A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

OK...how about this for a helpful hint?

Or maybe this....
Yes, we had lunch with the band called "LEELAND" yesterday and then saw them and "CASTING CROWNS" perform in concert last night. Long story short, Brent has an employee (Thanks Wes!) that is has two family members in the LEELAND band. (his brother Jake and his cousin Leeland himself). Therefore, Wes's Mom - Mama Callie - got us all tickets and back stage meet and greet passes for last night so that we could hang out with everyone before the show. Look closely at the picture above and you might notice on my meet and greet pass that Mark Hall, lead singer of casting crowns, autographed it for me. Let me just confess....I was a tad bit star struck while chillin' with all of these guys backstage. All of you know how much I "LOVE" casting crowns music. After meeting everyone from the casting crowns band, which just so happens to be the number one Christian rock group right now in the country, (they just took home several dove awards a week or so ago), Leeland took us up into their dressing/green room and showed us how everything worked. It was all so very intriguing. We are so very thankful for the time that Leeland, Jack, Jake, and their band in general spent with us over lunch yesterday as well as throughout the start of the evening last night. We truly felt "special" coming from behind the stage when the show was about to begin. I won't deny that we were true groupies. Ha ha! I snapped as many shots as I could get. Too many to post here actually. However, here are a few that give you an idea of how awesome our night was. First up, this photo is of Brent and I with Leeland backstage in their dressing room. About 20-25 others got meet and greet passes but we were the only ones (along with Wes and Amanda of course) that got to go up into the crews dressing room.
This photo below is for Mama Callie. It's of all her "boys" and of her sweet sweet daughter in law, Amanda. (Left to right is Leeland-Wes's cousin, Wes holding his lil' son Austin, Jake-Wes's brother, and Amanda.)
BELOW: Leeland and a crew member playing around as they were signing autographs for the meet and greet visitors.
BELOW: Leeland on stage during the concert itself. Their band just ROCKS. If you haven't got the CD or any of their songs on your IPOD, go get it. You must have it.
ABOVE & BELOW: This is Christian singer, John Waller. He opened the show for Leeland and the Casting Crowns. Great guy too. Loved his music even though I wasn't very familiar with him until last night. BELOW: This Juan Devevo, guitarist for Casting Crowns BELOW: Jake (Wes's cousin from the LEELAND band) introducing Chris Huffman, bass player for Casting Crowns, to Wes and Amanda. BELOW: Hector Cervantes, lead guitarist for Casting Crowns, signing autographs at the meet and greet session before the concert began. BELOW: Mark hall, lead singer for Casting Crowns, and his violinist/vocalist-Melody Devevo signing autographs. BELOW: The best drummer on the face of this earth, Andy Williams (from Casting Crowns). This guy truly ROCKED-and I mean ROCKED the house last night. BELOW: Jake and Jack from the LEELAND band. Jake is on the left and Jack is on the right. The cool thing about Jack-other than his great personality and his extremely friendly demeanor-is the fact that he is married to Michael W. Smiths daughter. Yeap, he is married to Whitney. She was at lunch with all of us yesterday too. (featured with Jack in yesterdays lunch photo shown in the post below this one) Brent and I were so in awe of her and the fact that Michael W. is her Dad. We talked about growing up in Tennessee with him as her father and what that was like. As most of you know, Michael W. Smith is Brent's favorite Christian singer of all times. If you remember right, a few months back when we went to Michael's Christmas concert in Tennessee, Jack (below on right), is the one who had Michael call Brent on his cell phone that day. Brent was so dumbfounded and excited after talking to Michael on the phone that he was literally just in shock and completely speechless. Thanks Jack! We still laugh about that moment all the time. Whitney, we loved meeting you and hope that we see you again in the future. Thanks for spending your afternoon over lunch with us yesterday.
BELOW: Jack rockin' it out on stage last night. BELOW: Leeland and the LEELAND band on stage last night BELOW: Me backstage and starstruck with Mark Hall - lead singer from Casting Crowns. He was the nicest guy ever and truly knows how to bring the house down when in concert. I must tell you that this man - even aside from his overly busy tour schedule and normal chaotic life as a Christian artist - he still manages to go home to Atlanta every Wednesday and Sunday so that he can continue to minister to the youth where he is the youth group minister at his local hometown church. How awesome is that??? What devotion he has to the youth!! Truly amazing and truly says something about his incredible love for God. FYI....Please ignore my appearance in these photos. I was a drenched rat by the time we made it indoors to the concert. It literally poured here in Indy yesterday and therefore, I look like something the cat drug in throughout all of these pictures. BELOW: Mark doing the meet and greet back stage.

BELOW: Mark rockin' it out on stage during the concert itself

BELOW: Mark singing on stage while the big jumbo-tron TV played above him

BELOW: Casting crowns drummer, Andy Williams, bringin' the house down at the end of the night and showing us what he is made of during a special introduction for him by Mark.

BELOW: A very neat moment last night - the whole crew of casting crowns got on stage and one by one - went down the line and prayed for all of us in attendance at the concert and for our lives in general. Their words were very moving to say the least.
BELOW: These shots below are of one of my most favorite moments during the whole evening. Mark introduced this guy who came out on stage dressed in all black. During two of the songs that Mark and the casting crowns crew sang, this guy painted onstage to the songs while they performed them. It was one of the most powerful moments I've ever witnessed.

You can see him in the bottom left corner below writing on the big canvas with chalk. Now scroll down and watch what he does throughout the time that they performed those two songs.

BELOW: What he looked like on the big jumbo-tron TV as Mark and casting crowns sang and performed around him.

ABOVE: The end result of his artwork. It was amazing. I wish he would have auctioned it off or something. Brent and I were talking about how cool that would have been to hang that bad boy in your house somewhere. It was incredible. What a word picture-literally!

And finally, I snapped this shot above at one point in the evening last night when I noticed the hands for God up all around me. I was so very moved and had to try and grasp a candid shot of that moment in time. There are no words to describe how raw and emotional you can find yourself during a "God moment" like that unless you've experienced it first hand. If you have a relationship with Christ, then you know the feeling I'm trying to describe. Sometimes it happens at church during a powerful sermon. Sometimes it happens as you are driving down the road when a song comes on regarding Christ and life in general. If you've been there-then you know what I mean. The moment above was exhilarating yet soooooo soul wrenching all at the same time. Casting Crowns and Leeland's band deliver oh so powerful and such meaningful truth in the words with each song that they've released. They have a way of rocking you to your core and lifting you up all at the same time. I know no other way to describe it. I guess its just a God thang'! I'm so thankful for that and so blessed by those "God moments" in life.

Thanks to all of you who were with us last night. We had a blast. A big shout out to Jarret Heaston and his wife too for a really fun time last night as well. The only thing missing here is a photo of you guys. Maybe next time, eh? Jarret is the worship leader at our church that Wes gave a pair of the tickets to. Speaking of knowing how to the rock the house, Jarret rocks the house every Sunday morning at church for the congregation and we love it! We thoroughly enjoyed hanging with you guys all night last night. Until we can do it again sometime soon, have a great weekend! See you tomorrow in the pews! :) Blessings, Angie

PS...If interested, here are links to LEELAND & the CASTING CROWNS myspace pages. You can go and hear some of their music on there if you have the time. If you don't have their CD's, you must go get them both. They are so very worth it.

Leelands: http://tinyurl.com/6ggpb6 & Casting Crowns: http://tinyurl.com/5n6nmy

PSS...Last but so not least, I'm giving a BIG shout out to my son Brennen this morning for the two awesome touchdowns that he made in his football game last night. Unfortunately, Brent and I were at the concert and missed the plays because we couldn't be at his game. I've missed two games in all of Brent's sports seasons for the 9 years of life that I can remember. One of those two just happened to be last night. And wouldn't you know it, he'd score 2 touchdowns at the game we missed? At least Grandma Debbie was there to see it all go down. YAY Brennen! You rock studman!