andrew dodson

I have to be honest… I’m not all that excited to be back home after such a great weekend. This weekend just affirmed to me a desire to play music full-time, tour, record, meet new people, travel – all for God. I’ve learned to try NOT to plan my future, knowing that God will reveal His plans for me as He wishes. Just a little hint, God – if my future plans involve being in a band full-time, I wouldn’t complain too much.

The Josh Martin Band has been an amazing experience, and I hope that God will continue to give us opportunities to minister through music. There’s a lot of variables keeping us from doing this full-time, but I’m enjoying every opportunity we’re given.

More blogging to come… it’s late…I’m tired… and work comes early! Take care…

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be leaving for Flora, Illinois with the Josh Martin Band. We’re playing at a church camp for Vincennes University’s campus ministries retreat. I’m very much looking forward to it. We’ll have the first batch of our new live CD with us (email me to reserve your copy).

I’m getting ready to head to church to tune up my drums and get them packed up.

Keep us in your prayers as we travel and help lead worship for this retreat. Also, pray that Dwayne has a quiet day at CLS! I worked overtime this week to get ahead, and I think I’ve left in good shape. Hopefully, it won’t be too crazy there.

I’m sure I’ll have a blog update on Monday evening. I’ll also be hitting up the David Crowder Band concert at Southeast in Louisville on Sunday night. Later ya’ll….

Last September, I had the opportunity to go to Florida to assist in the clean-up efforts from hurricanes. It was an amazing experience, and while I never hoped to see devastation like that again, I also knew that’d I’d do it again if I got the chance.

Now that Katrina has done her damage, I’ve realized it would be nearly impossible for me to go down to help out. September is the busiest month of the year at CLS, and we’re short an employee for the month (maternity leave). Not only is September the busiest month of the year, but we’re expecting September 2005 to be the busiest month in CLS history.

Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about going to Louisiana to help out. It seems victims of Katrina are coming to us – right here in Kentucky. Crestwood will be extremely busy over the next (insert amount of time here). We’re hosting at least one family, and possibly more. Churches all over are partnering with the Red Cross and local businesses to find families homes, jobs, schools, transportation – the works. We still don’t know a lot of the details, but we know people will start arriving to Kentucky at some point this next week. I know that I’m planning on helping out as much as I can.

Kentucky Baptist Assemblies has also offered up two of their properties – Jonathan Creek & Cedarmore – as a place for victims to stay. The Josh Martin Band is scheduled to perform at both of these places in the coming month, but I’ve yet to hear if the events will still take place.

I’d love to hear how others are planning on reaching out to help victims. If you’ve got a story, please post a comment and let me know.

It’s been a fairly good (long) weekend. Here’s the rundown:

Friday – Vertex was great. We had a lot of new faces, which was really good to see. We did things a little different by grilling out and watching a movie – outside. Russ and Alex did a great job of hanging the screen on the side of the church, and Julia prepared all the computer-related things. We thought we were going to experience some DVD issues shortly before we started, but Justin stepped in and saved the day. All-in-all, it was probably one of the best nights of Vertex so far.

Saturday – the praise band had a long rehearsal from 8-12. I had big plans for the rest of the day, but they disappeared as soon as I got home from rehearsal. I still don’t really know what happened, but I didn’t feel very good at all. I think part of it may’ve been exhaustion. All I did was lay around and sleep. Everytime I got up to do something, I started to feel tired again. Added to this was a headache. Later in the evening, I made my mind up to get up and do something with the hopes that I’d start to feel better. I took some headache pills, ate dinner and took a shower. Went to Justin’s and hung out for a bit, and then we headed to the movies where we met up with Lori. By this time, I was feeling much, much better.

Sunday – after church, some of us met up at Cliffside’s for lunch. It’s a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant here in Frankfort. Everyone seems to love it, but it’s only the second time I’ve been. My review? The place is run-down, it’s a little smelly, and our waitress (if you can call her that) was rude. I won’t hold it against them that it took a long time to place our order and get our food, considering every seat in the place was occupied. The food was good, though.

I stopped at home for a bit and got to visit with my aunt and uncle while they were in town. After this, I headed to Leesburg for a Josh Martin Band show. I gotta admit… I was really dreading this gig. It turned out to be a nice event, and we played well. I split as soon as it was over because I knew friends from church would be hanging out back in Frankfort. I headed over to Chuck & Becky’s for a movie.

Monday (4th of July) – I “slept in” this morning. I can tell I’m getting older because I only slept 90 minutes longer than I normally would, and I was still up by 8:30a.m. I can remember the days when “sleeping in” meant waking up after most of the world had already eaten lunch. Now, I can sleep in and still make it to McDonald’s before they stop serving breakfast.

I’m going home this afternoon to do laundry and to start working on the Josh Martin Band website. I already have a design in mind (inspired by a commercial I saw the other night). I also have lots of pictures to choose from, thanks to Carrie What’s-Her-Name who took pictures of the band at our live recording and a photo shoot a few weeks back. So, it should be quick work.

I’ll be heading to some form of a cookout later tonight, although I’m not sure where just yet. Happy 4th of July!

Next week, I’ll be heading to Jonathan Creek with Crestwood’s youth group. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s one of my favorite places on God’s green earth. I look forward to a week of relaxation, drawing closer to God, and losing touch with my everyday routine.

Last night, I decided to take a “quick trip” to Georgetown after work. This turned into an extended trip that included Lexington. While my gas tank and bank account never enjoy trips to Lexington, it was a productive trip.

My favorite purchase: a $5 black t-shirt with the saying, “Top Ten Reasons I Procrastinate: #1.” (think about it – it’s funny)

Most useful purchase: a $7 Zondervan’s Compact Bible Dictionary.

Most spirited purchase: an $8 UK LiveBlue t-shirt and a $3 LiveBlue silicon bracelet (my Easter Sunday outfit, considering the ‘Cats will be playing for a trip to the Final Four that day).

As promised, follow the link below to view some of my nighttime photos of downtown Frankfort:

>View Gallery

Ok, so the title is a really bad reference to the 80’s song “I Wear My Sunglasses At Night.” Isn’t that Corey Hart or something like that?

(as I’m typing this, the UK-South Carolina game has just ended. Ugh.)

ANYWAY…

I’ve finally learned how to use my camera at night. Needless to say, my camera’s value or worth just increased. I went on a tour of downtown Frankfort tonight, taking pictures of some of the “landmarks.” I’m going to set up an actual photo gallery on my website, but for now, I’ll show one of my favorites from tonight:

(un-Photoshoped picture of the new Transportation building)