Matt Smallbone

Matt, Anna, Clay

1:12pm

My Durban wake-up call came at 6:45am. I slept fairly well. I awoke for a bit at 2:30am (dentist time… tooth-hurty… HAHA), but I fell back to sleep in about 30 mins. The rest of the guys didn’t fare so well. Olson thinks he only got a couple of hours sleep, MWS struggled… basically everyone had a rough night.

I had a great video Skype home last night. Mary and the kids were all there. They had just made some cupcakes for our new neighbours… and were eating the left overs while we talked. I miss those guys. Mary is doing a great job with those little fellas. They are happy and healthy and full of life. Thanks babe!

Anyway… I digress. We all enjoyed the breakfast buffet this morning… albeit bleary eyed. Yesterday I embraced Africa and had curry chicken and basmati rice for breakfast. It was a strange start to the day… but hey… when in Africa… do as they do. This morning however, I decided to take a pass on the curry and had  some Weet-Bix instead. It took me back to my high school days when I would set the alarm for 6:45am, slam down five of those wheat nuggets of goodness, and be out the door by 7am.

As fate would have it, Jimbo D decided that he would try the curry this morning. He was about to take his first mouthful when Manix said,

“Curried Liver… cool”.

Jimbo dejectedly put his fork down and claimed that he didn’t eat organs.

I wanted to retort with:

“The skin is an organ… you never eat skin on your chicken?” But… my filter kicked in and I said nada. Well done me.

The flight from Durban to Johannesburg took all of 45 minutes. Most of us slept. I read some more of Crazy Love. Reading that book in Africa is uber-convicting. I have been reminded that Christianity was never meant to be as easy as us evangelicals empowered by our 5 minute quiet times have been led to believe.

Take up your cross and follow me is probably more of a command than a suggestion.

The Christian life should be serious fun. I often forget about the serious part.

As we wove through the razor-wired streets of Johannesburg, I was thankful for our little house in Springhill, TN. However, I do know that my current comfy lifestyle allows me to be anything but radical. Actually… most of my Christian friends passively encourage my materialism. I need to reassess what I buy, and how and why I give.

6:42pm - Dinner at venue

Jimbo, Christa, Michael W, MO

10:40pm – Hotel

I just got off the stage here in J-Burg, and I must say that that was the most amazing show that I have ever been a part of. The crowd was with us the whole way, and there was a deep sense of God in the room.

Michael W. was kind of mugged by the mosh pit when he stepped out at one point. It was all done in love… but I was a little anxious there for about 5 seconds. Fortunately, “Arkansas Mitch” was there ready to take care of business if things got big:)

All in all though… an amazing night… and one that I will remember to my dying day.

Grace and peace,

matt

4:15pm

We have just finished sound check, and everyone is trying to get in touch with home. We exist in a MacBook world…

Everyone slept quite well last night… and we are all now implementing our personal jet lag solutions.

My steps are:

1. Drink lots of water (6 bottles so far today)

2. Get some sun (This resets the body time clock. Olson, MWS and I caught some South African autumn rays by the hotel pool this morning. It was life-giving).

3. Be active (I lifted weights and swam 2-laps of the small pool).

4. Avoid day time sleep (I feel like sleeping… but I am here blogging).

5. Take sleeping pills at bed time (I will try to avoid this…)

I will be 100% jet lag free by Wednesday. You can take that to the bank.

10:32pm

It was an incredible concert tonight. Thousands of people crammed into the room and joined their hearts with ours. It appears that the South African folk are great singers and passionate in their love for Jesus. MWS was in fine form, and he threw in a few different songs than usual which kept us all on our toes.

I heard a rumor that some of the boys are ordering pizza… I’d better go and check on that.

Love,

matt

Monday May 17

We are currently sitting at the gate in Johannesburg. After our 17 hour flight, we have a short flight to Durban. We board in 60 minutes.

Everyone has a sore tooshie… but other than that the J-burg flight was great. (It was definitely less stressful than flying to Australia with three kids under the age of 4…)

I spent 17 hrs sitting beside Jimbo-D. Jim is a good guy to sit next to on planes for the following reasons:

1. He is a slender dude
2. He has great hygiene
3. He laughs out loud when watching Romantic Comedies.
4. He is emotionally honest (I saw him shed a tear during Marley and Me).
5. He only needed the bathroom twice

A few of us watched Avatar for the first time on the trip. Jim is holding out to watch it on BlueRay. Manix and I thought that it was an awesome film. Olson didn’t like it as much as we did… (for plot/ characterization reasons). For some reason I thought that the film was going to be blue people not speaking in English for the whole film (which I concede… it kind of was), however I thought that it was a clever and entertaining piece of movie making. I wonder how James Cameron comes up with that stuff. He would be a great dinner guest.

It is Clay’s birthday today. Celebrations have been pretty laid back so far… maybe we will do better tomorrow.

MWS is feeling strong and ready for the first show in Durban. He got some good rest and looks fresh as a daisy (which he always does).

Out,

matt

Sunday May 16

After getting to the Atlanta hotel at 11:30pm, today started with an 11am lobby call. The entire team squeezed into a hotel shuttle and we were off.

I ate my fill of American food during our stop at Dulles (Washington, DC) , bought a power adapter for the South African leg and read a few chapters of Crazy Love.

This was probably the highlight of my day.

I said goodbye to Mary and the kids on my cell as we were taxiing out of Dulles. We are relient on Skype for communication from this point onwards.

I am sitting next to Jimbo for the entire trip to Johannesburg. I love that guy.

Peace,

matt

3:45pm

I am currently sitting in a Lear Jet at 28,400 feet, with my best friends on God’s green earth, bound for Charleston, SC.

The next three and half weeks is gonna be CRAZY busy. Team Michael W. Smith is hitting the road hard and we will be seeing lots of Africa and South America in the upcoming 23 days.

I will be keeping a daily journal… so please check back once in a while.

The schedule has been INTENSE of late. After a two and half week tour in Canada, we were home with our families for almost 46hrs.

I spent most of my time making cubby houses, playing baseball and jumping on the trampoline with my three boys. I also mowed the lawn, fixed smoke alarms, killed ant’s nests and bought a weed-eater. Oh… and Mary and I had a great time hanging out after the kids were in bed.

There were no tears as I said goodbye at 3:30pm this afternoon. I had a tickle fight with the boys in the car at the airport… and we left on a super-positive note. They are cool kids… and my wife is HOT!

Tonight we are playing the final of four “Women of Joy” events with Steven Curtis Chapman, before we head off to sleep in Atlanta. Tomorrow night we leave for South Africa… which is a 16 hr flight.

The tour party for this next three-weeks is as follows:

Michael W Smith (the artist)

Joe Ciccoline (simple tour manager)

Matt Manix (production manager and monitor engineer)

Jim “Jimbo D” Daneker (music director/keys/vocals)

Michael “MO” Olson (drums)

Ben “Supple Goodness” Gowell (guitars/vocals)

Christa Black (violin/ vocals)

Me (bass)

Brooks Abbott (front of house engineer)

Josh “Fieldy” Fieldhouse (lighting guy)

Clay “The Bearded Wonder” Caissie (stage manager/ servant of all)

Mitchell “Young Mitch” Sallee (drum tech)

Anna Smith (tour assistant/ video/ photography)

This is a very inspiring and talented group to do life with. We will have fun… but more importantly, I pray that this tour will strengthen the Church in amazing ways.

Grace and peace,

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