Bluegrass, Americana, and Camping for Jesus

My weekend was great. The football game on Friday was great. There was only about 17,000 in attendance though, it was a close game between Union and Jenks Oklahoma with Jenks pulling out a close one.

On Saturday we got some work done on our house in Oklahoma. There are still a few things to get done, but we are getting there. I did get some video and photographs to make available, which will make it easier to rent out. We would still like it if we had enough money coming in to keep it available for weekends, vacations, rental to others wanting to visit the lake and area or just someone wanting to get away for the weekend.

After some work on the house we went to the Bluegrass and Chili Festival in Claremore on Saturday. We got to see about 4 great bands, and a couple not so good, that is to be expected from festivals like this.

The highlight was Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver. I have seen them about 4 times. A great quote from the intro of Doyle, was "If Bluegrass was a church; Doyle Lawson would be the pastor." Doyle looks just like an uncle of mine, he is from near my home town of Johnson City Tennessee and I always enjoy the chance to talk to him. He is a living legend in bluegrass and a very nice man.
Today and tomorrow I am getting ready to go to the Walnut Valley Music Festival and camp in Winfield Kansas. Was down yesterday, thousands of campers are already there for the Festival which don't officially start until Thursday. I will pitch camp tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday, and be there until Sunday evening. Winfield is quite possibly the largest Americana Style music festival in the world. I will see many United States, and International Championships including guitar, fiddle, autoharp, mandolin and more. This trip is usually the highlight of my year. This year may be even better; they say they have free wireless internet connection this year. I plan on doing daily video blogs starting with tomorrow. I hope to possibly include some interviews with the artists. Those blogs will be listed in all of the usual places.

I also got my son's car up and running, and looking forward to working on it with him, getting the street rod up to where it needs to be. He is having a great time with it, and is just like a typical teenage boy working on his first dream car. A lot to get done, but the dreams of this young man are endless.

I guess that is where I'll go with the blog today. Where are your dreams? What do you want out of life? Are you really working and doing everything possible to accomplish those dreams? Truth be told, I know I have a lot to work on in my own life. This week will be a great week of reflection on what I need to do, but at the same time, work on getting some of those things done. I expect the blogs through the duration of the week to not only have a fun focus on camping, and music, but also a focus on what we can work towards to accomplish our dreams.

None of those things, none of the pleasures come without some level of sacrifice. Jesus himself told his followers, "If you want to be my disciples, (followers), you must take up your cross and follow me daily." Wow! That is something to think about, especially when we consider what the cross meant to Jesus.

I'm looking forward to the week. I'm especially hoping that some of the things I am working toward this week get to see the light of day. I am hoping the internet wireless connection works. I hope I get a good camp spot, hope I can maintain energy, hope, hope, hope.

I look forward to hearing from folks this week, also looking forward to having a good time. If you are at Winfield look me up. The big cross will be at the camp sight; I'll have some flyers posted at the announcement boards and be around not just for a good time this week, but for ministry. God bless and see you at the fairgrounds.

By the way, how much fun do I expect to have? Well one of my favorite bands in the entire world is The Wilders. You have been listening to their music as you read the blog today. Now how could you listen to this music from this fun band and not have a good time?

Oh Yea, here is that contact information again.

The Virtual Pew
P.O. Box 17731
Wichita, KS 67217

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To become a part of The Virtual Pew, visit, http://www.thevirtualpew.com/ To learn more about me visit http://www.furches.org/ I am also active on MySpace at: http://www.myspace.com/mikefurches I have another blog at http://blog.myspace.com/mikefurches To visit the Hollywood Jesus group at MySpace with membership by numerous Hollywood Jesus reviewers visit: http://groups.myspace.com/hollywoodjesus For a more in depth weekly study and conversation you an visit: http://virtualpewsermon.blogspot.com/ where you can access deeper teaching and ultimately videos for viewing and teaching. You can contact me via email at mike@furches.org or mike@thevirtualpew.com For those interested in knowing more about my own story, contact me for a free e-copy of my book The Keystone Kid in pre-edit form.