Monday, September 25, 2006

And we're off!

For those who have been following along, and I know you all have, we are underway in our first tour! Granted we only left a few days ago, but it's still exciting nonetheless. Our first official weekend away was a blast -- here's a shout out to First Lutheran in Fargo, it was a blast! We're off to Concordia University for the day next and then... well, you can look at our tour schedule if you're really wanting to know.

More to come...

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Counting down the hours and asking for prayer

Guess it's bout time I did me furst post on this here thing.

Well this is our last week in Willmar MN. Saturday we head off on the west coast tour. We will be on the road for 7 weeks straight! We will be playing several times each week, sometimes more than once a day, and we will be in a different host home almost every night. Right now I think I am more excited than I am nervous, which I suppose is a good thing. Please pray for both us and 14:21. We still have quite a few details to fill in before we leave this weekend, some of us feel more prepared than others, but I believe that with the Lord's help everyhting will fall into place.

Please pray that we would all keep our focus where it should be, that our personal devotional lives would flourish, that our teams would hold together with a common goal of glorifying God and furthering His kindgdom, that our music would become second nature to us in order that we might be able to lead others into worship more effectively, and that spending time with the Lord and doing what He has called us to individually, would become, and remain our top priority. Also, please pray for the people we are going to minister to, that the Lord would prepare and soften their hearts for whatever it is He wants to do through us.

I beleive that the Lord has some great things He wants to do through us this year, and I don't want to pass up any opporitunities. Thank you all who are already praying for us. There is power in prayer, and once you believe that, it becomes even more powerfull. I think if we could see the battels being fought in the heavenly realms when we pray, we would be so much more inclined to pray and almost have no reason to stop praying. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. I know, we can't always see what is going on when we pray, but that is the very deffinition of faith! The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen! And Jesus said that if we have the faith of a mustard seed we can move mountains, wow, I mean seriously just read Hebrews chapter 11! All those things were done just by faith! Faith is believing something to be so, that we have no evidence for. Believing, seeing, precieveing it as you have prayed that it would be, without the actual tangiblility of it. Prayer accompanied by genuine faith is invaluablely preicious to us.

Thank you for praying for us, please continue to do so. Being backed by prayer makes us infinitely more effective than we would be with out it.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Reflections

G'day g'day. Well I reckon it's about time I posted to the blog here! I've been having a ripper of a time with CTI so far. The staff are so nice, encouraging, supportive, funny, and generally overall splendiferous! (my team mate, Jonathan, came up with that word the other day and I love it, I'm gonna steal it and use it!) My team mates are also fantastic. We've had a lot of fun times together over the past 4 weeks of training. It's been great to get to know each other and I look forward to growing so much closer over the next year.

We enter our final week of training tomorrow.....I'd say we all have a fair amount of excitement but also nervousness at the thought that this time next week we'll be out in the big wide world doing what we've been training for!

It's been great to do a concert, 4 church services, and a workshop already while we are still in training. You guys at St. Stephen's Lutheran in St. Paul and Evangelical Covenant in Alexandria were such a great bunch of people. Thanks for being so welcoming and hospitable. We had heaps of fun and it gave us a good taste for what it's gonna be like on the road.

We would appreciate prayer as we put everything together this last week. Strength, health, and enough mental capacity so our brains don't explode with all the stuff we need to retain!

Thanks and God bless,
Carolyn

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Alexandria: The Birthplace of America....and me

To everyone in Alexandria and Evengelical Covenent Church!!

Thanks for the great time this weekend. Thanks to those who came to the workshop. It was a privilege to come and worship with you all this morning. Thanks for your prayers and your support of CTI.

Our team took a picture under Alexandria's most reconizable man....

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Greetings!

Hey, what's up?! It has been an exciting month (or, close to a month anyway) since our arrival! I figured it was time for me to put my two cents in. So here we go...

As you've read from others who have posted, we experienced our first weekend of shows/church services, and let me tell you, it was a learning experience. The Lord has been incredibly faithful to see us all through making it out here and I know he will continue to be faithful to grow us more and more individually as well as together. I am excited to see what is in store for us this year! I also look forward to meeting many of you as well.

Blessings!

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Yeah St. Stephens!!!

St. Stephens,
Thanks for letting us come and hangout with you guys...and for stomaching our first concert. I know we had a lot of fun meeting you all and getting wet during the rally.

God Bless and I hope to see you again!!

Saturday, September 09, 2006

See you in Saint Paul!

...well, West Saint Paul, anyway. 1422 makes their first public appearance this weekend. I'm declaring myself an honorary member and riding along. We have a youth/family concert tonight and are taking part in worship tomorrow morning.

First concerts can be pretty nerve-wracking, so please remember the teams this weekend. We stil have a lot of ground to cover in the last two weeks of training, but tonight it stops being abstract and becomes concrete!

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Well its official

I guess since my face and bio is now up on the internet, this CTI thing is really happening. Right now we are in training and things are going well. We have our first booking this weekend at a church in St. Paul. I think I can speak for the rest of the group and say that we are a bit nervous. Please pray for us over the next few days that our nerves will go away and we will feel ready and confident for this comming weekend.

Hopefully many post to come!

Christian

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Welcome

Welcome to CTI 14:22's one and only official blog! Members of the team will be posting their thoughts on their CTI experience here periodically.

And YOU, dear viewing public, are invited to respond! You can't post directly, but you can all comment on existing posts! Your comments are subject to moderation (that means I have to approve them before they go live) so keep them family friendly, OK?

Be sure to check out the team's bios, pictures and other posts on CTImusic.org- just click the "CTI Music Ministries" link to the right. Their tour schedule can be found there as well.

Happy commenting!
-Chris Reed
CTI Program Director / Blog moderator