll be one story that we’ll take from this tour that will always draw a smile and a laugh. After Jeremiah did it, John (the other councilor staying with us) had to live up to the challenge and had his nip zapped as well. We enjoyed a day o in the pool, and chilling at the lake and watching Jeremiah get launched from the blob.

In the afternoon, we enjoyed some Salisbury Steak and rice and at the cafeteria. The worship service was led by Dave and Travis from the band, Station Two, and they did an excellent job. Towards the end of the service, there was an altar call and several kids went up for prayer, repentance, or to deal with issues in their lives that they wanted to hand over to God. As the kids were making their way out of the building, I was in the back watching their faces pass by. I don’t really know why this happened, but it was definitely a moment where God gripped my heart. With every body that passed me by, I thought of them not as kids that I may never see again, but as souls with a value that I could not put a price tag on. My heart went out to them as I remembered the responsibility we have as believers to make disciples. I went in and sat down while the worship was finishing up and just gave a silent prayer up to God and dedicated the show and the rest of the tour to making an impact in the kids we talk to. For the rest of the night, it was bliss. We played a great set with almost no mistakes and high energy. I think we’re getting back into the groove we were in when we left for the summer. The kids seemed to have a great time and we sold a lot of merch. We also want to thank some very special people who wanted to help us out and give us some gas money in order to support us while we’re on tour. They didn’t have to do it, but it means a lot to us (you know who you are, thank you so much). Along with the camp kids, we had some locals from in town come to see us, along with our friends Mike and Scott and Aaron’s girlfriend Tiffany who ran merch for us. Overall it was a great day and we left the kids to high hopes of a wonderful week at camp. We then gathered our belongings and are currently heading to Fredericksburg, VA to enjoy some time with the Stone Family and kayaking.

Day One – July 16th- The Brewery – Raleigh, NC

2006-08-23T11:11:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Aaron

We woke up today like kids on Christmas. Today begins the fruition of a long-term dream. We had practiced at camp late so we set off for Raleigh at 10:30am. We have decided to read a couple chapters aloud each day on tour. We want this tour to be as fun and beneficial on every front as possible plus it helps us get in the right mindset. We decided to start with “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis since only Jeremiah and I had read it and it has been quite a while. We knocked out three chapters on the way to The Brewery. No writer since the Bible can touch Lewis for my money and even as I read passages I had underlined my last time around I still was so awestruck by his ability to succinctly explain the deepest of philosophies. We had to stop at Guitar Center for some supplies and we had a few minutes to kill. When we got to the venue the sound guy was outside waiting for the owner to show up and let us in. The venue is real close to NC State in downtown Raleigh so we walked across the street and shared a Sweet Tea and hung out with the band Snakes and Suits. They are a local band and it was their second show; good dudes and their manager, Josh, was super nice and helped run our merch. We were also playing with a local indie band called Yearling (www.myspace.com/yearlingmusic), and a touring post-hardcore/ indie outfit from Charlotte called Harvard (www.myspace.com/harvard). We met Yearling when we played the Brewery on New Year’s Eve with our good friends in Called to Arms (www.myspace.com/calledtoarms). Their lead singer, Sid, was there and really dug our music and we swapped demos. He is also the bass player for the popular NC Hardcore band Glass Casket. Harvard contacted us about trading shows because their lead singer used to run in the same circles as Travis in Durham. The Brewery is like Travis’ home venue. It’s the venue he always saw shows at in high school and it was a dream of his to play there. They always treat us well and quite often even better than the “Christian venues”. Anyway the show went well for the first time back at it in two months. All the mistakes were minor and I doubt anyone else noticed. Judging the reaction of the audience and the other bands, we played exceptionally well. But we are perfectionists. We had a good time goofing around with the boys from Harvard and we sold a good amount of merch. Harvard was really energetic and fun to watch and Yearling has the polish of a seasoned veteran. I always put toilet paper in my ears when we watch other bands and for the second time this year I got one stuck. Luckily Jeremiah came to the rescue with pliers, which is good cause it freaks me out. Everyone was really cool and we look forward to seeing all the boys again later. We had a few guys come up and thank us for the clarity with which we spoke of Christ, every little bit of encouragement helps. Afterwards we went to The Cookout with some people and then headed back to camp where we play tomorrow night. Great people, great show, great opportunities, good pay, and great beginning to this tour. So far, I have to say; We love tour. See you soon.