I’m home from the UK and thought I’d post a few photos from the event that I played at over there. These are shots that an excellent photographer called Mark Murfitt took on the day… There were a number of great artists and worship leaders…. Delirious, Jon Foreman from Switchfoot, Tim Hughes, BLUETREE (my new friends from the Canada tour!)..and many more.

It was powerful to unite around such an awesome theme of justice, and specifically setting girls free from sex trafficking and being bought and sold. I believe that issue is very much on the heart of God and it was exciting to see a lot of young people getting fired up about it too.

Hope you’re having a great week!

vicky

Hi friends!

So I’m writing this blog in Eastbourne England, a town on the South Coast of the U.K.

Tomorrow I head up North to Birmingham, about 3 hours above London, to be part of an event called The Stand. Check out the promo video above.. It’s an all afternoon and evening gathering to raise awareness about Trafficking and to ask God to break our hearts with the things that break His.

Bluetree will be my backing band (thanks guys!) and it will be great to see them again after the great time we all had on the Canada tour a few weeks ago.

Here are some pretty strong verses on my heart, regarding justice/trafficking/worship:

Isaiah 58: True Fasting

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
Only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

And if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail”

WOW! What a challenge and a promise….. And now, some heavy words from Amos….

Amos 5:  A Lament and Call to Repentance

Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lament I take up concerning you:

This is what the Sovereign LORD says:

Seek the LORD and live,
or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire;
it will devour and will have no one to quench it.

You who turn justice into bitterness
and cast righteousness to the ground

He who made the Pleiades and Orion,
who turns blackness into dawn
and darkens day into night,
who calls for the waters of the sea
and pours them out over the face of the land—
the LORD is his name-

You trample on the poor
and force him to give you grain.
Therefore, though you have built stone mansions,
you will not live in them;
though you have planted lush vineyards,
you will not drink their wine.

For I know how many are your offenses
and how great your sins.
You oppress the righteous and take bribes
and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts.

Seek good, not evil,
that you may live.
Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you,
just as you say he is.

Hate evil, love good;
maintain justice in the courts.
Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy
on the remnant of Joseph.

I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.

Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
I will have no regard for them.

Away with the noise of your songs

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream”

Those words have been echoing around my head ever since I studied them at Oxford.. and in recent months as I’ve prepared for the Canada tour (which had a strong Justice theme) and then on that Tour, God has been breaking my heart over the pain He feels for the injustices of the world. Mainly over the trafficking and horrors of the girls in the sex trade.

One night during the Canada/Bluetree tour I was on stage in the middle of my worship set. I began sharing about what God was impressing on my heart - about trafficking, injustice and the need for us as Christians to wake up and move into action. I’m NOT a regular crier - in fact my closest friends tease me that I rarely ever, ever cry!!

But that night in Canada, for the first time in my life I just broke down in front of the whole crowd…crying over the grief God feels for these girs and unable to hold it in. Since that night it’s been an increasing burden on my spirit…so I’m delighted to get to play at The Stand this weekend and to share about what God has been working in my heart.

Living a life of worship is NOT primarily about singing! We sing as the overflow of our actions, and we sing to draw near to God to fill us up. But only so that He can SEND US OUT! Sung worship is the commissiong BEFORE action, and the celebration AFTER action. Its not, on Earth, supposed to be purely an end in itself.

Otherwise we sing, growing more and more spiritually ‘fat’ and never give away the presence and love of God to others. When we get to Heaven, yes it will be an end in itself - praising for ever and ever. But while we are still Earth-bound I believe that sung worship is to fill us, send us, and then we return from PUTTING IT INTO ACTION to sing as we celebrate what God has done!

If we are just stagnantly singing, and doing nothing with the love and power of God in a world full of injustice, perhaps God says to US today what he said in Amos chapter 5:

“Away with the noise of your songs,

I will not listen to the music of your harps.

But let justice roll on like a river,

Righteousness like a never-failing stream”

Wow. Thoughts….? Let some great discussions begin here folks…lets challenge each other to change the world.

Love from England,

Vicky

Click here to check out “My Worship Revolution”.com website….

So what are you guys doing for the ‘Harvest Holiday’ tonight/this weekend?

Love,

Vicky

It’s been too long since I posted some video on here… I promise to shoot a few new video-blogs soon..especially during my forthcoming ENGLAND trip next week!

The video above was during the Canada tour. The girl to my left, wearing the scarf, came up to me as we were packing away our guitars and amps and said “I’m sad you didn’t sing your song Above All Else!”. So as there was a piano on stage, I said “why don’t I sing it for you now?!” She’s a vocalist at her church, so we did a duet and a friend of hers videod it…so here it is!

I’m also really encouraged to know people are using my songs across the globe. It always surprises me (!) but it’s good to know they are helping people connect with Jesus. Here are a few covers…

Thanks for using my songs…and for your encouraging feedack about them. I’m writing for a new album right now…so it’s always cool to go through the archives and see that the oldies are being used. Inspires me to write more… hoping that they’ll all be of use to people, in helping them connect with jesus.

Peace,

Vicky

Hey Blog crew!

How’s your week going?

Well… I am getting into a new hobby…. learning how to take photos! I’m pretty stoked about it… so I’m in the process of getting a better camera and wanting to learn Photoshop too…fun times.

Here are a few pics I took in Canada using my cheap point and shoot. I’m trying to figure out what makes a good angle, and what makes good lighting…

As you can see I have LOTS to learn, but I thought I’d share a few pics of “before” I get the good camera and learn some editing tricks… then I’ll post some “after” shots in a week or two, and hopefully you’ll see some progress in my skills!

Thanks to Daley for not minding me snapping pics while he played this grand piano in Victoria BC, Canada… These shots remind me of what a fun tour we all had out there.

In half an hour I fly to Ohio to lead worship at a girl’s conference. I’m traveling all day - leaving San Diego at 10.40am and landing into OH at 8.30pm so I’ll have lots of time to read, pray and think. I love days like this - wide open for contemplation, soaring miles above the earth on a plane….

Anyway, back to photography, I think I’m excited about the concept of it because ‘a picture says more than a thousand words’ (or whatever that old saying is!) I see so many things during my travels, and I’d love to be able to document them. Especially when I travel to the third world and see a lot of challenging sights, like I have in Africa, Mexico and Peru… I wish I’d been able to snap them and keep them to show others.

So partly it feels like a fun new past-time, and partly it feels like a responsibility - that because I get to travel and get to see so much, I have a responsibility to learn how to capture those experiences and share them with others.

Here’s one more shot I took… trying to get a cool reflection…

Anyway, that’s enough from me rambling about my new photography hobby!

Anyone else got any interesting hobbies? I know there are other photographers out there…. Any bungee jumpers, or videographers or surfers or knitters??! Tell us about what you do to relax….

Love,

Vicky

Hey there!

So the Canada tour is almost done…. backstage getting ready for the final show of the tour… I’m happy and sad…. happy to go home to California and see the ocean, but sad to leave these amazing folks who have become family over the past 15 days…

Here are a few happy memories!

The Bluetree guys signed my forehead…. agghhhh!

Flying home tomorrow……

Vicky : )

Hey there!

So we’ve seen many cities and provinces in the past week….. Newfoundland, Monkton, Montreal, Toronto and now Winnipeg…. what a huge and beautiful nation.

Got to sleep…. 7am wake up call tomorrow for a flight… but I wanted to say a quick hello!

Here are a couple of other shots from the past few days shows…

Question for you, as I’ve missed our debates recently!….

I’m challenged by the justice message of this tour….challenged to rethink what it really means to live out the gospel and to take Jesus at His word about loving the world…..

So although theological education is really great and important, do you ever feel like we just need to start living out the basics that we already know? ..

I feel like sometimes we get bogged down trying to broaden our knowledge of what the Bible means when if we just lived out Jesus most basic teachings, we would have enough to keep us busy for a lifetime!

I’ve spent years studying Greek, Hebrew and hermeneutics, yet I know people who live out the basic commands of Jesus, and seem to look a whole lot more Him than I do…

Just a thought… anyone got anything to throw into the conversation?

Love and peace,

Vicky

Ps. Big congratulations to my friends Brian Wurzell and Promise Tangeman - both great bloggers! - who just got engaged! Congrats guys - you make an amazing team and are inspiring to me : )

The concerts with Bluetree and speaker Phil Cann. Some amazing times of God’s presence!

Daley Hake, who shot the new header photo for my blog & myspace banner, is playing guitar here for the tour. He’s also snapping a few shots during each day too… so here are the pictures he shot today. They are awesome!

Here are me, Montreal and drummer Brandon….

And now for my cheap and nasty shots!…

Ok, gotta sleep!

night!

vicky

Just got some photos from two weekends ago in Foster City CA, so here they are!

Thanks to “Meyer Photography” for the shots….

Vicky

I’m packing my cases for Canada here in my apartment, but wanted to blog quickly in between changing guitars strings and figuring out how many teeshirts I need to take for 2 weeks!

The first thing that inspired me today was seeing a totally awesome car…I love old cars… I’d love to own something like this, or maybe an old VW camper van someday… they always make me smile as they look like they have stories to tell from all their travels!

So there are my iPhone shots of the car… You may think I’m crazy if you don’t find that car at all cool… so no worries!  : )

This was the second thing that inspired me today… I read a quote by St Francis of Sales:

“You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying

To run by running, to work by working

And just so, you learn to love by loving

Begin as a mere apprentice

And the very power of love

Will lead you to become a master of the art”

Pretty cool eh?!

What’s been inspiring you lately?

Love,

Vicky