First News from Honduras as of June 20th

From Edward:
Hey guys! We're here with most of our stuff. God has already worked a few miracles getting our stuff here and I look forward to the rest of it arriving.

And news from the Honduras team leaders:

Hello wonderful people! Thank you for your prayers! Our team has arrived safely in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. We had a good time today getting to meet the Youth For Christ staff workers and hearing about what's ahead of us. Some of our equipment has not arrived yet, but we are leaning on Proverbs 3:5-6.

We are all very excited to see the love of Jesus stir in this country. Our vision as a team is to fall deeper in love with Jesus in humility, servant-hood, and love for one another. Please pray that vision over our team, that we may continually humble ourselves, have a servant attitude towards the Youth for Christ especially, love each other more day by day, and that our equipment would arrive soon in Jesus' desire. Tomorrow at 7am is our first concert! Woot woot! You all rock!!! *smile*

I'm leaving on a jetplane again

Again, I'm pretty sure when I will be back, but who knows God's will?
A prayer list for while we are in Honduras (in no particular order):

*Safety (while traveling, while sleeping, with the food, etc)
*Health
*Unity
*Strength and renewal for the YFC staff (led by Mauricio [sp?])
*That God would work in the hearts of the people who hear us and come into contact with us. Whether or not we see the results does not matter, just that they would be saved at some point
*Good weather. We are in the rainy season for Honduras, rain every day, but not all day. Pray that we would have good weather for our outdoor concerts so that we do not have to cancel them. If we do have to cancel them that we would still be willing to serve the YFC in some fasion
*Rest!
*Strength to get through each day
*Joy for the work, both in our hearts and our faces
*That our hearts would be broken for the children we are reaching out to, so that we earnestly desire to serve them
*That we could learn more about and grow clsoer to God
*That we would not rely on ourselves to do the work, get through the day, or save people, we cannot do that on our own and to think we can would be lying to ourselves and to God.
*That we could fall deeper in love with Jesus in humility, servant-hood, and love for one another (our vision for the trip).

Please do not limit your prayers to these, if you can think of others, we would love to have those as well. We will be in the Eastern time zone, the last team that went had days where breakfast was at 6:30 am. So when you wake up for work, we are waking up for work. We are told we will play an AVERAGE of 2 shows a day. Usually not so much on Sundays.

This is most likely my last post before when I return in July. If anything of note happens it will be posted here (hopefully). You should be able to follow along with the limited info passed back to the states here or at www.ctimusic.org, find your way to the Honduras Summer team stuff. I've taken 170 pictures so far and most of those were just us rehearsing in one room. When the scenery starts to change... well, I've got 4 gig of memory and 20 batteries.

Peace and grace to you all!

Concert

Our concert went ok. It is a LOT different being outdoors then inside a cinder block room. THat led to some difficulties, along with a poor sound check (part my fault, part the bands). We'll have to talk about all that before our first Honduras concert. The promo pics of our team are cool. They are up on the CTI website which I have given out before. Clock on Summer teams, and then Honduras. You can click on any of the pictures from that point on to download a large version. Yes, I am that much taller then my team except for Joe (tall skinny guitarist who is standing on the left in the shot by the corner of a building). Some are not even up to my shoulder. I am feeling better now, which is good. I will come up with a list of prayer requests for our trip tomorrow and post that tomorrow night. I will be out of all internet contact after tomorrow. Our team leader's emails (which might have a short message from the rest of us) will be posted on the CTI site and mom might post them on here. Those emails will most likely be weekly at best. If I need to be reached because it is an emergency, CTI can get in touch with us, so call the office. If it is not an emergency, don't call them. If it is an emergency that can wait (it sounds bad, but it's true) call during normal business hours. I have been classified by members of my team as an "honorary asian" for the time I spend with them. Only 2 of the 7 guys are white. We've talked with a guy who went with CTI to Honduras a year or two ago. He told us about everything. THe place we are staying has been defined as a ranch in the middle of nowhere. The guy also woke up with a scorpion in his bed. Although everyone told him it never happens. So we'll see what happens. Thats all for tonight.
Happy Father's day Dad.
Peace and Grace to you all.

Another Concert

Our training time is almost complete. We have half a day of rehearsal left! Then a concert tomorrow night, then pack and fly out. Our concert set is 3 spanish songs and 3 english songs with me giving a "testimony" (If I refer to testimony from here out know that it's not neccesarily my life's story). Please be praying for health and strenght and rest. We get Sunday off, then it's packing day and we are off. freaky... almost gone... a week and a half down and we have a 17 songs repertoire (rep) with 7 songs in Spanish. Most of them are pretty good now too. Please keep us in your prayers and when in doubt you can check up on us here or on www.ctimusic.org if you click on the summer teams link. I'm not done posting, just putting up thoughts.
Peace to you all...

Of broken strings and good/bad news

So I'm a bit under the weather today. I was yesterday as well. I do not know what it is, I think I might have picked up a bug somewhere. So prayers for healing would be great!
The good news, we won't have to pay anything for the oversize and over weight charges! In the past they have cost $200-$500 each way for CTI.
There was an old musician named Paginini. He played Violin. One day he was playing a beautiful concerto, when all of a sudden, one string break. Astonished he keeps playing it on 3. Then... another breaks, incredulous that 2 of his strings could break he improvises what he can on 2 strings. Finally, a third string breaks. As he finishes the piece on one string, the crowd gives him a huge ovation, expecting him to leave then. He says "Paginini and one string". Then he plays an encore on his one string.
I tell you this story so you can understand the analogy I will make. We won't have to pay anything because NOTHING over 50 lbs or 61 linear inches (length + width + height) will go with us. Continental has been very strict about this. Going so far as to put it in our flight records that we have been informed multiple times. So we cannot show up and claim ignorance. What does this means? Well, the keyboard, kick drum on the drum set, acoustic guitars, and bass guitar are all over size limit. THe keyboard and drum are also over the weight limit. So right now we take my sound system (which now is 100% under limits) vocal mics, electric guitars, and some smaller parts of the drums. We feel like we have had some strings break. THere is still time for this to change, so you can be praying for someone at Continental to let us take it, or if any of you know someone from Continental that would be willing to let a BAND take MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, that'd be awesome. It's slightly astonishing that you cannot take an acoustic guitar on a plane right now, at least not to South America.

My "story"/"testimony"/whatever you want to call it

So I thought I wanted to write out what I am currently working on for my 3 - 5 min bit of stage time. This story could change depending on the audience, but so far I think this story is the one I can get in the time limit and do well. It first occured to me during the individual Bible Study time on Monday. *Things like this are an aside*

Hola, my name is Ed and I am the sound guy for this great band while we tour in Honduras. *I was instructed that if we say their country name/compliment it they really like it* I have always enjoyed technology. I have been working with sound systems like this for the past 10 years of my life. Before that I played with computer technology. This love of electronics led me to take a few electronics classes in school. *I do not know what their school system will be like, so I am refraining for now from "college", I am also refraining fro mas many words that cound trip up the interpreter as possible, "physics major", etc* These classes were set up with one day being taught by a teacher, and one day building what we just learned about. We'd sit in class and learn the theory behind gadgets, so that we could read the instructions and put that into practice the next day. Each person was better at something different. My lab partner was a genius. By far one of the smartest people I have met at school. He could explain any of the theoretical parts of what we were doing. He probably could have taught the classroom part himself. But when we got into the building part, he almost blew stuff up. I, on the other hand, could build most anything given the instructions, but when asked to explain it, I failed. Together we made a good team. When asked to build something, I stepped up. When asked to explain what was happening, he got us through that part.
This is something that God has been showing me is true about having a relationship with him as well. There is both a practical and a theoretical, and you need both parts. The practical part is what we DO in this life. Do we love others as ourselves? Are we living as Jesus did? The theoretical part is this. *hold up Bible* This is like our instruction manual. It explains who God is, how we can know him better, and how we should act. If you haven't read it, I would encourage you to do so. It's full of good true stories and God's love for you. As we finish/continue our concert, I want to encourage and challenge you to think about your life. Do you have that two part faith? If you have just the practical side, I would encourage you to read the Bible and learn more about who God is. If you have the theoretical side, I'd encourage you to put it into practice. Thanks... *walk back to sound board*

Much needed day off...

And yet I'm up at roughly the same time. Apparently if I get 8 hours of sleep, I'll still wake up at 7 am. Today's agenda is to hang out with Honduras folks, do some laundry, and REST above all else. We are hoping to hang out at a pool that was offered for us to use. Some more info on our flight... They measured the JBL speakers in their bags that we would send them in. THe speakers are 46 lbs, the bags need to be 4 lbs or less to get them on the plane. The bags are 5 lbs. 51 lbs. So we are going to cut the carrying handles off of them and hope it knocks off the pound or so to get it to register 50 when we get to the airport. You can pray for my assistant team leader's brother who just had major surgery yesterday on his brain. The surgery went well, but he was having some complications afterwards (although he WAS alive, awake, and talking).
Peace to you all...

First concert DONE!

We justr finished our first concert (well, a few hours ago)! It rocked. We played for the other 2 teams and the staff in a room barely more then 30 x 20 with a full sound system. It was loud and boisterous. I personally feel our team played the best concert out of the three, but I AM biased. We performed two songs in spanish (Trading my sorrows for the joy of the Lord, and one about if you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move mountains) along with a song called God-shaped hole, Wherever we go (kinda a disco feel), and one more slightly escaping my thoughts. It had it's rough spots, it had high energy though. Which is something we had been trying to get. We finally (I say we since I am considered just as much a part of the band) got some stage presense and made it look like we were having fun on stage, not just being awkward.

To those who are... hesitant about the music... let me say that this mission is to reach the children in as culturally relavant way as possible. They love American Rock Music. We bring them American ROck Music plus the Gospel and Christian songs. I really am buying into this ministry. We are very focused on prayer in our day to day lifestyle, and especially before we perform and after we perform.

Flight logistics are still waiting to be heard about. I think they are trying to send me with JBL's even if we have to remove the speaker coils before the flight and send me with a leatherman to put it all back together on the other end.

One final note, my comments are now being reviewd by me before they are posted. Yes, when you submit your comments they WILL go through, do not worry about that. Please post comments in English, or give me a translation. Thanks!

Peace to you all!

Hello Monday

Unlike Garfield, I have no issues with Monday mornings. We had a huge storm front move through last night (70 mph winds?). I'd just like to thank God for bringing us that light show in High Definition and Widescreen. Seriously very impressive with cloud to ground lighting strikes and power going down to part of the city. The concert was quite good, I look forward to us sounding like that. One person shared some comments (well, a few people did but one in particular said some things that were helpful for me). He talked about how you need a passion for what you are doing to go along with your works, if your heart isn't in it, whatever you offer to God really doesn't matter. Because what God desires is our heart, our works are a "bonus" if you will. This made me stop and think about my prospects for after college. I have wanted to do A/V work for Missions organizations, but if I don't have a passion for that mission, I might as well be working for a secular company, no? Going to Spain would be awesome, but would I be doing it just because it's a job opportunity, or because I feel called there? Would a full year of CTI be what I'm supposed to do? I'll hopefully be able to anwer that question better AFTER Honduras. Today we learn our last 2 songs, and practice for our practice concert. Over the next week before we leave I want to really develop a passion for the kids we will be seeing and serving. I am told that if you do not reach kids before the age of 18 (as in they do not express a love for Jesus as their savior) they have a 90% chance of NEVER doing that. We seek to present the gospel in ways that are relevant to today's younger generation, because many have not heard it in ways that they can relate to. So bring on the American Rock band that sings... worship songs? I want this to be a passion for my team and I while we are there. Computer time's up,
Peace,

Just keep moving... just keep moving

The days are packed. Today is my day off and it is busy as well. Spent this morning at a Baptist church here with my host family, that many CTI members go to. Then a church open house/picnic for some free lunch and chilling with CTI team members/staff and my host family. They basically drag me (willingly) around to do stuff since I do not have much to do. Don't get me wrong, I have PLENTY to do between 8 am and 8:30 pm on days we practice. But other then that I don't have much to do. It's very freeing and relaxing not being in constant contact with everyone via internet and phone. I have been informed that out of the many people my family has hosted for CTI and others, I'm the easiest and most polite, so I guess someone raised me correctly. My saturday was opened with french toast for breakfast! Then we added 3 more songs to make our total 15 with just 2 more to add. We had a team time of prayer/worship (Korean style), which basically means everyone prays at once. We worked on the team set up and tear down of the system. I'm in charge of the board and the snake. That is fitting, but it takes a bit longer then I'd like because I want to be able to help others troubleshoot their jobs more. But it's heavier work so I am glad to do it for the team. The snake is 30 lbs of cable to unwrap and wrap, the board is over 50 right now with it's current case, but I am getting a new board case, a new amp rack, and possible other new things to cut weight. Our team is bonding, somewhat over playing pranks on each other by playfully taking someone's cup at lunch, or their pen while they are not looking. We'll need the humor when we get to Honduras and are faced with stress and little sleep and cold showers. We heard a talk last night by Chuck Swindol that was recorded many years ago about Attitude. It was good. We will definitely need the right attitude to get through Honduras when things go wrong. I have gotten some chances to just sit outside in the later afternoon/close to twilight here and it is really peaceful and quiet. I took the family dog for a walk to enjoy the night air. I could live in a town of 20,000. It's only 4 times the size of William $ Mary, NOT counting grad students, profs, or staff. My team has a large asian population. We have 5 members that are at least half asian out of 13 people on the team. The rest of us are totally white. Not that any of this is about race, because in Honduras we will all be minorities. When we are in Honduras updates will be posted on www.ctimusic.org. We already have a website off that for our team with temporary pictures and info. On Tuesday (I think) we will be taking team pictures that are actual promo pictures! That will be a lot of fun. I am finally just relaxing at my host home for the afternoon. Tonight is the Full-time team's final concert, so we will all be going to that to cheer them on and see what we COULD sound like.
Prayers:
That we would have the right attitude
More good bonding
Good rehearsal time on Monday (We do practice concerts for the other teams Monday night!)
REST/strength to get through the day.
Peace to you all

Woooo

So we've finally got the band together! We are running most of the new songs without breaking into sectionals first. I get to mix monitor and main speakers for everyone. Some songs even have all 6 vocalists! (Maily the spanish ones). My day now starts at 6:45 am for waking up since my pickup time was pushed back to 8 am. Mornings are a breakfast then off to "work". We get Sunday, Weds, and the next Sunday off. Every other day is a full day. I do not get much excersize so tonight when I got back I took the family dog for a walk. It was quite relaxing. We are through 12 songs by now. It doesn't seem like we are that far, but we only have 5 left to learn. We have learned a drama involving 5 members of the team. So far I am not involved other then to push play. It is a pantamime to Switchfoot's Dare you to Move (a 4 min song) that shows the Bible. It goes from God creating the world, creating man, man sinning and disobeying God, God coming back for man, being cruxified, and finally being reunited with man how he originally intended it. It's surprisingly moving when put to the song well. We are working on testimonies, speaking on stage, and all that fun stuff.

Some more prayer requests:
Strength to get through the days on not enough sleep (OVER 8 hours is not enough now)
The ability/courage for us to speak the truth both here and at Honduras
Breaking through this embargo
More good bonding (the team is coming together well so far)

I am enjoying my host home, I have been called the "long lost brother" to the 17 year old boy of the house. He is also a runner, tall and skinny. We spent last night watching a band concert on DVD.
Peace and grace to you all,
Ed

Fellow Team Members stop reading here...

So we've hit our first snag. I'll explain the title in a second. The airlines we are flying (Continental) changed the 50 lbs then a fee for luggage overseas to 50 lbs then an embargo. Right now that means that anything over 50 lbs or oversized cannot be flown with us. What does that mean? Well, my main speakers (JBL Eon G2 15") are 56 lbs poacked. My board is 56 lbs packed. Half my monitors are about 54 lbs packed. My mic stand case is over sized. My amp rack is 60 lbs. The main part of hte drums is oversized AND overweight. The 2nd part of hte drums is over weight. The key board is over weight and size. Prayer for a somewhat quick, low budget fix to this would be great!

Other then that we're doing well. I finally got my band all together to hear what it sounds like and do some actual work. I love it. I have an 18 channel board of which I'm using 17 channels. 6 vocal mics, 2 electric guitars, 2 acoustic guitars, 3 drum mics, bass, keys, etc. It's quite windy here right now. All day long it blows. So it's good we're indoors mostly.

Now to explain the title. We were assigned "secret buddies" for the trip. We are supposed to be praying for the "constantly" and doing things to cheer them up. I got our drummer, Jeff Pak (from Canada). I thought it might be cool for people UNRELATED to me sent him mail to encourage him. His mailing address is Jeff Pak at the same address. Please, do NOT send from Herndon, or from a last name that can easily be traced to me. But a quick note to say he's a great drummer, or something encouraging would be awesome! I'll even give you 41 cents when I get back. You would have to send it probably by Tues for him to get it before we leave. More to come later, these time restrictions are killer. I'm having fun and doing well. If you want a quick phone call, leave me a message during the day, or between 6:45 am and 7:15 CT!!! NOT Eastern time. Please not Eastern time.
Peace and grace to you,
Ed

Safely Here

Hey all!
I am now in Willmar Minnesota. It's surprisingly cool here, getting down below 50 at times! The flight out was quick, and mostly uneventful; one lady held up security because she claimed to have "no liquids" but when they searched her bag she had a few bottles of water and soda and some yogurt. It was rather commical. I made it to Grandma's house fine, we relaxed and had dinner with my uncle and aunt. Tuesday I helped fix her canoe rack, cut down some small trees (more like weeds) fixed her push broom, and was generally useful. Then we drove to Willmar.
I have met a lot of people. My host family and home is very nice. Dale and Ann Anderson, with their son David and a dog. They've got ESPN on in the mornings and a nice comfortable bed for me to sleep on. Very nice family. My team is 13 people, half of which have a name starting with J. Dinner and orientation followed. We have a large packet of stuff. Rules govern everything from cell phones (do NOT bring then to the training site, do NOT use more then 15 min per day of training) to dating (do NOT date anyone with CTI, do NOT date anyone in the countries we visit) to language (clean and above reproach). All for good reasons, it can just seem pretty strict. Our typical day is get up early. My pickup time is around 7:30 am. Then we do private Bible study time 8:15 - 9 am, 9 - 9:30 worship and announcements, 9:30 - 11:45 REHEARSAL, 5 min break, 11:50 - 12:30 team prepared devotionals, 12:30 - 1 Lunch, 1 - 1:30 team bonding, "Afternoon activity" 1:30 - 2:20, Rehearsal 2:30 - 4:45, 15 min break, "evening activity" 5 - 6:30, 6:30 - 7 Supper (NOT dinner), 7 - 8:30 KP and leave or evening rehearsal, Lights out by 10:30ish. Some quick prayers : Bonding and team unity as we start spending so much time together, Strength for the long days. I need to get ready to walk out the door, peace and grace to you all.

I'm leaving on a Jet Plane

I'm pretty sure I know when I'll be back again. I am now shutting down everything here at home. I fly out of Dulles bright and early in the morning. In about 14 hours I should have touched down in MN. Let the adventures begin!

It's finally really hitting me...

So my bags are more or less packed (one totally packed, one just awaiting the clothes I am ironing). What's left on my to do list is aquire a few street addresses, cut my hair, and charge my iPod. That's it. About 30 min ago I started getting either really hungry, or really excited about the trip. I think it's actually a bit of both. On that note, I'm not sure if I'll be able to sleep tonight. In about 36 hours I will be touching down in MN. Some of the team is already headed out driving. In a few short days we'll be at training, living with a different family for 2 weeks, interacting with people I haven't met before. It's gonna be crazy! Some prayer requests for the next few days:

1) Safety in travel (Still a BIG one)
2) Team bonding/unity (We don't get long to get to know one another)
3) Open hearts for the kids we will be reaching out to (Possibly THOUSANDS)
4) Strength and willingness to help from the Youth with a mission/Youth for Christ staff in Honduras (Without them, there would be no follow up for these kids)
5) Strength for our team leaders (Willie and Julia) and good leadership skills
6) Good health for all involved (We're all taking malaria pills, but plenty of diseases and injuries could take someone down)
7) That we would grow together as a team, grow in maturity, and grow spiritually from the next 6 weeks
8) Praise for all of the host families who have opened their doors to untold numbers of us (6 teams, our team has 13, plus the full time teams there now... 70ish?)
9) For musical ability (We are all gifted, and those gifts come from God, so that he would grant us the ability and the opportunity to reach these kids)
10) That this time would help me know if I want to sign on to do this for at least 1 full year after college, or if I should set my sights elsewhere (Avant in Spain)

At this point, your prayers are some of the best things you can give me and Team Honduras. I may still post again before leaving, but if not let me say that this trip is not without risk, however I leave knowing that whatever happens will bring Glory to God, wether it's 1 person coming to know him, 1000 people in a single day, or someone getting drastically ill. I'd love for it to be the 2nd, but it's not up to me.
Peace to you all,
Ed

While I'm in MN

Hey guys,
While I am in Minnesota, I will be able to recieve mail/packages for the 2 weeks I am there. My address should be:

Edward Baumann
1809 19th Ave SW
PO Box 100
Willmar, MN 56201

Anything that arrives while I am at training (until June 17) I should get right away. Nothing will be forwarded overseas, so you can still send me mail at that address, but from June 18 - July 17 I will not get it. After July 17, I will be leaving CTI after debriefing, so consider that address good for the next 5 weeks.

I will also not have access to internet every day (maybe not at all) so from this point out please assume that email will not get to me. (starting Monday). The best way to comment/ask me a question will be through this blog. Simply click on the comment button below, write your comment, click on anonymous and click submit. Wether I check them, or call someone else to check them, I should see those on a somewhat regular schedule for the next few weeks.
Peace,
Ed