room 65, curtain call

I am home late again. We're trying to pack in as much time with these dear people as we can before we leave. It is 4am Sunday morning as I type, but church isn't until 11am. So I will need to blog. I have two days to catch up on, and a TON has happened.

Let's begin, shall we?

Yesterday was our final "official" Room 65 in its usual format, with the tables and chairs set up all around the venue. As I mentioned before, we were starting to see a lot of familiar faces, as people were coming in night after night. And there is no way they love our music that much. I believe that God showed them something through all of us (not only the band, but our entire team)...

Love.

Because we love Jesus so much, we worked our tails off to show everyone we came in contact with that they are loved. First and foremost by a loving and caring Father, but then also by us. It's that genuine concern for people that kept bringing them back in.

Patrick did a fantastic job preaching one of the four gospel presentations. He formatted it much in the same way that the church has been presenting it, so it fit in perfectly with the motif of Room 65.

It was interesting to see how angry some people would become when faced with the gospel. Some showed great hostility towards it, actually. Not really any different than any heart that doesn't know Christ, but these people were actually outwardly expressing their heartfelt emotions. One guy actually started yelling at Jackie at the coffee bar, taking verses out of context to try his best to illustrate how hateful God was. Can you imagine? There she was, just trying to serve up some free coffee, tea, and shortbread and BAM! She handled herself beautifully though, standing up for her faith. Maybe Mr. Argument has calmed down enough to hear the voice of God speaking to his heart.

The past couple days I've been taking pictures of all the people I've been meeting (as well as trying to get some shots of the team talking to others). I just ask them if it's OK and no one has said "no" so far. And hopefully some of you that are in the shots are checking out my blog :). I will try and post one post with all the shots in the next day or two. But I wanted you to have an opportunity to actually "see" why we are here. It's not for the sites, or for the Loch Ness Monster. It's not even for a cultural experience (though we are getting that). It's because of Jesus Christ and the life that He has given us and provided for us. Honestly, after a while the stone buildings start looking alike. But the stories of the people... those are all different. And all so interesting. That's what has made this trip so special. I'm so glad that the Lord put it on my heart and mind to start taking pictures of the people I've been meeting. Those will be some of the most cherished memories I take home.

Tonight was our final "Room 65," though it was a Least of These concert. Once again, a lot of people that have heard us for much of the week came back. We also had a few new visitors.

I slept in this morning, then sent out an e-mail to Calvary Bible that I think will be read at tomorrow night's service (they are having a missions night but I won't be home to personally share about my trip so I was asked to send an e-mail). Then our host Allison made us baked potatoes with a popular tuna/sweet corn/mayo filling. It was really good.

We got into the city around 2:15pm or so, then the team did a little bit of shopping. Once we got back, we decided to set up a makeshift "gig" outside. Patrick pulled out his guitar, we set up various percussion things, and we sang. Totally unplugged. During this time others were handing out postcards advertising our concert later on tonight. Justin has perfected the art of making people take the postcard (all sorts of venues are handing out literature so many people refuse to take stuff... I don't take them from others, actually). What Justin would do is wait... wait... wait... then BAM! Hold the card right in front of the person, who would have no choice but to take the card, unless they wanted their bellies rubbed by Justin's hand.

Let me tell you... it was awesome singing to the glory of God to the world outside. People were taking pictures, even from the buses (there is a bus stop right in front of the church). At a couple of different points we probably had about 30-40 people standing and watching. People were actually giving us money. I think in about 30-45 min we made about 10 pounds (about $20 US). Crazy. The biggest hits? Our cover of the Beatles classic, "Help," and...

Amazing Grace.

No joke. For some reason people were really drawn to that tune. Some would even sing along with us. At one point we had our entire team singing Amazing Grace. It is a dear memory I will cherish forever.

The afternoon "show" reaped some rewards. There was at least one family that saw us out there and came to the concert that night because we invited them. The Blass family (Dieter & Bettina and their beautiful children Anna & David) are on a 3 week holiday in Scotland, beginning yesterday. They are from Germany. They actually drove their camper to Amsterdam, then loaded it onto a ferry (there is a ferry service that took them and their camper to Newcastle... about a 12 hour journey but they had their own room to sleep in). How sweet is that? Taking your camper to Edinburgh. Man. Bettina said that she "saw the fire in your eyes" when we were singing this afternoon and that she could tell we really believed what we were singing. They liked what they heard so they came back to hear us again. So awesome. And such a sweet family. I have met so many really neat people this week. I wish I could remember all the details for everyone I have spoken with.

The concert was awesome. We didn't really have much opportunity to speak from the stage during Room 65, so the concert allowed us to really share our hearts with everyone. I had an opportunity to share the stories behind "Still Missing You" and "I Wonder," as well as share the gospel and my heart for those people before singing "Come to the Cross." I think there were quite a few tears shed by many in the audience. So humbling.

Speaking of tears, I just couldn't keep from crying at certain points during the night. Just overwhelmed with the goodness of our God, and overwhelmed with the burden of wanting to see people come to know the Lord. And encouraged beyond belief by the Christians in attendance. We always incorporate worship into our sets, and to hear them singing... wow. To hear "How Great is Our God" being sung by such a wide variety of people... awesome.

And here I thought missing my family would produce the tears. That will probably be on the flight home.

Since Amazing Grace was such a huge hit outside, we added that to the set. We also invited one of the locals that we met earlier in the week (who came back night after night) to play Amazing Grace on one of her traditional Peruvian flutes, before our entire Scotland team sang it on stage.

We closed our show with the usual Least of These flair... banging on buckets. Of course, we weren't going to take our 5 gallon buckets with us from the States. So we bought the biggest buckets we could find at a local "Pound Stretchers" (Britain's version of a Dollar Store). Biggest buckets were... 15 litres. Probably close to about a 2 gallon US bucket? And VERY thin. I knew I would bust it open with no problem (actually took it easy on it during the outdoor afternoon show). Sure enough, within 10 seconds I cracked it. By the end of the show it looked like it had been attacked by Nessie. The people loved it, and we left the stage.

Then... no one left their seats. They would not stop clapping. I think it took us about a minute or so to figure out at they were expecting an encore. Huh? Uh... we don't do encores. The couple times we did in our 4 1/2 year existence, they seemed so contrived and phony feeling. Oh well... God is working, so who are we to argue? We started walking back on stage.

[applause and cheering]

So unreal. We had NO PLANS for this so we sat there for a few seconds wondering what we should play.

Then it hit me... let us worship and give thanks to the One that made this night so special.

Blessed Be Your Name.

After briefly having some difficulty picking a key, we went for it. SO AWESOME. We got everyone standing and there we were... singing to one great God. With one voice. My heart was so encouraged. And apparently a lot of the responses we got tonight at the concert are not typical. I guess encores are not often requested either. This is insane... are you kidding me, Lord?

After it was all over, I think I immediately started feeling withdrawals. Being flooded with images of people walking out the doors. I will never see some of these people again (though hopefully in Heaven... Lord, please make it so). And some of them haven't placed their faith in Christ yet. Why? I don't know. But I know God knows. And I must be OK with not knowing.

I am so blessed to have been on this trip with this team. I am so thankful.

Well, it's almost 6am and we have church in the morning. But once again, I wanted you all to know (and for me to not forget) what has happened here.

More blogging tomorrow. In the meantime, more tears.

Good night (uh, good morning) Edinburgh. See you in a couple of hours.

My name is Rick, and thanks for reading.