Valley Bank shall set you free

Don't have any

After our time in the Forward-Lateral State, we flew over to the Show-Me State and visited with a group of junior-high students from the Midwest region of the Reformed Church. The event was held in a town called Maryville, Missouri. The local high school's mascot is the Spoofhounds. If you find yourself in Maryville and ask around, you'll find as we did that nobody in town knows what a Spoofhound is. Anyway, we had a great time with the young folks gathered in that place. We were confused by the very specific items one could rightly place in the receptacles in the hallway of the theater. I can't ever remember ever having, let alone needing to dispose of my "aluminum co-mingled paper waste."

Then, I went home, while Michael and Nate spent three days driving and golfing. Or, driving and putting (hengh!). They picked me up in Manchester, New Hampshire, the Granite State. We had a fine time, playing many times on many stages. A highlight was hearing Brennan Manning speak--a true inspiration to us. I got a little photo of Brennan and our friend Keith Bordeaux of Compassion International.

and I came across a Christian music festival!

Flower power!

The W's rock on once more

Bart speaks on


Well then...

When we left New Hampshire, we drove on over to our birthplace: Western New York State. We were once more honored to be playing at Kingdombound, where we saw the W's. We were well received again this year, suggesting our Nazarene Complex may have passed. Our friend, Bart Campolo delivered a stunning talk on Monday morning. We were surprised to find that we had a dressing room at Kingdombound. It's certainly rare for us to have such a luxury. In this case, our fellow musician was quite a surprise, and quite surprised, to say the least.

And now, probably the most amazing moment of the summer. Growing up in Niagara Falls, we are hopeless Bills' fans. We've been down; we've been up; and we've been down again. However, one of the most memorable games we've ever watched was the stunning comeback over the Houston Oilers by backup quarterback Frank Reich. Turns out, he was speaking at the Kingdombound Festival! After that great moment, we flew to New Orleans to play at the Youth Evangelist's Conference, where we saw the W's. Having finished that event, I headed off to vacation with my extended family in Western New York, while Michael flew home to Los Angeles--just in time to protest downtown with all his friends.

A true hero!

The W's rock on once more, once more.