Can You Hear Us?

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any new information here. A combination of student teaching for Kaitlin, a heavy semester load for Liesel, and my first-year of teaching 8th grade has kept the band busy the past few months. However, things have settled down for us and we are back in business! We have three concerts in three different states coming up in the near future. Here’s the run-down:

Friday, February 5th - Gateway Woods in Leo, IN

Sunday, February 21st - Archbold Evangelical Church, OH

(Our February 7th Concert in Morton will be rescheduled)

The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

Matthew 9:37

This is the story of my town and hundreds of other little towns like it. We have 12 churches and only 5000 people. And there are still people falling through the cracks. We don’t have to live in a city slum or a refugee camp or a jungle village to see desperate need for Jesus. All we have to do is look into the eyes of the people in our communities. And after we see them, we must enter into their worlds, becoming their friends. Like Jesus did.

-Kaitlin

You may have noticed that the website looks totally different than it used to…don’t worry, you’re still in the right place! We decided to change the design because several people had trouble being able to read and navigate the last one. So hopefully this new look will make it easier for everyone to use the site!

-Zach

Just a quick update…you can now order up to 10 CDs in one online order. If you want more than 10, you’ll have to place another order. Enjoy!

-Zach

Finally, after much delay and postponed deadlines, our self-titled album is available for purchase! You can buy them here on this website (with a Paypal account OR credit card) or you can buy them in person, which is cheaper because we don’t have to pay to ship them:)

-Zach

Then [Jesus] called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

Mark 8:34-38

I wrote this song after I met a man at the Urbana 06 mission conference with an amazing story. He was missing a couple of teeth and wore thread-bare sandals. He told me that when he was about twenty years old, he left his comfortable and “normal” life in the U.S. to move into the garbage city in Cairo, Egypt. I asked him, “Why?” I will never forget his answer. He told me that he moved to Cairo “To love people to Jesus. To love the dirty, broken and lost. To live with them. To wash my face with them, with their dirty water and their homemade soap. To brush my teeth with them with their homemade toothpaste. To eat with them, even if it was just once a day. To sleep as they slept.  To get sick as they got sick, with no funds for medicine. To bring light into the darkest corners of their drug-ridden and alcohol-flooded streets. To fight alongside of them for their land.”

This man went to some of the poorest people on earth as Jesus came to us, leaving all comfort and wealth and becoming one of them. When I met him two years ago, he told me that there had been a few brothers and sisters added to the Kingdom in his neighborhood, and I am confident the harvest is plentiful in his garbage city. However, the workers are few. “Lord of the harvest, send more workers!” I don’t remember this young man’s name and he may not live much longer on this earth, but I can imagine the Lord saying “Well done, good and faithful servant” when this man enters His presence. What a beautiful sound it will be.  And I imagine he will have the most beautiful teeth in all of heaven!

-Kaitlin

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up…The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

James 5:13-16

I wrote the lyrics to this song in one sitting, as a prayer for a little girl very close to my heart. I had just spent the evening with her, swinging and talking. My heart was broken and I was overwhelmed as I pictured her mom’s black eye, the empty cupboards of her kitchen and the mountain of obstacles that she has to face in her life. As my mind wandered, I couldn’t help but imagine her, fifteen years down the road, as a hardened and abused woman, a statistic.

It doesn’t have to be that way, however. Although the odds are stacked against Elizabeth, Jesus does not balk at obstacles. This song is my pleading prayer: “Jesus, please save Elizabeth.”

- Kaitlin

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!

Romans 10.13-15

In the Volta region of Ghana (the original home of the voodoo cult), some little girls are given over by their families to local the priests to pay for the sins of others-for up to three or four generations. These young girls are called trokosi, which is Ghanaian for “slaves to the gods.” They are enslaved for the rest of their lives, imprisoned within the temple walls until they are told to come or go. Their babies, fathered by the priests, belong to the temple, and can be taken from them at any time. If they run away, they are made to believe their whole family will be cursed. This burden weighs heavily on their shoulders and keeps them doing as they are told. Most die very young, abused from years of malnutrition, rape and hard physical labor.

This is their song. They live a life of slavery and abuse because they (and their families) fear the alternative-the curse of the gods as punishment for sin. If only they knew that someone has already paid that debt.

How will they know if no one goes?

- Kaitlin

More about trokosi in Ghana.

Frequently Asked Questions about trokosi slavery.