I would rather error on the side of regretting action, than live with regret of inaction.

I would rather error on the side of regretting action, than live with regret of inaction.

It’s always a real challenge starting from scratch in a huge city. Everything from finding an affordable place to stay and buy food, to getting our fliers printed and music cds burned, to learning how to get around the city is challenging and takes time and work. 

I have spent about five nine hour days walking around the city from one office to another, filing paper work to obtain the permission required to perform here on the streets. One of the secretaries told me honestly that the whole permission system is designed to make people give up because they do not want people performing on the streets all though they cannot legally prohibit it. 

As with most everything in life, if you want something, something that matters, you have to fight for it. Opportunities are opening and we are getting into the places of this city. We performed at some big plazas, and were invited to a special festival at a huge park in the center.

Last time we were out at a plaza performing, we almost had a serious tragedy. We do an act that has torches lit on fire in it. As I was in the back preparing the fire, someone in the crowd knocked over the container of fuel and I did not see it happen. When my brother came back to light his torch, the ground ignited and fire began to jump all over. It was terrifying. In an instant it began to spread and jump to our equipment.  

We had a camera sitting on our speaker and it caught this shot of the flame.

Thanks be to God our beloved Father, who protected us and enabled us to put it all out without suffering significant loss or injury. My hair caught on fire but I was able to put it out quickly so not to serious, nothing a haircut won’t fix. I burned my hand and some of our costumes, props and musical equipment was damaged, but nothing irreplaceable. My dad stamped out a lot of the fire right away, and when I saw his pant leg I was extremely worried, because it was all burned and shriveled and I thought there is no way that his leg is not severely burned. A while back I had suffered sever third degree burns on my leg due to a motorcycle accident and I remember the sever pain and how long it took to heal. In that moment I flashed to that pain and dreaded thinking my daddy was going to suffer that. But as if a miracle, his skin was not burned at all! God is so good and so present and His angels watch over those that serve Him.

The crowd rushed forward to try to help and were all very concerned. We were able to get everything under control in no more than twenty minutes and were able to continue our presentation and have a very effective night and touch the lives of many people. 

Just down from where we are staying they were having the Hip Hop international dance finals (a dance competition). My brother met the director and explained what we do and he asked us to perform for the crowd. It was really cool being on a stage, at night with really awesome lights and shadows, right next to the ocean. I am short on time at the moment and we have two presentations tomorrow and possibly a big one on Sunday so I have to get stuff ready. I will write more next time. 

The Ocean is not far from us and I have gotten to see dolphins a number of times.