Hello Friends,
MangoFish has been busy! We have made it safely from Spokane, WA down the coast to Santa Cruz and Lake Tahoe, CA; and finally to Fort Collins, CO.
Our show in Spokane was a little discouraging for us. The show was sparsely attended and there was absolutely zero energy from the crowd. To top it off, the crowd was almost entirely youth group kids from the church. We were playing outside behind the church and during the first song, two seperate people came out and complained about the noise. The long and the short of it is that the cops shut us down a little over half way through our show. We were all pretty bummed that we had to stop playing, but as we talked later about the show, we realized that even though people complained during the first song, we still were able to share the gospel ten songs in.
There was also one family there who had been listening to the pastors sermons online and heard about the concert from the website and came out.
All of the guys in the band really enjoyed our four days in California. Our final show in Santa Cruz was amazing. We were playing for the Santa Cruz Summer Project as part of an outreach theme party. Some of the students had seen us play two nights earlier and knew what to expect. By the time we took the stage, the crowd was fired up for a rock show. We played to literally dozens of screaming fans. As we were playing, 7 vanloads of teenagers from Washington state came to join our concert. They were a youth group in California to do street evangelism. As we talked with them after the show we were mutually encouraged by each other. Once again, the cops came and shut us down after only a few songs, but we were able to fast forward to the gospel. It was so amazing to see dozens of conversations after the show. There were four decisions for Christ that night, but that does not begin to describe the extent of what God was doing in the hearts of the non-Christians that were there that night.
Last night we played here in Fort Collins. A guy, Steve, on a bike showed up about half way through, he heard the music from his house and had to check it out. He talked to Andrew, our sound tech for a while during the concert and again with Thomas, vocalist, after the concert. He was far from Christ and not very interested in changing his mind, but did tell Thomas “I know that I met you tonight for a reason.” Please pray that Steve will be able to understand that God loves everybody, not just the people who “do good”.
MangoFish just added another show! We will be playing for Sam’s, guitarist, church back in Indy. This will make our next two drive days short, because we now have a show tomorrow evening. Please pray that we will be able to get back to Indianapolis quickly and safely and that his church will be able to promote the show to non-Christians.
Thank you so much for your continued prayers…
