mike! Brandes

November 26, 2009

15 days in November

It’s been 15 days from the last time I wrote. If you’re wondering, I’m sitting in a basement watching some of Kimmie’s family playing backyard baseball on the wii.

Since I last updated we left Nashville, and headed to Westmoreland, TN and headed northward to the wonderful state of Ohio, or as I still refer to it “home” (sorry, mom). It was nice we arrived in Springfield on thursday night, did a friday morning concert, then headed to a different church in springfield to do a sunday morning concert, then to St. Paris Ohio, for those who aren’t Ohio-savvy St. Paris is East of Urbana… Then we couldn’t find anyplace to go, so thankfully scheduling did what worked out best for me and just brought us back to Springfield and then onward to Cedarville… The reason I’m so excited is because I got to spend over a week with Kimmie, it was nice, face to face interaction, not phone conversations… I met part of the Bowen family (Mom, Dad, Sister Laura, Brother In Law Dave, and Niece Ava (who is adorable by the way) at Panera for dinner. I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous, but It went pretty well, I think they like me…

Our sunday morning church was High Street Church of the Nazarene in Springfield… While there I had the opportunity to meet/reminisce with Kevin Mays. For those who went to Lake Carroll Baptist Church you’ll remember this name, his parents Roger and Gloria Mays, sister and family (the lawsons) went there for many years… small world, but it was nice to meet a fellow gator in a state dominated by a love for a lesser football team Ohio State.

We then went to Cedarville University which as most of you know is my Alma Mater, to perform in a chapel service… It was weird being back in any sort of official capacity. Interestingly enough, some things with Cedarville never do change, as they attempted to give me demerits for scanning and scramming, go figure, I couldn’t even take one chapel, what are the odds?

We were in Lynchburg this past weekend. It is nice to see all the people from the office, but at the same time its a little unnerving making sure everything runs completely optimum in front of all the bosses. But it went pretty smooth, and there were right around 2000 boxes donated to christmas for an orphan, so that was excellent… that is an estimated donation of right around $60,000!

I flew monday afternoon from Lynchburg to Ohio, and am spending thanksgiving with Kimmie’s family, its pretty exciting, at this exact moment I am watching Kimmie’s brother in law dave play punchout on the wii.

here are a few pictures of the kids, now that I finally got my camera back.

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Tags: Cedarville, Cedarville University, Chapel, Children of the World, COTW, Cry of the Orphan, Ohio, Show Hope, Steven Curtis Chapman, Video

November 10, 2009

What’s up yo?

Its been a while since I’ve last updated, and I apologize for that. So here is a rambling account of what all has taken place over the time since I have last written.

Wow it’s been near a month.

Lets see, we were in and out of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona, then a long drive from Arizona to Nashville Tennessee. We had some automobile troubles and had to leave the truck in Amarillo Tx, and then the next day or so in El Paso Tx for a few days. As it turns out whoever installed the external gas tank in the truck did so foolishly. It is a steel tank, and diesel rusts out steel, and therefore our entire fuel system was contaminated, and all 8 of our fuel injectors had to be replaced, and the system completely flushed and then fixed. So not only did it destroy our fuel system, but we also now have to fill up the truck once/twice a day instead of once a week or so, that sorta stinks, but its a little price to pay.

Then we went westward to Glendale Arizona, to a rather large church, at least comparative to the churches we’ve been in thus far. It was nice, they had a good system and a they even had video system. that was a good concert.

Then we left to go to nashville tennessee. It was a long long drive, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1800 miles, quite a bit of driving, but it had to be done. In nashville we had the great opportunity to perform with steven curtis chapman for national orphan weekend. For those who don’t know November is National Orphan month, and Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife started a ministry that helps those who can’t afford to adopt, be financially able to adopt orphans. We performed saturday night at ShowHope (SCC’s ministry’s) fellowship. We performed a few of our songs and then sang the two songs that we sang with steven, and then a worship song to close out the night (Mighty to Save, for those who are interested). Then on sunday we sang a few songs at Christ Community Church where we performed later that evening for the Cry of the orphan webcast, that was a huge production that was webcast all over the world, who knows how many people saw it, it was an incredible thing to be a part of. Hope you guys got a chance to watch it and see the kids!

Looking forward, we are headed to springfield ohio, just a stone’s throw away from Cedarville, so that will be nice. and then the following week, we will be in Cedarville. Needless to say not only am i excited to go back and see old friends and professors, but for those of you that don’t know I have a girlfriend, her name is Kimmie, and she lives in Cedarville, so it will be super nice to see her as well, since we haven’t seen each other since the first week in June. Then I’ll also get to spend the entire week of thanksgiving in Cedarville with Kimmie and her family, it will be nice/incredibly nerve wracking, hopefully I’ll make a good impression.

Things I’m looking forward to: Getting the next book that I’ll be reviewing for Thomas Nelson, Seeing Kimmie, Being back at cedarville, that’s all I can think of right now… be sure to stay tuned to the website, hopefully I’ll be updating more, or as always you can just come here to look at my twitter.

leave a comment, I would love to hear how YOU are doing, that and the only one that comments on this is my mom, how lame am I? Love you mom.

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Tags: Cedarville, Children of the World, COTW, Cry of the Orphan, SCC, Steven Curtis Chapman

November 1, 2009

The Search for God and Guinness

Stephen Mansfield serves up a delicious, frothy, and engaging account of the history of the Guinness family, and how they intertwined faith and beer. By this account, the Guinness family took more pride in the faith, and sense of duty to their workers that was passed down from generation to generation than the recipe for their world famous stout porter. Mansfield takes the reader through an in depth history of the Guinness Company, and how they used their social standing, influence, and wealth to better their company, as well as the lives of every one of their employees. Mansfield takes painstakingly careful detail to account for the ways the Guinness family bettered the lives of their workers, from basic hygiene to academic, and homemaking classes for the wives of employees. In a time where so many corporations have failed both in terms of making a profit, and caring for their employees, its nice to read a story of a company that has flourished in both regards for the past 250 years. In honor of Mansfield’s thorough account, I raise my glass, and say cheers! I recommend you pick up a copy of this book and read it for yourself.

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Tags: beer, Book, Book Review, faith, God, Guinness, guinness family, stephen mansfield, thomas nelson publishing

October 18, 2009

I am making time

Well, its been a while since any sort of substantive update, and for that I apologize. I’m currently sitting in one of our three morning services doing very little, so i figured now would be a perfect time to update. Things have been going well, its finally starting to feel like fall; but i attribute it to the fact that we’ve finally left Arizona and New Mexico and are now in Northwestern Texas (Abilene).

Here’s the video of the children at the Grand Canyon, not a fine example of my editing, but also I didn’t take much time to do it. Speed production i suppose.

I’m getting excited about our next couple of weeks, but at the same time I’m a little upset that we will have to drive from Glendale, Az to Nashville, Tn in one week. (Glendale Oct 31, Nov 1st Nashville Nov 6). I’m really looking forward to having a week off at Thanksgiving to spend in Ohio with my Girlfriend and my college friends that are still around. So you if you’re in the Columbus/Marion area come out the sunday following Thanksgiving.

I received my first book that I’m going to review for Thomas Nelson Publishing, its a book entitled the Search for God and Guinness, its pretty interesting to see how intertwined our church history is with brewing beer, and how many people oppose the thing that was so important in our history. Anyways, there will be a full review coming soon, so stay tuned for that.

remember, you can always follow the tour via twitter @mikebrandes or you can check my site regularly and you can see my last few tweets.

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Tags: Children of the World, COTW, Grand Canyon, Video

October 11, 2009

Real Fast

Since I have last updated quite a few things have happen, we’ve had break downs, and turn-arounds. Tires blow, and water pumps crack. Repairs and Rentals, its been a nightmare.
but I just wanted to let you know whats going on with the group REAL FAST

a couple of weeks ago we went to the grand canyon.

needless to say they had a lot of fun.
then we went to vegas.

now we are in the phoenix area.

We have our bus and trailer back, and have gotten rid of the moving truck that had the equipment, as well as the two minivans to move the kids from point a to point b.
That’s whats going on with the kids.

We miss hearing from you, so leave a comment for me or the kids!
follow on twitter @mikebrandes

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September 19, 2009

Lazy Saturday Has a Whole New Meaning

Today is Saturday, one of my days off. I’m really excited about it. What should I do with the free time? I’ve decided to update about what is taking place.

As I’m writing this The University of Florida are continuing a rich heritage of beating Tennessee in football; needless to say I’m ecstatic with this, and am loving life. I am in the city of Warrensburg, Missouri. If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry, I don’t believe many people have. There is a University here: the University of Central Missouri. It has roughly just over 11,000 students combined into their graduate, and undergratue programs. Located just a stones throw away from Kansas City, Warrensburg has some pretty good barbecue that I have tasted and have enjoyed.

I’m currently on two competing quests: I am looking for the best local eateries in each city that I am in, and also attempting to lose 30 lbs over the course of this tour, which will be difficult, since I literally eat every meal out at a restaurant. Expensive, and not always healthy. On the first half of the quest, I discovered Bill Sharp’s Country Barbecue on Highway 50, just east of Warrensburg, great place, I split a barbecue chicken dinner, and still left stuffed (literally, a chicken cut in half.). Excellent, tasty, declicious, adjectives fail me as to providing an adequate description of this place. Another great place here in Warrensburg is Mighty Melts, on Maguire (the main strip), there’s also another location in Sedalia, which is where I’ll be tomorrow night and all day Monday. The second half of the quest is going rather well, as of Thursday (the last night I was in a hotel with a fitness center and scale) I am at a hefty 232 lbs, which is 5 lbs down from where I was when I left training camp, I’m pretty excited. I would love to be down to right around 200lbs by the end of the tour… here’s to hoping.

My parents and cousin are coming to visit tonight and tomorrow, I’m super excited to see them, and rumor has it some more family will be at tomorrow night’s concert in Sedalia. It will be good to see them.

I’ve said enough, check out the calendar page… I’m going to VEGAS!!! thankfully I don’t get a paycheck until the day after I leave Vegas, shouldn’t gamble away all my money then!!!

Also head over to my cause life page, I’ve put up two videos that really kinda make it blatently clear as to what it is we do… seriously, watch it.

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September 14, 2009

Hitting the Road FOR REAL

The past two weeks we’ve driven in a large circle, starting in Viriginia, we headed into west Virginia, then to Ohio, then to Pennsylvania, and now back to Virginia. Tomorrow we’ll start driving for real, We will leave at 9AM and head to Bristol Tennessee, which is a cool city, I’ve been there once before on a tour with The Retail Age, from Bristol we will head West to Paducah Kentucky for a night, I wish we were there longer since its a short 40 minute drive from my Grandparents house, but I won’t be able to visit them. From Paducah We’ll head to Warrensburg, Missouri which is where we will be performing on Sunday. I’m looking forward to that performance because my parents will be coming to visit me (bust mostly the kids) it should be a lot of fun to see them, and have them meet the kids.

After we leave Warrensburg, MO we will then start our trek out west, We have stops in Vegas, and Texas I believe before we head to southern California for the Kingdom Partner’s Golf Tournament. I’m very much looking forward to the long drives because I really enjoy driving long distances, which works out nicely.

I’m still very much excited to be doing what I’m doing. I wake up everyday excited because I’m literally saving lives, and fighting apathy. It’s encouraging to watch the reaction to people when the stats video hits the screen (you can view this here) It has had quite an impact on individuals and churches. There have already been to my knowledge at least 5 different people/groups that have pledged to build a well. That’s awesome. I can’t convey adequately how much I love this, I hope you’ll watch the video and I think you’ll be impacted.

here’s a few new photos of the kids, this was from their concert at the Chapel at Mercer, which was part of the Underground Railroad… very cool

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September 9, 2009

Farewell PA

well as you can tell, I’ve picked a logo, many thanks go out to John Rice for designing the choices, and being super awesome to get me the finished products so soon… I’m hoping to get business cards ordered soon, that will be exciting.

Tomorrow, we will leave Pennsylvania for hopefully the final time. We are slated to travel down to Chesapeake Virginia tomorrow which means a wonderful drive around Washington D.C. Apparently DC is like Atlanta, either its smooth sailing, or more than likely death by traffic, I’m not looking forward to it, but I am excited and more than willing to give Kory the blessing of driving that trip. We’ll be back in Virginia for a little less than a week, then we begin our trek out west, or at least to Missouri, where we will be on the 20th of the month, which I’m excited about, because my parents will be traveling out to see the kids, which should be a fun trip, I’m not sure if they’ve ever seen the children perform.

When I was in college, I traveled around with a band, and one of those concerts was at a Bar (sorry Cedarville) in Dayton, where they shared the stage with MC Goldie Wilson/ Team Goldie… My favorite Goldie song is “Sharpshooter, Sharpshooter”, which features the line “you can’t spell home without pennsylvania” every time someone mentions Pennsylvania I play that song back in my head.

I was going to upload it, but the 19.97 it costs to be able to add music, and the 59.97 it costs to add and host my own video’s didn’t seem worth it just yet.

I’ve been taking tons of photos, I promise, I’ll post some later when I have time to put them on the computer and then get them up here on the site.. Thanks for being patient.

Until then, be kind to strangers…

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Tags: Children of the World, DC, Graphic Design, John Rice, Kory Myrik, MC Goldie Wilson, Team Goldie