My third Artist of the Month post. Crazy... Next week will begin my 5th month of blogging! Where has the time gone? Anyways. This week's Artist of the Month is Citizen Way!


Citizen Way is a Christian Rock band. They were formed Elgin, Illinois. The band is composed of two sets of brothers. Ben Blascoe plays bass, while his brother David plays drums. Ben Calhoun plays guitar and vocals, while his brother Josh plays guitar, keys, and vocals. These four started their band in 2004, and have never had any lineup changes! (Fun fact: this is the first band I have ever seen that has been around for 11 years with no lineup changes. That's awesome.)


They all met at Judson University, which is also in Elgin. There, they formed their band, which was originally called "The Least of These". They later changed to their current name, Citizen Way.


One thing about this band that I think is really cool, involves their lead singer, Ben. In 2011, Ben had completely lost his voice, and was told by doctors that a cyst had formed in his throat and he may never be able to sing, or even talk, ever again. Ben surrendered to God's plan for him, and said he would continue to put his trust in God, even if he could never sing again. So he went through the surgery, and hours later, came out of the surgery room singing "Amazing Grace."


The band has put out three singles, one in 2012 and two in 2013. Their first and only (so far) album was released in 2013. It is a really good album, and they are a fairly well known band now. Their song "How Sweet the Sound" has about 854,500 views on YouTube as of August 31, 2015. My favorite songs of theirs are "Evidence" and "Should've Been Me." Definitely check them out!


--Have you ever heard any music by Citizen Way? If not, go listen to some of their songs. What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

As promised, this week I'm going to talk about a few of my favorite moments of Summer Charge!


Cabin Devotions

Cabin Devotions were always fun. In the morning, after breakfast, everyone would go to their cabins of about 10 people (including the leader) and do our Cabin Devotions. These were always fun, and we learned from them too. We learned about the characteristics of God and much more, and we also had a ton of fun joking and laughing about different things. Definitely the most fun Bible study I have ever done!


Saturday Night

The worship on Saturday night was definitely the best of the week. You could just feel God's presence among us, and everyone was excited to just stand in the presence of God and worship Him! After worship and the sermon was over, everyone met near the lakefront to talk about what we had learned during the week and how we were going to live it out when we went home the next day. It was so cool to see all the different things that people had learned that week. It was a very emotional night for some, especially those who they or their siblings had gotten saved that night. Many of them wanted to work on having better relationships with their families, or rekindling old friendships. It was an amazing night!


Four Way Volleyball

So imagine you are playing volleyball. Except instead of a regular volleyball, you have a giant 4-foot-diameter beach ball instead of a volleyball. And there are three of them. And each team has about 18 people on it. And there are two volleyball nets connected in an X shape, so there are actually 4 teams. That's what we did during Friday night games, and it was sooo much fun! It also helped us build teamwork and being encouraging to others.

Land of Ethos

Possibly the most interesting and unique game ever. Unfortunately, it is only playable once. This is how it started: Mark Robinson (who is one of the two youth directors of Campus Life) walked onto the stage and said "Once you leave this building, you will be entering the mysterious land of Ethos. You are searching for the Moral Compass. Walk around and interact with the villagers, but remember this: Nothing is as it seems." And that was literally the only instruction we got. Each team was given a certain amount of money and a map to start off the game. Then, each team wanders around the village trying to find clues to help them find the Moral Compass. For instance, one of the villagers (all of the leaders at Summer Charge were villagers, so there were about 30 different ones) was Denise Green, who was called "The Tavern Owner." We walked up to her, and she asked us what we wanted. We used the only piece of information we knew and said "We are looking for the Moral Compass." So she said "Funny you should ask that. There was a man who came through looking for that a few years ago. No one has seen him since." Confused, we asked, "Which direction did he go?" She answered "I sent him to the blacksmith, because he said he needed his sword sharpened. The blacksmith is just down that path." So we followed that path and arrived at the blacksmith shop. There, we were told that she had seen the man, repaired his sword, and sent him on his way. She told us which direction he went, and we went that way also. So we went and walked around the rest of the village, talking with other villagers, such as the Beggar, the Prospector, the Merchant, the Law Enforcement Officer, the Bard, and so on. Within the game, there were multiple paths you could take. One was following the footsteps of the man with the broken sword. But there were others, such as helping the poor Merchant lady to help support and feed her husband, who is in jail, but the jailor won't say why. The merchant lady says it was because he found out something he wasn't supposed to know. Or, you can try and figure out the fisherman's riddle. It was a very unique game and very fun too!


And there you have it! These were my favorite moments of Summer Charge. Huge shoutout to all the staff at Summer Charge for being so fun, friendly, and patient. Sometimes we were really hard to deal with, and with so many of us, it isn't always easy to get us all to pay attention, but they were very patient and kind with us. I hope that I can be as patient as they are someday. I know I have a lot of work to do!


--What did you think about this post? Did any of it sound interesting? Let's talk about it in the comments!

So this year was my first year to ever go to Summer Charge! Summer Charge is a week long camp organized by Campus Life. And it was incredible! It was such a fun week that I got to spend playing sports, hanging out with friends, meeting new people, watching the bellyflop contest, participating in team games, reciting verses, worshiping God, and learning about Him! It was an amazing week! So let's start at the beginning...


When we arrived, the whole group (all 90+ of us) gathered in the main room as we went over the rules. Then, we found out what cabins we were in and loaded up our cabins. (My cabin was awesome. I had the best cabin leader and some super awesome cabin mates! Lots of fun times!) I got to stay in the same cabin as one of my best friends from Campus Life. I didn't really know anyone else very well except my brother Zack, but I had a lot of fun getting to know them, it was a really fun week!


Next was lunch (which was also awesome! Big shout out to the kitchen crew, the food was delicious!). Then, we had free time until supper. Free time is basically spent playing lightning 24/7 or hanging out in the Canteen (the place where you go to buy snacks and play board/card games) After supper, we got to find out who our teammates would be for the week, and then worked together with them as we played team building games with Coach Cowdy.


After that, we had session time. Session starts out with announcements, then prayer, then a student testimony, and then worship. I had the privilege of being on the worship team for camp this year. It was amazing being able to be a part of that team and leading those 90 something kids in worship twice a day, every day. I really enjoyed it, and I know everyone else on the team did too!


After worship, we had the sermon by our guest speaker Ryan Underwood. Ryan did an amazing job! The topic was "Getting Real". We talked about getting real with friends, with family, and with God. I know a lot of people were impacted by his sermons, and we had multiple people accept Jesus for the first time!


After sermons, we had night games!! These were always fun. Personally, I was always scared that I would trip over an unseen root and break something, but it never happened and everyone had a blast! We played lots of different games, including Staff Hunt (all the leaders hide around the entire camp, and the students have to find them), Capture the Flag, and more!


Overall, it was an incredible week. Games were awesome, the activities were awesome, the food was awesome, the leaders were awesome... there wasn't much bad about it!  I loved the whole thing and can't wait to go again next year! But at the same time, I'm also very sad that next year will be the last year I will be able to go. I wish I had gone to Summer Charge earlier, because I really wish I could have gone more. It was such an amazing experience, and I learned so much about being a team player, being encouraging, being patient, and being loving to everyone. Next week, I'm going to talk about a few of my favorite parts of the camp! I can't wait!

So we had our first attempt at recording on the last Tuesday in July. Zack, my dad, and I all packed up our gear and headed to church. When we arrived, we immediately headed into the sanctuary to begin.


I had already had a meeting with Gary Houk, our church's operations coordinator, a few weeks earlier to learn how to use the soundboard for recording. I was a little worried about it, because I don't always have the greatest memory, and soundboards look (and are) pretty overwhelming to someone who doesn't know how to use them. I started setting up the way Gary had shown me, and immediately ran into problems.


The first thing we did is try to determine some camera angles for the drums. This was difficult, because it didn't look very good if you looked through the cage around it, but there was very little room inside the cage for it. Finally, we brought a chair into the cage and put the tripod on top of it. However, we had another problem with this: Since Zack had to start the recording process, there wouldn't be a way to start the camera safely. We just decided we would figure that out when we got to the drums. So we moved on to set up the recording process. And just as I feared, I had forgotten a few steps.


While I WAS able to get the soundboard and the recording files set up, I still had to get the song to play through the stage monitors so we would be able to hear it while we were playing, but I couldn't remember how to do it. I tried and tried, and I sat there for over an hour trying to remember, and I just couldn't do it. So our first night ended in failure. We weren't able to record anything.


It was a really frustrating night for me. I had been thinking and planning and dreaming about that night for months, and it turned out to be a huge letdown. I didn't remember how to set it up. Frustration is something I'm very bad at dealing with, so for the next few days, I beat myself up about that night. I was upset with myself, upset that I couldn't do better, upset I had to wait even longer to start making music videos.


I'm still upset about that night, but I'm not as angry as I was. My dad had told me that the first night wasn't going to go well. I would mess up, I would do something wrong and have to start over. It would be a learning experience. I knew it was true, but I pushed that thought away and had expectations that were far too high for my first try. Gary has moved to Kentucky since our meeting, so I can't meet with him about it again.


I will be setting up another meeting with someone else from our tech team to review how to use the soundboard. Not only do I want to know HOW to do it, I want to know WHY I have to take each step, so I can remember it for next time. Instead of memorizing it for next time, I want to understand the different aspects of the board so I can take what I know and apply it to other situations as well. Hopefully, next time will go better. But either way, I have to go in with patience, and understand, sometimes, you just have to wait.

Another round of bands you guys have recommended for me today! I must say, I'm totally not loving this post idea. Not only is it a great interesting topic, it gives me suggestions for new music to listen to, and possibly some new music for you guys too! Definitely check these bands out, they are all great! So let's begin!

The Museum (recommended by Mark McClellan)


I don't think this band has enough fans. Their music is too good for the small following they have. They deserve a lot more! I have added their songs to my playlist! Thank you for the recommendation. My favorite songs by them are "My Help Comes From the Lord" and "All Over the World"


Flyleaf (recommended by Matt Kittelson)


I LOVE THIS BAND. Seriously, this is like one of my favorite bands now. It reminds me a lot of Skillet, but with a female lead singer (and no violin). They are awesome. The first singer and the new singer are both great! I have been listening to their music constantly lately. My favorite songs by them are "Set Me on Fire" and "All Around Me".


Hawk Nelson (recommended by Jennifer Nelson)


He is pretty good! I hadn't heard that many of his songs, but I'll definitely be checking out more of them now! His music has a great message. His music is similar to Matthew West (at least that's what it reminds me of!). Thanks for the recommendation! My favorite songs by him are "Drops in the Ocean" and "Sold Out".


--Do you have any recommendations for me? Share them with me in the comments, and I may feature them on the blog!