A little learning of the guitar as well!

12PM 4/17 - We're in the front lounge of the bus driving to Portland right now. We're all watching Mike's favorite soccer team (Chelsea) lose a very important game. Mike is actually headed to his bunk right now to sleep away his sorrows until we arrive at the venue. Looking forward to the show tonight in Portland. We haven't had a "bad show" so far and I don't imagine that we will. Favorite moments of the tour so far... Temple TX - My wife and son at the show. YES! Abilene TX - Doing vocal warm ups with Lee and Phil was pretty awesome. This MUST continue. Phil couldn't help but jazz up his scales. Tyler TX - The crowd was one of the best of the tour! They were singing louder than the sound system. And Leeland shared a pretty amazing message at the end of the concert. God's presence was so thick the room!

Edmond OK - There was a pristine soccer field right outside the venue. Need I say more? Oh, and we got to hang out with some fans at a park nearby. Played some football with the kids and they ran circles around us. Lenexa KS - This was the Worship Together conference. You always know it will be a fun night with the room is full of worship leaders and singers. haha, it was awesome! We hung out with our KC friends that day and met Lou Engle that night. Great day. Wheat Ridge (Denver) CO - Got to the show late because of 2 flat tires on the bus. So we set up all the production in turbo mode, did soundchecks and then had an amazing show. People were so hungry for God and we could feel it on stage.

Reno, NV - Leeland woke up with his voice hurting really badly. He went to the doctor and they told him he probably shouldn't sing at all for 24 hrs. We thought about just sitting the show out, but that would've been lame. So, Leeland played guitar and I sang the lead vocals. I have a LOT more respect for my little brother now. It's hard to be a lead singer! haha.

Fresno, CA - We went to the mall and did some shopping that day. I bought some new pants and a shirt and some sunglasses (because I alwasy loose them! ) Phil wasn't at this show, so we had to change things up a little bit. It went amazing though, and once again the crowd was passionate for God. It was easy to get lost in worship. Oh, and Matt Maher BROUGHT it! He played You Were on the Cross. A beautiful song about the sacrifice of Jesus.

Mike's ready to show the country what's up!

View from our hotel in Hamilton.

NZ Countryside

Swimming at Raglan beach in NZ! The water was cold but amazing. And no sharks!

Soundchecking under a tarp because of the rain!

Breckie!

Then the band headed to Turner Field to serve lunch with the Fish Atlanta and Hosea Feed The Hungry. Here are a few photos from Twitter (click on the photos to see bigger versions):

 
Hair nets haha! (@leelandmooring)

 
Trying to figure out how to cover mikes beard! (@leelandmooring)

 
I've been scooping yams baby!!! (@jackmooring)

Later that night, the band played at Eagle's Landing First Baptist Church, where Mark Hall from Casting Crowns is the youth pastor.

Tuesday, the band taped an episode of Gospel Music Channel's Joyful Noise Cafe. It airs this Thursday, January 28, at 7am ET.

 
Did a taping at the @gospelmusicchnl today for Joyful Noise Cafe. (@jackmooring)

On Wednesday morning, Leeland and Jack performed "Follow You" live on the local Nashville FOX affiliate. Then, the band went to the Nashville Rescue Mission to serve lunch:

 
We had a blast at the Nashville Rescue Mission. We met some awesome guys, and heard cool stories! (@jackmooring)

Wednesday night, the band played a show with the Fish Nashville in the middle of Opry Mills Mall, near the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Brandon Heath showed up with only about an hour's notice to sing "Follow You." 

Thanks to everyone who came out to worship with us tonight at Opry Mills in Nashville! (@leelandofficial)

To end the week, the guys headed to Tulsa on Thursday to play a show with KXOJ. They're estimating that more than 1,300 people showed up and donated 3,800+ lbs of food! Thanks to everyone who came out! We'll try to post pics if we can find some!

Taken over a year before our first record was released. haha. Memories!

(Click for larger images)

Prepping for our Goonies characters, we decided to shave... BEFORE...

AFTER

On a day off we took the train to Chicago. We never get to ride trains, so we're very excited.

Leeland is excited too, but he's in the middle of an intense Doodle Jump game. Let's hope he hears the train coming.

We found that thing that looks like a frozen blob of metal in Millenium park. We stood amazed. I don't think Jack was into it though.

Jack WAS into Gino's East however. Great pizza! We had a great dinner and good conversation with our tour friends.

After two days off, we started a six show run in Syracuse, NY. Soundchecking like one big family!

The crowd was fantastic that night. We had some powerful moments of worship and justice.

A few days later we were at Liberty University playing the Vines.

We had an amazing night. After this soundcheck we went through all the seats and prayed for the people that would sit in them. It was awesome!

_____________________

Also, please remember this tour in your prayers. Pray that people's hearts would be moved by God to draw closer to Him, and that this would overflow into acts of justice and love throughout the world. We're also excited to play our songs for people who have never heard of us! It's really cool to gain new fans and get to meet new people. We're having a blast out hear, and Brandon & Francesca are doing an amazing job every night. 

Have any of you come to a Follow You tour show? Tell us about your experience! 

We pulled up to Harmony Hill Baptist Church, our last Texas stop of the week, and were guided to a room with lots of drinks and snacks, including M&Ms and a band fav, Oatmeal Creme Pies. Mmm... And then pizza and sandwich trays came later on. Harmony Hill Baptist and KSWP took REAL good care of us. That's for sure!

The church's school let out early especially for the concert, so as we were soundchecking all the kids walked out with their sack lunches. We heard another school in the area let out early as well, so we definitely had the youngest crowd in Lufkin, but it was so cool to see some of the kids standing up and worshipping. Many of the parents came out as well, so it was an all-out family event!

Here are a bunch of other pictures that KSWP posted.

We'll be back in Lufkin on October 22nd at the Lufkin Civic Center as a part of the Follow You Tour with Brandon Heath and Francesca Battistelli. Check the tour page for more info - hope to see you there!

We're working on a video to give you a snapshot of the whole week, so stay tuned!

After fueling ourselves with Whataburger, we drove through the night from Waco to Tyler. After less than 3 hours of sleep, Leeland and Jack were whisked away to be on the KVNE morning show while Mike, Jake, Marcus and the stage crew headed over to Chick-fil-A to set up the stage.

That's right. It says SEVEN-THIRTY A-M. No joke.

Thanks to LifeWay for coming out to sell CDs and hope everyone enjoyed their Chick-fil-A breakfast!

Come back out and hang with us on October 24th when the Follow You Tour comes through Kilgore with Brandon Heath and Francesca Battistelli. Visit the tour page for more info!

We were a little tired when we rolled into Waco, but as soon as we saw the crowd that had gathered at Common Grounds on Baylor's campus, we knew we were in for a fun show. Everyone was packed like sardines into the back of the coffee shop and we heard there were cars surrounding the place so people who couldn't fit could still listen. There were even guys climbing up on the roof and in trees trying to see the stage!

We could just feel the energy in the room and we were instantly recharged for the 3rd show of the day. We were talking after the show and everyone agreed that we hadn't felt that way before a show since the very first showcase we played in Nashville. It was unreal. Even though our bodies were tired, God gave us just what we needed to get through it and it was amazing! These pictures don't really do the crowd justice, but check 'em out!

Thanks for an unforgettable show! Even if our production manager, Marcus, looked like this at the end of the night...

Thanks to all the Baylor Bears who came out as well as K-LOVE for supporting the event!

The stage met up with us in Dallas, where at first the heat didn't seem so bad, but it seemed to just get hotter and hotter as the afternoon went on. Fortunately, Chick-fil-A kept us well-fed and hydrated. Our friends at KLTY showed up with electric fans for their booth - why didn't we think of that?

 
Soundchecking in the Chick-fil-A parking lot

Check out Mike's sweet shades

You guys were so awesome for braving what we heard was 102-degree Texas heat!

We were afraid we'd have to cut the meet & greet short to make it to our next stop in Waco, but we're glad we got to meet everyone. Thanks for sticking around!

Here's a few pix from the past few days...

4th show on the Texas run: Dallas Chic Fil-A. It was hot, and the people out there were champs for braving the sun.


Driving through the planes of Texas to make our 9pm Waco show after the 5pm Dallas show!

Played to a packed out Common Grounds coffee shop by the Baylor campus. People were in trees and on the roof. It was crazy!

After the Waco show. Marcus, our production/sound guy. He works very hard, as you can tell.

Then me and Leeland flew to Chicago to do some interviews on the Moody Bible campus downtown.

They had a really cool radio studio from the 40's...

We played some songs and interviewed for Midday Connection. Really great talk show!

Lee found a furniture store to do his phone interview in...

Hid a copy of Donald Miller's new book on the Moody campus. Someone found it in like five minutes!

Then we all flew to Vegas for a show. Flying over the Grand Canyon was incredible.

Watched Blindside perform. One of our favorite bands! They're back. Thousands of kid's got saved!

 
After our show we went to the strip and saw the fountains. God is doing amazing things in Vegas right now. Pray for a great harvest souls in the years to come!