I'm Walking on Sunshine

Hello everyone. I must be honest, I feel compelled to begin this blog with at least a minor comment about today's weather: it was absolutely perfectly perfect. Not too hot, definitely not cold, not muggy, not even cloudy. Perfect sun, perfect temperature, perfect perfect perfect. Oh man. It was wonderful. God must have known we'd be out there getting our jam on.

So let's check in on some of the days happenings.

This afternoon, I got to see Canton's own Inhale Exhale rock the Beach Stage. Those guys put on a great show and they are frequent flyers at the Alive fest - hopefully they'll be back next year if you missed 'em today. But you didn't miss them, did you! Of course you didn't.

Moving on.

Wait, before I go on I have to talk a little bit about some of the T-shirts I saw today. I am so entertained by T-shirts anymore. I think my favorite one I saw today was "VIRGINITY ROCKS." Perhaps I'll give a "T of the day" for the rest of the week. T-shirts get more clever by the minute.

But seriously, check out the big merch tent right on your way from the main stage to the lake. They've got some seriously cool stuff in there - from T-shirts (hey, pick up your own "VIRGINITY ROCKS!" shirt!) to necklaces to
CD's to books to even some really cool African instruments! (I was seriously wanting one of those wooden flutes. Who wants to buy me one?) You can even apply to some sweet colleges in that tent - and they'll give you a free T-shirt, too. Everybody wins.

Anyway, let's see here. Around 3:00, David Crowder and Shane and Shane led a little worship seminar at the Worship tent. It was wonderful. I love little intimate sit-down times like that, especially with extremely talented artists! Afterward, the guys prayed for worship leaders in the tent. Then, they passed out booklets of chords and lyrics so that any of us
who wanted to could learn the songs and then maybe teach them to our youth groups! Saweeeet. I think I'm going to learn "Be Near" by Shane and Shane. Those guys are so awesome.

SPEAKING OF Shane and Shane, they played next at the main stage. It was AWESOME as usual. Those guys got it goin' onnnnnnnn.

The rest of the night had a killer line-up, with Flyleaf, Tim Hughes, David Crowder and his band of Texans, and Jeremy Camp. Every single act was awesome. The crowd really loved them - especially those crazy hill-people up on that hill. (I shouldn't talk like that - I was one of them.)

And so, before I end for the night, I just want to say that while I loved Flyleaf and Shane and Shane and Jeremy Camp, I just need to say how incredible David Crowder and his posse were. He is so talented and so fun to watch - the drummer in his band actually transformed the little guitar from Guitar Hero into an actual instrument, and David played it during one of their songs. Craziness! And wait--there was another amazing part of his show: keytar. Need I say more?

Well, with the close of a perfect-weathered day with some awesome worship and awesome T-shirts and awesome food vendors (heyoooo Chik-fil-A!), I must now get to bed so I can get some awesome rest for an awesome tomorrow!

Who's excited for The Afters????