Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Raina


Last week during the conference, there was a girl doing prophetic painting during worship. We had seen one of her pieces from the Sunday evening service the week before, and we really liked the way she painted. Anyway, she ended up painting an amazing piece of yellows and reds - the red is a huge flame. When Tanya got a bit closer to the piece, she saw lions in the yellow light! She immediately fell in love with the painting and she approached the artist to chat.


There was immediately a connection between Tanya and Raina - she told us a little about how she ended up doing prophetic art and how she and her husband got to Redding and Bethel. We told her we wanted to buy her painting, and she said she would get back to us. Tanya also arranged to get together with her this week.


Last night after school we drove to Raina's place and met her husband, Brian, and her 2 boys Elias and Kendrick. They invited us to stay for supper and we chatted stacks! She had agreed to sell the painting to us and was really excited that we got it. We're going to hang out with them again next week.


Kim Walker shared during the main session at school yesterday - she is amazing! It's great to hear the story behind the person!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Recording Vocals and Guitar



At 5 on Saturday, Rob and I drove over to another church in town called The Father's House. They have a very cool studio with some amazing equipment. Dano had a speaking engagement, so Rob and I were joined by an intern at The Mission (Dano and Rob's church). Zack has done quite a bit of sound engineering and engineered for us. He was like a kid in a candy store because all the equipment was so cool (especially the Avalon compressors).



Joanna Finchum was there - she had been doing voice lessons all day and so she stayed on to do some backing vocals. We did the vocals on a couple of songs and worked till about 11. Joanna left and then we decided to mic up a guitar and lay down some guitar tracks - Zack's wife Destiney brought his Taylor 215 around and we mic'd it with a Neumann 103 (which we were using for the vocals) and an Audix SCX One. The tone we got was amazing!



The Project is progressing very well and I know that it is going to be a blessing! I have been learning so much and seeing one of my life dreams coming true is really awesome! Thank you Lord!

Editing in Rob's Studio

After the barbeque, I finally got to hear what Rob and Dano have been doing on my album - I haven't finalized what I want to call it yet, so I'll just call it The Project for now. They have been working with the scratch tracks that I sent them and it was amazing what they have been able to do - lots of percussion and some drums and bass and Dano did some piano - the arrangements are fantastic!

Rob and I recorded some traditional songs (just a scratch track that we can later erase, but it'll give us something to work on for now). We then did some minor tweaks to some of my songs.

On Saturday, after a breakfast of eggs, sausage and muffins, Rob and I hit the studio again. Dano joined us and we worked until about 4. I was again blown away at how cool The Project is sounding!

Vacaville with the Harrises

We attended the morning service for the conference on Friday and Tanya and I ushered (the BSSW students are helping out at the conference). After the morning session (worship led by Kim Walker) we went home and gathered some stuff and left for Vacaville at 2pm.


We arrived in Vacaville at the Harris's place at about 4:30 - it was so great to see them again! Michele broke her arm while they were in Fiji and Rob wrote "It wasn't me" on the case!

They returned from a trip to Fiji on Monday last week and are just about caught up on sleep (the time zone difference is 17 hours!).



Rob then treated us to a California barbeque - it was delicious! They have really treated us like royalty! Rob is coming to Africa for 40 starting in August and will spend quite a bit of time at our church helping me to get a recording studio going. It's really exciting to be partnering with the Sounds of the Nations team.

Lunch with Amy!


I forgot to post a picture of us with Amy on Thursday last week - she is from the States and is in the Every Nation family. She has been doing missionary work for a number of years in Latvia, Germany and South Africa! She has been at His People in Cape Town and even visited our church in East London when Dano was out for the Supernatural Lifestyle Conference. She was attending the Kingdom Culture conference in Redding and she treated us to lunch at an Italian restaurant called The Olive Garden. She is coming to visit our church again some time this year.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Thursday Evening

Wow! Well I should have known the night was going to be good - there was a prayer meeting before the 7pm service at 6pm - and about 200 people showed up! The Presence of the Lord was amazing.

Brian and Jenn then led worship and Bill Johnson gave the message. It was awesome! Then he started calling out words of knowledge for healings and we saw numerous instantaneous healings - I saw a girls femur grow about 3cm and a guy was healed of irritable bowel syndrome (he said the muscles in his gut just loosened after we prayed for him). This was in the overflow room!

In the main auditorium, ankles and knees were being healed - a lady whose discs had been fused (c5 and c6 in her neck) was "loosed" and got mobility back. Numbness in hands and feet disappeared. It was awesome!

Bill also shared a story - some members of Bethel went to LA for holiday and as they drove past Disneyland one guy thought, "I wonder what revival in a theme park would look like?" So the next day he is given a free ticket into Disneyland. Him and some friends go in to the food court and pray for a young guy with a sling around his arm - he gets instantly healed! His friends are all stoked cos he is their football star and couldn't play that season - so the Bethel guy leads about 9 youths to the Lord. Next thing they are getting the new believers Spirit-filled and getting them to lay hands on their friends who need healing. Soon kids are running to get friends to be prayed for - by the just-born-again kids! One girl comes up and she is really scared, so the team say "God loves you! Don't be scared". She is still a bit wary, so they tell her, "We won't even need to touch you." They pray for her (without laying hands on her) and her scoliosis is immediately healed - she gets saved and Spirit-filled! Soon the kids are saying, "Can you pray for the sadness in me?" and the team prays a group prayer to break off depression - soon the kids are crying and laughing and shouting, "Jesus!" The team saw 100 people get born again and about 140 instant miracles in 4 and a half hours in the food court at Disneyland! Whohoo!!!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Nia turns 1!


Today is Nia's birthday! We got together in the living room and gave her some pressies to open - she got a cute outfit from the Williams, a book and a CD from the Kumms and a talking dolly from Gran. We haven't gotten her anything yet - we tried some stores but only found cheap junk, so we'll try in Vacaville this weekend.
She really loves her dolly - she hugged it and kissed it and then after putting its dummy in its mouth, she tried to use the dummy herself! It was very cute!

Kingdom Culture Conference Starts

Ray Hughes finished off his teaching at the BSSW with a bang! He was speaking about the story where the young prophets tell Elisha that his style is cramping them, and they want to take some wood and build a bigger place. Then while one is chopping down a tree, he loses an axhead and Elisha makes it float. The point was that the young guys still honoured Elisha and asked him to come with them - the new generation needs to honour the old generation and carry a deposit from the old with them as they walk into destiny!

Elisha then prophesies at the siege - "this time tomorrow, everything will be changed" - and as he did, the Spirit of God moved in the auditorium and we all stood up and spoke change over our nations - that in 24 hours everything would be different! It was an amazing and powerful moment.

I then bought tons of Ray's teachings! We also found out that he is coming to East London in April next year - we are friends with a friend of his - Steve Lincoln from the UK - and Steve is going to arrange for Ray to come to HP! Whohooo!

We had the afternoon off and in the evening the conference started - it's called "The Kingdom Culture" conference. Steve Thompson from MorningStar is one of the guest speakers (along with Kris Vallotton and Bill Johnson) and Kim Walker is here to do some of the worship.

Kim led worship last night which was awesome - and then Steve busted a whole bunch of our Western Theology that isn't biblical - it was powerful!

After the service I asked Kim Walker to pray for me and my recording - which she did. (I have had Jenn Johnson and Ray Hughes pray for the project too, so I am pumped!!!). Kim introduced me to her husband (who was playing guitar while she led worship).

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Word for the Body of Christ in East London

During this morning's session, someone asked Ray Hughes a question and she quoted out of Deut 11:11. Yesterday Ben Armstrong was speaking about numbers and 11 is the number of Mystery and the number of Jesus (I'll have to ask him why). So 11:11 is Mysteries of Jesus!

Anyway, when this girl read the scripture, I knew it was a word for HP in East London (in fact, this is for the Body of Christ in East London).

Deut 11:10-15 "For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden, but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. 'And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.'" (vs 11 in italics)

  • The land is not watered by foot, but by the rain of Heaven - God's promises to us are not accomplished by our effort, but by His Divine Grace
  • A land of hills and valleys - every place, high or low, good or bad, rich or poor will experience the rain of God's presence
  • The Lord cares for our land - yes!
  • Our job is to love and serve Him with everything in us - then He will send the early and the latter rain
  • We are going to be gathering grain (Harvest - souls), experience new wine (new outpourings of His Presence) and oil (Healing)
  • The Lord will send grass in our fields (fruitfulness - especially in spreading the Gospel)
  • We will eat and be filled - He is going to provide supernaturally and abundantly for us to do His will

If you're reading this, then partner with me in faith to see God accomplish what He has promised! Whohoo!

Whacked at home...

Ken has a bunch of guys come round to his place for a "Core Group" meeting once a week or so. His core group met this evening and when they had finished meeting they offered to pray for me - so what could I do but say Yebo Yes!!

They layed hands on me and the Presence of God came thick and HOT and I started getting whacked! Then they started prophesying and this is what they said:

  • Tanya and I are like 2 giraffes: we can see above and beyond to get Divine Strategies
  • One guy said he was reminded of the Church Father John Chrysostum ("Golden Tongue") and that my tongue and throat would release the Healing of Heaven
  • God is digging wells in me
  • God is sending out waves of healing and revival from me
  • I am an "Ancient Gate" - there is something in the heritage of the Ancients (or Church Fathers) that God has for me
  • I have the mantle of William Brannum (healing and supernatural ministry in South Africa)
  • God is opening up in me the wells of John G. Lake (Healing Rooms and supernatural signs in South Africa!)
  • Every deaf ear I pray for will be healed
  • My Golden Tongue will bring healing to spiritually deaf ears too
  • God is giving me new instruments

Wow! Am I pumped or what?!?! Yay God! Do it and have Your way in me! Jesus is sooooo amazing!!

Tuesday - Slay the Giant and Wake the Angels

This morning we had another session by Ray Hughes - he imparted to the class as well as taught. He spoke again about us being the person God created us to be - that living out our destiny is a tool in the Lord's hand for power. His prayer of impartation was that we would slay the giants (Goliath means "soothsayer" and he had been discouraging the armies of Israel till David slew him) that keep us from our destinies. We pretended we had a sling and 280 of us were "swooshing" around and around - the sound was awesome! Then after we had "slain" the giant, he spoke about how after a fight there is dust on you... the Lord wanted his rain to wash away the dust. 280 of us then were clicking our fingers making raining sounds - the presence of the Lord was amazing!

I had guitar class with Jeff from the band and Tanya went to Joanna's voice class.

In the afternoon Benni Johnson spoke - she shared some stories about her prayer journeys in Wales and in Alaska and in the US. In Wales, a friend of hers was at Moriah Temple and the Lord said, "I want you to wake the angel here." She said softly, "Wakey, wakey". The Lord asked her if that was all she wanted - so she shouted at the top of her lungs, "Wakey wakey!" Then she saw an angel get up (its foot was as big as the whole temple) and she asked the angel - are you here to bring the next wave of God? The angel replied, "No, I am the angel from the 1906 awakening - the one bringing the next move is even bigger!"

So Benni was in the Mojave desert and she saw hundreds of angels, and she and her friends took a side road to go to the desert and were in this tiny little town and she suddenly said, "We're going to wake some angels!" As she looked up, she was passing a general store called Moriah! She also showed us her sword (she has lots of "prophetic toys"). She ordered this sword online - it was an 18 inch dagger. 6 weeks later, a 7 foot 2-handed Claymore sword arrives (the shop had made a mistake) but it is amazing, so she kept it!

She then got us to do some soaking and she also spoke about William Seymour who said that 100 years from now (this was in 1909) there would be an outpouring that was greater than Azusa street - yes Lord!!!

I got to chat to Ben Armstrong a bit and invited him to come do a Revival conference at our church if we could work something out. He has some other churches in South Africa that he is in relationship with, so he'll let me know when he is coming to SA to see if we can get him to EL! Yay God!! He has a passion to restore some mysticism in Africa (the good God type!)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Monday a blast at the BSSW!

Wow, what a day! We headed in to our 4th day at school. After worship, Ray Hughes spoke about the restoration of the Tabernacle of David - he is amazing! He is funny, and poignant, and very knowledgable. I am going to have to get the CD of his session - there was so much and it was too much to write down.


Then after lunch (leftover roast beef on rolls - yum!) we had classes - Tanya went to dance again, and I had another vocal session with Joanna. I could actually sing this time, so it was great.


After classes, Ben Armstrong spoke. He is a mystic and actually teaches mystic classes! His main point was that we need to get some Divine Comedy back into the church - the church needs to be fun (and/or funny) in this serious day and age. He also told some amazing stories and prophesied a bit. He was great!


We then did some shopping and had burritos at the Burrito Bandito. They were HUGE and we actually all left half for lunch tomorrow. I had a steak burrito with black beans, sour cream, jalapenos, cheese, avocado and some other stuff. Yummmm!

I then had a private voice lesson with Joanna - it was great, since I've never had voice lessons before. My main problem is that when I sing I tense up and constrict my voice, so I have some exercises to help me relax. Here are some pics... 1st Joanna and I and 2nd Joanna "weighed down with all her accomplishments"... a bit braggy to show all her certificates, but hey, she ROCKS, so she can!





My First Father's Day

So Sunday was Father's day, and I got a little spoiled. Pat cooked a beef roast with roast potatoes and roast butternut (from Mexico). It was sweet! And Nia was an absolute darling!




We went to the 1st service at Bethel and Bill Johnson preached. Then after lunch and a snooze we went to Clover Creek for a quick walk before heading back to Bethel for the evening service. I was really glad we went - Ray Hughes preached and he was extremely funny! (Ray is here for BSSW).

Tanya and I prayed for Ken, Tiffany and Hudson - Tiffany and Hudson head for Texas on Monday for holiday - Ken is going next week. I prophesied over them and they said I had some really accurate words, which was great! We really love the Williams's and are so glad that we got to spend some time with them in their home. They have really been generous and accommodating and we feel right at home with them.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Whiskey Town Lake

That's right campers - we were are Whiskey Town Lake. In fact, we were are Brandy Creek at Whiskey Town Lake. Sheesh.
It was amazingly beautiful, though it was a bit windy. We'll go back there after school in the evenings when it heats up again. It's a bit cooler now, and even rained yesterday.
Tanya was showing her "whatever" face when I took this pic! Hahah!
I have added a pic of Nia in her "ducky" bath. She loves it!
We got to the early service at Bethel this morning. It was great to see how things go here on a "normal" Sunday. I met Paul Manwaring and got to prophesy over a couple in the School of Ministry from New Zealand - they were really blessed!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

It's all about the Peeps

Friday at BSSW was great - again, worship was off the hook - led by the guest speaker for the morning, Jeremy Riddle (of Vineyard - he wrote "Sweetly Broken"). He chatted about his journey into worship and some songwriting stuff.

After lunch we started our elective classes - Tanya went to Dance and I went to Voice. In Voice we are learning SLS (Speech Level Singing) and I am very excited - I need this technique! I have a private voice lesson with the lecturer, Joanna Finchum (we know her because she was on the Mission team that came to visit us in April). She especially moved around some other people to get me in before I go sing on the recording. God is good and His timing is magnificent!

Tanya, Pat and Nia have gone shopping and I am chilling at home. We are going to go to a lake this afternoon and chill out this evening. Then we'll get to church tomorrow - whohoo!

Here are some pics of the peeps - Nia sleeping on a rocking chair, Hudson playing in a standing ring and Ken holding some insulation - they're installing a new aircon. I think pink suits him!






Friday, June 19, 2009

Journaling? Girly, yet stangely fun

This morning's worship was amazing - except for the fact that I couldn't sing (my voice is gone) or dance (headache). So I mostly just stood in God's glory. Hmmmm, not such a bad trade after all!


We had a guy called Andrew S... talk to us today about some of his experiences and about worship. He had a dream one night where Keith Green appeared to him and asked him to join Keith's ministry. Andy said ok, and the 2 of them flew like supermen out to Keith's home and the ministry campus. Keith then took Andy to a hill where the staff were playing soccer and asked Andy to stay on and lead the ministry. Andy said he would seriously consider it, and Keith walked up the hill and into "a light". When Andy woke the next morning, he heard that Keith Green had died in an airplane crash. 8 years later, when he eventually took over Keith's ministry, he was shown around the campus and around Keith's house - he knew them already - and when he asked them if they had a soccer field, they showed him to the one he had been to in his dream. Yes Lord, I want some dreams like that!


Tanya and I had sarmies outside the Prayer Room for lunch.

Kathy Vallotton then told us about journaling and we were provided with journals, magazines, scissors and glue. We all paged through the magazines cutting out pictures or words to paste onto the cover of our journals. Yeah I know - very girly - but it was actually fun. I am looking forward to journaling in my new journal. I'll post a pic of the covers in the next post.

Brian spoke this afternoon about worship leading and about song choices and so on (a little bit) and assured us that from tomorrow onwards, our afternoon sessions will be more hands on and less talk. Whohoo!

We sat next to a South African girl (Marissa) from PE and a missionary to Mexico. Pat then had her sozo session this evening and we are looking after Hudson so that Ken and Tiffany can go out together to celebrate Tiffany's birthday.

Oh, this is the promised pic of HeBrews!

I chatted to my good friend from 'varsity, Holger, this evening - he lives and works in Seattle and we were hoping he could come down to see us. However, it's an 11 hour drive and flights are expensive and we can't offer him a place to stay, so odds are he won't make it. Anyway, I'll blog you tomorrow!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

BSSW Starts!

The day finally arrived - the start of the BSSW 2009! Tanya and I waved our goodbyes to Nia and Grandma and drove to the church. We arrived at about 9 and had to wait in a long queue to register. They spelled Dembovsky "Dembousky" but we were able to correct it and get new name tags. There were about 275 students!

We had some coffee at the HeBrews coffee shop (photos in the next post) and went into the main auditorium. We are seated at tables with about 8 seats. We sat next to a young man called Johnny from Phoenix, Arizona. There are internationals from Switzerland, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Scotland, England and even Egypt!

(In this pic you can kind of see the prayer room on the left and the main church on the right of the hill)


The worship was amazing! Brian Johnson led with the Jesus Culture band and the Presence of the Lord was amazing. Brian and Jenn then spoke about worship and about the importance of being what who we are, not copying others.

We had some lunch at Subway - we gave Johnny a lift into town and prophesied over him while we were having lunch.

In the afternoon the team all introduced themselves and spoke a bit about the courses they are offering. We can only do 2 of the courses, so I am focussing on Vocals and Guitar and hopefully I get into the Advanced Recording class (it's an evening class). We are also going to be going to the Conference next week as part of the school. We signed up to help usher next Friday morning at the conference.

Tanya then drove home and I spent about half an hour in the Prayer Room (which is awesomely beautiful). I then had a sozo session with Nita. It was great, and the Lord showed me some pretty cool images. He gave me a massive Diamond (in exchange for pain and hurt), a Sword wrapped in Red Silk (anger that is now useless) and a green box filled with rainbow coloured slinkies (happy childhood moment that He stored for me when I missed them).

(This pic shows Nita and me - she was so great!)

Tanya came to fetch me at about 8:30 and we made our way home. I then had some dinner and we went grocery shopping (at 11 at night). I then crashed and I am now writing before we go back to school for day 2. Elective classes start today - I have guitar and Tanya has vocals.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Tuesday in Vacaville

Tanya and I had by now both driven a little - right hand side, right hand side - you need to keep mumbling it to yourself - especially when turning left!

We went to try some clothes shopping, but didn't find anything we liked. When we got home, Dano called and invited me to come round to their church, The Mission. Tanya wasn't feeling to well, so I left the girls at home and headed to The Mission.


I took a few pics of the outside of the church when I arrived - it is a massive building (seats 2500 people in the main auditorium). It also has a gymnasium and an admin building with 40 classes. There is a parking lot that can fit 1200 cars and another 6 acres of undeveloped land. Oh, the space...






I then went in and was shown into the staff meeting. There were about 20 people in a comfortable room, just talking and sharing about the miracles that they have seen recently. I got to share a bit about our church and where we are and everyone was amazed at how the Lord is doing the same thing all over the world. The senior leader Dave's car is the yellow porsche in the pic above (he owns lots of property!)






Dan then showed me around the church (I nearly fell over from the Presence of the Lord as I walked through a giant arch, or portal, that they have put next to the stage - you can see them in the pic). We then headed to Tahoe Joes (reminded me of the Spur) for a steak.


Dano then offered to lend us a vehicle for the duration of our trip (friends of his who are in Fiji for the summer) - it doesn't have aircon, but we're African! we can handle a little heat... we were obviously blown away, since this saves us a huge amount of money.

At about 5 we left for Redding and after a beautiful drive, we arrived at the William's house.


This is Rob's house with the "Mighty Whitey" parked in the drive. Some people came to look at the house next door (it's for rent) and asked Pat if this is a nice neighborhood. Yes, she replies. How long has she been here? 2 days...
This is the car that we are borrowing - a Ford Explorer. The V8 engine is awesome - it has a sunroof, is automatic, has some Jesus Culture in the CD stack and cruise control. The drive was very cool!
This is outside the Williams' house.
The Williams' made sure that we have everything we need - they've let us use Hudson's (their son)cot and toys. They are also renovating at the moment, so there is only 1 bathroom that works and it only has a shower. They lent us a little inflatable bath for Nia - it's called a "Munchkin" which is very funny - because that's what I call Nia!
Here is a pic of the room we are staying in. We chatted late with Ken and Tiffany - they are really great! We then crashed and I got up early to do some blogging.
School starts today! And I have my sozo session tonight... what a day, what a day!
Oh one more thing - Dano has listened to the work that Rob and Zack have been doing on my album - he says it is sounding great (which is amazing coming from him). More on the album in 2 weekend's time (when I actually get to hear it and work on it).

Monday in Vacaville

After a little bit of a late sleep (thanks to gran) we got up and had some breakfast. I managed to work out how Rob's coffee machine works (thank goodness!). Dano then called and invited us to go to the beach with him and his family.

The McCollam's collected us at about 10 and we drove for about an hour and a half - the terrain was amazingly diverse - from wetlands to rolling hills to Free State looking farmlands to mountains, forrest and coastline.

Our first stop was at Muir Woods - named after the man who set up the National Parks system in America. It is a redwood forrest, but they aren't even giant redwoods - it was amazingly beautiful though.











The family in the bole of a "little" redwood.











Dan and I checking out the wood for our next guitars...
After the woods we headed to Muir Beach where we picknicked and dipped our feet in the Pacific. We then headed back home.
Dano then took me into Sacramento to a music store - it was immense! I goggled at a few guitars (especially liked the Taylor 114 CE), recording equipment and effects pedals. I didn't buy anything though...

Monday, June 15, 2009

San Francisco

We've arrived! Dano was waiting for us in the arrivals terminal - the customs was a breeze (I guess we don't look very threatening?).

After about an hour's drive we arrived at the Harris house - they have an amazing home! We showered and fed Nia and then crashed a bit. I woke up a little later and watched a bit of TV. Dano came to drop off a camp cot for Nia and Rob phoned us from the airport in San Franciso - they had been delayed by over 8 hours!

This morning we awoke much more refreshed and I managed to work out how Rob's coffee machine works (no small feat). We are going to the beach today with Dano and his family - his kids are on Summer break. I'll have some more pics of that in my next post...

London

Wow were we tired when we hit London! The flight was probably the most uncomfortable flights I have ever been on - and the "bassinet" they had for Nia was like a car-seat - she was not happy being strapped down, and eventually we put her on the floor by our feet so she could sleep.


The queues! They were horrendous and it took us a long time to get through the connecting flights security checkpoint. Once we were through we met Pat (Tanya's mom) who had flown from Cape Town.


We had a couple of hours to kill and when someone mentioned ''Starbucks" I was super keen! Here is a pic of me with my coffee cup!

Johannesburg - Meeting with Nigel

Corne came to collect us and drop us off at the airport. The flight up to Joburg was uneventful. We collected our baggage and while we were checking in at the Virgin counter, Nigel managed to find us. He was on fire and looking a little hungry!



He had just returned from his trip to Mozambique and had some amazing stories. He also gave us 3 instruments to take to Dano - a rainstick, a shaker and a timbira (made from the pod of a boabab seed).

Next thing we knew, we were on the plane to London!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Up, up and away (almost)

We are now packed and ready (well, almost). We need to get some gifts for some people tomorrow morning and then tomorrow afternoon we start flying. I can't believe it's actually here!

We're going to be meeting Nigel at the airport in Johannesburg - he will have just flown in from Mozambique where he was visiting Iris ministries. 

Our flight for London leaves at 20:40 and we arrive in London on Sunday at 6:40am local time. We'll meet Tanya's mom Pat there (she is flying to London from Cape Town). We then leave for San Fransisco at 11:30 and arrive (14 hours later) at 2:30pm local time. Dano is going to be fetching us at the airport.

I will try to post a pic of us at OR Thambo airport in Joburg tomorrow - that'll be our last post from SA! Subsequent posts will be made from Vacaville and Redding! Whohoo!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

5 sleeps to go...

So it's only 5 sleeps till we start flying... I have been clearing my camera memory card and downloading video from our video tapes so that I have plenty space for when we are in the US. Tanya has been packing (I will probably only pack on Saturday morning!). Nia is spending lots of time being cute.

Here is a picture of the 3 of us - this was in Cape Town a couple of weeks ago (in Kirstenbosch Gardens).

From left to right: The Dashing Hero, Colin. The Gorgeous Babe, Nia. The Amazing Babe, Tanya.

I will be posting loads of pics of us in Vacaville and in Redding - so watch this space!


Sunday, June 7, 2009

6 days and counting...

This time next week, we'll be flying over US soil - we'll be descending towards the airport in San Fransisco. Dano McCollam (from iWAR) will be picking us up - Rob and Michele (the Africa Directors for Sounds of the Nations Africa) are flying to Fiji, and their plane leaves 5 minutes before our plane lands. Originally they were going to leave their keys and car for us at the airport, but Dano obviously volunteered to drop them off and fetch us. I am quite relieved, since trying to drive on the right hand side (the WRONG side) of the road in a strange city after 27 hours of flying and 8 hours in airports between East London, London and San Fransisco was not really appealing to me!

We're going to be staying at Rob and Michele's from Sunday (14th) till Tuesday. I am hoping to go visit The Mission (Dano and Rob and Michele's church) on Sunday evening - if I am not too zonked from the trip. Over that time I will pretty much be locked in the recording studio - there are some tracks down already from what Dano and Rob tell me. I can't wait to hear what they have done!

We'll be driving to Redding on the Tuesday and the Bethel School of Supernatural Worship (BSSW) starts on Wednesday 17 June. I then have a sozo session that evening - no soft landing for me; looks like I'll be diving right into the deep end!

Till next time... chow.

P.S. Tanya is pregnant! We had our 1st scan last week and we got to see little Pip... amazing!