Fradam

It was their first visit to Australia, and my first time seeing a big time Christian band live… and let me just say, wow. I’m so happy I got to be there with Jamie and simply experience it. I do not know what I had in the way of expectations - I’d heard a number of their songs on the radio, and had been listening to a few at work in the days leading up to it, so I knew there would be a lot of music I didn’t recognise. But you know what? It didn’t matter - the songs had subtitles on the big screen! I found this incredibly handy as it meant I could actually think about the words in these songs a lot more, rather than their meaning disappearing into the ether of a concert. In conjunction with the explanations for some of their songs… it made me quite appreciate songs that I had previously just listened and seat-danced at work to. Mind you, I’ll still seat-dance at work to them, but they’ve got more in the way of meaning now. Strongest memory is still of If we are the body.. so good.
Some random things that stood out:

- The opening act (Parachute Band), I’d never heard of them before, but they were pretty good! Very passionate, and a good choice to get the crowd all amped up for the main act
- Some of the guys from 103.2 HopeFM got up before they played and had a few prizes to give out to people who could sing a few lines from a Casting Crowns song - one of the guys who got up there and sang was incredible! I sometimes am amazed there aren’t more bands out there.. people can be really talented.
- The lead singer of Casting Crowns, Mark Hall, has a great life story of how he ended up building this band, despite having both ADHD and dyslexia - things that severely held him down during his youth. It was encouraging to see someone overcome obstacles and find fulfillment in what they did.
- We didn’t get yanked into our seats for standing up. In fact, Jamie and I at one point, stayed standing as he began to talk about something - thinking it was just a brief little intro to a song, commented on the Mexican wave of people sitting down… and then realised we were the last people standing up in the entire audience. Even the diehards in the front row were sitting down! The talk proceeded to go for another 10 minutes.. and because the next song was a bit slower, nobody else really felt like standing up either. Oh well, it was fun!
- He led a prayer.. not once, not twice, but three times! I’ve never prayed with that many people before. Although, one of the prayers, I wasn’t quite sure where it stopped, because his language morphed into addressing us (the crowd).. and it was really subtle, because my brain became aware he was talking to us and I was thinking “Hang on.. he can’t pray to us…”. Having not prayed with that many people before though was definitely an experience.
- Mark had a big push to get involved in a charitable work, and talked about how he and his son had been supporting a child in Africa who had the same birthday as his son. It was quite moving, hearing about the bond that formed between the son and his friend in Africa. The giving became a personal connection, and so much more than simply sending money off to a distant country.. his son had a friend that he cared for, prayed for, wrote to, thought about… it was beautiful and has given me a few ideas about something too.
- I’d have been pretty happy if Mark was the only guy who spoke about the work in Africa. Another guy (you can see he left a memorable impression on me) - I think he was involved with the Parachutes  - spoke about it too. I recognise it can be hard to talk about charitable work you do sometimes without sounding a bit .. yeah .. but calling the number of kids his family supported a whole ‘tribe’? I didn’t really feel that gave them much respect. Something about the way he spoke made it sound more like a numbers game and I didn’t find myself that encouraged to get involved from his talk. I know his intentions are in the right spot; he wants more people to become aware of how easy it is to sponsor a child, which is a wonderful thing, so I applaud for him for that.. but to me, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have to take care about how he refers to them all. His call to action was to go to the foyer in the break, look at the pictures of the kids there, and “see if there was one there that you liked”.. it almost made the entire process feel like one was shopping in a supermarket for a new brand of shampoo.
- He did however talk about the Parachute Festival, which is this massive 3-day concert over in New Zealand, which they are hoping to bring across to Australia and tour around the country. Daniel later told us that it really is the biggest thing on the NZ calendar, and is quite comparable to Big Day Out..! It attracts more people in total due to it being 3 days long, but whoa. That will be amazing if they get it over here in Australia. He offered free CDs to those
- Mark didn’t really give any special attention to the hosts (Hillsong), but asked everyone to yell out the congregation they worshipped at, and then encouraged those who wanted a place to go, to go where their neighbours went (provided they yelled out!). They also handed out free Bibles after the concert to anyone who wanted one. No pressure at all on it, but it was nice to see it on offer.
- I had called Koorong (they organised a lot of the concert) earlier in the evening to find out if there were any special buses or anything running to/from the event.. the guy on the phone was so disappointed to have to give me bad news (no dice), even going as far as “I don’t even have a car I can lend you…”.. awww! People can be so NICE!

What an amazing evening, so happy! I am grateful for Sammie giving me that opportunity - thankyou!