Meetin' Bloggin' Buddies


New Friends!
That's right! This is Brooke from Oregon, aka, "Seven" and I got to meet her!!! You guys know how much I love the community we get to have on the blog, right? Well, it's not a joke! I love your comments, your thoughts, your feisty feedback, and your personal blogs. And it doesn't end in cyber world, I would love to meet you in person too. Seriously.

Brooke was at our final Planet Wisdom weekend and I got to have lunch with her and find out more about her life. And she got to come backstage for literally the best meal of the year so far! It was really cool to be able to meet someone from the other side of the country and feel like we were already friends...I loved it. So thanks Brooke. And if you guys are going to be at one of our shows, please let me know so we can meet up!

Other updates:
No luck, the Ipod is gone. It is either nestled in the seat of the airplane or someone from the cleaning crew or a future passenger now has my Ipod with all my personal pictures and tour dates on it! Not to mention my life saving music. I am over it though. I think I could have gotten $150 for it. I opened my mailbox today and some precious friends who just sold all their belongings and moved to Africa sent Ryan and I check for $500. Missionaries sending other missionaries what little money they have. Is that beautiful or what? That is the beauty of what it means to be a true Christ follower. We take care of each other and we are blessed beyond what we can imagine. If my Ipod is always on, how can I hear the music of the world or the whisper of my Savior? This is something I can learn to live without. Though I won't lie, the four hour plane ride last night left me lusting.

Finale
And this weekend was our final Planet Wisdom tour date. It hit me all at once during the last set. I made it through without crying because if you are a guy and cry on stage it is a "cool" moment but if you are a girl and cry on stage it is "unprofessional"...trust me on this one. So I made it offstage and bawled my eyes out. The end of two years. The end of a little family that I have grown to love. The end of being a part of leading 20,000 kids a year in some pretty soul quenching worship. And the beginning of the unknown. For two years all my tour dates have been planned out...a year in advance. Now I look in the fall and stare at nothing. This is frightening. Everything seems unknown right now. What happened to my five year plan??? And how did I end up here?

I remember the first PW run through at my home church in Dallas. I stepped on the stage and looked out to the HUGE, empty auditorium and thought..."oh man, this is me now. My job. My stage. My responsibility. Just me and God and the guys. Crap this stage is huge." I was terrified, but I tried not to let on. Now it feels like second nature. A part of me. I will miss it deeply.

GMA Re-Cap
Yes! I did go to GMA week and it was absolutely amazing, but I have had a hard time knowing how to talk about it and where to begin. Should I start with meeting Steven Curtis Chapman, my childhood hero, and how kind he was to me? Or with the 40 plus interviews that we did? Or the fact that most people actually knew who we were, loved our new album, and showed the band sooo much support? The incredible hotel with the crazy lobby full of every Christian artist, American Idol artist, and even some country peeps too? Or that I met Rupert from Survivor a few seasons back? Or with the INO showcase that was packed out and left people waiting on the streets to get in and that I sat there watching The Afters. Sarah Groves, Phil Whickam, and others perform and got overwhelmed with the most amazing feeling that I was a part of them, a part of that amazing label, living this incredible life that I dreamed about as a kid? I was sharing the stage with them? Or that I struggled all week as I read through Shane Claiborn's book the Irresistible Revolution and then made my way to banquets, nice meals, and Christian luxury and stardom. And I wondered, how can this match up? The sacrificial way of Jesus and being a part of the "Christian market?" Those thoughts and events just barely scratch the surface of what GMA was like for me. It was a dream. It was fast, long, tiring, beautiful, and as so many other artists said...basically a big family reunion. We loved it.

And that's all the updates I have for you....have a lovely Monday.
Your friend...
jenny