Monday, July 30, 2012

Summer-time Fun!

Wow! What a summer! We had so much fun this summer seeing old friends and making new ones, visiting some of our favorite camps, traveling across this great state of ours in Truck Norris, and worshiping with about 2500 people in 6 weeks of camps!
We kicked off the summer in Oklahoma at Camp Egan with the Stillwater District camp and had a blast! Especially with Josh and the mud pit!  Then we headed to Austin, TX to do the music at the Redeemer Lutheran VBS where we learned that "Anything is possible with God!". We love any excuse to hang out in Austin! Great food, great friends and just a cool vibe up there in ATX.  After that we actually had a couple of weeks off, which usually never happens in the summer! It was a nice break, though to catch our breath and gear up for the run of camps we had up next!
We then headed to Camp Zephyr. What a cool place! Figuratively not literally, although this year was much cooler than in past years. Zephyr is one of our favorite places! The staff there is absolutely amazing!  Kenny Conley was the speaker again this year and did such a great job! We love hanging out with Camp Kenny! We did 3 pre-teen camps there in 2 weeks! Yeah, sounds crazy huh?!? It was great, except for the fact that I completely lost my voice! I got a nasty sinus infection and my voice said 'Adios!' This hasn't happend in the 11 years we have been doing this! At first we didn't know what we were going to do, but then my amazing wife stepped up and sang like an angel! She sang so beautifully and lead the worship through music like she had been doing it all her life! Thankfully, I was able to get some medicine and my voice came back by the end of the second camp and I was able to finish out the summer strong!
After those wonderful weeks at Zephyr, we headed to Big Country Camp. Nothing like west Texas in the middle of the summer! We had a great time and the kids were so responsive and wonderful to be around! We also got to hang out with a great speaker and friend, Shane Pruitt. He always has a wonderful way to connect with the kids!
This summer we had some new additions to the JGB. We took a new drummer, Timothy, and added an acoustic guitar player, Chandler. They were such a great find! We were so excited to have them join us this summer, and look forward to woking with them again!
There was one thing that kept coming up at these camps. One thing that we had never discovered before this summer. Something we had always heard about, but never had tried...Chicken Express! Oh man! I think that this summer, camp speakers were being payed by Chicken Express to promote their product. We had never tried it, but after hearing so much about it we HAD to find one. We lead worship at San Angelo FUMC on Sunday morning on our way to Big Country Camp and we had to grab lunch on our way out of town and what do you know...there was a Chicken Express right there in San Angelo! We went in, ordered our Chicken Express chicken tenders and dove in! Let me just say...there is nothing like Chicken Express chicken tenders...they were DELICIOUS! Chicken Express, you have some new fans!
Over all it was an AMAZING summer! Now, we get ready for a fun filled fall! We will be releasing out new HYMNS CD this September. We will aslo be traveling and doing Family Worship Nights all across the country! If you would like us to get to your church be sure to contact Michelle 210-317-6453 or michelle@justingravesband.com ! We would love to share the songs and gifts God has given us with your community! I love that this is what God has called us to do! I have included some pics from the summer. You can see more on our Facebook fan page www.facebook.com/justingravesband.  Hope your summer was as wonderful as ours! See you soon!
Last day at Camp Egen
 FLY! Redeemer Lutheran VBS
Getting ready to hit the road with Timothy and Chandler!
Worship at Camp Zephyr
Camp Zephyr ROCKS!

Michelle rockin the mic when I lost my voice!

Chicken Express!



Big Country Camp!

Concert at Big Country Camp!

Worship at Big Country