Well as a band we sing a lot of worship songs. The lyrics to a worship song are very important. Today’s worship songs seem to be painting a picture of God that either isn’t biblical or literally is just corny.
This week the band is on a mission to write some NU worship songs that we like and hopefully you’ll like too. There’s nothing better than hearing people sing a song with words they believe in. I hope God feels the same.

See more pics from Nyumba Studio and these writing sessions at our (myspace)

Wow, do these people know how to get down!  This was by far the most intense and best played concert of the entire PI tour, and I think all the band members would agree.  5 minutes into the concert I broke my snare drum head – my stick went right through the middle of it!  I spent the rest of the concert with our soundman trying to makeshift a playable solution.  We took the head off between songs 2 and 3 and began duct taping it while I gently played on the bottom snare side.

I thought to myself, “The show must go on”, and if we didn’t keep playing the crowd might not stick around too long – although they would enjoy the extremely rare occasion of having a band come to their neighborhood, they would all be very busy the next morning trying to make a living.

Before the concert started, we were able to tour the adjacent village, a place made entirely of materials from the city dump. There are anywhere from 5-10 thousand people living and working as squatters at the dumpsite.  The children were running around without shoes on, and the small makeshift homes were occupied by families sometimes numbering more than 8 or 9.  Thanks to the work of a few local Christian people, these young children no longer work at the dumpsite and a some measures have been taken to ensure the safety of these workers – but there is still so much to be done.  You can only imagine, or not imagine, the smell of these living quarters – no running water, no sanitation, in the middle of the rotting compost of city trash.  In the heat of the day, a breeze brings a relief to thehumidity but at the same time brings the stench of waste and trash.

We were met with puzzled looks by people as we walked around in the village looking for our friend “Brix” who is a youth leader at the city dumpsite church.  Brix had found other employment in the city and was trying to make enough for his family just to survive, and so nobody really knew where he had gone.  Brix showed up later after the concert had begun but left before it was over.

The first song, “The Anthem” played out into the night “This is the Anthem for the ones who can’t pay us back… …Love’s our bullet pull the trigger here’s our shot”.  We gave it our “best shot” as we sang to them their own stories of heartbreak and misery, of difficulty and hardship, and the joys of owning the kingdom as poor people.  These are not typical songs, nor should they ever be typical stories, but these were their stories, and we, for a moment, as privileged American musicians, were able to share with them in their lives and be reinvigorated to continue to our mission as a band and as individuals responsible before the LORD of heaven and earth to carry a message of the cross to anyone who has the ears to hear such an offense, while they, the people of Lapu Lapu city dumpsite, were able to forget for a moment about their earthly situation, and dance, sing, and shout to the God whom they love, despite what from the outside appears to be a lack of blessing in their lives.  They call themselves “Dumpsite People” but God calls them “his children”, “his chosen one’s”, “the blessed”, “a royal priesthood”, “a city on a hill”, “the light of the world”.  Thank you Lapu Lapu people for letting us come and play a concert for you, we love you.