The Chili Effect

Winter is quickly approaching or depending on where you live maybe it is already here. We got our first real taste of icy conditions this past weekend just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee. The thermometer hovered around 35 degrees all weekend and it was nice to put on wool socks and hoodies.

One of the best parts of winter coming around is the good wholesomeness of an excellent bowl of hot chili. Smelling the meaty aroma waft through the house and filling up a bowl with the flavorful chili and topping it with some shredded cheese. One of the secrets inside a pot of chili is that the second time around the chili is even better. After the flavors have had a chance to mingle and mix in the pot for a good day or so.

This past weekend in Knoxville was our second time being with the youth group from Meridian Baptist Church and like chili it was better the second time around! The first time we played for them was at St. George Island, Florida for their summer camp. We got to know the kids really well and build relationships with them while at camp and it was great to see them all again!

We left Tallahassee, Florida (our hometown) on friday at about 9:30am and began the lengthy 9 plus hours up through Georgia and part of Tennessee. We hit up Chik-fil-A for breakfast and passed the hours by watching movies and playing parking lot football at random gas station stops. One of the most interesting parts of traveling from Florida to Tennessee is always the change in terrain. The flat Florida sand begins to compact into rugged stone and elevated mountains by the time Tennessee arrives.

We arrived at around 6:45pm and the plan was to lead worship at 8pm. We are used to quick set ups so in the 40 degree rain we began to unload the trailer and set up our equipment. It was great to see Pastor Dana again and meet the groups newly hired youth pastor Josh. We got in a quick soundcheck before it was time to start and as the lights turned off we started on the first notes of Lead Me to The Cross.

The worship services were done in a cabin type of thing. Luckily it had good heating and lighting. It was fairly small but big enough to fit everyone and it served it's purpose. We have learned in this band that especially when leading worship God doesn't need our perfect sound systems or concert halls. He needs a heart of surrender and a soul bent towards Him.

This past weekend was a great time for ourselves to meet up with our friends from Knoxville as we pursue our Savior together and it was a great retreat for ourselves to spend some time in the beautiful scenery of east Tennessee. Meridian Baptist has been great to all of us and we feel like we are practically part of their youth group at this point.

It's been a very busy month or so for us, we have been playing non-stop and have enjoyed all the people we've gotten to meet and the places we have been. (Wish all of them could be as beautiful as the smokies though :) We are headed to Fleming Island, Florida this weekend to play a concert and lead worship. It will be our second time heading back to this particular church and we are praying that the chili effect will follow us there as well!

Branson, Missouri Trip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiMwpcK9N_0

Canopy Red at GMA Immerse #1

Meet the Band

Vlog #3 - Nashville Trip and More!

Nashville Trip

We wanted to do a video blog about our trip to Nashville but we are struggling getting all the footage we need to create an actual cohesive "vlog". Instead we decided to just write an old-fashioned blog and tell you about our trip that way! We will still post a video of just some random stuff from the trip some time this week though!

Thursday through saturday we were at IndieUniversity which is a big conference/get-together of independent Christian musicians. It was a really great opportunity to learn from professionals in the industry and we also had a good time. Most of the time spent at IndieU was listening to panels. The panels focused on topics like booking, writing, production etc. We learned a lot and made new connections/networks with other ministries. Friday night as part of IndieU we played in a concert at the Foundry. The Foundry is a church in the city of Nashville that is doing a really awesome work and service for lower income families in the city. We had a good time playing and the show went well. Sunday we attended church at The people's church of Franklin. It is where our producer goes to church so we went for the service. After church we had a meeting with Jill Monaco of OneVerse ministries. For those who do not already know, we are partnered with OneVerse to help bring God's Word to the Arew people of Tanzania who currently do not have a Bible in their language. (for more info www.oneverse.org). We spent monday and tuesday at The Objective which was another conference for musicians. The trip was a success and we feel as though our ministry was furthered through it all! Thanks for reading and look out for our video we will post soon!! - Canopy Red

It's Not Too Late

Im up right now working on a new song, i dont know if it will be a song that we record or if anyone will ever hear it (i certainly hope for both) but regardless i feel like i need to blog about this song. So often as Christian artists we are always singing happy songs and praising but as i come into contact with many people after shows i find that real people are not always on this emotional high, in fact most people who come see me after a show tell me about how they are hurting. Im going to share with you one of the things that hurts me and i know hurts many of you reading this.
I have a parent who is unsaved, they reject Christ and God's love in their lives. That is an area of hurt for me, i can try and be a light to them but in the end it is their decision to reject the perfect God of the universe. Maybe you do not have an unsaved parent but i know that we all have friends, relatives or at least people we deeply care about that are unsaved (and if not then you really need to get into the world and share God's love with the ones who need it!)It can be hard to share Jesus with people, all too often it is because of our own pride, if we realize it or not i would say that almost all of the time when we choose to hold God's love in instead of share it is because we are afraid of rejection (pride in our reputation) It is also in most cases even harder to share the Gospel with the ones we love unfortunately.
This song that i am working on is all the things i want to say to my parent, co-worker, friend, relative etc. but sometimes cant because of my own human nature and pride. I hope that (if recorded and produced) this song will connect with you and empower you to share God's love to those people that you so deeply care about instead of fall short like we all previously have.
I want to end with a personal testimony from our manager/band dad/all around good guy mr. Jon Schmidt. Mr. Jon (as we call him) had an unsaved father who he prayed for many many years,i believe 15+ years he prayed for his dad's salvation. Eventually after all of Mr. Jon's efforts in prayer, witnessing and being salt and light his father at the age of 87 (i believe) accepted Jesus Christ as personal Lord and saviour!!! a heart that for so long seemed as hard as stone was softened by the spirit and came to accept Jesus earlier this year! Through Mr. Jon's testimony and so many others we can see that when it comes to sharing the gospel we can't give up and we have to share it with those around us because truly "It's Not Too Late" for love. Amen