My Life as a Rockstar. Or, Yet another reason I really love my job.

I never thought I’d say this, but I’m kind of a rockstar. The absurdity of it still makes me giggle. But it’s true. One of my roles at [iccp] is, along with Adam and Tasha, to start a high school ministry from scratch. One way I decided to go about this was to start a band. Actually, this band is the realization of a dream that began years ago after observing that, 1. music is a powerful avenue for outreach because it speaks to so many people, and 2. we have some incredibly talented high school musicians in our community who were longing for an outlet for their musical gifts and for a place to be connected to something meaningful. A few years (and a bit of blood, sweat, and tears) later, a band was born.

Last weekend was our public debut, and we debuted in a big way. On Saturday night we played for a event that was organized for youth in the greater Provence area. Our (still nameless) band has been rehearsing for months and months, and I was so pleased with how well we clicked as a group for this first gig. We also had the opportunity to play on the Cours Mirabeau, the main downtown street in Aix. A large stage is set up at the top of the Cours as a part of the Christmas market, and our band was invited to play 2 sets on this stage on Friday night, and 3 sets during the day on Sunday. We drew a huge crowd both days and got really great feedback. I’m still not sure how to handle the attention (I don’t think I’m a rockstar by nature), but I am excited about the fact that through this we’re connecting with a lot of people and [iccp] is becoming better known in the community.

So we’ll see where this goes. Yesterday I got a connection to potentially play at IPN, a nightclub in town popular with exchange students that has started doing live music once a week. My job is so awesome.