Today marks the first day of my last year at Clemson, and it looks to be a busy year. There’s a lot of work to do, a lot of fun to have, and a lot of life to live this year. It’s good to be back. My summer was pretty stellar too, but more on that later!

P.S. For those who were eagerly awaiting the song list from High School Beach Camp, no fear! It is coming. For those eagerly awaiting to hear about Ethiopia, you also shouldn’t fear. That is coming as well.

After load in, we went to get a bite to eat before running through the night’s set. Well, it turns out there are approximately zero fast food places in Garden City. After driving a while, we did find a Wendy’s and had our dinner there. We have some really good food to look forward to this week, but we were on our on for Sunday.

When we returned at about 7:15, we started practicing for the night. The meeting starting at 8:30, so we thought we would have until about 8:10-8:15 to warm up and rehearse the songs. Turns out we were wrong. We actually had until about 7:45 before campers began to stream into the building and we had to clear the stage. This made us a little apprehensive since we were trying a lot of new things that night.

All credit to God, we ended up being reasonably well prepared for the night and God was good in allowing us to give acceptable praise to Him. The first couple of songs went a little south musically due to tuning issues, but that was only a big deal in the bands eyes. Overall the first worship meeting was a great success! Great music, great drama, and a great message straight from the Word

After the meeting we added a sub to the sound system(Sweet!) and had a rehearsal time for Monday morning(which you’ll hear about later, but went really well).

Please keep the band and me in your prayers as we continue to learn how to lead these students in worship to our King. Also be in prayer for Tony as he teaches us this week.

Work at Jobscope is always a huge part of the day, and today was particularly busy. The project I’m working on is beginning to wrap up. So now I’m in the process of getting all of the infrastructure in place to release it to the world. This mostly involves sending emails to lots of other people, waiting for replies, training others on how to use the software, etc.. Fun stuff! I will then probably spend most of next week working on another project before I head off for the summer. There are no fewer than 4 other web projects that I have to work on on the side. Realistically, probably none of them will even get started before I start my stretch of summer that I’ve been preparing so hard for, but there are one or two I would like to at least make some progress on before leaving. We’ll see how it goes.

I got a call from a girl in Russia today that made me smile. Though, it also kicked my brain into gear about preparing more for Ethiopia. I ended up making what will probably be my largest Wal-Mart run for the trip. At least I hope so, because the stuff I seem to need has a very high price density. Meaning I walk away with only a little bit of stuff and and lot out of my bank account. God had been very gracious, though, in continuing to provide support.

Tonight, I began gathering bags for Ethiopia and even began to put stuff in them! Packing for Ethiopia will be quite interesting because, in less than two weeks, I will have to pack a bag to go to Garden City for a week of leading worship, come home Friday afternoon, empty that bag hurriedly do laundry, and then repack that bag to leave early Saturday morning for Ethiopia. So it’s pretty important that I go ahead and get my packing organized now, and planning this far ahead doesn’t come natural to me.

Everything else for Ethiopia seems to be in order. I have all the medicine I’ll need for stomach bugs and Malaria prevention, I have a travel guitar on the way for some good ‘ole Jesus music, all my immunizations are good to go, and I’m all paid up on my trip expenses! Praise God for all of that! Now it’s just time to go.

Before going to Ethiopia, as mentioned before, I’ll be leading worship for a week in Garden City for a high school retreat. I’m incredibly excited about it, but nervous and anxious at the same time. Keeping God’s glory at the forefront of my mind and heart is always a challenge when I’m preparing to get on a stage anywhere and have a microphone put at my face, but it’s even more tempting to try and take that glory for myself when the camps become so large and the musical talent you work with is so good. It has been an incredibly frustration journey preparing for this camp, and that hasn’t been that much fun. In a lot of ways, though, I have to still pray for God to keep me frustrated and on my toes, because it’s in those times of frustration that I can’t find comfort in myself. I have to turn everything over to God and let him provide for everything. When I can get that right, it’s such a great and encouraging feeling. I just need to work on getting that right more often.

Please be praying for Beach Camp,  that the band would work well together during our rehearsal this Saturday, that we would keep the weight of what it means to lead worship on our hearts, and the God’s glory would be our primary objective; and for Ethiopia, that the support would come in for those who still need it, for God to be preparing those in Ethiopia that we will meet and share our lives with, and that God would be preparing the team for the work cut out for us, most importantly that we would trust God to be the strength and comfort in doing that work.

Yesterday, though, God decided to pour out several special blessing on me. The first was getting a voicemail from Carrie bright and early in the morning. I hate that I missed the actual phone call, but it gave me a big ‘ole dimple smile knowing that I would get to talk to her later that day. It was simple incredible to hear her voice again, and to be able to communicate in realtime again. That won’t be a gift easily forgotten after this summer.

The day wasn’t without its adventures. After going camping last weekend with some of the guys on the team going to Ethiopia this summer, one of my legs had become very irritated and swollen from bug bites and stings. I had to go to the doctor to get a shot in my rear, along with a bunch of drugs to try and keep it from becoming too bad. It also gave me an opportunity to fill my Malaria prescription for Ethiopia. I ended up  leaving the store with will over 100 pills for only $2.50!

Only God could have ended the day like he did. I had a great time of worship through song with a bunch of students who are in Laurens to work on people’s houses for the week. I get to do that again  tonight and Friday, and I’m really looking forward to it. I learned that there are over 40 of these camps that will take place this summer all over South Carolina. That is just awesome! Praise be to God!

I praise God and give Him thanks for delivering a lead guitar player as well. I know God only has great plans for that week, and I’m so excited to be a part of it!

Now, this has had nothing to say what that audition should look like, or how it should be structured. Whether it is a formal audition tape or tryout, or whether it is more subtly woven in to a jam time or into a practice depends greatly on the context of the type of band, the people in the band, and the people wanting to join. The important thing is that it needs to be done, and it’s much easier done at the beginning than later on.

My heart has been worked on this week in a lot of ways, but particularly about making sure I was seeking Christ first in my preparations for this weekend. I believe this has been accomplished even in the midst of last minute preparations and and obstacles popping up. I am genuinely excited to see how God will move this weekend. Thank you everyone who has prayed so diligently for the band and me. I have felt them and have been greatly encouraged by them.

The music side of the night turned out really great as well. Matt, Philip and I had been working pretty hard over the past month or so to get things ready, and it definitely paid off. We were also joined by the incredible Layne Madden on electric guitar and mandolin. He is simply amazing. There’s really nothing else you can say about him. I’m glad he decided to come out of his way to join us.

Now it’s time to start gearing up for a second service on August 10. After tonight, I’m pretty excited about this next service and for what God has planned for the church in the upcoming future. If you happen to be in the Laurens area on that Sunday, you should definitely stop by.

If anyone is interested, here is the set list from tonight. I’m also hoping to get video of the service online soon.

Jesus Paid It All - Kristian Stanfill
Holy is the Lord - Chris Tomlin
You Never Let Go - Matt Redman
Rejoice – Chris Tomlin
Come Thou Fount – Micah Lee Band Arrangement
Your Grace Is Enough – Chris Tomlin

Also, my brother graduates tonight. Just throwing that out there.