A great gift from our friends the Stubbs — do hard things!

This does not get old. Lots of “hard things” ahead, and lots of joy.

Audrey means “noble strength.”

See earlier photos below!

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UPDATE (12/09/11): They won! Thank you to everyone who watched and shared the video. $16,000 for the village of Cusuna!

Last week we got an exciting email from a 12-year-old rebelutionary named Sean. After watching the DVD conference, he and some friends decided to do hard things: Collecting hundreds of pairs of shoes for the village of Cusuna in Honduras.

Sean got to go to Cusuna to deliver the shoes, and afterwards, collaborated with Kathryn (13) and Sarah (9) to make the music video at the top of this post. The video is entered in the Friends and Heroes Contest, ending next month.

The grand prize is $8,000 for the winners or $16,000 for the charity of their choice. If Sean, Kathryn, and Sarah win, all $16,000 will go to help the village of Cusuna — and either way, Sean is going back to deliver more shoes!

View count is a big factor in choosing the winner, so watch the video and share it with friends. It’s a great reminder of how God can (and wants to) use young people to do hard things for His glory and the good of others.

Way to go, Sean, Kathryn, and Sarah!

The final conference, over 5 years after the first. From 17 to 22 years old.

Photos by Ashley Christine at Focal Clarity.

Grateful for Joel — leading worship at every conference all these years.

John Reilly, lead singer of the awesome band Reilly.

We love the dueling violins of this husband-wife duo!

Seeing and hearing the stories of lives changed is our greatest privilege.

Changing the world begins with a changed heart.

To you be the glory, Lord. We’re so grateful for your kindness.

See more photos on our Facebook page.

Been to one of the conferences? Share your story in the comments section.

It’s hard to believe that the last Rebelution conference is just over a week away. It has been an absolutely incredible past five years, and we’re so thankful for the hundreds of volunteers who have made these conferences happen.

This post is about two people in particular who have filled a key role on the tour — leading worship — and who don’t receive anything close to the level of appreciation they deserve: Our older brother Joel and our good friend Harlan.

Joel has lead worship on at every single conference (besides the two of us, he is the only person who has been at every single one), and Harlan has played at most of them, including the very first Sacramento conference back in 2006.

Worship at the Rebelution conferences has always been meaningful and unique, featuring upbeat contemporary worship, classic hymns like “Amazing Grace” and “Come Thou Fount,” as well as original songs like “Yours Alone,” “Ransom,” and “Made Anew” — now sung by thousands of people around the world.

This year, Joel and Harlan have collaborated to record The Rebelution Tour EP. For the first time, you can take the worship songs we sing at the conferences home with you — along with a beautiful recording of Joel’s song “Goodnight, Mama” (featured in the video above), written just before our mother passed away last year.

The EP will be available at the conference in Baton Rouge on October 15th, and is also available to download on iTunes or order on CDBaby. You can also find chord charts on their site. All proceeds go directly to Joel and Harlan, as a thank you for their many years of service to the mission of the Rebelution Tour.

Enjoy the music, and we’ll see you in Baton Rouge!

+ iTunes / EP Website / Chords +

5:40pm - Thank you Indianapolis. Thank you God.

4:17pm - Final Session

3:01pm - Lives. Redeemed.

2:39pm - Presenting the Gospel

1:53pm - Worship

12:56pm - Lunch Break

11:49am - Overflow room.

11:13am - Spent 5 months raising funds to attend from MN.

10:43am - First session closes.

9:42am - Welcome from Alex & Brett

8:38am - Doors Open

Photography by Hannah Michelle.

Health issues have kept our friend Elaini from India, but not from doing everything she can to help the children she loves. For 100 days she is wearing ONE dress (and borrowed accessories) to raise $50,000 for Warm Blankets’ orphan homes.

Today is Day 91 — just nine days left! For the last three months, Elaini has posted daily photos and updates on her blog — raising over $16,000. That is enough for three orphan homes, plus education and tens of thousands of meals.

But Elaini is not giving up her dream to reach $50,000, and she shouldn’t. With God, anything is possible. If just 3,000 people give $10 by texting ORPHAN to 52000, she will meet her goal. If just 1,000 people give $35, she will exceed it.

We love Elaini’s project — the heart, the creativity, and the determination to make a difference despite her health obstacles. We love the cause — helping churches provide a home, shelter, food, education, and the gospel to orphans.

What does it cost us to give $5 or $10? Relatively little. But for an orphan, that is the difference between health or hunger. What does it take to share a video? A minute. But that could be the difference between a home or homelessness.

At today’s conference, all the refreshments proceeds will go to Elaini’s project. Will you join us? Even $5 will feed one orphan for a month. Then… Spread the word. Help us by sharing the video on Facebook, Twitter, and around the web.

Let’s see what God can do in less than 10 days.

+ Donate Online / The Blog / Elaini’s Story +

You read that right. We’d love to have you, your family and friends at one of our upcoming conferences — even if you can’t afford to pay a cent!

We have a “Pay-What-You-Can” policy — which means just what it says. We don’t want anyone to miss out on attending this final conference tour because of financial concerns. If money is what’s stopping you — stop being stopped!

Come at the price-point your family can afford — whether that’s full price, $10 per person, $5, or nothing! This offer is good for any of our remaining conferences:

• Portland, OR - July 30
• Kansas City, KS - August 6
• Indianapolis, IN - August 27
• Baton Rouge, LA - October 15

INSTRUCTIONS: Just download our mail-in registration form, fill it out for the amount you can afford, and send it in. If you’re low on time just show up the day of the event and request “Pay-What-You-Can” pricing. You can also choose one of the options below:

• I’d like more information on the conference.
• I can afford to register online for the regular price.
• I’d like to help spread the word.

We look forward to seeing you on the road!

With the Orlando conference just days away — you can still at the door — we are getting more and more excited about the final tour. One of the things we’re looking forward to is worshiping our Savior with two of our favorite bands:

• Tour-favorite Reilly will be returning for San Diego and Baton Rouge.
• The incredible Generation Letter will be joining us for the first time on this year’s tour — in Orlando, Williamsport, and Indianapolis.

Those of you who attended the 2009 conference in Chicago or any of our stops last year will remember Reilly for their skill, energy, and love for the Savior (not to mention the dueling violins). We are über-excited to continue the partnership.

If you are not familiar with Generation Letter, you are missing out. This is a mega-talented group of musicians and songwriters with a passion to lead God’s people in worship. Get a taste in the video above, from NEXT 2010.

And as always, our brother Joel Harris will be leading worship with Harlan David. The two of them may or may not have just finished recording The Rebelution Tour EP — a collection of original songs from the tour. More details coming soon!

So that is one thing we are looking forward to on the conference tour this year. How about you? What are you looking forward to on the final tour? Drop us a note!

+ Leave a Comment +

Girls today need a clear vision of biblical, beautiful womanhood — and there’s a new book out for teen girls that provides just that. I’d love to tell you all about the book and the young author, but instead I’m just going to let you read the foreword I wrote for it. Take a read and check out “Uncompromising: A Heart Claimed by a Radical Love” by Hannah Farver — just out this past Sunday.

Amazon.com Description: Ask any girl on the street what womanhood is about, and you’ll get a blank stare in return. No one knows. Young women are devoid of vision beyond popularity, material wealth, a cute boyfriend or a dream career. Even in Christian circles, significant questions are often left unanswered: What’s the point of purity? Modesty? Femininity? What’s biblical womanhood? Most of all, girls wonder at the longing in their souls for something greater.

Uncompromising: A Heart Claimed By a Radical Love cuts straight to the heart of young womanhood. Rather than setting up rules, it pulls at the desire in every woman’s heart to live a life of purpose, fully surrendered to His radical love. Written in an edgy teen voice, Uncompromising is a collection of “field notes” from the author’s own search for answers…and the story of how she stumbled upon the one Cause worth dying for. Contains study questions for group or individual use.

BRETT’S FOREWORD: I first met Hannah Farver back in 2007 when she helped host a teen conference my brother Alex and I were holding in Dallas. We were so impressed we asked her again the following year. By that time she was already authoring an outstanding blog for young women called Beauty from the Heart and was getting ready to launch her own series of conferences.

A year later Hannah emailed us about a book she was writing and asked us to look over the manuscript. Well aware of her exceptional character and competence, we gladly agreed—and were thrilled by what we read. When she asked us to consider writing the foreword, we didn’t have to think twice.

Since then, Hannah has joined us at Patrick Henry College where we’ve had the opportunity to attend classes together, enjoy British Movie Nights (with tea), and build a statue of Cary Grant out of snow (her idea). Alex and I have watched her practice what she preaches day in and day out, amidst the pressures of exams and the drama of college life. Even though we are a few years older, we have personally benefited from the “big sister” wisdom God has given her.

Simply put: Hannah Farver is the real deal, a young woman of conviction, compassion, and courage. Through her words and her example she is provoking young women to raise their sights and fix their gaze on the only Cause and the only Love worth pursuing. She is a fresh and compelling voice straight from the ranks of her peers. Her passion for God and for her generation flows through every chapter and bleeds through every page.

One of the things Alex and I love about Uncompromising is that Hannah is not a grown-up trying to sound like a girl. She is a girl wrestling with grown-up things like purity, modesty, and what it means to be a woman. Her challenge to our generation is firmly rooted in her own humble (and often humorous) search for something greater than the trinkets and trappings of this world. These dispatches from a girl-in-progress carry a gut-level honesty — the emotions are fresh; the excitement is real; the journey has begun.

As Hannah writes, “Take this book as the collected scribblings of someone who has met — and is still learning to adopt (or be adopted by) — the Cause. It’s a work in progress, but maybe my notes will help you compile your own.”

If you accept Hannah’s invitation to come face-to-face with Jesus Christ, you will never be the same again, and you will never regret it. What she describes as “scribblings” are nothing less than a soul-shattering tribute to the greatest Cause that ever was or ever will be.

Our friend Alex Chediak, an Associate Professor at California Baptist University, has written a great book called Thriving at College. Here is the foreword we wrote:

College can be a wonderful and a dangerous place. We’ve seen some of our peers flourish and find their identity at school and we’ve seen others completely lose their way—or even self-destruct. Is the college experience inherently bipolar, good for some and unavoidably bad for others? Or is there another possibility, that each outcome is a path we can choose to take? In this terrific book former college student and current college professor Alex Chediak says the answer to that last question is “Yes!”—and we wholeheartedly agree.

For most high school graduates today, going to college is the default. As a result, a lot of teens end up drifting from high school into college, without any clear plan in mind. Maybe you are going to make your parents happy, or to get away from somewhere or someone, or maybe college just sounds like a fun new experience. Whatever your motivation, entering college without a sense of purpose is dangerous.

Why? Because for most young adults, college provides at once more freedom and more responsibility than they’ve ever had before. Whether you choose to focus on the freedom or the responsibilities of college will determine whether you thrive—or just survive. At college there are no parents to make you read your Bible, do your homework, get sleep, eat well, or do laundry. At college—even at Christian universities—there are “friends” willing to support whatever lifestyle you choose to engage in: from bookworm to party animal.

So college is both a crisis and an opportunity. A crisis, because while embracing the freedom of campus life can lead to temporary fun, the end result can be a lifetime of regret. An opportunity, because embracing the responsibility of college can result in incredible intellectual, spiritual, social, emotional, and physical growth.

The student who thrives at college—the student who glorifies God with his or her college years—is the one who sees it as a great opportunity that requires great responsibility. Alex Chediak understands this better than most, with the experience and heart to help students reach their full God-given potential. Thriving at College will help you navigate the common pitfalls relating to faith, relationships, academics, and extracurricular activities.

There is no better guide to college than this.

If you are currently in college or heading in that direction, this book should be part of your “college survival kit.” On April 14th, AlexChediak.com is hosting a “book bomb”—which gives you the chance to grab a copy and spread the word!

Join the discussion by answering the following questions:

• Have you seen friends “thrive” or “lose their way” at college? Why is that?
• If you are planning to go to college, is it the default or part of a plan?
• If you are in college, is your focus on freedom or responsibility?