Since this ministry began, God has provided opportunities to lead worship at thousands of worship services, conferences, retreats, worskshops and other events both in the United States and abroad. Over this 10-year period, we have been privileged to share the Gospel with literally hundreds of thousands of people!
When we began in the early 2000s, we were a praise band comprised of people from a number of different churches/Christian denominations. In the first few years, we averaged 60-90 church services per year. As we became more of a Christian rock band, and as our sound evolved, the types of opportunities expanded, and we found ourselves leading many youth weekends, retreats, and conferences, workshops and, sometimes, being asked to play at secular outdoor events where we might be the only Christian band -- all tremendous opportunities to share the Gospel with different groups of people of all ages. These opportunities began in our home state of Virginia; then expanded to the East Coast and into the Southern United States, occasionally taking us to the Midwest.
In the mid-2000s, we began to explore the possibility of overseas mission opportunities, with the first one taking us to Thailand to lead a large conference of Christian missionaries working throughout Southeast Asia. That same trip also included leading worship before an international conference in Hong Kong, ending with a multi-city trip to three different regions of India. Since then, God has provided numerous opportunities to lead worship and to spread the Gospel on three different continents -- Europe and the UK (England, Switzerland, Austria and Germany), Africa (South Africa) and Asia (Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, China and India). You'll find descriptions of some of these here and you'll find photos from some of these here, under PHOTOS and on the HOME page under the news about how God has used us over the years.
We know how fortunate we are and marvel at what God can do with folks like us who are bi-vocational. It is only through God's providence and grace that a way was made for us to go and to be able to go. And, we are so thankful!
Among many places that God has allowed us to travel is South Africa. There, we worked with a church in Johannesburg, assisted in ministry in surrounding settlements, and led a student camp where we led worship, John preached and band members participated in and led workshops.
One of the persons travelling on that trip and playing keyboard became a missionary in the years following and has been serving in Zimbabwe for the last several years. And, it is through that life connection that God is bringing the band to Zimbabwe in December 2015!
In 2009, John was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Dhaka, Bangladesh to work with Christian leaders there associated with the Bangladesh Rural Youth Fellowship Center.
John led a student workshop, leading worship and preaching and then had the opportunity to minister in villages throughout Bangladesh. One of his main contacts there, Peter, was later forced to flee the country with his wife and son due to Christian persecution.
They found asylum in England, and with the connection that social media brings, John was able to remain in touch with him, and through God's miraculous leading Peter was granted a VISA to visit the United States in 2014 where John and his family were able to host him for part of his time here.
John remains in contact with the leaders of Bangladesh Rural Youth Fellowship Center and hopes for the day he -- and perhaps the entire band -- can return.
