Cappuccino art
It's a bit too cute for me, but not bad for a petrol station coffee bar.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Family walk in Wadi Digla
Spent a fab time with the family this afternoon in one of our favorite places in the world. It was cold and windy but that only added to the whole experience.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Graham Kendrick Pictures
Here's a few shots of the weekend services and concert with Graham Kendrick and the band.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Graham Kendrick @ MCC 1st night
Our Thursday night service was great tonight. The Graham Kendricks (as our daughter Hannah calls them) led the service and did a fine job. Steve the keyboard player and Andy the guitarist were delayed because their flight got cancelled and so Liezl was rehearsed and soundchecked and ready to go on Piano, and I was all set to play guitar when 15 minutes before the service, they walked through the gate!
Poor old Liesl was a little disappointed, but I ended up playing guitar along with Andy which was lots if fun. Tomorrow I will be resuming my usual position behind the sound console. Speaking if which, this is the beast we have rented in for the weekend.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Graham Kendrick is coming
Things are gearing up for our weekend with Graham and his team. Graham, Andrea and Gabriel have been in the country for a week now (we had our worship conference with them last weekend) and last night, Jean Pierre and Raoul arrived too. The only possibe fly in the ointment is that Andy and Steve, the guitarist and pianist are held up somewhere in Europe because their flight was cancelled. They are due to arrive, best guess at about 4:30 tonight which means it will be really tight to get them to church for the 6:30pm service this evening.
I might have to play guitar!
We have hired in some extra equipment; 8 bus desk, subs, mics, drum kit, lights etc, and they will all get set up today. It's going to be lots of fun.
I might have to play guitar!
We have hired in some extra equipment; 8 bus desk, subs, mics, drum kit, lights etc, and they will all get set up today. It's going to be lots of fun.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Amazing sacred art
At the retreat centre where we had our worship conference this weekend, Graham Kendrick was having a walk around the grounds and got invited in to the room of one of the residents to look at his paintings.
Graham invited the artist to bring one of his paintings into our meeting room, and this ten foot long depiction of the last supper was ushered in as we were about to start our communion and worship time. It really is stunning, and added a perfect new facet to our experience of sharing the bread and wine together.
The artist comes from a very small town in a very poor area of upper Egypt, and has no training or schooling in art at all, in fact he studied at a sports college before coming to work and study at the retreat centre, where the leader spotted his potential and encouraged his talent to flourish.
It's an amazing and inspiring story of how God's creativity runs through us all - we just need the opportunity to let it blossom.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
MCC Worship Conference
I'm heading out now to Wadi Natrun, a retreat centre about two hours north of Cairo, for our first ever MCC Worship Conference. We are running it in conjunction with a local organisation and we will be hosting a whole heap of Egyptian worship leaders too, in fact they will heavily outnumber us - it's going to be great!
Graham Kendrick is the keynote speaker and will be developing the theme of "Worshipping with Unveiled Faces", we'll have question and answer times and some great practical workshops.
See you after the weekend.
Graham Kendrick is the keynote speaker and will be developing the theme of "Worshipping with Unveiled Faces", we'll have question and answer times and some great practical workshops.
See you after the weekend.
Friday, February 06, 2009
In the presence of greatness
Gold and platinum disks.
I am in the presence of greatness. Audio Adrenaline, tobyMac, Third Day, Chris Tomlin, Switchfoot, Steven Curtis Chapman and DC Talk have all walked these corridors and the disks are hanging on the Walls to prove it.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Josh Wilson. Jaw dropping!
Josh is ripping it up here at Cre:ate. If you've never heard if him the you need to go and google him right now. You need to find his YouTube clip of amazing grace. I've never seen anyone play guitar like that before. Well, maybe Phil Keaggy.
And now he's on the piano and sounds just like Joe Jackson.
Oh and now he's Billy Joel.
Breakfast
My host family are really looking after me. Keith and Tonda live in an amazing house and have made sure I am very comfortable indeed :-)
Keith lives cooking and made these muffins and rolls for breakfast. Don't worry, I didn't finish them all.
Cre:ate day 3
I'm not sure I know how to express in mere words the amazing flood of experiences that washed over me today in our sacred space in The Factory. I feel pummelled by the depth and intensity of my emotions and elated by the presence of God and built up in my faith through the expansion of my thinking. Above all, I feel humbled to have been included in some remarkably personal moments of openness and transparency.
Here's a quick rundown...
1. Worship with 10th Ave North
2. Randy Elris talking about the curse of the blessings of God. Wow.
3. A great shrimp lunch
4. Ken Davis made me laugh so hard that I cried.
5. Ian Morgan Cron led us in the Eucharist in a traditional yet contemporary Kenyan Anglican liturgy.
6. Coffee with friends including Jim Drake, Carlos and Heather Whittaker, Spence Smith, Robert Comeaux and Ken Davis
7. Dinner at Sapphire. Worship provided by Travis Cottrell, Chris Sligh and Carl Cartee.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
10th Avenue North
Leading the Cre:ate gang in a fab worship time this morning. Really encouraging and just enough edge to allow God to speak. They sound amazing too.
Cre:ate day 2
Michael W Smith.
We started this morning off with some great worship led by Carl Cartee and then moved into our first session which was a talk about contemplative Christianity and mysticism by Ian Morgan Cron, the author of "Chasing Francis". It was a wonderful talk and I'm sure that some of it went way over the heads of some of the more conservative guys here, but having been raised in the Anglican church and because of my interest in experiential worship, I managed to keep up most of the time.
This session was followed by lunch at the fantastic Boxwood Bistro where I met Stu G and had a wonderful time with the guys on my table, including the speaker for the next session, Steve Guthrie.
Steve spoke on the issue of Christians separating their intellectual disciplines from their emotional life and how this has led to a compartmentalising of our Christian experience, particularly in church, and how wrong that is.
We then had another worship time led by Billy Foote and his wife and finally a break where I wandered the display stands and had a chance to do some techie research into the latest equipment and guitar gadgets.
I hooked up with Ian Morgan Cron and Rich Kirkpatrick and a couple of other friends an we went for a coffee at the factory. Ian and I snuck away to the guitar store next door for 15 mind if jamming on some wonderful guitars, and then we made our way to a church in the other side of town for the big event of the day.
Over dinner we listened to three great songwriters showcase their work, and then the guy in the picture, Michael W Smith led us in worship. What a great humble guy. We had a wonderful evening, and you can tell I'm tired as I write this because I'm running out of steam an need to put my head down for the night. The night was rounded off with a beer in a bar with about 15 other bloggers having great conversations about life and God and music.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Meeting a hero
Well this was a surprise. Hanging out at lunch with one Stewart Garrard aka Stu G the guitarist from Delirious. This man has had a profound influence on my life as a worshipper and also on my sound and style as a guitarist. The songs he has written and helped to write, the worship style he helped to pioneer and the inspiration from all those concerts and recordings have really helped to shape who I am today.
And as I've just discovered, he's a really nice guy.
Cre:ate day 1
Well, Cre:ate has started. The reason I'm in the USA. And although my expectations were already sky high, they are seriously being exceeded.
1st, a reception at the O'More college of art. Meeting new friends, having some fantastic reunions and connecting in reality with some people I have only know online up till now. Oh, and cocktails. Of course.
Then it was down to "Sol" on main street, a stunning Mexican restaurant with great atmosphere and where I ate my first ever Fish Tacos. Tonight. Well, now at least I can die k owing there's nothing more to experience in life.
Right now we're sitting at our conference venue, the Factory, listening to the most phenomenaly talented bunch of musicans I have ever seen, playing some mind blowing jazz. Ladies and gentlemen, the Adam Nitti band. Wow. Just plain wow.
Now excuse me, I must go. It's just too good not to give it my full attention.
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