Thursday, Ichthus: Day One.

(Note: There are probably numerous errors - grammatical or otherwise. I'm really tired, and sorry. Try your best to make it through. Thanks for reading).

3 PM - Family Force Five: They actually weren't that bad. I had heard they had a really impressive stage show, which is the main reason why I wanted to hit the 'thus earlier to see them. They were about what I expected - a little weird but nothing amazing. It was a good band to cut my teeth for 2006 on.

4 - 5 PM: Nothing too much exciting. Caught a couple tracks from a couple bands (Day of Fire, Last Tuesday) and walked around the grounds a bit. Checked out the merch tent, the youth leader tent, etc.


5 PM - Staple: Probably the best and most enjoyable show of the entire day/night. It was the first time I had caught an entire act by them, and since they are breaking up this summer, the last time I will see them (how appropriate). My friend Joe loves the band, so it was nice he got to check them out one last time. Plus, Darin (the lead singer) pushed the mic in both Joe and my faces during one of the songs - so we have both officially sung Staple songs with them, and performed at Ichthus. Awesome.

6 PM - 8 PMish: Main stage stuff. David Crowder went on (and since I have seen him numerous times, I was not terribly impressed or excited. He's great, but I was really tired and hot at this point (not burnt, thank God for sunscreen). The keynote address was AWESOME. I was amazed that I could come to the festival purely for the music (as I did last year) - but God could use my lack of energy, down time, and quietness to speak to me and convict me of some major things in my life. It was great to hear about being slave even with the freedom of Christ offered and working in your life. The big things I took away from the message was to: 1) focus more on my identity in Christ and measure all of my wants and actions based around that character; 2) do the things, focus on the things, be the things that please GOD; and 3) fill myself, and yearn to be filled, with things of the Spirit. After a long time of following my own path and being horribly selfish, plus a day filled with a fair amount of pride, selfishness, and sin (yes, even at Ichthus)...it was nice to hear the voice of God.

8 PM - Jeremy Camp: Although I did not stay for his whole show, it was nice to finally get to see him live. It also actually turned out to be a very nice time to praise God and just experience him again, in music - right after a great keynote.

9PMish - Kids in the Way: This marked the end of my evening and was another amazing performance. This was the first time I had seen them live and I had been waiting about a year for it. They put on a short, but great, set. Yet another band I was happy to see very bold about their faith.

And that's about it. I'll try to be back tomorrow evening to talk about Friday. It's going to be a much longer day for me (about 10 AM - Midnight) so it might not happen. But, I at least wanted to post something...and I figured a summary of the Ichthus days would work well.

HEY - if anyone that reads this is going to be there tomorrow (and happened to have access to the internet this evening I guess) call my cell phone and we'll meet up somewhere! See you then.