A Blog From Jessica

This is my first chance to blog for downhere! Oh the stories I could tell... I could be here all day. So let me just keep it to the past few weeks! Since the videoshoot, we've had some time off the road to do --- off the road stuff. (You know, the usual stuff you do when you have time off.) Our first show after a week and a half off was July 14th at the Nashville Sounds baseball game. We played for about 45 minutes before the game and had a pretty good crowd, despite the HOT and HUMID Tennessee weather. With the heat index of at least 105, we were all soaked in sweat about 10 minutes after we began setting up for the show. After the show, we were treated to skybox seating (with air conditioning!) and baseball food: hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner. Apparently "Sara Lee" was a sponsor for the game, and as people were leaving, volunteers passed out hundreds of loaves of whole wheat bread. We all cashed in on the goodness; we could take as many loaves as we wanted. Some people were taking whole pallets. Jason kept handing Heather more and more packages of bread... I think they'll have enough bread for sandwiches and toast for the next few months. On a side note: as I'm writing this, my husband Dave just walked in the room eating 2 plain pieces of Sara Lee bread... weird.

The next day (after the Sounds game) we left for Dayton, Ohio. We loaded in and sound checked on Saturday night - and lead worship for two Sunday morning services at Far Hills Church. This was especially exciting for me, as I was in familiar territory; I used to go to college around there - and my brother and sister-in-law live in the area. It's always fun to see family when we're on the road. The people at Far Hills were so great to work with; we had such a great time worshiping with their church. They responded well to "A Better Way" "Little is Much" and "Surrender."

After church, our friends from Far Hills took us to PF Changs for lunch. It ended up being an afternoon event rather than just lunch (meaning it took all afternoon to get our food!). But we enjoyed the conversation and time spent with our new friends. As we finished our meal, one of the waitresses informed us that someone had ordered and paid for dessert for all of us! A note accompanied the kind gesture; it was a "thank you" from an anonymous family who attends Far Hills church and enjoyed the music from downhere that morning.

Sunday evening we drove to Ft. Wayne, Indiana. On Monday morning, we visited Star 88.3 WLAB where we did a little mini concert for their staff. We then drove back to Ohio for another radio interview in Mansfield at WVMC where the guys did an on-air interview and played some new music. We then drove to Mt. Vernon to interview at WNZR, where Josh Peterson, our record label marketing guy attended college. Josh then took us out to eat at one of the best pizza places in Ohio - Elm's Pizza (owned & operated by his family... and seriously, the best pizza....)

Dave just came back eating another piece of bread...

For Tuesday, we had more radio stations to visit. WAKW in Cincinnati had us for the morning show... We did another quick interview in Hamilton at WZFR, then grabbed lunch at Red Lobster with Tony Smith, a Berean music buyer, and ended the day at WJIE in Louisville, KY.

Next week we will be in West Palm Beach, Florida - leading evening worship for a week long camp. It's then on to Soul Fest in New Hampshire and Spirit West Coast in Monterey, CA! There are lots of things coming up - so keep checking back for more stories of what happens next!

It's been a pleasure informing you.

jessica (road manager)