A word from Dave at the end of the Festival Con Dios tour November 12th, 2002

Hey Everyone,
November 12th The tents are rolled up, the stage has been shut down, and everyone has gone their separate ways.This is what I can tell you about the thirty city tour of Festival Con Dios, WOW! God did some amazing things on the tour. Rain on about 24 of the 30 dates and at times people would get frustrated, bored from setting on the bus or van, or under a tent looking for refuge from the rain. Even so the fans were faithful. At the worst show which rained steadily all day in Murray, Kentucky over 1200 people came and braved the rains. That night God worked through the speaker with a handful coming forth to ask Christ into their lives and showed us it was all worth it.

The crew that worked day in and day out was amazing. They were the first to rise up and start putting things together, and they were the last to go to bed. They worked very hard everyday no matter the conditions. Yes, at times you would hear grumbling, but who wouldn't when you pretty much stayed wet all the time.

God showed up in an amazing way one night. We were in San Antonio, Texas. Everyone had gone on and we had two bands left. Toby Mac was coming up to do their explosive set like they had for the past 25 shows. It had been a nice day and nothing had gone wrong. Lights up, music blaring and half way into the second song BAM, sound goes down. I am standing back at the Out Of Eden table looking and watching. Brian the Drummer for Toby keeps playing with the hopes the sound will kick back in. Now people are starting to filter out on stage in the hopes to entertain the 4500 plus people.

The Girls from Out Of Eden take off to go on stage and play with everyone. Brain is still playing the drums and by now someone else has gotten on Ben's drum kit and they are playing also. It sounded like some war cry from a tribe. With about 5 or 6 people banging on drums, cymbals and what ever else would make some noise it was getting pretty wild. We found out the generator had gone down.

The speaker Paul came out on a skateboard and showed some old school skateboarding. He was amazing. Deshon Bullock from Toby Mac was getting on the side fills which were about 9 feet high and flipping off them backwards, I mean people on stage were having a blast.

Then Brad Butcher, from the Luis Palau ministry brought up a little portable sound system and got everyone's attention. He asked everyone to please pray for the generator, and that God would just touch it and fix it, but God had bigger plans. As I stood there watching everyone beating on drums and running around on stage I watched the people in the audience having a blast. And then God impressed on my heart for us to sing, praise and worship Him. Now I'm not a worship leader by any means, so I picked someone to lead us. I asked Lisa Kimmey from Out of Eden if she would lead us if I got everyone's attention.

Lisa started off with "Our God is an awesome God" and then ran into another song. She handed the mic over to Nirva Dorsaint from Toby Mac and she lead in a few songs and then they handed the mic off to me and I gave it to Jeremy Camp who has a strong and powerful anointed voice and it was amazing. God came down in a way that we had not seen on the whole tour.

As we stood there on stage singing out to the Lord, the faces of the people were lifted up to the heavens. I shared with everyone how awesome it was to hear such praise being lifted up to the heavens and asked everyone if it would be ok to continue to sing with the leadership of Bart Millard of Mercy Me. Everyone went crazy and Bart took us to the throne of God. For about 45 minutes I saw a little of what heaven is going to be like. As the body of Christ will one day be together and just sing at the top of our voices to Him.

The generator was fixed and Audio Adrenaline came out and tore it up. Since Toby was not able to finish his set, Audio A. did a version of "Jesus Freak" and Toby and his band joined in. The tour saw over 2000 people come to know the Lord, with no telling how many seeds planted. It was a blast! Every band was great and spent time ministering to the fans at all shows. It is a tour I will never forget for many reasons, but mostly because it was an awesome time of laughing, cutting up, but mostly praising our Savior. What a Jesus we serve.

Thanks to everyone on the tour, and all those who had a chance to come and see the show. Many blessings to you all, and thanks for your time. God Bless
Much Love in Christ

Pastor Dave Soesbee

2 Timothy 2:15