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

Heart in Estonia - Head in California. Crossfya, In-N-Out and start your engines gentlemen please....

Today back in the UK our teams and bands started heading out to Eastern Europe for the start of the Autumn EXIT TOUR season. It feels strange not to be with them and to be so far away in America. However, my heart is with them as they begin in Estonia with 2 weeks of Exit tour, known locally as Vali Vabadus.

My time here in the USA is taken up mostly with raising awareness of the work we are doing with Josiah Venture in Eastern Europe and this is when it really starts to have an impact on the lives of many young people. Months of planning has gone into the next 8 weeks and we are ready.

The first week in Estonia sees Crossfya take the stage as the band on tour with our teams from Scotland and Estonia.

These guys are a pretty cool dubstep / rap band from the north of England and will be travelling around Estonia on the Exit Tour for the next 7 days.

I will continue to talk about Exit Tour to many people here in America as the tour is actually happening in Estonia, Czech, Poland and Slovakia.


In other news:  We met up with the brilliant Godding's for a little visit to In-N-Out today after spending the morning at CCCM.

It was good to have a chat with Brian Broderson today and also meet some new people interested in connecting with the work of JV.

Tomorrow we will be back at CCCM in the morning and then up to north of LA to meet with some people we have not seen for a while Anita and Paul Fischer. We will then go on to Thousand Oaks on tuesday spending the day with Superhero's sound engineer Nick ( gammytoe ) Talyor and the evening with the Flemings. We first met the Flemings in 2006 when SUPERHERO played at Ian's graduation Party in his backyard ; ) Amazing to be returning 9 years later with my family!!

Wednesday we head up to Ripon, near San Francisco to meet with mission directors and spend time with a dear couple I met in Jerusalem randomly 5 months ago.

Time to get the travel shoes back on....road trip begins in earnest in the morning.

tim

1 Day off 11 Days on.....I can't surf!

Today is Saturday and we had a day off

We headed off to Beacons Beach in the morning and spent a few hours surfing and body boarding. It's a really great spot. Once again I had a good crack at standing up on a surf board. I've surfed in the pacific a few times before, both times ended badly with cracked ribs and a broken toe! I escaped unscathed today with nothing more than slightly bruised ego due to being crap! ; )

We managed, with the help or a VPN, to watch the rugby which resulted in the usual crushing disappointment! ( at least we won the ashes ). It was nice to spend a day relaxing and preparing for the crazy schedule that is ahead of us starting in the morning.

As of tomorrow we will be crazy busy driving every day, different meetings and speaking engagements and sleeping in different beds every night. We will travel up as far as just north of San Francisco and will return on Monday to speak at the Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa High School. Today is our only full day off for the next 11 days and I'm hoping the kids cope with it ok! 

Tomorrow we will be at the 11.30am service at CCCM and I'am so looking forward to it. I have played there many times with SUPERHERO and now I get to take my family : )

tim 

Fish Tacos, Clam Chowder, 74 Students and it all begins......

Today was my first lecture of the trip. I had the great privilege  of spending the morning in Santa ana at the Calvary Chapel School of Worship.

74 students today. Had a great time with them. Lots of conversation after the lecture. I have to say they were great and I enjoyed sharing stories with them and looking at how mission and worship are intrinsically connected. The students were a credit to the school and I hope we get to work with some of them in the future. 

It's always a good sign when you run out of resources after the lecture and also when a students applies on line to join a band during the lecture.....lol

Sue and the kids have had fun spending time with our friends from Lochwinnoch who now live in SoCal, the Milne's. This is where I said goodbye to them as they headed off to the beach to surf while I headed to work!! 

Joel took about 30 seconds to adapt to his new surroundings! ; )
He's got a cool 70's vibe going on right now. Love him. Still no american accents kicking in but all my kids announced yesterday that we need to 'move here as soon as possible' ; )

I am in Laguna Beach right now having a bowl of clam chowder on my way back to my family in Encinitas where we will spend the night.

Yesterday I had fish tacos on the 101 Coast Highway and they were great. 

I am a big big fan of seafood so will be making the most of the living by the ocean for the next 2 weeks.

Have a great weekend everyone

tim

Remembering my brothers......Returning with my Family. 10 years of change

In 2006 Me and my band decided to go to America. Everyone else wanted to go but they all decided to wait for the big 'record deal' the big tour or for someone to say 'hey fellas, come on over and we will do it all for you'

They never went!

We bought tickets, flew to Memphis and toured across the USA for 3 months! This pretty much sums up the SUPERHERO ( my band ) philosophy on how to do stuff and it has served us well over the years.

We returned many times, played 173 shows across 31 different states to over 30,000 people.

We met so many incredible people during that time in our lives and a good number of them are my closest friends today.

Here's how we looked back then!!

These were amazing times, together with my brothers. We saw and did some amazing things, we travelled the length and breadth of America and did what we always wanted to do. How? We just did it!

My advice to you this blog:  Stop waiting.......

................................................

Now a new challenge. Working in 14 different countries in Central and Eastern Europe with Josiah Venture as well as my own country Scotland. Expanding the amazing Exit Tour into some dark places taking light and life with us. Mobilizing amazing talented musicians and adventureres to come on this journey with us.

Back in the USA.....this time with my awesome family. Sue, Skye, Fin and Joel. Different people, same philosophy. We have decided not to wait....we are going, actually we are here : ) and we will keep making the choice to step out of the boat and run after our dreams.

If you are feeling stirred, felling called........say YES

We'll see you somewhere along the way.

tim