Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, NYC, Connecticut........its been quite a fortnight!

VIRGINIA

Ignite Academy in Virginia

We talked about how awesome Scotland is and the benefits of drinking IRN BRU over Coke!

We did also talk about Summer Internship opportunities with us across Eastern and Central Europe. 

It was the best response I have had during a lecture in America. These guys are amazing and I hope we get to work with all of them next summer and many summers after that also. 

Student Selfie - Christiansburg, Virginia. Four Square College.

KENTUCKY

South East Christian, Louisville, Kentucky

We got to hang out with Cody who played drums over the summer in our Exit Band in Estonia.

We re visited an old favorite from touring days.....Cracker Barrel ; )

We stayed with the brilliant Gary and Wendy Ottman who treated us to a shot on their ATV's at their blueberry farm, so much fun.

Had a great breakfast meeting with Ben Thornley and members of the Missions Committee from South East. Very impressed with the level of commitment from this church to missions. Incredible level of giving.

West Virginia

Got to live like rock stars for a few days ; ) 44 foot long tour bus was home for us in WV..

I toured across America on this bus between 2007 - 2011. It was a great experience and I made a lot of friends during that time right across the USA who are still friends today. In fact we are visiting a lot of them on this trip. It has been fun for my kids to stay on the bus for a few days and get to see what it was like for dad ; ) They absolutely loved it and want us to seel our house and live on a bus! 

The Earp's Farm

During our time in WV we spent a day with the last remaining relatives of Wyatt Earp! It was a great day with ATV's, Fishing, Horse Riding, sharing travel stories and missions adventures finished off with Apple Pie and Ice Cream.

On Sunday I spoke at Calvary Chapel Morgantown. I wore my new hat! lol.

We stayed on a trailer park over Halloween. 

Homeschooling was at Prickets Fort

Loved spending time with relatives of Wyatt Earp. Special people and new friends.

Next blog will be about Maryland, PA and our day off in NYC

BBQ wings, 1200 miles, Psycho revisited and connections to VMC, MLR, MLK and who is the 25 year long protest from ????. Prizes......

We left Miami on Thursday and headed towards Memphis. Memphis is about 1200 miles from Miami! We got as far as Montgomery Alabama and booked into a motel. We stopped first at a Scottish Inns Motel as we were intrigued by the name. However it was scarier than the Bates Motel and so we chickened out and went to the Best Western ; )

We made sure the kids ate well on the epic journey!!

Alabama is very different to Florida! We especially enjoyed driving past the cotton fields and stopping off at some nice places for breakfast.

We arrived in Memphis and drove to the amazing Visible Music College which is a stones throw from Beale Street, home of the Blues.

My very good friend Ken Steorts is the founder and president of 'Visible Music College'. I have know ken for a long time. My band Superhero toured with his band Skillet some years ago and we have been good friends ever since, in fact, our families lived in the same house for 3 months in Memphis in 2007! Ken is a truly amazing guy and seeing this amazing music college develop from the back room of a church in Lakeside to this truly astounding new campus in Downtown Memphis as well as campuses now in Dallas, Chicago and Germany is testament to his courage, hard work and commitment. I would recommend any musician apply to go.

Fin was excited to get the tour of the college from the president of the college.

It has been great to connect with some of the Visible students and we have 2 coming over in the summer to do 10 week internships. Ken and I have been plotting many new and exciting partnership ideas ( which will involve me being in Memphis a wee bit more each year!! )  : )

It was good to take the kids to the civil rights museum based at the location in Memphis where Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968 on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel. 
  

QUESTION: Who can tell me the name of the lady who has been protesting outside the Motel for the last 24 years.....and why?
 There will be prizes ; )

We also ate Memphis BBQ at the excellent Central BBQ ( the wings are the best I have tasted.....ever! ).

We are excited to be looking at ways for JV to partner more with VMC and also for Exit bands to work with Madison Line Records. I am excited!!!

Next to Kentucky......

Digging in........

Hi

So we have left California and are now in Miami until tomorrow when we head across to Memphis.

It has been a frustrating few days with several appointments being cancelled and various promised engagements coming to nothing. We have had to re think our travel plans slightly, only affecting us by 1 day but nevertheless it has set us back a bit and is annoying!

Having said all of that we have had the great pleasure of spending some time with our good friend Dave Pujals who is with us here in South Florida. 

I did also get to speak twice on Sunday and talk about Josiah Venture and eastern european missions which was so good.

also getting to know the Mir family where we are staying has been great. They are looking at moving to Spain and get involved with some projects there and it has been great to have the opportunity to share our stories of mission as a family with them.

It has been great to get in to South Florida life and see what it is all about from a 'non-tourist' perspective. It is a fascinating place. I personally could not live here, it is a bit too focused on image and feels very superficial. It is beautiful and we are going to get a chance to visit the Keys today and visit some of Dave's family which will be great also.

It can obviously get very stormy in this part of the world and we saw some great sky at South Miami Beach last night.

The sea was very rough with the storms but also glorious : )

I have found it to be a tough 4 days here in South Florida, I have so much to do here on this trip and a lot is expected of me with definate outcomes. I am not going to lie, I am feeling a bit of pressure right now. But....I am trying to see forward and stay positive about our reasons for being here.

The family are all doing well. No issues there. The kids are still thriving in the travel zone, as is Sue. It's just me feeling the strain a wee bit ; ) I know.... I can hear you from here....MAN UP Tim!!  Ha.

Goodbye California.....Hello Mr Alligator!!

So we come to the end of our stay in California. I have to say it has flown past in a whirl of work, meetings, lectures, driving.....more driving, meeting new friends, connecting with old friends, sun, heat, beaches, amazing days to remember forever and we leave with thankful hearts. My kids want to move here, Sue loved the california vibe and we are looking forward to coming back sometime soon!

We spent the night in Newport Beach area on wednesday and went for a late night visit down to Newport Beach and ran in the sea, watched the lightning and got sand between our toes. Thanks to Ray and Darlene for opening up their home and their hearts to take us in, we had such a great time with you guys and looking forward to working together in Lithuania!!! Amazing.

New Friends

I had such a good time with the students at CC Bible College on wednesday morning. So many opportunities to connect young people to the things we are doing in Eastern Europe. I know we will see some of them over with us soon.

Was great to hang out with Mark Nigro and Rod Thompson, talking about Serbia.....so many ideas, my head is bursting ; ) which is pretty normal!!

So it's goodbye for now California...it's been totally awesome dude and not even a bit gnarly bro ; )

Florida.......Miami......Humidity........Alligators.......we are coming!

Half Dome.....lunch in Israel, Dinner in China! Oh and a bunch or amazing students.

Blimey it's been a mad mad week!! We travelled up to Ripon, near to San Francisco and spent 4 crazy days up there.

We got to hang out with Stan and Jeannie, a couple I met in Jerusalem in April and we met with several church leaders and others talking about the work of JV and how they can get involved. It was a great great time.

Also great to meet Mark at Crossroads church on sunday.

We also got to go to Yosemite, here we are just as we entered the national park.

It's an amazing place and we enjoyed every minute. Thanks Stan for being our tour guide : )

Joel and me had a bit of a moment ; )

This is El Capitan with the Alpen Glow just as we left

We also managed to get into San Francisco for a few hours. Also an amazing city.

Downtown San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge

Fin found a little bit of Heaven on Pier 39 ; )

Dreaming about owning a boat....one day, one day.

We got to ride on a trolly bus but not a cable car as they had been closed due to Obama being in town!! Not sure why that was a reason to close them but they should have been told the Cheshire's were in town and we wanted to ride one...lol

We ate dinner in chinatown, walked up and down the crazy hilly streets, walked up and down Pier 39 and fishermans wharf...great day allround.

On monday I spoke to 500 High School students and today was lecturing to about 80 students at the CC Bible College in Murrieta. Great time at both and was great to connect with some new people interested in ways we can partner together in a number of different countries. We racked up about 2700 miles so far and so far nor car incidents, which is a miracle in itself although I did accidentely go through a bunch of tolls and got a big bill....oops! More signage please....MORE SIGNAGE  ; )

Tonight we are with a lithuanian family in Newport beach and then we start getting ready to fly to Florida!

oh......and it's 97 degrees today...baaaaaaaaah 

tim

Helicopter.....Mustang.....Coke Floats.......Old Friends.......Jerusalem revisited

Ok been offline for a few days. Here is blog 13 and it is from Ripon which is about 2 hours east of San Francisco.

About 6 months ago I met a couple in Jerusalem, Stan and Jeannie. I was having my lunch in the jewish quarter and they sat down next to me, I said hello and we talked for about an hour ( which made me late and I forgot to pay for my lunch )!! which for anyone reading this who was with me in Israel will now that was not untypical ; ) always had a good reason....ha

Anyway, they said they from California and I said I would probably be there in October so we talked about maybe meeting up and so here we are. This happens when you travel a lot and this especially seems to happen with me. I have many friends, real friends, across the globe as a result of this kind of random meeting, mainly from touring with my band but not exclusively.

We have had some meetings here with church leaders keen to partner with us and it has been a great time hanging out with Stan and Jeannie. Iam looking forward to them visiting us in Scotland soon.

We have also visited friends from the UK now living in California, Anita and Paul Fischer + Family.

Was lovely to see them and have a meal together, the kids all got on great.

Also visited my very good friend Nick Taylor who was our sound engineer for about 10 years and is now a helicopter pilot in SoCal. He took us up in his helicopter : ) and flew us over the San Fernando Valley and Malibu Beach. It was truly amazing, the boys and Skye loved it, as did Sue.

In 2007 and a lad from Cali had been in touch with us on myspace ; ) He had been listening to one of our songs 'Fake Lunar Landing' and wanted us to play at his graduation party. Seemed impossible. As it happened we were booked to play a festival on Huntington Beach in SoCal a few months later and we ended up touring in the USA for 3 months and we DID play at Ians graduation party in his back garden in Thousand Oaks. We have been friends ever since, have been back and Ian has also been over to Scotland. We had a great evening together a few nights ago.

This has beem, for me, one the the most incredible aspects of the last 18 years touring with SUPERHERO, making so many great friends, friendships that have lasted the test of time.

Other highlights of the past few days......

Coke Floats at Denny's

Finding this old Mustang in a Hanger in LA

Today we will be in San Francisco and tomorrow we are at Crossroads Church in Ripon.

Until next time....

tim