Hope you're well on this beautiful day.  There are a couple things we want to make you aware of in the world of Resound...

2012 CONFERENCE DATE CHANGE
Several weeks ago we announced the dates for the Resound Conference 2012.  Shortly after we released those dates we were made aware of an unavoidable scheduling conflict that would greatly affect the Resound experience.  With that said, we have decided to move the dates of RSND12 to the weekend of November 16-17, 2012.  We apologize for the incovenience this may cause you, and we thank you for understanding.  All of the artists and speakers were gracious enough to make the move with us, so we are still excited about spending the weekend in worship with Jeremy Riddle, Ascend the Hill, Jonathan David & Melissa Helser, and Chad Johnson from Come & Live!  Help us spread the word!

ONE MORE FOR THE LINEUP
This would be our cue to announce one more awesome addition to November's lineup.  Our friends in a band called Kye Kye have signed on to come share their beautiful music with us and we are stoked to welcome them to Colorado this Fall! Orginally from Estonia, this band of siblings brings a fresh and worshipful electronic sound that stands out from the crowd.  You can download their album for FREE or for a donation right here.

NEW PODCAST EPISODE
Episode #7 of the Resound Podcast is now available for download.  This episode features a sit down interview with Laura Hackett who was with at Resound 2011.  Laura has spent many years at the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City, MO.  Not only does she lead worship during a regular time slot in their 24/7 prayer room, but she also leads for 20,000+ people at the annual One Thing Conference.  This interview is a great listen if you want to get to know Laura in a more personal way or simply get some tips about leading worship.

For His Glory,

The Resound Team

If you want to see the flow of the weekend at Resound , take a look at the 2011 Conference Schedule which is now online.   For all of the Main Sessions, you can see who is speaking and who will be leading worship.

When  you look at the Conference Schedule, you’ll notice that ALL of the breakout sessions will be happening on Friday afternoon (11/18) before the first Main Session on Friday evening.  This year, there will be NO breakout sessions on Saturday (11/19).

The reason for this schedule change is because we know that the breakout sessions will offer very specific equipping and teaching that may not be applicable to everyone attending. The breakout session topics will have much focus on creativity, the arts, and leadership.

Also, this schedule change will allow many more to come for the first Main Session on Friday night, November 18th.  By holding all of the breakout sessions on Friday, this will allow us to do all of our Main Sessions starting Friday night and throughout the day on Saturday.  Attendees who don’t consider themselves “Artists” will benefit extensively from all of the Main Sessions.

We can't wait to see you in November!!

It’s 11:55pm and I am boarding a red-eye flight from Denver Colorado headed south to the beautiful city of San Jose, Costa Rica joined by some of my closest friends. A group of crazy worship leaders and communicators excited for the days ahead. We fly 3 and ½ hours to Miami Florida awaiting our connection to Costa Rica, I’m tired, feeling buzzed from way to much coffee as I’m trying to take advantage of the time and get some work done. Our connecting flight is canceled as the plane we’re on is now broken. We board another but sit on the runway for about an hour and ½ because of lightning storms unable to take off. Finally, we are airborne with only three short hours to go. I try to get more work done but can’t think straight. I’m way to tired but can’t sleep on planes so I decide to fill the time with “Angry Birds”, and “Cut the Rope”. Some 15 hours after leaving Denver we finally land in San Jose, excited to see our Costa Rican friends yet desperately in need of sleep. “Lord, give me your heart. Give me your eyes… Show me what you want to do and say here”.

This will be the second of three Resound Conferences planned for this year and our second time hosting the Conference here in this city. Our host church is the San Jose Vineyard, pastored by Chris and Andrea Dearnley. Chris was a former youth leader of mine when I was in high school and for the past 15 years now they have made San Jose their home, where they have faithfully given their lives to serve what is now a beautiful community of people filled with Artists, Creative’s, and Lover’s of God. These people now feel like family to the Resound team and hold a special place in our hearts.

Before this trip I was able to count the number of Resound Conferences that I’ve been a part of hosting on one hand. Now with more than a handful behind us I look back with gratitude and amazement at all that the Lord has done. Everything that I have seen now has changed me profoundly. You know… it’s the kind of change that you can’t come back from. The kind of change that shakes you in your core and leaves you with a deep knowing that nothing will ever be the same again.

We’ve been in several different countries now and without fail the Lord has surprised us every time. The way that He has used me and my unassuming group of crazy friends is humbling to say the least. To see people changed by the presence of God in times of worship. To hear their stories, with eyes filled with tears from an encounter with the Father that has just taken place leaves you speechless. To watch someone enter a place on crutches and leave dancing on two healthy feet causes you to rethink things, things that you thought you already knew everything about.

As I look ahead I am more convinced than ever that I’m right where I was made to be and doing the very things that the Father specifically designed me to do. It all seems to be growing and expanding faster than we can handle with more and more churches asking us to come. I love it! I love what I see stirring within the body of Christ all over the world these days. I see a people unsatisfied with religion and church games. I see people hungry for an authentic encounter with the Lord, and unwilling to rest until they find it. I see a bride finding her heart again and longing for the one that she was made for and loves. I’m honored to be apart of it all and thankful that the Lord would allow me to have these amazing adventures. He’s so much better than we think.

- Jason

Our good friend, Daniel Bashta is releasing his full length album tomorrow titled "The Sounds of Daniel Bashta".  Not only would we tell you to pick up the album but we want to encourage you to take 10 minutes and watch a few videos that Daniel recently filmed in anticipation of this album release.  This should give you a taste of what to expect.

Watch Video #2
Watch Video #3 

OK!  Our final post to recap the Resound Brazil trip.

It was finally time for the conference after spending a very full week ministering to the poor, loving the people, and having the Lord do some much needed heart work in our team.

The thrust behind this conference is always the same.  No matter when or where a Resound Conference is held, our aim is to create an atmosphere where worshippers can host the Presence of God and be awakened to new possibilities and dreams in the Kingdom of heaven.  Furthermore, we had specific impressions from the Lord on what He wanted to do this weekend.  The first was that we had the sense that the Father wanted to bring sons & daughters home.  The second was that there was going to be a door opened for the people at this conference to have new encounters with God.

With that said, there are always logistical challenges when attempting to do this kind of conference in another country and another culture.  Essentially, here’s a group of white folk that nobody knows wanting to teach brand new songs in English!  So, before we began there were already several barriers to overcome.  We found two answers…

Solution #1 - Holy Spirit
Solution #2 – Thiago

You may be familiar with #1, but probably not so much with #2.  Bottom line, Thiago is a young man with a heart of gold, decent English, and an amazing voice.  He is the worship leader at the church that was hosting us, and if it weren’t for him all of our efforts would have flopped.  For each time of worship, he would spend time beforehand translating the songs into Portuguese.  Every song that we did was sung partly in English and mostly in Portuguese and it was beautiful.  It was a picture of heaven.  And it made for some amazing times of worship.

As Jason said, it is always a good day when the worship leader is ‘outsung’ by the congregation.  On Friday night of the conference, we were singing “Let It Rain” and eventually the volume of the singing was louder than the volume of the band.  So, most of us in the band just put our instruments down and joined along as something broke open in the atmosphere.  I’m not sure words are sufficient to describe what was really happening.  It was one of those “you had to be there” moments.

On the last night of the conference, a woman came and asked for prayer.  During worship, she said that she wasn’t feeling good followed by the statement “We just want to go home”. 

We??

It didn’t take long for Megan R. to realize that this woman was ‘plural’.  After spending in prayer with one of the pastors, she eventually was delivered from some type of demonic spirit.  It was kind of nuts, but I guess that’s what happens in the Presence of God.

We had some very special times of teaching as well.  Jason, John, Nick, & myself all spoke during main sessions at the conference, and we had a few opportunities to do smaller breakout sessions.  It seemed that even with the language barrier, the words that we brought were able to minister to and encourage many hearts over the weekend.  Both Lucy and Raquel did an incredible job interpreting (I think).  I’m pretty sure they also saved us from really bad jokes and obscure American phrases!

After the weekend, when we were preparing to leave, it seemed that energy levels were high, the people that we met were encouraged, and everyone was tremendously blessed by the conference.  However, the best feedback we received came last night – almost two weeks later.  A few of us were talking to Thiago on Skype and he said that unlike other conferences that they have hosted, they are still seeing fruit and lasting effects of our time with them.  In his estimation, because of Resound, their young people are experiencing a measure of revival and have apparently spent all-nighters in worship and prayer.

For that, we are grateful.  We celebrate that God had a plan for his kids in Brazil long before we did.  We’re thankful that He has invited us into this HUGE story that He is writing and He’s letting us be a part. Thanks God.

Luke

So the team is back in the states now.  It's been an interesting week of getting back to the grind and we're all celebrating all that God did on our trip to Rio.  I'd like to post a couple more blogs to continue telling stories our work and experiences down there.

It might be confusing to you why we call this trip "Resound Brazil" and have yet to talk about a conference, music, or teaching.  Yes, we did host the Resound worship conference towards the tail end of the trip.  I'll be talking about that in the next post.  But it's important that you know what the heartbeat of our global efforts is.  It was very important in the planning and preparation of this trip that we build in time to simply be with the people, serve the poor, and bring life to neighborhoods outside of the church.  We did these things as a continual reminder that those things are no less worship than a weekend conference is.  We wanted to make sure our Brazilian friends knew that we care more about them and who God is IN them, than we do about our little conference.

So, picking up where we left off, on Tuesday and Wednesday we visited some very poor ghettos around Rio.  One of these neighborhoods, Dona Marta,  was in recent years the most dangerous of all the slums in Rio.  That turned around when one woman moved into the neighborhood and decided to prayerwalk for over 20 years.  People mocked her and cursed her but she kept at it believing that the Lord would be faithful to bring the light of His kingdom into that community.  Because of that, this slum is now the most peaceful and safe in all of Rio.  It turns out that this woman was at the youth center where we ministered but left before we had the honor of meeting her. 

So, we spent the morning and afternoon with about 80 kids at a youth center.  We played games, played music, read stories, and then gave them each a gift.  Also, Jarrod was able to bring a portable printer where he printed off some fantastic photos on the spot to give to the director of the youth center.  The professional photos were a tremendous gift to this community.

After, spending time there, we were able to get the full tour of this slum.  The wild thing is how the slum covers an entire face of a large hilly area.  These shacks are literally built on top of each and then later secured with a lot of concrete.  There is a tunnel system that weaves in between all of these homes and seemed to be more like a hollywood set to exaggerate the poverty than an actual reality that people live in.  Also, it just so happens that Michael Jackson visited this place back in the 90's to film some kind of a dance off.  We just so happened to come across the statue that was erected in his honor.

At the all of the youth centers we were able to hand large amounts of toothpaste, toothbrushes, and washcloths, soaps, candy, and small toys.  I'd like to give one more shout to all of the dentists in the Front Range area who helped make this possible.  Also, everyone who contributed to this trip helped us purchase many of the toiletry and hygiene items that went straight into these ghettos to be given to the people.

Luke

(Team posing next to MJ)

(Kids at the Youth Center in Dona Marta)

(Tunnel of stairs through the slums)

(Child shows off his new gifts!)

Hey again!

We apologize for the lack of detailed updates.  We’ve had long days down here.  It’s been nearly impossible to find time to sit down to just write.  And there’s no way that I’m getting up early in the morning or staying up late at night!

Right now, it’s early morning on Easter Sunday across the world and we are preparing to head home later tonight.  Believers all across the world are celebrating the resurrection life of Jesus Christ.  And so do I.  And so do we.

“Life” is a good word to describe this last week here in Rio de Janeiro.  Over and over again we’ve seen people awaken to new life, a new awareness of the Kingdom of God in us, around us, and beyond us.  We’ve seen people put their faith in Jesus for the first time.  We’ve seen people healed of sickness.  We’ve seen people delivered and set free.  We’ve seen grown men and women weep in His Presence.  We’ve seen young people be filled with boldness.  We’ve seen sadness turn into joy.  We’ve seen the poor comforted by having their needs met.  We’ve been able to participate in the life that Jesus came to bring to us.

To pick up where I left off….last Monday night we went into a very poor ghetto here in Rio.  Our team was escorted in by a pastor who has a church there.  He had a whole group of men from that neighborhood who went with us and surrounded us on every side.  We weren’t afraid because He had his whole family and church with him – children and all. 

We went to a main intersection where we could visibly watch drug deals happening among children, possible sex trafficking, and other interesting situations involving weapons.  We found a spot near a few store fronts where we set up a sound system and Aaron Strumpel and Nick Kofahl began to play music.  It was and is always amazing to fill a place of hostility with the sounds heaven.  It was amazing how Aaron began to sing from Psalm 133 about how there are none too naked, too poor, too drunk, or too stupid to be a part of God’s family.  He sang this while a drunkard was pretending to play electric guitar in his band.  Needless to say, it was both an absurd and beautiful moment.

Shortly, after the music was done, John Fitch got up and began to preach the message of the Gospel and invited people to know Jesus.  Only one man responded until Pastor Bruno got up and re-preached John’s message and then many came up to receive ministry and prayer for healing.  As we began to pray for sick, we saw women be healed of a problem in her foot where she couldn’t walk.  After Dobsy prayed for she left jumping up and down with a huge smile on her face.  Others were healed of back pain, headaches, and more. 

After we ended our time of prayer with the people, we were ushered down a dark alley where we were invited in through primitive door into what they called the “home” of a family but was nothing more than a concrete utility room to me.  We were asked to pray for a one year old girl who had a tumor behind here eye.  We brought nearly the whole team up a narrow staircase and into a small living area where a mother held this little girl on a couch.  We laid our hands on her and began to fill the place with the Presence of God.  We spent nearly half an hour praying for this girl, her mother, and the home they lived.  We prayed for healing, blessing, and favor, over the whole house.  There was not a dry eye in the room.  It’s hard to say if the girl was experienced healing.  We don’t know what happened. But we do know that their was an electric faith in that room.  We know that Presence of God was with us, in a nearly tangible way that night.

I will continue to write about the rest of the trip in the next few days.  Stay tuned.

Luke 

Hey! It’s Luke here. Time for a post now that we’ve been in Brazil for a few days!

In short, everything is going really well.  Everyone is healthy, chipper, and beginning to adjust to the time change.  Earlier this morning Jarrod & Kevin, the last two team members, arrived to Rio and didn’t skip a beat.   We’re all excited to have them with us.

Friday and Saturday were spent getting to know the pastors and team who are hosting as well as getting some beach time.  It was great to get a feel for the culture, the people, the food, and being able to enjoy the beautiful landscape on Copacobana & Barra beach.

Yesterday, we began some of our planned ministry times.  We attended the morning service at a church in Barra led by Pastor Bruno.  He is 25 years old but carries much authority in the Kingdom. This guy is intense when he prays! Our team led worship and Nick Kofahl got to speak and he rocked it!  He talked about the Father’s heart and finding your home in the Father.  It was hard to gauge the reaction of the people, but when he finished and went into ministry, almost the whole church was on their knees receiving deep ministry.  There were men of all ages weeping as they received the Father’s love beyond what they already knew.  I’m not sure there was a dry eye in the room.

Later Sunday night, our team was able to minister at the main church where we are staying.  There were about 1,500 in attendance.  We joined the main worship team here and partnered together to lead worship in both English and Portuguese.  It was a great time joining cultures together to practice for heaven!  I had the chance to preach last night and I talked about the exchanges that happen in the Presence of God.  I ended by talking about the Father’s love which is not only a recurring theme for us but apparently it is a much needed message in Brazil.  We were told that they don’t often hear messages about the Father’s love, so it was awesome to see some people awaken to their sonship in the Father’s home.  Many responded to the invitation to experience His love for the first time, and about a dozen people got saved!  We sang “How He Loves” for what seemed like forever, but it was obviously part of God’s plan to love on His kids last night.

This morning we began the day by going to an orphanage for newborns - 3 years of age.  It’s hard to articulate the emotional ride of spending time with these young ones.  At one moment, you are broken-hearted from the conditions they came from, on the other hand you are filled with joy from getting to hold them and pray over them.  The Scripture says that widows and orphans are the closest to God’s heart, and we could definitely feel his nearness as we looked into the eyes of these children. 

The house where they keep the newborns do not let in many people in order to maintain some level of secrecy.  Many of these babies were taken from drug dealers in the ghettos of Rio and if they found where they are, they would raid the orphanage.  So, it was very moving to spend time with the babies, play with them, and bless them with gifts.  We were able to purchase many diapers and leave the orphanage with packs of formula that were much needed.

This afternoon, we went to an afterschool youth center which was established in the middle of some projects near the church where we are staying.  We played with kids on a large soccer field and spent time reading stories, painting faces, throwing water balloons, and playing soccer.  Needless to say, the Brazilian kids were schooling all of us Americans in the sport!  Unfortunately, our time was cut short because a gun shot was heard nearby, and so we left as to not draw much attention to what we were doing in the neighborhood.

Tonight, much of the team will be going into a very poor ghetto where a church resides.  We will be working alongside a pastor who ministers there.  He has great relationship with the people in the area.  We are told that the drug dealers guard his house with guns every night.  Sounds like the Kingdom is at work there to me!

Please continue to pray for us as we will be going into very poor and possibly dangerous areas in the next couple days.  We are approaching every situation with much prayer, wisdom, and caution as to not expose ourselves to unnecessary dangers.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to move in power! 

Blessings,

Luke

This weekend we will have new shirts in hand, ready to disperse!  Props to Matteo Moore for the sick design.  SInce we are still working on our online store, you can email us at info@resoundconference.com to purchase a shirt.  We have shirts for both guys and girls on a nice 'heather forest' American Apparel shirt.