8/04/2006

Summer closing thoughts . . .

I am sitting back stage of Shryock Theater in Carbondale IL. It has been a long, awesome summer. I’m tired. This ministry is crazy awesome. I do love it very much. Jen and the boys have been with me all summer up until these last three weeks. I have seen them every four to five days. I packed up my rather elaborate backstage tea/guitar/home away from home station. I have this really cool guitar case that holds both my Gibson and Gretch. It is covered with pics of my family. I’m ready to drive to Indy, load them up and go back to Joplin MO. It is quiet backstage. None of the kids have come in yet and the staff is at dinner. It is quiet. FR has had the honor to see 9000 students this year in worship. For twenty two years Jen and I have attended our home camp in Colorado. This was our first time to miss it. It was difficult. We met there. We both have generations of family we see there every year. I don’t regret my decision to not go because it was personally time for me to simply do less. You know, become more specific so you can become more dynamic. Our family has been in Joplin for 5 years now with this incredible ministry of Christ In Youth. I love the men and women I work with. We love our church. I am ready to go back home and enjoy civilian life for the fall. I’ve already packed up my room. When we play our last song tonight I will be in a car about 4 minutes afterward. In about 30 minutes this facility will fill with 1100 students completely pumped. I’m ready to finish strong. I can definitely say that this summer I left it all on the field. The “Mystery” tour might have been the best CIY summer conference I have ever seen. If you were there with us then thank you for the time we spent together worshiping. If you were at NYR then my prayers and thoughts were with all of you this past week. I can’t wait to see everybody this fall on the Believe “Jesus” tour! See you next at Summer conference . . .

Peace . . .

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've never been to a CIY Summer Conference where you were leading worship but I did attend a Conference this year with our church. And while I was there I got saved through prayer it was cool.

In my opinion I think the year that the theme was "The Kingdom" was the best. But "MYSTERY" was really good too!

Carry Out said...

We just got back from confrence and it was awesome. You guys did a great job with the worship, Thursday night was especially powerful. Thankyou for your dedication to us youth and to God. It's been a struggle for our church over the last year and a half but we always feel at home at CIY.

In his love

Anonymous said...

How neat it is that you wrote this moments before I saw you on stage at Shryock. Thank you so very much for the wonderful ministry you provided to us this past week - the members of your band are truly disciples of Christ.
Our church bus broke down on our way back to Florida so we spent the 11 hours on the side of the road figuring out your songs on guitar! It was fun to bump into you almost every day at lunch at the "Old Main" restaurant!

In Christ,
Shannon (who would love to play bass for FR! hehe)
FCC of Merritt Island, FL

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to thank you all for being at the CIY conferences this year! I went to the last one at SIU in Carbondale and you guys were AMAZING. I even got to get my picture taken with Johnny (thanks for doing that, by the way). You guys are so awesome, and the songs that you taught us will be stuck in my head probably until Christmas. Thanks again for being there and bringing heart-felt worship to CIY!

Your sister in Christ <><
Katherine from New Life Christian Church, Chickasha, OK

Anonymous said...

You guys did amazing leading worship. Thanks so much. Hope to see you next year at Believe and SC

Anonymous said...

You guys did amazing leading worship. Thanks so much. Hope to see you next year at Believe and SC

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to stop by and say thank you for and awsome week at CIY. You guys rocked, worship was a blast and i hope to see you guys next year at Summer Conference. Thanks Again,
TJ Armstrong
Clarks Hill Christian Church
Clarks Hill, Indiana

Anonymous said...

Your the man Johnny
Keep Rockin and teaching
and if you have anyway
could you get me a list of what songs were played?
thanx
Jsandy9@gmail.com