gomertopia

My 20 Fav Third Day Shows - #8 G3-06 Church Service

8.) April 2, 2006, Nashville, TN, Great Gomer Gathering Sunday Morning Praise and Worship – Like the recording session, this was a very rare opportunity. How often do you get to go to church and Third Day is your praise and worship band?

It was the second day of the Great Gomer Gathering '06 in Nashville. Between our day at Rocketown, the Chevy Ride 'n' Drive, Third Day concert, and the Wherever You Are gold record party, we Gomers had spent the entire day before with Third Day. What better way to wrap up the G3-06 than with a church service, with Third Day leading worship?

We met in one of the rooms at the Nashville Convention Center. I don't remember what time it was, but after the late night before, and all the excitement, it felt like dawn. I'm sure it was more like eight or nine AM. It was just like "regular" church. Third Day led us in worship, singing some of the songs we love best. We sang Sing A Song, Praise Song, Agnus Dei, Communion, and Take My Life. It was wonderful. God was in the place.  Third Day's road pastor Nigel James shared a message called People of the Cross with us. You can read this message on page 139 of Nigel's book, Lessons from the Road. It was a great way to start our day, and an awesome way to end our Great Gomer Gathering '06.

My Top 20 Fav 3D Shows - #10 GuluWalk, Gomer Dinner, and Concert

It occurs to me that some of these stories may sound like I am bragging. I don’t mean to sound that way. I’ve kept most of this to myself until now, but I thought it would be fun to share it with you. I hope you are enjoying reading my adventures.

We are into the top ten now!

10.) October 21, 2006, Houston, TX, WYA Tour, GuluWalk, and Gomer pre-show dinner – Months before the Wherever You Are Tour, I had been praying for some way the Gomers could participate in some kind of service project. God dropped the perfect event right into my lap. Rushia Wallace, then of the Houston chapter of the worldwide GuluWalk, emailed to see if there was some way Third Day could help out with the Walk in Houston. This was the perfect event for the Gomers! Not only did it involve a cause that was near to Third Day’s hearts, the event took place the weekend of the Third Day concert in Houston! And the official GuluWalk color the same shade of orange that the Gomers wear!  This couldn’t have been any more perfect. So I worked it out with Rushia for the Gomers to participate. We got donations from friends, family, and other Gomers. The Third Day Gomers team came in third across the country, raising $2,245.00. Sixty Gomers walked in Houston, and four in other cities. All five Third Day guys, Scotty, Nigel, Third Day’s business manager Lillian, and Ray from Hyper Static Union walked with us. We had a beautiful day in the park with Third Day and raised money and awareness for a cause we believe in. You can read more in the original blog posts here and see the photo album here.

This was a very well documented occasion. In addition to the original blog posts and all the photos, I also have never-before-seen video. The first video is Tai’s speech before the GuluWalk (9:18 long. For best results, let it load before you try to watch it).

The second one is a clip of everyone walking. I know that Tai said we should walk solemnly, but you will hear a lot of laughing because we were having so much fun. Be sure to study the photo of the Third Day guys at the very beginning of the clip, so you will know what they are wearing. That way, you can find them walking in the video.  Listen for David talking in the beginning.

After the GuluWalk, we had dinner at Pappas’ BBQ in downtown Houston. They have great BBQ and Texas-sized baked potatoes. We filled the large room they had reserved for us. We had drawings for about 10 prizes, all kinds of things like CDs, books, a couple of cozy orange throws that say “RockStar” on them, and some autographed items. We had a great time visiting with each other. Take a look at the photo album from the dinner.

Then it was on to the show. The Toyota Center, which is a huge place, was packed to the rafters. There were patches of Gomers in orange all around. The audience was super-charged and ready to rock! And Third Day did not disappoint. They tore the place down. It was awesome. I got some amazing photos, despite sitting behind Tugboat, whom I love, but who is 6+ feet tall. Take a look at them.

Mark Lee’s Fav Third Day Shows

In this post on the Third Day blog, Mark talks about his top ten Third Day shows. He lists the 2004 Great Gomer Gathering in Houston, Texas, as his third favorite show. I started to put my comment there, but it started to get a little lengthy, so I decided this would be a better place.

That "sea of orange" in the audience was quite a sight! I'll never, ever forget it. I sent KSBJ email after email telling them that this was going to be the first Great Gomer Gathering, and could they help us surprise Third Day with a "sea of orange" by having everyone, all 14,000+ audience members, wear orange. How awesome that would be!!! Third Day would take the stage and be totally amazed at the love and support from the audience. It had been my fantasy for years (still is) that there would be tons of people at every show wearing Gomer shirts. This idea was just an exaggeration of that fantasy. I had no idea it could be as awesome as it was! At the concert, Dan and I walked all around the Pavilion, up on the grass hill, just looking at 12,000 or so people dressed in orange (there were about 2,000 hold outs). This may sound silly, but I cried. It was so beautiful! There was so much love poured out to this band I loved, our chance to give back a little of the love Third Day had given to us for so many years. Later, Third Day's manager told me that when Tai exited the stage he told her, "It don't get no better than this." Mission accomplished!

Of course, now I have the problem of trying to figure out what the Gomers can do to top that! Any ideas?

Come On Home, Gomers!

I told you all about the new Gomertopia before it was opened. The time is here to come join! We have a lot of your friends and fellow Gomers on there already! So come join at www.ThirdDay.com/Gomer ! We're waiting for you! (Even if you don't consider yourself a "Gomer", come join us anyway! We'd love to have you!)

New Photo Album! Orange Elves at the Christmas Offerings Concerts

Third Day just finished touring with Jars of Clay on the Christmas Offerings tour. The shows were wonderful! And we Gomers, always showing our support for Third Day, wore orange Santa hats to the shows, to celebrate the season Gomer style! To the left, you will find a new photo album full of pictures of the Gomer festivities during the tour.

If you have photos of Gomers gatherings during the Christmas Offerings tour, especially photos of Gomers in orange Santa hats, please email them to me, so I can add them to the album. (Most of the Gomers in the photos must be wearing orange.)

Parachute Festival, New Zealand

I have asked Kevin LJ to give us an account of the Parachute Festival in New Zealand. He was on the photography staff for the festival, so he got a closer view than most. Kevin, his wife Sharon, and their three sons live in SE Asia. Sharon home schools the boys and Kevin works with an organization helping poor farmers out of the poverty cycle through coffee farming. All five members of this Gomer family converse on the Third Day message boards! You can find their family's website, full of Kevin's beautiful and inspiring photography, here. Below is Kevin's blog entry. Take a look at his photos of the event in the album on the left. You can see Kevin's photos of the Third Day concert here.

I hit the ground running in Hamilton. Well prepared with our family set of orange Gomer shirts, (thanks to a generous bunch of States side Gomers,) we'd come to see Third Day (mainly) and I'd come to work, having volunteered my services as a photographer for the weekend. I'd been assigned to cover a whole bunch of bands and other festival activities, but main stage on Sunday evening was to be the prime time.

Texas BBQ and Fellowship

After our GuluWalk in Houston, we all headed out to Pappas' BBQ for some good eats. There were 65 of us at dinner. We had the whole back of the restaurant reserved and we filled every chair with people in orange! We ate, and visited, and ate, and gave away prizes, and ate, and talked, and ate, and laughed, and ate some more. Pappas has great barbeque and huge baked potatoes. I've put the pictures I took at the Gathering into the photo album to the left. I apologize for the pictures of people with their mouths open, but when you are taking pictures of people eating and talking you are going to get a lot of that. Feel free to right click and save the picture if you see yourself in any of them. I had a wonderful time. I think we all did!