8 teams………7 bands and 1 short film team…..
We traveled 23,407 miles
We had 93 concerts.
We saw 13,090 men, women, and children hear about Christ.
The angels rejoiced over the 349 new decisions for Christ.
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August 2008.
Hello,
This is the last update from Mangofish!! We’re back in Indianapolis after our last two shows. We played in Fort Collins, Colorado, in the Larimer County Jail. It was completely different from any show we had played before, and was a little bit intimidating. At the same time, it was amazing to know that we had the opportunity to make such an impact in the lives of the people in our audience. We had seven people mark down that night that they had started a relationship with Christ, and we feel so blessed to have been allowed to be a part of that. Unfortunately, due to the prison’s rules, we weren’t able to talk to people after the show, but it was still a really great experience.
After Colorado we headed to Ames, Iowa for our last concert. We played in a concert venue called Zekes, which is owned and run by a local church. This show was bittersweet, but we had a blast and finished strong. Most of the members of our audience were members of the local church, and it was great to feel their hospitality and support as we finished off our tour.
We’ve been back in Indianapolis for three days now, and are getting ready to go back to our homes and campuses. Thank you so much for your prayers and support!!
Mangofish (Brandon, Ethan, JJ, Josh, Lindsay, Nolan, Sarah, Travis, and Stephanie)
For this being the first ever Film track for the Keynote Summer Project, and with a human plan defined as “wet jello”, I’d say God has a definite plan for the use of film in ministry. We have had so many blessings in the past six weeks that looking back on it, there is no way this would have happened without Him. Our film was written, shot, and edited within two weeks. That may not seem tough, but basically God handed us our actors, the location to shoot at, and students each with a different talent that have somehow managed to get along for the past 1008 hours. Not only that, but we got booked for 6 outreaches (thank you Pam 
).
Our audiences consisted mostly of believers, but that’s not to say it didn’t have an impact. Here’s a comment from one of the viewers at our outreach in Carmel:
“I thought the films were just as important for a Christian audience as a non-Christian audience. There are a lot of things that could be taken away from the films and be an encouragement and good reminder to Christians.”
So I have no idea how God is going to use what we’ve done, but I have complete trust and faith that it will be used in one way or another or two ways or a million. By the way, that Carmel outreach was at a retirement home, so it was a bit of a difference from high school kids. We did have a good turnout though and out audience had some good thoughts, but sadly we didn’t get that many comment cards back because Bingo started at 2. Seriously.
Our last outreach was in Chicago where we teamed up with the Chicago summer project. We actually got to be at the beach Saturday night handing out glow sticks with them, so that was pretty awesome having sand between our toes…
Here are some more comments from our audience:
“I loved it. Marissa’s story really hit me hard because my story is very similar and it reminded me that God loves and forgives.”
“These films were a fresh look on the freedom Christ gives. To the
emcees—THANK YOU for being so open. I was very encouraged today -
very well done.”
“I appreciated being able to see how God can use short films to spark discussion and gain wisdom about who He is.”
This summer has been freakin awesome. I never thought I would get to know so many different people so well in such a short amount of time, but it happened. Now as we are about to disperse to our respective origins, Keynote Summer Project 08 will go down in history. God bless
Forever in Christ,
The Film Team:
Will
Brian
Lisa
Marissa
Derek
Film Team Wranglers:
John & Pam
Sharon
Well here we are, back in Indy. Swerve has had an awesome tour! I know that we have touched many lives but I think that all of our lives will never be the same because of this summer. God has shown himself to each of us and has exceeded our expectations time and time again.
Last Friday we were at Langley Airforce Base. We played at a pool party. It was a small crowd but they were enthusiastic and by the end of the night we all got thrown into the pool! We weren’t able to do comment cards but there were some good conversations afterwards.
We traveled 15 hours back to Indy on Saturday. Sunday we had 2 concerts. Our first one was at the Indiana Women’s State Prison. This concert was amazing. There were 11 women who accepted Christ and many of them came up to talk to us afterwards. It was very moving to see how willing these women were to hear us and hear about Christ. Then our final concert was at our bass player, Brad’s church in Anderson. It was for a back to school youth group gathering. We had 13 people come to Christ! It was incredible. God amazed us beyond words that day.
So now we come to the end of the road. As I look back over these past 7 weeks there has been so many relationships built and memories made. I saw the Lord take a group of 14 strangers and transform them into a great team. I think the Lord blessed us greatly by showing himself to us through each other and through all the people we came into contact with. Throughout the summer we had 1,040 people hear the Gospel through us. 52 of those people accepted Christ and 30 of them came up to us after the concerts to talk about spiritual things. The things we experienced this summer are not expressible in words. Praise be to God our Father for all the miracles he did this summer.
Please keep us all in your prayers as we now go our separate ways. It’s such a bittersweet time but I think we are all excited to take what we’ve learned back to our homes and schools. Thank you so much for your constant prayers over the summer.
God Bless,
Lindsey, Anna, Christine, Charity, Liz, Bevan, Eli, Brad, Jordan, & Desi
Greetings !
This is Lantie, giving the final update on Proof of Purchase’s 2008 summer tour. We led worship for the youth group at Harbor Shores Church in Indiana. Steve, the youth pastor at Harbor Shores, said that some of the kids were deep in worship, and oblivious to their surroundings. One person responded on a comment card that he/she had never heard the story of the Prodigal Son as Casey told it. Another said that they were helped into worship. Our last show was at a Sunday morning service at Lifepointe Church, also in Indiana. Several people who had gone through depression said that Jodi’s story really resounded with them, and the message gave them hope. Thanks to all for the prayers.
Hello my faithful friends. I want to start by thanking everyone for your love and support. Your comments and advice give us strength to continue in our walk with God.
This is the end of our tour; today our band will be playing for the last time at Iglesia El Calvario, a Hispanic church here at Orlando. It is sad to think that the project has come to an end, but at the same time it is comforting to know that the Lord has brought us here with a big purpose and there is not doubt that He has fulfilled it in our lives.
This week has been amazing for all of us. The band played at Parkslope Tabernacle in Brooklyn, NY. It was a great opportunity to be able to recruit students for next year as well as give some musicians a few musical pointers. We had the privilege of being responsible for the entire service, which was translated during the testimonies.
After our experience in New York and New Jersey, we began our long trek travel to Florida. While we were on our way to Gainesville one of our host called me, he said that the place he had reserved at University of Florida for the concert had been cancelled by the administrators. I was shocked and a little frustrated but I knew God was in control, even if I would not like the results. I talked to everyone on the team about the situation, we prayed together leaving everything in God’s hands. That night we stayed in a hotel at North Carolina without knowing what was going to happen. Next morning our host called again with the great news he had found a place for us. We were able to have the concert and even though we didn’t had a big audience one person got saved. After the concert our team building coordinator, also know as the band mom, mentioned: “God’s love is so extravagant that he can bring a band with people from all over the world just to save one person” Amazing!!!
On Friday we had the privilege to play at Lake Hart, Campus Crusade Headquarters. The band led the morning worship and also played their entire set in the afternoon for more than 100 staff members…This was our last full set of our tour and after the concert our team got together to thank God for everything he had done during this summer project.
…God continues to astound us all. Event after event we are blown away by the work He does. We are so thankful that the Lord is willing to purify our efforts and work through our weakness to reach needing hearts.
Sunday of this week was a busy day. We had two gigs, a morning worship service at River Oaks Community Church here in Carmel and an evening outreach in Brandenburg, KY. The worship service at River Oaks went really well…
Immediately following the service we loaded up and booked it south to Kentucky… We set up our instruments on a flatbed semi trailer, and had a blast ministering to attendees of all ages…we had many, especially the teens and younger adults, dancing and singing to the Lord. At the end of the night, two people had indicated via comment cards that they had come to know Christ as their savior, and four were interested in learning more about a relationship with God…
Tuesday we played a backyard back to school party for Student Venture here in Carmel. God brought a very diverse group of young people to hear the gospel, our testimonies, and our music. The comment card response was very encouraging, too. Many students indicated that the worship we led brought them nearer to the Lord.
Wednesday we traveled north to Sheboygan, WI, to play an evening worship set at Ryan’s home church. We were informed that the congregation was fairly conservative, but as we worshiped we were pleased to see people of all ages raising their hands and singing to God…
Last night we got to play a sweet outreach event at the Krauter’s house…Attendance exceeded what we had hoped for, and God answered our prayers by clearing up some rain before it became a problem. Probably the most amazing part of the evening was the reaction of the parents to what we were doing. They were just blown away that so many high-schoolers get together and have a great time praising God without any drinking involved.
As we round third and head for home, please keep praying for us. We have really seen a lot of challenges on this tour. Several of us have undergone personal struggles over the last couple of weeks. Pray for Lantie, her family, and her mom as she struggles with cancer. Pray for my family and me as we deal with the loss of my grandpa. Please pray for Brian, his family, and his friends back home as they cope with the loss of a close friend in a climbing accident. And as always, continue to pray for our travels and our ministry.
Alright, here’s an update on our tour. Sorry it’s been so long. We’ve been extremely busy!
Last Tuesday we were in Cary, North Carolina at a YMCA camp. We had a crowd of about 75 middle schoolers and there were 4 decisions. The media team joined us which was such a blessing.
Then on Wednesday we headed to Spartenberg, South Carolina where we played for the First Baptist Church youth group called The Hanger. This place was awesome. Micheal Tait from dc Talk and Plus One have played there before. The next day we ate lunch with some of the middle school and high school students and had a chance to talk to them.
Next we drove back to North Carolina and played at the Kraft Family YMCA. We played for a small group of middle schoolers. Despite the small crowd the concert and message were received very well and we had 9 decisions that day. It was very encouraging to talk to the kids. The next evening we had a concert at our host’s house for their neighborhood. It was a great opportunity to get people talking.
We are now in Virginia. Sunday night we played at the Norfolk Naval base. It was a smaller crowd but we were able to talk to most of the people that came and they were very thankful for us playing there.
Monday we were at Yorktown Coast Guard Academy all day. We played a teaser at lunch and then put on our whole show at a cookout in the evening. The chaplain told us that we drew the biggest turn out for an event in a long time. The troops seemed very encouraged by our passion. We had 7 decisions and got to talk to a lot of the guys. It was really neat playing for them since they are our peers. We had a lot of good conversations.
We now have 4 shows left. Something that you could please keep in your prayers is our vehicles. We’ve had a flat tire on our trailer and our minivan has had to be jumped numerous times. We are moving people towards God and Satan is obviously not happy. Please pray for our safety.
We hope all is well with everyone else and we will see you soon back in Indy!
God Bless,
Lindsey & The Band 