Second Leg of Lebanon & Then....

Hello from Turkey after a great week ın Beırut, Lebanon, where the people are so wonderfully frıendly and the cıty ıs bıg!

(Please excuse the strange letter i. The englısh i ıs ın a dıfferent spot on the keyboard)

We had an array of experıences, trıals, successes and surprıses wıthın our 6 days. We had 3 planned concerts, one unplanned concert, and one canceled concert. So ın the end we played 3 concerts total, but one of the most ımportant thıngs that happened ın these days was a meetıng that was defınıtely set up by God.

On our fırst day ın the cıty, whıle gatherıng thıngs for the shows, a lady who was ın the Vırgın Records musıc store was ıntrıgued by one of our member's dreadlocks (fancy that)enough to come up and ınspect ıt, and through that funny encounter we came to know thıs lady, Myalın, and Joseph. They are dynamıte people who are ınvolved ın the arts and musıc scene ın Beırut, Mya beıng the contact person for the head of Vırgın Records and havıng many connectıons to the medıa. Part of our group spent tıme wıth them that day, explaıned our show to them fully, and ın no tıme we were famıly and they were offerıng to arrange a show at the Vırgın Records store the next day, a radıo ıntervıew and a TV ıntervıew. Davıd and a couple of members, as well as Myalın, went on the aır and promoted our show, and durıng the tv ıntervıew, were able to explaın the reasons behınd why we do the show. I should mentıon that ın Lebanon, every televısıon statıon has some polıtıcal tıes to thıs or that party, and thıs statıon has tıes wıth the Hezbollah. God can use everythıng!

Our first show was a last minute show that was set up by Myalin in the Virgin Records parking lot. The head of Virgin Records came with his daughter to watch the show, which we were all excited about. Since this was our first show there, it was very difficult to get the sound set up correctly, and an hour and a half after we were supposed to start, we decided to go ahead with the show even though the sound wasn't any good. The whole show was a sound struggle, but we were able to finish, and the head guy really enjoyed it and welcomed us back anytime.


Our second show was at a music club called Cherry's that's known in the area as a heavy metal club. It had been closed for about 2 months but opened for one night for our show, so this fact attracted a lot of the folks who came there regularly before. The were a great crowd. Our sound turned out to be much better, even though the setup was a bit of a battle. For this show and for the following show, we played with a Christian band called Tak-Ween and they are part of a church that is a good home for "rocker" type people. We had heard that many of the churches in the area don't allow for people who have peircings or tattoos to go to their church. The show went really well, there were good converssations with people before and afterwards, and lots of encouragement for the Christians. I talked with a couple of people after the show who were Christians and they were encouraged by the show. When we got to talking about Turkey, they were really surprised about last year's results and that we are recieved well there. One of them was an Armenian who is openly "racist" against the Turks because of the genocides that happened. There is so much war in this part of the world and in the history, that it is a sad and frustrating fact for those who inherit it. There is a word in Arabic that encomapasses most people's outlook towards all of the religious and political conflict that has become a slogan. That word is HALAS! which means ENOUGH!


Our third show was in front of a large Catholic church in part of a crazy traffic conundrum of a of 7 street intersection. Our fourth show was also to be at this location the next day. It was actually a miracle that we were able to play there for this first night because they agreed to move their church's mass to a different location, and the priest gave David and NLM his blessing. While we were setting up and getting close to the time we were to play, we recognized some of the people we saw at Cherry's, and again, we opened with the other band. Also the kids who were part of the youth group from the Catholic church there put on a drama that presented struggle and success against the blockades between a person and Jesus. This night the sound went pretty smoothly, and was good. At the end of the show there were good conversations, some supportive people and there were some upset people. There were a few people from the Catholic church that we played in front of who were very upset and confused, drawing some incorrect conclusions and generally in opposition to our show and us, even though there were so many people who were hearing about Jesus for the first time in a way they could relate to. When Luke was talking with a group of people who came to the show on the steps of the church, really explaining some good things, two of the guys made him and the group move from the steps and the courtyard because they were disrespecting the church, in their opinion. So that was all a bit frustrating, but all in all, good things happened.

For our fourth show, we could have used the easy sound setup and check as a gague to predict that the evening might be the opposite of easy. During the sound check, we just went down the line of musicians and Phil, who's doing sound, got nothing but thumbs up from us. We also saw ven more people from Cherry's and their friends waiting to see the show! As I passed by some of the members of the church in the courtyard, I sensed some definite disdain, as one lady backed away from me as though I had a sickness. 5 minutes before we were going to start the show, it became apparent that things weren't going to go as planned. Our organizer came backstage and had David come talk to some people who were upset. They were the few Christians who were upset the night before and they told David that if the show happened, there would be violence. We were not expecting it to get to that level, but when David heard that, he made the decision that we weren't going to do the show. Instead, he just began preaching from the stage, but they didn't like that either, and turned off his microphone. While David was out in the crowd we were praying backstage, and we heard that there was a secret policeman watching us, trying to figure out if we were satanists. The few Christians who were giving us trouble had begun saying that we were satanists, and in Lebanon, satanists are put in jail. We were told by our organizer to stay behind the stage, then that the guys should take off their makeup and dress in their street clothes, and then that maybe we should leave in the bus (which wasn't around) for 30 minutes and come back after people had left and after the security guys he had just called had arrived, and then just to stay on stage and pack down the set, but everybody had to be on stage so that no one could have discussions.

Arguments within the crowd started happening between people who wanted the show to happen, and those who didn't. Some of them even turned into brief fist fights. Seeing that the situation was not one that we wanted to be around for much longer we had our set torn down within 30 minutes total, said very quick goodbyes, and got a very brief report from Steph, an Austrailian lady who had lived in Beirut for 9 years and who had been helping us, that there were many many people who were very interested in going to the "rocker" type church. Also we heard that the members of the Christian band that we played with were really excited to do more evangelistic things in the city. Unfortunately we also heard that there were more fights after we left, but I don't think there were any major injuries.

So I have to post this before heading out.
But we are in Turkey right now, going to the south east expecting 100 farenheit weather.
This is the schedule
31 show in Diyarbakir
1 Silvan show
2 Diyarbakir show
3 Batman show

Love y'all and I'll be back on Monday in Istanbul