Snyder, Tx 06/07/08

[Kelly]

I've noticed we have a LOT of Tx people here. Anyone planning on going to Red Letter Rockfest??? I am!!! It's a five hour drive but my friend and I are just crazy enough to pull it off ;) Especially since tickets for the ENTIRE day were only $30!!!! :eek: That's a STEAL! But I'll take it :D Hope to see some of you out there!!

Just in case you were wondering, here are all the awesome bands that are gonna be there....

Jeremy Camp
Skillet
Seventh Day Slumber
Wavorly
Maylene and the Sons of Disaster
BarlowGirl
MXPX
Demon Hunter
Sanctus Real
Living Sacrifice
Spoken
Ruth
Decyfer Down

And if you were counting, that's 13 bands which comes out to just TWO DOLLARS A BAND!!!! :eek:

[taryns93]

OMG!!!!
That sounds like so much fun!
I would go, but it is the day before I go to summer camp in Tyler, Texas!
It is called Pine Cove! It is a Christian camp! Does anyone else go there? Has anyone else heard of it?

[Kelly]

I've never heard of Pine Cove. Have fun!

19 DAYS!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!! SO EXCITED!!!!! :D

[Kaylee13]

wow there really are a lots of texas people here. So will u be taking pictures and sharing them with us?:)

[Kelly]

Of course!!!!! You should totally be there though!!!!! It's only $30!!!!!

[Kaylee13]

I wish but I don't wanna ask my mom to drive me on a 6 hr. drive just for Jeremy (I mean I totally would but out of everyone els playin thats the only band my mom likes). Plus he's in Lindale which is a lot closer twice and in 2009 he's in Fort Worth which is less than an hour away from me. I'm sure it's going to be a great concert, cuz there's going to be a lot of awesome bands there.

[krazyyouth]

yeah i cant..to far im like in the gulf area..between Houston and glavestion yeah i would LOVE to see Jeremy but i hope he comes back to houston

[Kelly]

Ten days!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!! :D :D :D

[Kelly]

ONE WEEK!!!!!! :D

I noticed something too....I'd already mentioned somewhere how funny it was that the date of the concert is 06/07/08....but I was looking at the schedule and it starts at 9:00am hehehe...too bad it ends at 10:30pm instead of just 10...that would make it kinda creepy! :p

[Kelly]

PRAISE THE LORD! WE FOUND A HOTEL!!!! My friend had told me to hold off on finding a hotel because he still wasn't sure when we were gonna go up there. Finally this weekend I said "We need to decide now because at this point there may not even be anything left!!!!" It's especially hard because Snyder is a small town and there's not much around it even....and then I have to have a handicap accessible room....so I called every hotel in Snyder....nothing. I thought "We're gonna be sleeping in his non-airconditioned car!" :p Then on a whim, I saw an ad for Holiday Inn and even though that didn't come up in the search, I decided to try it....they don't have one in Snyder but they had one in Sweetwater about 30 minutes away, with SEVERAL available wheelchair rooms! :) Yay!

[sv3]

Yay! Seeing the Holiday Inn sign was meant to be. I hope you have a wonderful and safe time!

[Kaylee13]

Thats cool. Glad ya'll found a hotel!

[Kelly]

Me too! Especially since my AC broke yesterday....definitely looking forward to sleeping in an air conditioned room!!!! :)

[LauraA]

Can you pack me in your suitcase, Kelly? ;)

[Kelly]

Hehe sure...hop in! :)

[Kelly]

Ok I'm scared....my friend just informed me that we're making a surprise stop on the way to the show :confused:

[Kaylee13]

Like suprise as in shes not telling u where?

[Kelly]

He won't tell me ANYTHING! :( Hehe

Here's the convo:

Ben: What time can you leave on Friday?
Me: Anytime
Ben: We should leave by 10am. Have surprise stop on way to Sweetwater :)
Me: Ummmm....I'm scared!
Ben: Hehe. I would be :)
Me: Ok I don't think I wanna go anymore! :p
Ben: Dork. It'll be fun.
Me: Hint?
Ben: Nope. Surprise.

[jllm04]

GO RLR!

My husband and I are taking our oldest daughter and heading to the big city of Snyder! Funny thing, we are in the middle of a move from Abilene to Midland. Wierdness...oh well. We are missing the FCA allstars football game for J! (so worth it :) )

[jllm04]

Oh hey Laura,
we're just going for the day, but if you'll fit in my bag...;)

[Kelly]

GO RLR!

My husband and I are taking our oldest daughter and heading to the big city of Snyder! Funny thing, we are in the middle of a move from Abilene to Midland. Wierdness...oh well. We are missing the FCA allstars football game for J! (so worth it :) )


Hey I PMed you, but we should meet up at the concert somewhere :) PM me and let me know if you want to :)

[LauraA]

^^^I'm willing to try. I'll even hold my breath! ;)

[Kelly]

Ok so I have bad news and good news.....the bad news is that I entered a contest to win backstage passes....and I didn't win....

The good news is that most of the artists agreed to have a separate signing line anyways, and Jeremy and Seventh Day Slumber both agreed!!!!! :D And I still have a chance to win the backstage passes too....they didn't give any details...just said to make sure we have our cell phone with us :)

This weekend is SO gonna rock!!!!

[Kelly]

Ready or not, I'm leaving in the morning! Yay!!!! :)

[jllm04]

Alright Laura,
Let's go! :)

[LauraA]

Alright Laura,
Let's go! :)

LOL!!! Yeah!

Kelly, how did you find out about the signing line?

[Kelly]

The festival director told me. He's the nicest guy! I've had lots of questions for him hehe...but he answered them all, and he's the one who told me I could be up front if I wanted....

But he sent me a message on MySpace to let me know I didn't win and that's when he said that most artists would be signing, so I emailed him back to see if Jeremy and Seventh Day Slumber were included in that, and he said as far as he knows, they have confirmed that they will :)

Well off I go!!! Yall don't have too much fun without me!!!!!

So maybe I'll see you there Laura??? Hehehehe

[JC#1Nashvillefan]

Have fun Kelly
Tell J hi for me
I would to meet him again

[Kaylee13]

Ok so I have bad news and good news.....the bad news is that I entered a contest to win backstage passes....and I didn't win....

The good news is that most of the artists agreed to have a separate signing line anyways, and Jeremy and Seventh Day Slumber both agreed!!!!! :D And I still have a chance to win the backstage passes too....they didn't give any details...just said to make sure we have our cell phone with us :)

This weekend is SO gonna rock!!!!

IM SOO jealous of you! Jeremy didnt sign at the six flags concert. THey had backstage passes but I didnt kno that till a week after the concert! The SDS guys are SUPER nice to us I got like 3 things signed! I hope After Edmund is nice too! Have fun!

[LauraA]

SQUEAL!:D Kelly, HAVE FUN!! I'm so excited for you!!!:)

[jllm04]

Hey Guys,
Well, we'll be leaving for Snyder in a couple of hours, and I hope you all have a wonderful day!
If you are taking prayer requests already this morning, let's keep all the travelers to RLR (bands, managers, fans, etc...) in our prayers.
We are taking our oldest daughter, and as a mom, I just want her to have a great day!

-Lana :)

[LauraA]

Praying for you all down there in TX! And I hope you're having a great time. Can't wait to hear all about it when you have time!

God Bless You~

[JC#1Nashvillefan]

Yeah have fun you all
I want to hear all about it when you guys get back

[sv3]

I hope all of you have a wonderful night of worship and that new hearts will be touched! I'll be praying for you guys to have a safe return!;)

[Kelly]

Hey everyone!!!! It's 5:30am and I just got back home!!!! Oy!!! You'd think I'd be going to bed, but I'm on my third wind, so I figured I'd write about everything while it's still fresh in my mind....

Ok first of all, I have to tell you guys to PLEASE keep Jeremy in your prayers...he threw out his voice tonight! :( And unfortunately, that meant no signing line afterwards, but I'll get back to that.

The weekend was just crazy!!!! We left here at 10am and got to Sweetwater at about 4:30....6 1/2 hours on the road...ugh! And if any of you have ever been to west texas, you know there's NOTHING to see in those 6 hours! Well except for one thing....remember that surprise I told yall about? Apparently there's a Stone Henge replica here in Tx, and he took me to see it. Good times. Oh and we got pulled over...that was about it in the excitement dept.

Aside from that, the trip was long and boring! But our hotel was AWESOME! We got there and just rested up for a bit, then went to buy goodies for Jeremy and his crew. Then back to the hotel to chill some more, and sleep! :) Sad thing is neither of us could sleep! We were both up till about 3:30! Ugh! But we somehow managed to get up at 8:00 for breakfast....WORST eggs I've EEEEVVVVVEEEERRRRR had!!!! I took one bite and I didn't even want to swallow! I'm gagging just thinking about them! Yuck! And with that, we were off to the festival.

It was NOTHING like we had expected....the venue is TINY, and of course it was indoors, so there wasn't really anything extra going on...just merch booths, so if you didn't want to watch one of the bands, you kinda had to just sit outside. Boring! We walked around for a couple hours, watched a couple bands. Then we met up with Lana and her family and hung out off and on for the rest of the day. I also played cat and mouse chase with Adam all day! Every time I went to the merch booth, the ladies said "You just missed him!" Ugh!

The bands I enjoyed seeing were MXPX, Sanctus Real, Seventh Day Slumber, Skillet, and of course, Jeremy. I'll get to Jeremy in a minute, but I HAVE to tell yall about Seventh Day Slumber.

As I've been saying, I've been trying to get to a SDS show for YEARS and I finally made it! Boy did I pick the right night to finally make it. First of all, as they were taking the stage, I noticed the drummer's hat looked a little familiar...can you guess who it was??? *wink* Their drummer left the band recently and they were supposed to have a replacement, but he backed out yesterday, so today Leif learned all their songs in 45 minutes!!!! They started out playing all the hits and I was right up front rockin' right along with them...got a lot of smiles from Joseph for that! There was one part in the set where Joseph recited different letters he'd gotten from people. I was fighting back tears, Joseph wasn't! He also told a story about how they were at a show a while back and this lady ran up to them and said she needed to talk to them. She told them that they literally saved her life that night. Her son had commited suicide a couple days earlier and she was beginning to lose her faith but she heard the song Caroline that night and it spoke to her. Joseph said he wanted her to have her own song, and that's where the song "Every Saturday" came from. I was choking back the tears at this point! Then he said "I want to try a little experiment. How many of you would save a child's life today if you could?" Everyone raised their hands. Joseph said "If God would provide you the funds, how many of you would sponsor a child with Compassion?" Then he told this story about how they recently had a show where only 12 people raised their hands, and one was an 11 year old boy. Joseph said he was so touched by that, that he took the child back to their merch booth and said "What do you want?" And the boy said "I don't want anything. I want to sponsor a child". Wow! I have been going back and forth myself lately...I keep convincing myself that I don't have enough money to do so. But after hearing that story, my heart changed completely and I ended up sponsoring a child! Sadly when he asked that, several hands went down, but there were still MANY hands up! So they had people go around and pass out Compassion packets to all those people. Probably about halfway into their set time, they played Oceans from the Rain, and as the song ended, Joseph went into this prayer, and you could feel God's presence fill the room! He said, "I hope you guys don't mind, but I'd like to stop the music and do something a little different." He had everyone move away from the gate and we ended up having an altar call. It was SO powerful! He told everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes. Then he said "I'm going to ask you three questions. Raise your hand, but keep your heads down and your eyes closed. First question: Have any of you ever thought of committing suicide...raise your hand." Then he said "God bless you" to everyone who had their hand raised. Second question: Raise your hand if you have ever attempted suicide. Again he said "God bless you" to several people. Third question: How many of you came here today thinking you were going to go home and commit suicide after this show. Then he said "I see about twelve of you. God bless you and you and you...." I lost it at this point. Just knowing that there were 12 people in there who were going to take their life TODAY! Wow! Well then we had the altar call and he waited until everyone came down then we prayed, and with that it was over. But the sweetest thing happened....when they were saying goodbye, we were all clapping, and I was sitting there wiping away the tears, and they all threw their pics out, but then Jeremy (their guitarist) got one of the security guards to hand me his! SO SWEET!!! I almost started crying again! That was probably the most powerful hour of my life!

After SDS, I went out to the lobby to get a picture with them, and while I was out there, I FINALLY ran into Adam! So we talked a little bit and as we were talking, this girl comes up and asks for his autograph...I almost busted out laughing just because of what he told us recently on his blog, but that would've been rude and that girl would've thought I was laughing at her, so I held it in. But he told her he wasn't in a band and she actually thought he was Leif! So that was a little different. When she left, he just gave me this look and I said "Wow, you weren't kidding!" And he laughed and shook his head.

Then I headed back down for Skillet and Jeremy Camp. Skillet had some CRAZY pyrotechnics that felt like they took my face off several times! But it was cool!

Then finally our boys came out and started soundcheck. It took SOOOOOOO long, and of course my friend and I were dog tired and had a 6 hour drive ahead of us...so we were both very cranky....but finally J took the stage and that all went away and I just praised the Lord with J for the next hour. Here's the set list: No Matter What it Takes, Take My Life, Tonight, Take You Back, Right Here, I Still Believe, Walk By Faith/Hallelujah/You Never Let Go, Give You Glory, Speaking Louder Than Before, Let It Fade, Lay Down My Pride, Give Me Jesus. The new song, Speaking Louder Than Before....AWESOME!!!!! I could tell throughout his set that he was struggling a bit with his voice, but he still sounded GREAT! He read several times from the Bible too, but I can't remember any of the passages....he talked a lot about being a light for the world and speaking up and speaking out, sharing the Word with people. After the show, I hightailed it up to his booth to get in the signing line and we were there for about 20 minutes when Adam came out and delivered the bad news :( So sad! I ended up giving him all the gifts for them. I wish I could see their faces when they opened them...oh well. But it was such an AWESOME blessed day! And guess what...I checked with Compassion right before Jeremy's set and they had 70 sponsors! Doesn't sound like much, but like I said, it was a SMALL venue, so there weren't very many people there to begin with.

One more thing....if you go to http://www.speakinglouderthanbefore.com you can see the video they showed at the beginning of J's set :)

Well I'm off to bed....pictures tomorrow! Or should I say later today *wink*

[LauraA]

Wow, Kelly! Thank you so much for sharing all that. I'm late getting everyone up for church, so I have to run, but I'll be back. Thank you!!!

[sv3]

Thanks for staying up and sharing that with us. Glad you had a great time. That was such an awesome story about seventh day slumber. I've been wanting to see them, hopefully soon. And we'll keep J in our prayers, thanks for the update.

[Kaylee13]

Thanks for sharing that. SDS puts on a good show and theyre really nice. I'm kind of sad I didn't get to go to that one now. Poor Jeremy threw out his voice. I can't believe Leif played drums for the SDS guys thats really cool! Now I really wanna see Jeremy Camp play, and you reminded me how good SDSs concert are Id like to see them too!

[jllm04]

Hey Guys, Lana checking in with you! Ok, so I didn't have as long of a drive as Kelly, and I did not stay up to give you guys the run down...but I did have a very sleepy 7year old, who really enjoyed her day!

Well, Kelly did a good job with the rundown, and it was so good to meet her and be able to spend parts of the day with her! What a woman with a sweet heart!

We didn't even get there until abut two in the afternoon. There wasn't really anyone we wanted to hear until MXPX-and Lilly wanted to hear them. Sadly, they played early, and we were eating when they played. We were able to hear Sanctus Real, which was nice. We skipped out on Deamon Hunter (abit too heavy for us...) Caught SDS, (which was an absolute suprise for us, but so amazing),Barlow Girl (another good live show), Skillet (Kelly filled you in on their show), and of course, J. Random fact for the day, Jeremy has gone back to dark hair, and had a fauxhawk going on, no earrings, and very clean shaven last night. Nice look, just different. :)
Kelly mentioned Jeremy blowing out his voice. And we do need to keep that in our prayers for him! He said that he just got a little bit too excited and sang too hard, but I thought he sounded like his voice was a little strained from the get go. (Do not confuse this with me saying he sounded bad-he did not!)
Just sounded like he might have had a cold or something.
I must say, I have never been to a jeremy concert (or seen him at a festival) where I didn't leave feeling completely refreshed. And last night was no different. Infact, it may have been the best one yet! The songs they picked for the set were spot on, and I just wish they could've played all night!
I love the way he is able to give an amazing concert and work in some time to read from the bible and share what God has placed on his heart. He has such a gift for that!
Anyway, we were all disappointed he didn't come out and sign, but I do hope that his voice is able to recover quickly and that the summer festivals are a huge success for him...in accordance to the goals and vision he talked about last night.

I've got to run and go to a baby shower, but thanks so much for what you did last night Jeremy and band. It was appreciated and much needed!

(Jacob, nice to see you still with the band!)

Lana

[Kelly]

Awww thanks Lana, you're so sweet!!! I would imagine Lilly is sleeping the day away :p What a cutie!!!! We had so much fun with you guys! Always nice to meet other Team Campers :) We'll definitely have to do it again. Not sure if we can afford RTD after this hehe but some other time soon! :)

[LauraA]

Kelly and Lana, what a blessing it was to wake up to Kelly's rundown, then get home from church to read Lana's. It sounds like you were all very blessed and pleased with the day. I am so sorry to hear about Jeremy's voice. I hope he's not hurting. Did he mention the carpal tunnel at all? I think it's awesome that you all got to meet up! I know it was so special for us when we met up with Justin and Erin in IL, and when Leigh and Steve both came to WI for a visit.

Kelly, it's great you decided to sign up to sponsor a child. You will make such a difference in the life of that little one!

And Lana, I haven't taken Ben to J concert yet, (he's 7, too), but I want to when there is one close by. I think he'd really like it if he can see. Maybe an Unplugged sometime....hopefully there will be more of those. Wow, that was a GREAT time.

Trying to catch a nap now before church tonight.

[JC#1Nashvillefan]

I am glad that you had fun
You lucky duck that you got to hear Speaking Louder than Before
I can't wait to hear it

[Kelly]

Kelly and Lana, what a blessing it was to wake up to Kelly's rundown, then get home from church to read Lana's. It sounds like you were all very blessed and pleased with the day. I am so sorry to hear about Jeremy's voice. I hope he's not hurting. Did he mention the carpal tunnel at all?

No he didn't mention it, and he didn't have the brace on either. So that's a good sign :)

[Kelly]

Hey guys, here are the pictures :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2126984&l=d252e&id=25407210

And here's a little surprise for all my Team Campers :) I couldn't go to a J show and not do my job! :p

http://a508.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/126/l_fe01708821aef97d7ef42e5d2cdffb83.jpg

And here are a couple videos I think you'll like *wink*....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eEDtGINkfmU

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Uoy_5oKp4aw

[LauraA]

What a treat! We got home from church tonight and here is another post with pictures, videos and your awesome TC flier. LOL. Very cool, Kelly. Thank you! Have to get off the computer...bad weather still. Going to put in a prayer request and get off here.

[Kaylee13]

Hey guys, here are the pictures :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2126984&l=d252e&id=25407210

And here's a little surprise for all my Team Campers :) I couldn't go to a J show and not do my job! :p

http://a508.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/126/l_fe01708821aef97d7ef42e5d2cdffb83.jpg

And here are a couple videos I think you'll like *wink*....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eEDtGINkfmU

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Uoy_5oKp4aw

Nice pics! the videos were funny I luv turtles!

[jllm04]

Kelly,
Ya'll take good pics! And I think we should tell non-texas folk out there that the pretty hill country pictures are no where near Snyder!
That would be the wind turbine pictures! (which, by the way are very useful and kinda freaky at night becuse there is a little red blinking light on top and they all blink!)

Anyway, it was nice to meet up with you, and hopefully we do get to see you again soon!

Lana :)

[Kelly]

Hehe yeah! That was about an hour into our trip, but for the last 3 hours, there was NOTHING until the big windmills....which I agree were creepy at night because it was just a field of red lights that blinked at the same exact time!

[LauraA]

It must have been so cool to see Leif playing for another band. I love his drumming! He always looks like he's having a blast.

Praying now for Jeremy's voice.

Six days until Rockford!!! Yeeee haw! :o

[Kaylee13]

Some people from the radio station i listen to went and posted pics in there blog, but none of them were of Jeremy or the band:(. They did have some pics of Ruth and some others though.

http://897powerfm.blogspot.com/2008/06/red-letter-rock-fest-in-snyder-texas.html

[Amy T.]

Wow, reading what Kelley wrote makes me so excited for Thursday. He is going to be at Ichthus. It only takes me about an hour and a half, but I have been planning this trip since January when they announced the line up. I hope his voice is better by then, he has that smooth and dreamy voice, like Bing Crosby and Andy Williams. I am also excited to see Toby Mac. I have not seen him in concert. The only other christian music concert beside Jeremy Camp that I have seen was the Newsboys. Awesome. I will let you all know how it goes, if anyone is interested.

[sv3]

Yes Amy, please keep us posted.:D

[Kelly]

Hey guess what guys...I'm famous!!! I'm in the video blog for the Snyder show!!! :) Well sort of....check it out....

http://a708.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/87/l_84abedf5254c66ad679ab9bae9f2d323.jpg

[jllm04]

Hey Amy,
Definately let us know how it goes!
It's always fun to hear!
Lana :)

[LauraA]

Wow, reading what Kelley wrote makes me so excited for Thursday. He is going to be at Ichthus. It only takes me about an hour and a half, but I have been planning this trip since January when they announced the line up. I hope his voice is better by then, he has that smooth and dreamy voice, like Bing Crosby and Andy Williams. I am also excited to see Toby Mac. I have not seen him in concert. The only other christian music concert beside Jeremy Camp that I have seen was the Newsboys. Awesome. I will let you all know how it goes, if anyone is interested.

Oh yeah. Every detail please! Really!