Poland Tour Report 2008
 
Chris worked with a Croatian band named Adonai.    The tour sponsor was Doug Groth, a church planter in a city called Rabka.  He has planed the only evangelical church in the town.  So far they have 20 members.  Their town has almost 12,000 people - you can imagine how they must feel with such a large number of people needing to hear the gospel.  There are only a few believing churches in his area, and they are viewed as a sect by the intensely traditional Polish culture.  In addition, Poles are very cautious when they hear the gospel but many the team spoke to listened intently.
 
 
Sharing with a group of guys from a juvenile delinquent home  They acted really tough at first, but after we played some good music they became friendly and open.
This was our audience in a youth dorm in a local technical college.  They look like a hard crowd right?  Well by the end they were all on their feet and dancing and singing along, but we had to win them over.  I was able to share the gospel with both the guys in  front  As we talked they were very open and earnest.  Pray they will continue to consider the good news we shared and come to faith in Jesus.
Standing between my band mate Greg and me are Lucas and Doug.  Lucas is a youth leader at the tech college who leads an Alpha course and he was our local sponsor.  Doug is the church planter that sponsored the entire tour.  There is no believing church in Lucas’ city of 30,000.
MOLDOVA  08’ TOUR REPORT
 
Here are some comments from our local Moldovan partners about the tour:
I was amazed how much energy you had because I knew how busy your schedule was.  Almost every day you had a concert. I was at a concert on the first day.  I think our concert at Criuleni was the fifth concert. There was no difference in the concerts - in the excitement, power, and enthusiasm.  I got tired only translating for your concert.  You must get so much more tired with all the energy you put into your concerts.  You've done an excellent job for God here and His Glory.

We'll keep working with the people we met through the concert.  We hope in time God will bring more people into His Kingdom."

"A very important time is after the concert you were open to talk simply with the people. I was impressed that you are not just musicians but you have your own experiences with God. You can think deeply about christian life and can through provocative questions bring people to think about Jesus, Life, Heaven and hell.   Now I pray about how to bring these young people to continue to follow Jesus! Thank you for your ministry! You do a great job! We continue to pray about those that were to the concerts.  I hope the  seed will grow up! God bless you!”
"...in my teaching (at a local public school) about christian morality, ... everybody was excited about the concert! From my point of view the most important point of the show is that you can bring together a lot of young people and sing and testify about Jesus!"

"Once again I want to thank God and you for such a good experience we had working together.  We could see God's hand on this event from the beginning till the end.  We had about 600 people in our auditorium.  I am so glad you helped us so much with that.  We were able to share the gospel to so many people, especially when it is usually forbidden to have any religious activities in this auditorium.

We had a girl from that event get saved.  Many other girls and boys are meeting us on the streets and recognize us from the event.  I am so glad we were able to talk with the director of the House of Culture and the person from the Mayor's office.  After the concert, we spent a lot of time with them sharing the gospel.  We continue working with them.
“...in Chisinau, young people liked your music, especially because it was professionally done in their contemporary style and because it was LIVE. ...
in Branesti Prison, the head of the prison was very impressed. He testify at the end of the prison concert and he invited you back; he made a short video and showed  it to the Department of Moldova Prisons. It was great!"
 
 
 
Following God’s Leading
Our work in Moldova began developing slowly in the Spring 2007 when we met Tudor Turcolet.   We met him on tour in Kazakhstan where he was working with a local church. As he worked alongside  The Outlanders he appreciated how our concerts made a way for sharing the gospel and invited us to come to his home country.  We kept kept in touch after he returned to Moldova and decided we should explore the possibilities of touring his country.  When we visited Tudor he introduced us to several pastors and found them very interested in Tudor’s idea to have us put on evangelistic concerts.  We then held planning/training meetings with these new partners.  Eventually we planned the tour for October 2008.
 
 
 
This was our team.  The band was  called ADONAI - and was mostly Croatian except for Greg Davis and myself.  The band connected naturally with our Polish audience.  
We found incredible enthusiasm among local believers to share the gospel in Moldova.  Here we are meeting with local church planters to develop their outreach events.
                  
 
 
 
 
 
 
                      
An International Team
The Outlanders included Jamie Parler (South Carolina) on drums, Dominic Bijan (Germany) on lead guitar, Russ Speiser on Keys and Acoustic Guitar (Canada/France), Greg Davis on bass and Chris on lead vocals and guitar.  Our technical crew was Marty Shilling (Florida) on video, Craig Barnes (South Carolina) as sound tech, Ronald Hjooer (Holland) and Tudor Turcolet (Moldova) and Bob Johnson (Florida) on lights.  
 
 
Our 8 local partners included several local churches and also Campus Crusade.   The concerts provided hundreds of new contacts for our sponsors, and several people made commitments to Christ after the concerts as well.  We were able to connect them with our local sponsors for follow-up as well.  Our concerts were in opera houses in the capital city, Chisinau, and in smaller cities surrounding Chisinau.  We also had 2 concerts with Campus Crusade focusing on Chisinau’s 80,000 university students.  
Jamie Parler from South Carolina on drums
Chris and Greg Davis jammin’
We had a small but effective light and video show.  It was far beyond what many living in Moldova ever get to see in person.  We had lyrics for many of our songs translated as well.
Dominic (Germany) and Chris
Russ (Canada/France) on Keys
Sharing the gospel via song introductions & stories
Craig (South Carolina) ran sound
We always talk to people after our concerts.  In addition to sharing the gospel with the audience we always stay afterwards to meet people and share the gospel more in depth.  
On of our local friends named Dave is Swiss/English and is married to a German woman.  He is a believer and wanted us to play  for his party and share the gospel with his friends in conversations.  It seemed like his entire village showed up for his party.  The party went so well that  the local sports club has asked us to play for more parties in their village in May.
Left:  Simon and Chris chatting with one of the guys at the party.  Right: The Outlanders first German concert.  This is a great way to connect with Germans because they love to go to parties.  
Local Ministry
 
 
 
Here is our drummer Jamie and a brand new follower of Christ named Sasha.  Sasha is also a drummer and Jamie was able to connect with him easily after the concert.  Sasha was very interested in what we were saying during the concert and made a commitment to follow Jesus that night.
Chris was able to share the gospel with several guys after concerts.  This young man said he was an atheist and asked some good questions, but at the end of the conversation agreed he should read the Gospel of John and ask God to reveal himself.  He asked that Chris pray for him that he would find the truth.
In the middle is Dominic with a local believing girl who translated for him and a young man they met and prayed with as he made his own commitment to  follow Jesus.  
Sicily 09’ TOUR REPORT
 
We worked with Church planter, Vince Costa and his church planting team, The Timothy Group.  Their goal was to plant 5 new house churches or cell groups in metropolitan Catania - an area with approximately 750,000 people.   The goal of the concerts was to provide the Timothy group with enough contacts to start the new plants.  The tour was successful.  Several contacts were made and the house churches have been launched.  
 
Sicily is an extremely tough mission field.  Tradition is so strong - anything but the traditional religion is viewed as a cult.  It is simply unheard of to have 5 new churches planted at once.  Please continue to pray for the believers in Catania, Sicily.  
Croatia / Bosnia 09’ TOUR REPORT
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
One of our concerts was in cooperation with the only church in Glina, Croatia.  There are only 3 believers in  this city of 10,000.  The nearest city to them with believers is about a 45 minutes away.  The local TV station video taped the entire concert which helped the Glina Church to raise their profile significantly.  Several contacts were made during the concert.  Please pray for them as they have follow-up meetings and invite people to their services and meetings.
 
In Bosnia we worked with a man named Kajo.   He and his wife and two daughters are planting a church in Novi Vitez. There are no believers in Novi Vitez yet.  He invited Proclaim! for several concerts in his area in which he made many new contacts.  A man named Goran was one of the locals we met who worked at the concert site.  He hung around the entire day while we were setting up.  It seems he is interested in meeting with Kajo.  Pray for that relationship.  Goran also has a wife and son.  Pray he and his family will be saved.
 
 
 
 
There is a tremendous need for evangelism in Croatia and Bosnia because there are simply very few believers.  Our concerts helped some of the small groups of believers make contact with their communities.  The tour went well.  Several of our local partners  were told by their neighbors how professional the music was.  It is hard for them to believe that the local “sect”, as the believing churches are known, could bring such quality music to their areas.  These events go a long way in helping break down the suspicion these communities have of  evangelicals.
 
The Lord blessed us with good crowds at each of our concerts.  We were able to share with the audiences and also one-on-one after the concerts.  
The music and message of Mercy Street R&B was received warmly by the Bosnians and Croatians.
Sharing the gospel after the concert with a fellow musician and his wife.  
Sharing the gospel during the concert in Slavonski Brod
Left to Right: Massje  Kovacovec, Bosnian Church Planter Kajo, and Branko Kovacovec, Croatian evangelist.