Thursday, January 24, 2008

January, 2008

Life Change



    “I came here with a bad attitude saying, ‘Oh boy another training.’ But it has been LIFE CHANGING! It’s GOOD stuff! The best field training I’ve ever experienced!”

During a new staff training class, Nellie, third from left in the photo, shared how she was hurt by a church’s legalistic interpretation of Scripture when she was younger . Later, I (C) came into the classroom to teach the next class on Bible Methods not knowing about the previous discussion.

At the beginning of class, I reminded our new staff of our core values at Keynote emphasizing the last one. “Most of the time we talk about LIFE CHANGE at Keynote we’re talking about God working in the lives of interns, summer project students, and the people in our audiences. But God is just as interested in seeing our lives changed continually as we serve Him. One of the most effective tools He uses is His Word.”

As we worked through Psalm 1, Nellie’s excitement grew. At the end of class I asked if anyone wanted to share what God had shown him or her, and Nellie could-n’t contain herself. She filled me in about the previous class’s discussion and the bondage she had been under. “I’m FREE!! God’s Word is so awesome!!” The five of us spontaneously applauded, rejoicing with her.

My prayer for the class was that God would ignite a passion for studying His Word in our new staff. He fanned that desire in all of us by displaying its awesome power in our midst!

Indianans Bring Life to India

From an email while Giants of Silence (Keynote’s loud rock band) was in India—

    …in Hubli, our concert opened up the doors for a cool ministry to the local police department. Vellu, the local crusade staff guy, had to jump through a lot of hoops to get a permit for our concert. After many visits to the police station to try and get our concert approved, his persistence paid off. The police approved the concert, but there were a lot of restrictions including: No dancing, No praying, No "converting," No inviting Hindus, etc.

    Due to the language barrier (Indian English is VERY different from American English) we were a little unclear what exactly those restrictions meant for us, and what would happen if the police felt we were breaking them. For example, Vellu said to us with a sly grin on his face "Jumping will be fine, because jumping is not dancing." {Jumping is the preferred activity at rock concerts.} He also told us that although we couldn't ask people to pray with us from stage, we could "inform" them of what words they could use if they chose to pray at another time. And that if the police got any complaints, they could shut us down.

    We only made a few minor adjustments and shared the Gospel with the 300ish people in the audience. Three police officers were there, and they didn't seem to have any problems with us. In fact, they told Vellu afterwards that they were impressed that he "stuck to his faith" in getting the permit without bribing anyone. (Bribing the police is the norm.)

    The really cool thing, is that in all of those visits that Vellu made to the police station, he befriended a young police inspector in the process. He ended up sharing the Gospel with him, and the police inspector invited Christ into his life!! Vellu's gonna keep visiting the police inspector, and hopes that this will open the doors to share the Gospel with more officers.
         --Sam for Giants of Silence

Life in Lebanon

The Boyds (dad, mom, and three high school aged sons) went back to Lebanon in November. Here is part of the email they sent out—

    Once again the Lord blew us away with the ripe harvest field that there is in Lebanon. Although many schools canceled concerts due to political instability, we performed 21 times. We’re still compiling all the results from the venues which allowed response cards, but initial numbers show we were able to play for almost 5,000 students with almost 1,500 of them indicating decisions to receive Christ! INCREDIBLE.

    Thank YOU for praying – there’s no question the Lord honored your efforts. Especially rewarding for Julie and me was watching our boys deliver the Gospel, and experience the joy of God working through THEM to change so many lives for eternity! Be sure to check out our website for some recent photos of these past several weeks! http://www.boydfamilyband.com/album.php Please pray for the Lebanon team as they are now working on all the follow up – they’re a remarkable group of folks. Pray too for their support. Because of this year’s war and all the instability, rampant inflation is taking its toll on their limited resources.
         —Bruce, Julie, Brandon, Shaun & Ryan

See Keynote (almost live) on the Web

In the comfort of your own home you can watch several Keynote videos!

Keynote’s 40th Anniversary video is on www.youtube.com Search the site for “Keynote 40th Anniversary” to get the video and see some amazing costumes, hair-dos, and choreography… as well as God’s abundant blessing. You are a partner with us in this heritage!!

There are four other videos at www.keynote.org/visiondinner/vision2007/. Click on “Watch the Videos”

  • Keynote Intro: the fast-paced opening piece for our annual Vision Dinner.
  • Giants of Silence in India: more info about the story above.
  • Keynote in Tajikistan: features one of the Tajik Campus Crusade musicians, Azam, that we hosted in our home several times when he was here at Keynote for classes. Those in the band he now plays in led him to Christ and out of Islam. Look for the guy wearing a red shirt in a window superimposed on the background video.
  • Man on the Street: interviews of people in some of our band’s audiences. These are the people YOU are reaching by partnering with us!!

The Pace of Life… and Death



This fall, in the middle of the craziness of taking a seminary class and our regular Keynote duties, we made a trip to NY State to help Tom’s dad, Vince, close up his barbershop. The Lord gave us a good visit, but when we left, we wondered if that was the last one with him.

On Dec 2nd he passed away, but the week before he had prayed with Tom’s former pastor and asked Jesus into his heart. So we know will see him
again… in heaven!!

To read his obituary, and to leave a comment, go to www.foxmclellanfuneralhome.com.

Please pray for:
  • Us as we transition to Keynote’s Marketing Department.
  • The new believers in the Middle East and India.
  • Tom’s mom, Bea, as she adjusts to life without her husband of 59 years.
  • Beccy, a stay-at-home mom who is in prison unjustly and not allowed to see her young children.
  • Our 41 brothers in jail because of their faith in a Muslim country.

THANKS!!

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Our mission statement

"Partnering with strategic ministries to communicate God’s love through music and the performing arts"
  • Authentic
  • Dynamic
  • Catalytic
  • Worldwide
  • Life Change

Everything we do, from organizing equipment to processing finances, to performing and sharing the Gospel on stage is put through the filter of our mission statement and values.

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