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Missions and Music 2009
Year 3 of Music for the Masses: Projekt Czech, Poland, Deutschland, Nederlands

sorry if the rest of this gets to be rambling, but we are so excited about what God is doing in Czech and further east.

If you know some of the back story of the past 2 years and want to scroll down to '2009', please do.

Czech/Poland
if you do any research on the Czech Republic, you will see that they are currently listed as the most atheistic country in the world.
up until this past easter, they didn't even have a bible in their current dialect.

with this in mind, and some doors opening for us, we have been going the past few summers to Czech and Poland, which are very poor countries as you may know, and we have been going into whatever doors are opened for us, even if they can't cover simple things like our travel costs.

2007
as many of you know, 2 summers ago we were invited to a small christian event near the czech/polish border.
the cost of getting 4-5 of us there was over 7500 with airfare, van rental, paying rent/bills at home, etc...

Many of our friends and fans contributed to help us give away cds, to help us pay for travel and
in the end we rocked the festival, shared the gospel, gave away hundreds of cds to the people who wanted them.

we also planned as many shows as we could in neighboring countries where we were more established to help offset our costs of going, but the real goal was to get our foot in the door and be a blessing to this country and this people.

that was the beginning.

2008
last summer with very short notice we were suddenly invited back to Czech. this time to the largest Mainstream music festival in Central Europe, Colours of Ostrava.

Ostrava, in the SouthEast of Czech Republic is very near to Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Austria.
"Colours of Ostrava" is a mainstream festival with nearly 15,000 attending each year.

we were invited to play twice. Once on the mainstage at 6 in the evening, and again the following night at a smaller club stage. We had only played in the Czech Republic once, and that was in 2007 (above).

Now all of a sudden we are invited to Colours. and the headliners were artists like the Dandy Warhols (who are massive in europe) and Sinead O'Connor... We couldn't pass it up. So we went, we gave it our best and we won over the mainstage fans at 6 p.m.

after finishing that show, we drove 4 hours to Poland where we had gotten onto an awesome art and music festival called SLOT. Since we had never played in Poland we just wanted to get a foot in the door. We had a great show, and as usual we were able to share God's love with the Polish people there.
we had just rocked two festival in two countries on the same night.

the next morning we went back to Czech Republic, to Colours for our second performance at that festival.
The Club Templ stage that we played at only held 250 or so people. but nearly 420 were packed into it.
as we began to play and worship, you could just feel the presence of God hammering the place for nearly an hour.
it was amazing to be a part of.

again, we gave away cds to whomever didn't have enough money.
the owner of the bar/side stage is a believer and he shared with me that every believer in the whole region was at that show... all 10 of them. (out of over 400 in the crowded room)
which is sobering and exciting that God's presence was so heavy even though the vast majority of the crowd were not 'believers'.

we left, again, blessed, humbled, excited by what God is doing.

and then a couple nights later went to dinner with the chief translater of the new Czech Bible, Alexander (Sascha) Flek. Getting to know Sasha and some of the other believers in Czech.
As many of you know, the New Czech Bible finally was published and available on this past Easter weekend.
There is much excitement about this, as there has not been a Bible translation in the current Czech Language for 400 years. (for more info go to www.bible21.org)

There were actual public readings of the new bible all Easter weekend throughout the country of Czech Republic, which is truly remarkable. Since our meeting with Sascha(alexander) Flek we have been actively promoting the cause of www.bible21.org and the amazing thing is that they have already sold out of the first printing of 50,000 bibles. the goal is 1 million over the next 5 years.

2009
that brings us to this year. Right now.
It's been told to us, that in the history of the Colours of Ostrava festival, the Festival has never invited an artist back 2 years in a row.

Until this year. the violet burning became the first artist to be invited to consecutive Colours Festivals.
this year they have invited us to perform on the mainstage Friday night at 10 p.m.
then comes the amazing part:
the promoters of the Festival asked if we would also do a second 'side stage' appearance this year,
when they asked, I answered, "of course, do you want us to play at the Templ Bar Stage again?"

"No, we have a different idea... One of the Side Stages we use is called the Church Stage. an old building that we use for the festival.
would it be possible for the Violet Burning to Close the Colours Festival at midnight on Sunday night and perform at the Church Stage?"

again I said, "of course...."

In my heart, I have always viewed myself as an 'altar builder'.
I go to different places in the world and there I setup with my band or on my own with my guitar and I make my offering to God. wherever I am, clubs, bars, churches, colleges, parks, beaches, festivals.
I build an altar and offer up worship to the Lord of all Creation.
Many times in our travels we come across abandoned churches or old church buildings or churches converted into nightclubs, and I always love to be able to setup there in those places and 'build an altar', to sort of reclaim those places of worship.

as this conversation about the Church Stage was happening, I was thinking of these things in my heart.
then the promoter from Colours explains, "we would like you to do a night of prayer and meditation there on the Church stage as the Festival is closing Sunday Night at Midnight"

how amazing is that?

we are just thrilled at the opportunity and of course humbled that we have another door opening for us.

I have been in touch with Sascha Flek and we are planning to incorporate some readings and prayers to be read from the New Czech Bible during the Sunday Night concert.

More:
Poland, Germany and Netherlands.
the other wonderful news is that we are once again invited back to SLOT festival in Poland, and back to FReakstock Festival in Germany. The people who are involved in these events are doing a great work and we are humbled that they continue to look to include the violet burning.
these groups of people are also helping us to arrange other shows throughout Poland and Germany.
Also, due to some challenges we have had, a few friends in the Netherlands have offered to host at least one concert in Hollland. For many years the Dutch people have endeared themselves to the violet burning. They have treated us with such kindness. We look forward to being with them again.

How can you help?
Pray, Sponsor, Donate:

What you can donate towards:
our current costs of travel:
-car/van rental approximately $1500 for 4 weeks
-gas: estimated $1000-1500
-Airfare/Train: $2500
-food daily costs for 5: $100 per day x 30: $3000
-rent/living expenses ?
-strings/drum heads ?
-cost of shipping product, equipment and gear ?

Most of the shows are paying us, however with the current economic situation most of them cannot afford to even cover our costs.


Help Sponsor: Music for the Masses
help support missions and music by purchasing a CD to give away to those who can't afford to purchase music.
Buy a cd from our webstore for $15.
and we will give away 2 cds for every 1 that you buy/sponsor.
If you buy 1 CD, we will give away 2.
If you buy 2 CDs, we will give away 4 CDs
and so on...
to Sponsor Music for the Masses go here:

Donate:
if you wish to help us with the costs of our upcoming trips to Eastern Europe and/or to support missions and music:

The Biggest Violet B webstore Sale Ever! Click here!
we have 1000 cds and dvds in our warehouse, we are going to sell them for blowout price of $5.99 for cds and $6.99 for dvds. If you want to stock up on violet b material that you don't have, or that you want to share with your friends, please go here:

New Live CD: Pre-Sale.
The Violet Burning: Sting Like Bees and Sing click here
Live from Cornerstone 2007
Pre-Order now for $15 and get the downloads for free.
CDs will ship by July 15th.


To donate by Check:
Please email info@thevioletburning.com and we will give you an address to send a donation.

Reciepts
If you wish to give towards our music ministry under a church umbrella and receive a church reciept for your donation,
please make the check to:
Mile Two Church.
In the memo section write: The Violet Burning
then mail it to:
miletwo church
PO Box 1688|
Los Alamitos, CA  90720