July 7, 2003 News Views and Clues

Asking for a Sign? This preacher did. A guest evangelist was preaching repentance and seeking a sign from God when lightning struck the steeple, electrified hi smic and set the church on fire...

New danger of body piercing...

Larry Burkett died on July 4th.

July 7, 2003 Hope you had a great holiday! We did...

It didn't start out so great- our air conditioner fan motor gave out Thursday night. But we decided to wait to call the home warranty folks cause we didn't want to spend the holiday waiting on repairmen and such. Had a barbecue with some of our friends from FBCM and reconnected a bit. We had a storm blow through as well.

We headed to the Mississippi Fireworks Festival in Alton and discovered it had been moved to July 3 this year- I suspect so it didn't conflict with Fair St. Louis?? Anyway we went home an watched the Boston fireworks and chilled in the basement.

Friday was Shrinefest- an all day concert featuring Javier Mendoza, Jars of Clay, Sixpence None the Richer, Chris Tomlin Band, and Michael W. Smith. At Right, Adam Bitter, a music director for Incarnate Word Parish in St. Louis opened.

When we got there at 12:45 the sun was blistering- in fact Earnie burned herself when she sat on the seat.We toughed it out, slathered on the Bullfrog (this stuff is great and non greasy-SPF 36!) and hydrated ourselves- and after a while it wasn't so bad- after having dinner at 4PM at the restaurant, it was not quite so hot and a breeze kicked up a bit

I like all the bands to one degree or another (except for Mendoza which in some cases the lyrics were rather dubious... my favorite was Chris Tomlin and Band - they really shifted the concert to a venue of worship. I was praying for him as he was wearing his favorite color (black) and the sun had gotten to an angle whwre the band was not shaded. Thought he was going to pass out on us. This band is quickly becoming one of my favorites because of their heart and the attitude of worship they elicit.

Trivia- 3 of the 4 members of Chris Tomlin Band are southpaws- do you know which one isn't?

Jars of Clay came on with a totally different kind of attitude and overblaring sound- I couldn't understand the words to even the songs I knew. They featured some stuff from a new project and I was underwhelmed.

We stayed the route and persevered through the 105 degree heat index . Though I''ve never been a Michael W. Smith fan, I may be now- most of the stuff was from his worship CD's which gave many of the song's we've been singing for five years a mass exposure. It was mainly an intense worship service.

Bad design alert- Check out Smitty's Exploding hair on the God and Country promo...Or is that eagle checking for lunch???

Hope the Shrine keeps the concerts coming- it is always curious to me how every denomination seems to follow the same artists-and listen to the same music, and in some cases try to claim the artists as their own- there'sstill a myth floating around that Rich Mullins would have become Catholic if he hadn't died tragically...interesting...

Also- up to page 709 on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix...

More pictures...