The funniest part of my day so far has been this:
WHERE IS BEN?
HE’S NOT AT HIS USUAL SPOT AT THE COMPUTER…
NOT IN THE BATHROOM, NOT ON THE PORCH…
BUT WAIT!!!! THERE HE IS
Who But Ben would be thrilled to chill out in the sun, with a good book, on top of a septic tank?
A little blog on healing because it’s been on my mind lately. Ben led a study a while back on God’s will and on prayer, and since then it seems like it’s been an ongoing topic of conversation and thought. The Bible says in James 5 that “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well”. But also that “when he asks, he must believe and not doubt…”
After examining my own heart and faith I find that I actually struggle with doubt and believing in miracles and healing. Sucky realization, but good in the humility department and just for awareness. Thankfully, it is the faith of others in the church community who can do the praying in faith which leads to healing.
I was able to experience this first hand a couple of weeks ago. At our little Sunday night fellowship/House church thingy we were discussing this topic and how it might seem like God doesn’t do big things like this because his people don’t ask in faith and expectation. Now, I had been experiencing a few weeks of, lets just call it, stomach discomfort, and that evening was having pretty stinko cramps and pain. So, I felt the nudge to mention this and share my struggle with faith in healing. It ended up that friends felt like they wanted to pray over me for healing, and in their words, eyes, hearts and everything they absolutely knew God could do it, and would do it. The rest is history, I guess. I haven’t had any pain since.
For me it has been amazing in many ways, for healing, and for my faith and learning about and experiencing God’s promises and faithfulness, and the importance of close fellowship.
I’ve been coding a LOT this past week to finish a website I was commissioned to do. I was up until 5 last night coding. But I do want to blog about my musical exploits of the past couple months. A lot has been going on in this area.
First, I joined a band a few months ago called Overshine. I was languishing since I wasn’t playing in anything, looked online, and found a local band that needed (oh joy!) a lead guitarist! Since then, I’ve gotten to know these guys a bit better and played some good music with them. Recently, we recorded a couple of our tunes in a studio. It was expensive, but overall I think a good use of $800 (fortunately most of which I didn’t have to pay). The guy that did our sound engineering has done sound for Stryper, a well-known 80′s Christian metal/hair band, as well as many other bands. He was very friendly and very professional. Our songs sound *great*, much more so than our basement practice sessions.
You can visit our band’s website here. Our two recorded songs are on there (albeit compressed a bit for myspace requirements). Let me know what you think.
We also recently had a semi-professional photographer take pictures of us at practice. We had to pose a lot without looking like we were posing. That kind of thing. She took a lot of pictures, but below are a few of my favorites:
We will be playing some shows in the Fall. Our bassist is having a child any day now, so he’ll be busy and we need to book some gigs. I’ll try to keep y’all posted when our first gig is.
I also recently played in my sister’s wedding (see previous blog post). Here’s a pic from that:
Finally, during the past month I’ve been upgrading/changing my guitar effects around. I just sold my POD XT Live (for more than I bought it for) and changed to a rack-mounted system. My units so far are a Tech 21 PSA-1 preamp, a Rocktron Xpression effects unit, and a DBX 266XL Compressor/Gate (this is the keyboardist’s, I’m borrowing it for now until I can afford my own). So far, I’m happy with the sound. A rack mounted system requires a lot of knowledge and customization to make the best use of it. I’ve spent a few hours tweaking sounds for each individual unit, and I’m far from done. There’s also different ways to route the sound – effect loops or direct – and the order the units are placed in the signal path. I’m learning! My band members said the sound was great last practice, so I’m doing ok so far. Here’s some pics of the new system:
The last 2 weeks we’ve gotten to spend lots of time with each of our families. First, my brother, sister-in-law, and new little nephew were over from San Fran, my sister and brother-in-law down from Maine, and the whole crew together for some good times. We had a rockin’ talent show 
played, ate, and enjoyed each others company emensely. It was sad to see it end, wish every weekend could be like that. See lots of Merrill family pictures here
Then we took off to PA to visit Ben’s family and get ready for Kerris’ wedding! Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles were there from all over and it was nice to catch up with everyone. Lots of pictures here
