Ventura Weekend
by Xaundelle Aguirre
Friday we headed up to Mikee’s place in Ventura, called Epic. We were all excited and were looking forward to seeing the family and hanging out at his awesome 3 room venue (coffee shop, venue and gamer room).
Friday night we played at Epic, the venue, and entered the 
Shabbat with the lighting of the candles and inviting God’s peace into the place. We worshiped and did our thing, allowing God to use us. The last few sets God has been really pouring out His Spirit during Listen With Me and again we began to repeat the words “blessing and honor and glory and power” and have the audience join in worship. After the show a few people came up to the table to encourage us.
I had the opportunity to meet a young girl who was with the headliner, New Waters. She thanked us and said she just sees that we SHINE up on stage, worshiping God. Later, I was sharing with Jenn (she and her husband, Josh, have become good friends from the Ventura area) about the intimacy and nearness I want with the Lord during my singleness. I began to express my desire to have nothing hindering my love being poured out onto Jesus. Jenn told me that she could see the pure offering be lifted up to Him as we worshiped. She said she didn’t think my eyes opened the whole set!!! It was so cute.
Saturday we slept in late, hung out around at Mikee’s place and the venue. Mikee’s wife, Vera, 
took the 3 of us girls out to sushi for dinner. We felt so spoiled and pampered by them! It was such a blessing! Afterwards we met up with the rest of the band/family at Epic where a private Casino bday party was being held. We played blackjack and roulette and just enjoyed the time spent with the Epic family and each other.
Sunday morning we got up early for an outreach to a mentally challenged nursing home in Pasadena. Josh and Jenn had prayed about joining us and while seeking the Lord, God told Josh, “Didn’t you tell me you wanted to see the blind sight restored and the lame walking? What are you waiting for?” As we arrived at the nursing home, Josh heard the Lord say we would restore the joy to the people in this place and that Men As Trees 
Walking was exactly where we were supposed to be! The Holy Spirit began to speak to me about taking back the land the enemy has stolen.
So we began our acoustic set with a mandate and purpose for about 40 very precious elderly. Through our small set God began to reveal His heart for these people and during Come Away, Papa began to sing prophetically over them that God has not forgotten them and He knows them by name. It was such a sweet presence of God that we all began to weep over these people that are easily forgotten from our society. Saphraine tried to sing “How He Loves Us” and struggled through tears to sing over them.
After our set we were told we had 5 minutes to share a word and my dad put me on the spot to give a quick “message” to the group, who may not have all spoken English or comprehended the words I was speaking, but as I began to break down HOW God would restore the land the enemy had stolen, I began to see THEM shine. I was given a revelation that God created each of us with the intention of knowing Him. That this “light” that shines in us isn’t given to us after we’ve accept Jesus, it is in our DNA and is a part of who we are as children of God. Sure, our light can become brighter or get snuffed out, but I began to encourage them to let their light shine in the nursing home. There are others in the facility that did not come to our service and these 40 could be used by God to bring light and joy to the rest of the people who live there! We ended the service with their favorite song “He’s got 
the whole world in His hands…” and everyone began to clap and sing, it was such a joy! I felt the smile of God shining down on us.
After our set the couple that invited us to play that day gave us the opportunity to lay our hands and pray for the patients. It was an amazing sight to see not only the 9 members of the band, but the 6 people who were praying and interceding with us the whole set join in the ministry time! I began to see the heart and purpose of our community function in a practical way. Here we were, doing something close to God’s heart! This is where I want to go: to the sick, to the hurting, to the rejected! This is what we, Men As Trees Walking are called to do!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Birthdays and Lawn Worship
Yesterday (Wednesday) we finally had our first show here in town in
It was a lot of fun just relaxing doing our music, worshipping in God’s presence. We got connected with the home church they hold there every Wednesday. God is so good to bring strangers together to worship and adore him.
Today was Corin’s birthday! We started out the day determined to fix the generator! While the guys went to different stores to get all the materials us girls went shopping to make corins’ special birthday dinner!
We made ponceit a Filipino dish my mom made while we were growing up. So xaundelle and I were in the kitchen ALL DAY cooking and making cake!
When the guys got home they tested the generator and HALLELUJAH IT WORKS!! The AC works perfectly a cool 70 degrees in there! woohoO! God is so good to provide!
We sat down for dinner around
Tomorrow morning we head for
Don’t forget our show tomorrow in
Please continue to pray and support us while we’re out here!
Love you all!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
our biiig day!
by Saphraine
Wow today was QUITE an adventure!
Mikee Bridges let us borrow his 15 passenger van (yay God!) and so we got to go out today to ‘sight see’!
We all woke up this morning and decided to dress up low key steam punk (you never know what will happen riiight?), after breakfast we headed for Griffith Park, we drove around saw all the horse trails, travel town, the L.A zoo, and the golf course. On the way out we stopped by Mount Sinai Cemetery where a funeral was being held.
Mount Sinai is the original location in mind for Disney Land so it’s HUGE! Of course Disney Land ended up on the other side of town so they made the land a huge Jewish Cemetery, where people like Phil Silvers, Norman Fell are buried and the memorial to 6 million. It was really interesting to be there, it’s up on a hill and it looks over Hollywood. As most people know Hollywood is currently being run by Jews, they’re very important in the film industry and to have one of the biggest Jewish cemeteries to be right above it I think is quite significant.
After we visited the Cemetery we drove into Burbank where my family is from! We got to see my Grandparents old house, my favorite donut shop, my Dad’s old high school, different places he grew up. It was cool to show my Fiancée (hunter) and the other band members because they get an idea how my parents grew up and how they raised us.
We then headed for Universal City walk (I love this place!) it’s basically an outside mall, a bunch of different shops, posters, music, food etc. etc. We went in encouraged to see healings and God really work through us. We have been so encouraged by different testimonies from bethel and just hearing what the Lord is doing right now in California we wanted to be apart of it! So, everyone we saw that was sick, or with a cast we prayed for (there weren’t very many, these people are healthy!) but we did get a chance to pray for one lady with a cast. She didn’t speak any English but she let us pray for her, she wasn’t healed on the spot but she was thankful. I believe God will work in her and show he is faithful to her.
After spending some time at City Walk we were all so hungry for MEXICAN! Not all that Tex-Mex we get back in Texas but some real good and spicy California Mexican! Woohoo! We went to a place in Burbank called Mucho Mas! YUM!!!! I have missed real Mexican food!
We then headed for Hollywood, boy do I love this city! We got to walk around visit stores see a bunch of people imitating actors for money (haha) it was so much fun!
We then got in line to see Jimmy Kimmel LIVE, only 8 of us went but we had a BLAST! Seth Green was a guest on the show and Xaundelle and I LOVE him! Before the show even started Jimmy Kimmel came out and talked to everyone, he pointed out Corin in his ‘steampunk’ clothes and asked us about our band and when we’re playing, it was AWESOME! It might not be on TV but a huge crowd heard about our band and after some of them asked us about our shows so they could come!
At the end of our day we met up with an old friend and got some coffee. It was good to chill before we headed for home. We had so much fun today, it was nice to take a break!
P.S!
Please pray for some of our girls they have had some skin problems on this trip. for all of our health! We’re out here facing the enemy everyday with breakdowns, frustration etc. so please pray for our health as we get through this war we’re fighting every day!
We know God brought us to LA for a reason! People have had prophetic dreams about us and we want to do everything we do for God but that means the enemy is going to be even harder on us because we’re doing it in a peaceful gracious loving manner.
Thank you for all your prayers! We got the money in for our generator radiator and God is providing every step of the way!
Staaay Tuned!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Update!
Day 3 of chillin at the Delgado’s. I continue to be positive in the situation in hopes that the stress and frustration doesn’t get to me, I need to cast all of these burdens onto him.
Papa is trying to get a 12 passenger van so that we can go sightseeing. I really wanna go to Universal Boardwalk and get out on the town! Saph and I are about to grab some food for dinner. On Monday’s some of the band members pray and fast for God’s will and direction in MATW and our lives.
Scripture posted by papa:
For, brothers, we want you to know about the trials we have undergone in the province of Asia. The burden laid on us was so far beyond what we could bear that we even despaired of living through it.
In our hearts we felt we were under sentence of death. However, this was to get us to rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead! 
He rescued us from such deadly peril, and he will rescue us again! The one in whom we have placed our hope will indeed continue to rescue us. And you must add your help by praying for us; for the more people there are praying, the more people there will be to give thanks when their prayer for us is answered. For we take pride in this: that our conscience assures us that in our dealings with the world, and especially with you, we have conducted ourselves with frankness and godly pureness of motive - not by worldly wisdom but by God-given grace.
There are no hidden meanings in our letters other than what you can read and understand; and my hope is that you will understand fully, as indeed you have already understood us in part; so that on the Day of our Lord Yeshua you can be as proud of us as we are of you.
2 Corinthians 1: 8-14
We had a good day today, got to catch up on much needed sleep and entertainment with movies and computer time. 
If we haven’t told you we have two new additions to the ministry, Ian and Elysa Hellerman they have been such great sports in this trip! Elysa is in charge of the merch table and photography so she has been posting pictures up all day! Ian is in charge of sound and doing guy things, repairs, moving etc. They’re such a joy to have with us and our friendship is growing, and we’re having a lot of fun!
Look out for new pictures and a blog every day!!
-Saphraine and Xaundelle Aguirre
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Our big adventure
Well we left El-Paso and started heading for Arizona, not without food of course..But now our next adventure is to find somewhere open at 2am for us to eat at. Tired and exhausted we all wanted a sit down restaurant I-hop, Denny’s, waffle house ANYTHING! Every Restaurant we passed was ‘no trucks allowed’ thus we couldn’t park and eat. After about 45 minutes of driving, getting stuck, turning around, and hopping a curb or two we settled at Taco Cabana which is pretty cheap and pretty good!
So we set off for Arizona once again! And 8 hours later in heat we showed up at my Uncle Omar’s house! We had a nice day of rest, food, and games with the kiddos! I love being with my cousins and it’s great we’ve gotten to see them twice this summer!
After opening the Shabbat with them with dinner and prayer we packed up and got ready to head for Los Angeles.
On the way we yet again we encountered an obstacle, at one of our gas station stops we noticed one of our tires was flat. Those who were awake rushed to help, all grabbing what they needed to change the tire and they did it in less than 10 minutes! Even though we have had trouble on this trip and we feel like the enemy is just beating us down more and more, God is bringing US together. He is making us more unified then ever before and it’s so awesome to see God’s hand over us even in our troubles.
On our way to California we had a chance to stop in Cabazon CA to see the Dinosaurs from Pee-wee Herman, one of our favorite movies. We got to relax a little and take some pictures with the dinos.
We arrived in Altadena CA at around 11:30am to see our friends Bret and Maura Delgado. We 
spent the day at their friend’s house for a pool party, it was soo relaxing! Food, swimming, and good people! After spending the day in the beautiful California sun we were all ready for bed! Some of us slept in the bus and had fans on from extension chords from the house, and some of us slept inside in the nice AC!
This morning we woke up to the smell of coffee and waffles (YUM!).
After a nice breakfast we’re all rushing around to get ready for our trip to Victorville.
Since our bus is having some difficulties making it up these hills we are borrowing a truck and a van to pull our trailer to our show today. Supposedly there is a HUGE hill we have to drive up and our bus just wouldn’t make it.
So after one of our tires on the trailer completely falling apart in Weatherford TX just an hour from our house, our generator radiator completely falling apart, spending a whole day at a hotel because of the heat, our engine overheating and breaking down because of heat and a big hill, taking 3 days to get to Arizona, annnd another flat tire on our trailer.. God is still providing, he is still showing himself as faithful and helping us walk through this with humility, grace, and building our faith even more.
We aren’t sure how we’ll pay for these repairs so please continue to pray for us! Our official tour starts today as we play our first show! We are updating every day so please stay tuned for more!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
And the saga continues...
by Saphraine Aguirre
Well this sure has been an adventure to Arizona. After 48 hours of driving we’re only 8 hours away from Dallas TX. We have discovered we can’t drive in the day light at 105+ degrees or our engine will over heat.
We just spent about 12 hours at a motel in Van Horn, TX. During our day we had the chance to swim, shower, and get to know the town. We walked to the store to buy food for lunch and just had a nice day of relaxing. For dinner we tried to order pizza from the local pizza joint, I ordered 2 cheese pizzas, 1 veggie, and 1 with beef and onion. She told me the total was $30.54, pleased with this amount (figuring it was a deal and a cheap joint) we continued with the order. About 20-25 minutes later she showed up at our door…with 2 pizzas the total being $30.54.
I ordered 4 pizzas and she was telling me to get the extra 2 cheese pizzas would cost me another $20!! That is $50 for pizza!!! They are small pizzas, probably don’t taste very well and she wasn’t even TRYING to help us!
Jimmy would be so disappointed trying not to let my ‘Albanian boss' down with ordering such pizza, we decided not to go with pizza. We just ate the rest of our sandwich stuff and decided to eat in El-Paso.
We left around 10:00pm to make our way to Arizona. We were pretty sure we would make it all night and arrive at 8:00am but the enemy had other plans.
We were enjoying a movie when all of the sudden Jason (our drummer) yelled “smoke smoke! The fridge is on fire! STOP! STOP!” all I remember thinking is 'there is fire in the fridge and it’s smoking…we have to get out!' Allan (my father) pulled over on the side of the road and we all jumped out. The entire bay that holds the generator was smoking profusely! After we let the generator and engine rest we tried to start it back up again. The generator radiator continued to smoke and we have yet to find the cause of this issue.
We got back into the bus with the intentions to make it to El-Paso, TX without further problems. With the generator off we’re all sweaty and bored just waiting to find a solution. Please pray for us we are about 2 hours away from El-Paso, and we don’t know how much it will cost to fix the generator or to figure out the problems.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
How many hours does it take to get to Los Angeles...
Hotel Lobby
by Xaundelle Aguirre
First I just wanted to say hello to anyone I haven’t had the pleasure to meet and thank you for all of your prayers and support while I was overseas with Gateways Beyond International. I’m so excited to join my family on this venture...
We have had a very adventurous trip through Texas! We left Tuesday around midnight (so Wednesday morning) headed West, planning on arriving in Phoenix around 10pm on Wed, when we got held up with a series of unfortunate events.
Our first gas up, about an hour out of town, we discovered our trailer had blown a tire and all of us got on our phones trying to find a solution to our problem. Apparently Weatherford is a small town and 24/hr tire places aren’t always stocked with the special trailer tire we were looking for. We kept our lil Chelsita up late to see if she could bring one out but there was no solution in the late night (or should I say early morning). We slept in our bunks at a truck stop that night.
Early the next day we found a tire, rim and a friend to bring it out to us. Next thing we know Joey was refilling the generator’s diesel tank and discovered a puncture in the tank! Five gallons of precious diesel began to pour out everywhere!!! It was nearing noon and we were all amused at the enemies attempt to make us turn back around.
A quick “team meeting” determined that we ARE going forward and the Lord has called us to GO. Not a moment later my dad received a donation from someone none of us know who was following the drama on facebook. He felt led to cover over and beyond the costs of the tire and tank damage, we KNEW that was God’s seal of confirmation that we are in His will.
Once on the road again we continued to face challenges such as the bus overheating under the hot Texas sun that left us sitting in another truck stop. We made a game plan and hit the road for an overnight excursion where many more memories were to be made.
The Lord has been speaking to me how these 3 weeks will be a time of strengthening, unifying and establishing our ministry. In all of these hurdles our true character and relationships are being tested and I believe our heart is what the Lord is seeking and values most.
See you again soon!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
On the Road AGAIN!
Well a lot has happened since our last blog (sorry we’re bad at keeping up while we’re home) Xaundelle (my sister) came home finally! After spending 6 months in Cyprus (island) at a Discipleship training school. We were so ready to have her join us on tour!
Well, if you haven’t been in touch I will catch you up on a few things.
Do you remember that bus we were trying to get that we saw in California? Well after a few weeks of praying it in, the owners of the bus felt so lead by God to have faith and they let us take it with whatever we could offer (which wasn’t a lot). So the day after my sister got home my dad drove in from Arizona with the bus!
The following week was a lot of work! We had to clean the bus, do some minor electrical repairs and set it up for 10 people to live in it for a week! We were going to take 2 of Corin’s friends Michael and Roman and my friend Chelsea to help out with things at Cornerstone. So that is 10 people in a bus that sleeps 11, if you could imagine how cramped it was!
During the week we were having some issues with the bus but, we were praying that it would come together. We planned on leaving Saturday (June 27th) so everyone was there and ready! But..the Bus didn’t start! We stayed up till about 5am praying and going back and forth to the bus to see if it would start. We decided once it started we were going to leave and have faith that if it breaks down God will take care of us.
So off we went! 10 people in a big red bus, exhausted, and holding on to hope!
It took us about 26 hours to get to Bushnell Illinois, once we got there we went right to work! We didn’t just go as Men as Trees Walking but as Podcast Media doing all of Cornerstone festival.com band interviews and coverage.
Xaundelle, Chelsea and I were one team and my dad was a lone wolf doing all the main stage interviews. If you can just imagine how busy we were! But we had a GREAT time and met A LOT of fun people [Showbread, The Wedding, Rae Cassidy, Harp and Lyre, and Bullet for pretty boy (just to name a few!)].
While we were at cornerstone God did some crazy cool stuff!
First of all we built relationships with some pretty awesome people like White Collar Side show and Brian Head Welch. God is really doing something in the music industry, especially the CHRISTIAN music industry. He is bringing spirit filled evangelical bands into the darkness to show God’s mercy and Glory! A few bands we included For Today, and Sleeping Giants who are really going for it! They are seeing His miraculous power everywhere they go! It really showed us that God is using everyone, and in powerful ways!
We also got to pray for some people to get healed! We met someone named Jessie and his ankle was healed after he had rolled it. He was freaking out that the power of God was on him and was yelling ‘it doesn’t hurt! It doesn’t hurt!” DUH! God loves us THAT much he doesn’t ever want us to be in pain. His cousin was there as well, Faith and she was healed from headaches during our set we played AFTER my sister (Xaundelle) asked for people to be healed by our music!
A HUGE testimony of God’s love and craziness!! A man came up to me and said “I am so glad you guys are back! I saw your tour bus here last year and I was wondering who you were!” and I said “I’m sorry? We have only had that bus 1 week and I don’t think the previous owners of it came last year. Maybe it was a different one.” I know the previous owners didn’t go to cornerstone because they only traveled within Arizona and California. But this man was very adamant about this and was 100% positive it was US in that BUS!
Another time a girl said “I am so excited to see your band! My friend just saw you guys 3 weeks ago in Minnesota!”Let me explain! We have been home for 1 month. This band has never been to Minnesota. We responded: “I’m sorry? Are you sure it wasn’t another band we have never been to Minnesota.” But yet again, she was VERY certain that her friend saw our band and she even said that they looked at our website and saw our pictures.
I feel like God is doing something we cannot comprehend and that it is the joy in being his Daughter. I had great revelation from these two stories. I feel as if God is trying to show not just us but others that He wants His people to be involved with the super-natural. I believe He is giving people open visions unconsciously. That is when you’re doing something that feels so real and so normal that after you go about your regular day. But it hasn’t happened yet. He is bringing us to another level of His kingdom, to see things we can’t understand but to know that it is Him. I think He just wants us to have Faith in Him, even when it’s extreme. To get in a bus with no money, with no job back home, with nothing and even if it breaks down, you get in it and you go….you go 26 hours and all of it is in faith. Super-natural Faith that God has your back.
To hear that God is giving OTHER people, STRANGERS these visions of our band of our ministry, that is giving us the strength to go on and do this thing!
We have been home about a week now. I had my wedding shower on Saturday (thank you to everyone who came) Hunter and I were very blessed to have our friends and family there.
And now we’re getting ready to go back out on Wednesday. This time we will be gone for 3 weeks. We will be in the west coast mainly California, and to be honest…we don’t know why. We don’t know but God has made it very clear to all of us to go back to the west coast before we go to the east. So everyone who we saw last time…can’t wait to see you again!
We will be updating hopefully every day while we are on tour. Please keep checking back and praying for us while we’re out there! Thanks so much.
Don’t forget to buy a CD or t-shirt www.MenAsTreesWalking.net
