Blog
2015 In Review
A year can hold so many experiences. Joys, trials, life and growth. As we sit here reflecting on 2015, with Christmas music blaring in the background, we’ve realised it has been a year of both fly-bys and the slow-burn. We began early January prepping for the recording of Everlasting and wrapped up the year with the Everlasting album release tour. 2015 has been filled with memorable experiences that have blurred into a myriad of memories that come with meeting new people and places each day.
Recording & Releasing Everlasting
Sharing new songs is always a personal process. As songwriters, our songs are our heart. They are our personal spiritual journey with God. We write them to express a moment of joy, a devotional lightbulb or to process a trial. Looking back we love seeing how God has weaved together Everlasting. From before we even thought of the album as a whole and were writing individual songs through to the release day and sharing the songs in concert, we can see God’s hand throughout. We are so excited that so many already have the new album all throughout the world! It’s been amazing to hear the stories of how God has used these songs in other’s lives as an encouragement through tough times and as a joy. To read more about our Everlasting album click here.
2015 Music Ministry Tours
God opened the doors to several music ministry tours throughout 2015. We did 86 music-sermons and concerts in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the UK. We wanted to share some of the moments and testimonies that stood out to us throughout 2015:
- One lady came up to Monique with tears in her eyes expressing how our message and music touched her heart. She expressed how she had been worrying about the timing of a particular life changing decision and said that our message and music spoke directly into her experience to give her encouragement; that it was like God was speaking to her and telling her to trust in His time.
- A non-Christian husband came to church for the first time with his wife for our music-sermon.
- A guy heard Christian music for the first time at one of our concerts.
- A woman, who previously hadn't been coming to church was invited to our concert, she loved it so much that when invited to a Bible study small group later that week she said "yes".
- A lady having a particularly terrible day, was able to have a moment of rest during our concert.
- We listened to so many stories of how our music has been blessing their lives before we even came to their church.
- We survived 11 straight days of concerts with a smile on our faces and a voice left to sing
- A Bible study group's recent studies flowing perfectly into the concert's topic.
- The heart felt thanks for a concert that touched a their life that transcends language barriers after European concerts.
- Seeing tear filled eyes as Monique spoke the spoken word before 'He Knows’.
- Selling out of the Everlasting physical albums during the European leg of the Everlasting Album Release Tour.
- A lady, who randomly came to church after a series of bad circumstances, who was brought closer in her relationship to God as a result.
- Some attendees at the JAWE Conference in Switzerland shared with us that "During your concert I felt close to the divine, I could see Jesus through what you were singing and saying." and "A lot of musicians and singers out there sing to glorify themselves, it is clear that your main focus is singing for God and that came across in the presentation." This is one of our constant prayers and we are so thankful that God uses us in this way.
- Playing a concert filled mostly with refugees.
- A lady at another church told us that she felt like all the words we spoke and the song lyrics were written exactly just for her. She expressed that our concert touched on exactly what she had been feeling discouraged about recently and gave immense encouragement. She said it felt like God brought us to her town at just the right time just for her; to encourage her. She thanked us for being so open with our struggles in our songs, such as in Temporary, as it helped her to not feel alone in her personal struggle.
- The last minute concerts organised at both Friedensau Adventist University, Germany and Seminar Schloss Bogenhofen, Austria.
- A young man, studying the Bible with the pastor, being emotionally moved to the point of conviction during one of our concerts.
In the middle of our Everlasting Release Tour and all the above testimonies we celebrated the 300th concert since we sang together for the first time in late 2009! We are continually amazed and thankful to God for His guidance, providence & continually giving us the faith we lack. Thank you to each and everyone of you who have supported us & our music over the years! We know that we couldn't do this without you! Thank you!
We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a blessed 2016!
Eric & Monique
The Europe and UK Leg of the Everlasting Tour Begins
20 hours of flying time is quite a lot, but it went by so fast. It might have been the on board entertainment or the 5 hours of sleep that I got, but Australia to Germany has never felt so fast! I love traveling via Abu Dhabi, it is the most direct way, took 13 hrs 50 mins and then another 6hrs 30 mins to Munich.
The Everlasting Album Release Tour 2015
All of our gear at Melbourne International Airport.
Some great things have already happened and we've only been here a day, we got the best deal on car rental, probably one of the cheapest we've been able to find out of all the international touring we've done. I also love it how pretty much every German car is an awesome one, they very nicely decided to give us an Audi A3 which thankfully takes Diesel fuel, which is the cheapest fuel option in Europe coming in at about 1.16 euros per litre. We'll be racking up the kilometres on this trip, so we're really thankful to God for providing us with this awesome deal!
Hello Germany 🇩🇪 Enjoying the Autobahn!
So anyways enough about car talk, as I could go on, when we hit the autobahn at 9am local time we drove to our first night of accommodation which wasn't able to check us in until 3PM. So we took the liberty of having 6 hours or so to go and explore Augsburg, which just so happens to be a well known place for Martin Luther and the reformation. I had no idea about this, as we didn't have time to research tourism stuff much before leaving, so while we struggled against extreme tiredness and jet lag, we checked out some amazing sights in Augsburg.
Monique facinated by the Martin Luther exhibits in St Anna, Augsburg.
Here's a photo album of some of the stuff we experienced yesterday.
Anyways, this is all I have time to write about at the moment, we drive off to Switzerland today to have our first concert this weekend at the JAWE youth conference, keep checking this blog as we aim to update you on our tour along the way.
Much of God's blessings,
- Eric
Everlasting Release Tour - Australia, Europe, UK
Hey friends!
We're super excited to announce our release tour for Everlasting! God has opened up doors for music ministry across Australia, Europe and the UK. We leave tomorrow! We can't wait to get on the road on a music ministry tour that stretches till mid-December and see what God has in store. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel, sing, meet new friends and mix in some spoken word and stories.
Check out the list of places we're visiting below. For more details about each concert check out our tour page. We hope to connect with you over the next few months!
We still have some dates open for invitation, let us know if you'd like us to come to your area.