» 2009 » September

I’m writing this blog from the dining room table of our miraculous and fabulous RV somewhere between Austin and Dallas Texas. It’s raining outside. We just drove by a pretty major traffic accident. There was a truck upside down and facing the wrong way on the side of the road. Not good. Lord, be with those people.

We’ve had a really great time on this tour. Jonathan Madrid, Sean Mulholland, Chris Fowler, Matt Vincent and Dana’s Dad and step-mom, Gerald & Carol Cotton, are all with us on this trip, and it’s been incredible. We had rented a 15 passy van in New Orleans the first night, and while we were in Baton Rouge, Gerald told us he was off this week, and had nothing to do, so why not let him drive us around Texas in his RV… and we couldn’t think of any reasons to shut him down, plus, I mean, it’s an RV! It’s been incredible, but I need to back up a bit to tell you about the last 4 shows…

Our first gig was at Chapel on the Campus in BR, LA… my home church, and the place where I first gave my heart to the Lord. It’s always a pleasure to spend some time with the good people of the Chapel, and we’ll end the tour there next Sunday at their College service, “Refuge”. My Mom & Dad were there, and it was cool to see them worship together. Kevin McKee, my high school & college pastor, and a continuing influence on my life, preached, and it just was a great day together.

We hurriedly packed up the van to drive out to Livingston, LA. After exiting the interstate, having driven through what can only be described as a monsoon, we passed 3 little country churches before we arrived at ‘Freedom Church’, a little oasis of spiritual life in a very quiet corner of the country. Great church. Great stage. Great people. Great worship. This is the church that Dana gave her heart to the Lord at. It was her first time to sing there as a part of ‘fike & dana’, and I think it was a landmark moment for her life to see so many familiar faces from her past right there, locked into the worship of our Lord. So far, on this trip, that was the best gig for sure. Our band was tight. The Spirit was there. ‘Expectation is the breeding ground for miracles’… and the level of expectation was very high that night. Our good friends Ben & Lori Kennedy were there to see us, and Chiceaux just happened to be in town at the same time, so he kindly helped us out with lyric presentation. It was a great night.

We loaded up the RV the next morning and drove to New Braunfels, TX. We would have likely gotten there by 5 or 6 pm if we had driven the van, but the RV was reason enough to add some hours to our day. We stopped at Freebirds on the way. If you don’t know about freebirds, it’s possible you’ve never eaten a real burrito. Wow.

Mike & Tabitha Clinton had blessed us with a sweet Timeshare in NB, and it was such a beautiful blessing to all of us. Thanks to you two! I can’t tell you how much you blessed us!

Tuesday night, we played at Bandera Road Community Church in San Antonio. Great church. One of their worship pastors is named George Fike… turns out we’re related, but we don’t really know how. I have a distant cousin of a relative named Al Fike who is a Christian comedian. You can google him playing the ‘saw’, and making clean jokes. Ham runs in the family. Anyway, BRCC was a great experience. We felt like we really connected. It’s a really interesting thing to go to a place that has no real connection to you and feeling like you made an impact. Most gigs we tend to get are derivative of relationships we have with either the leader of the church or organization… and there was no real connection like that last night, yet, it felt like the set really worked, and the songs really connected. God is really blessing us on this trip, and we are overwhelmed by his favor.

I’ll stop rambling. Thanks for your prayers. Thanks for your support. We love you all, and are so blessed by your friendship. If you haven’t already, go become ‘facebook friends’ with either Dana Fike or Richie Fike. Dana just opened up her account this week.

Grace. Love. Peace.

Fike & Dana

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