Oregon

This picture i took when we were in Nyssa Orgeon at the Snively Hot Springs. Across the road from the springs, there some rather large hills with some pride-rock-like structures so Steve, my bass player climbed up on one and i snapped this of him. I also messed around with it in a picture manager but i just really liked this picture!

How God works

God works in mysterious ways. When we think God is gonna work one way, or we "allow Him" to work in a certain way, He almost never works in that way. You know why? Because if God worked in the ways we say He can or think He will, then we could attempt to explain and understand God which we can't do! The Bible says that God is altogether unknowable, which means we can never fully understand Him or his ways, which i think is a good thing. Because the minute we understand God, that is when we no longer rely on Him completely. We feel better, stronger somehow because we knew what God was gonna do, and He did it the way we thought he should. I pray that everyday God shows me something brand new in a way that i never expect Him to show me. I pray that God will never do what I think He should when i say or how i say to do it. i pray that He will reveal himself to me whenever and however he wants to.

-Bo

Support Needs

Hello Again everybody!
i just wanted to give you all an update on how my support raising is going! I currently am at just a little under $5,000 and still need a little over $7,000. I want to encourage you all that if you felt led to give, that you would give in smaller monthly increments, rather than a larger one-time gift. You can do all this very easily and simply by going to CTI's website, ctimusic.org, and going to the donate page and following the instructions from there. God Bless You All!!!!!!!!!!!
-Bo

BACK FROM HONDURAS!

Hello Again!

I first off would like to apologize for my tardiness and lack of posts. Currently, I am sitting in the team room, after lunch writing this post. I am surrounded with people and guitars. Just how I like it. Many people are on their laptops writing things as well, and others are eating or talking. As I sit here in the serenity I think back on my time in Honduras. I think of Mauricio, the head of the Central American YFC, and our time at the waterfall, and the Futbol game we went to, and a thousand other things. I think the main thing that is going through my mind is how I am feeling towards Honduras. I miss it yeah, but not really like other people on my team do. I am wondering why that is. I definitely loved it there and would go back whenever but I don’t really miss it. :/ I don’t think it’s really a bad thing, but its just curious to me. Ok, anyway, a little about Honduras. It is a beautiful country, filled with many people who have one thing all in common. They all love futbol! They live for futbol! It was a blast to be able to go to the game of Honduras vs. USA. We all wore Honduras jerseys so we "blended in".

Now some about the people we met there. FIrst off, Mauricio, like i said before is the Director of YFC not only in Honduras, but also of all of Central America. He was our bus driver, concert planner, roadie, everything. He was THE MAN. Another few were Brenda, basically our mom for the month, and Sanitago, who just helped us around and hung out with us. Both of them were YFC volunteers.

i want to tell you about a waterfall we went too. First off, it was huge. Mauricio said we can go down into the waterfall for a small prcie with a guide. So we are thinking its really safe and stuff so we go down, but Mauricio said we had to wear shoes, couldnt take cameras or towels or glasses or anything! so we start to go down and we eventually actually do go INTO the waterfall. Like actually into it. It was so rad! We had to hold hands so no one would get lost or anything and we had to completely trust the guide or else we really could have died. It was completely worth the five or so bucks that it cost and the lessons i took form that I still think about.

Well, thats all for now! check out pictures on my facebook for more!

Bo

Open Road

Three Days Ago we left Willmar, MN not knowing what was in store for us yet very excited for whatever it was. 6 hours later, we arrived in Mcgregor Iowa, just across the Mississippi River from Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin. We rolled in right at 4:00 and spent a little bit of time explloring Main street, which is what the town basically consists of. We then headed up to our host, bob Eggen, who is 80 years old but had more energy than us young whippersnappers. We unpacked our personals, then went back across the river to eat dinner, then went to the park where we played in a gazebo! It was so awesome! in the middle of Speaking Louder than Before, our monitors went out. usually not that bad but we were all packed in a regular gazebo and me, being the loudest, had to focus and keep the beat so that all the others could stay on beat, because the monitors is what projects the sound back to us, so we can hear what we are playing. Well, apparently we still sounded good because everyone cheered and things like that. It was a total God thing because nobody thought that we played well at all but apparently we did.
The next day we woke up at 5:30 to play at a church a halfhour away at 8:30, then we went to another church to play at 10:30. We played a simple acoustic set because the average age of the congregation was about 60-70. After that we had church in the basement of the second church and then went to a 97 year old ladies house and played some hymns we knew and just talked. That was super cool!!! She was truly a blessing to us. After that, we napped until 530, then went to dinner at our contacts house at 6. That was the most delicious meal i have eaten in a long time. Topped off with apple pie and ice cream!!!! after that, we came back to the house and hung out a bit, then us guys played poker til about midnight.
Today was our day off. We woke up and had breakfast at 9, then went to Pike's Peak Park (No joke) and went on a little hike. That was very cool and scenic and then just sat at the park and hung out and saw a Walking Stick!!!!! Now we are at the coffee shop which is the only place with internet for a while around.
Tomorrow our plan is to have lunch at a nursing home and then after that we will play for the old people that are there. This town is a very oldperson town so there are quite a few old people here! Which is kinda cool because they are always accepting and glad to have us which is very cool!

This is all for now.
-Bo :)

CTI #3

Tomorrow i leave for my first tour.
Training tour.
Three weeks on the road.
Living in a van with 7 others and Chris Reed our trainer.
Totally
Totally
Totally
Totally
Totally
Totally
Totally
Totally
Totally
Totally
Totally
Totally
Totally
STOKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We go to Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. We play 15-20 venues so about 20-25 concerts in three weeks. Our drive time varies from ten minutes from venue to venue or 6 hours from city to city. Well, its dinner time here at the ministry so i will sign off! Bye!

CTI #2

Ok so post number two has been long in coming but you know what, give me a break. something about learning seven new songs in three days is a little taxing on a fella k? :) naw its cool i want to be kept up on this and not just let it sit.

Ok, so first off, we didnt do anything Monday or Tuesday as far as music is concerned. we did however listen to round two summer teams final concerts, and they were amazing! it made us so jealous cuz we so wanted to play!!! but ya anyway, the next day we did play and it was sweet! Wednesday we learned show me what it means by Meredith andrews :) thats a really good song in case you dont know it :) then thursday we learned Today is the Day, No More, Lost Get Found. they are really good songs and long story short, we rock :) Today we learned Never going back to Ok, Never Let Go, and None But Jesus. They are also good songs! Plus, we super rock on Never Going back to Ok! Jim, our lead guitar, and male vocalist is pulling double duty (Go ahead Jon, laugh it up :) and is playing lead and singing lead so hes pretty much the bomb-diggity on that. On Lincoln Brewster's Today is the Day, he also sings and plays the insane solo on it and he doesnt quite have it down yet, but he will cuz he is that rockin. So ya that is whats happening on the music side of things and i will write more later :)

Seeya guys!

CTI #1

Hey Guys -

So I'm here sitting on the plane waiting to takeoff trying to sort through what's happenin in my head. Am I excited for the opportunities God will provide? YES. Am I going to miss all my friends at home? DUH. Am I going to make lifelong friends at CTI and beyond? OF COURSE. So why do I have all these emotions that are just making me uneasy when I have nothing to worry about? I DON'T KNOW. So as I'm flying on this plane, FLIGHT 1080 nonstop service to Minneapolis with connections to Newark, I will try to settle down my head and focus on the task at hand. GODS

What's Happening in CTI

Ok,
So as far as CTI goes, i will give you a rundown of how CTI happened. (Dates Approximate) :)
5-20-09 - CTI came to our school and played then gave options to audition for a team possibly, so Aaron auditioned for Guitar, and Bass
5-30-09 - Reference form lost in the mail so not added as a guitarist for a team
6-4-09 - Drum audition by playing Meant To Live (Switchfoot) and Move Along (All American Rejects)
7-8ish-09 - Accepted for CTI as a drummer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7-9-09 - Realized that even though he plays drums, he does not own a set so he needs to get one.
7-10-09 - Looked for drumsets and decided on Pearl Vision VX (Jet Black) :)
7-11 through 7-14-09 - Waits impatiently for drums to arrive from Musicians Friend.com
7-15-09 - Rejoiced when his drums finally came! :)
7-16 through present - Playing drums everyday and waiting anxiously/excitedly for August 14th!!!!!!!

So that is about the sum of what i have been doing lately for CTI but other things include writing support letters and sending them out, writing a letter to my host family, and among others, buying a blackberry for my trip so i will have internet and good service when needed :)

Here's a link to CTI for those of you who don't know what it is. http://www.ctimusic.org/

Toodles! - Bo

First Post Ever

Hey all, what's up?

So a friend of mine started a blog so she could update everyone with what she's doing with her college life so i decided that i could do that to since i'll be in so many places this year! I'm gonna say that this is good for the first post so i'll sign off but i'll keep adding posts and such!

-Bo