Back 2 School

If you have been following me on Twitter then you know that me and the fam have had an awesome Summer. Hittin the beach, bowling, skating, visiting museums, light houses, learning alot about some of the USA great states and cities, Bush Gardens. It was all capped off with Willow Creek Association Global Conference, and I cannot forget the 2012 Summer Olympic Games!. What a great summer. I really hate to see it end. While I still have a lil Summer left i tend to enjoy it.
going into the new school year it is going to be a exciting year. Pam and I are still on the the grind at UYI. We love what we do and are really blessed to be serving here. The pic you see above was taken at the top of the Jupiter lighthouse after climbing 105 stairs! Enjoy what is left of your Summer.

Lifestyle of The Broke & Nameless (V-Blog)

Love On All

Love On from Studio B on Vimeo.

The New 1Way Book Is Available Now!

Today is the day my friend! You can now buy the new 1Way book if you click here. You can also find it on Amazon.com.

Please leave some feedback. I would love to hear what you think.

It's A Wrap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The book is done!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am happy to say that after years of starts and stops it the finished. The official release date is December 13th. Mark your calendars and save your money, we would love to have your support. You can see the preview page by clicking here. On behalf of my brothers we sincerely hope when you by it that the chapters inspire you in your relationship with the Lord and that you will want to walk with Him more intimately. This is not meant to replace your Bible but to drive you to it.

Please spread the word. December 13th, 2011 the release of 1Way’s first book (Midnight Run: A 40 Day Souljourn Down The Narrow Road). Word of mouth is a powerful promo tool and we are depending on you and yours to share what God has done through us. It will be available on our create space e-store and amazon.com as well as our individual web sites (proverbnewsome.com, 2edgemusic.com, djmorph.com). It will also be available on our myspace and facebook pages. For our technophiles pursing Kindle as well. I will keep you posted.

I just wanna thank our fans who have stuck with us for some 20 years plus. We still get emails, and hear stories about what God has done, and is doing through our music collectively and individually. It is encouraging and quite frankly, humbling. Thank you (fans) for souljourning with us. Thank to our families as well. They have put up with a lot of pipe dreams, long nights, weekends away, rehearsals etc. Your sacrifices made this project and every project before it possible. Thank you! We love yall. We could not nor would we want to do this without you!

New York New York

Last week Spammy and I took a trip to NY. This was my fifth trip there. She has been there numerous times too. This was our second trip there together and by far the best. An interesting thing happened on the flight there. Ya see I'm really not that fond on flying. it is a great way to travel but I just don't like it. So.... we get to our seats and a young dude sits next to us. i noticed that he had a book called The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. So I asked him if he was a believer. He said yes! I said cool. He said that he always recommended the book but never had a chance to read it. I told him that I had checked out the audio book (I'm not much for reading books)and I really liked it. That was it. For the next hour he read, I chatted with my wife and tried not to think about how high the plane was off the ground. Then... Pam noticed that he was listening to LeCrae. So, asked if he likes Christian Hip-Hop. He said yes. I said me too. He asked if I had heard LeCrae's new CD Rehab. I said only the 30 minute snippets on iTunes. So he played me his favorite cuts. I then asked him “how deep are you into Christian Hip-Hop”? He said “very deep”. This is where the convo takes a divine turn. I asked if he had ever heard of DJ Morph. He was like yeah I heard of him. Then I asked have you ever heard of 1Way. He said yeah. I used to listen to them or something like that. Then I said well I am in that group. Which was (if you know me) a little weird for me to say. He said no way! Then he said "I used to listen to this show on Friday nights. They played Christian Hip-Hop and that is where I got exposed to it." That when, (if you know my wife) you can guess what she did next. She blew up my spot! She said the show was called Jam Session and the DJ of it was sitting next to him! Oh yes she did! For the next hour we talked about radio, God, and Christian Hip-Hop. He explained how the show was an encouragement to him. And how he used to go the show's website to get the playlists so he could go cop all the music. I explained to him that as much as the show encouraged him and people like him it did the same for me even though I was the host. This guy’s name was Jeremy. He is a tennis player. Just to know that God would use a lil Hip-Hop show from Bomb Beach to touch, and encourage this dude to live his faith out loud is quite humbling! What is even more amazing than that is that the show has now been off the air for almost 5 years! It always encourages me and my personal walk with God to hear stories like Jeremy's. What’s crazy is that his dad was on the flight too and their seat got split up. So he gave Jeremy his choice of seats. He randomly chose the seat next to me. We were both amazed by God's sense of humor. He does indeed work in mysterious ways.

Well we made it to NY. We stayed on Park Avenue. We did the Gray lines Tour- All loops (the only way to properly see NYC as far as I'm concerned).The weather was chilly, people were skating at 30 Rock, it was amazing. I got to share it all with my best friend and wife of almost 7 years (anniversary is this Sunday). This time I whole heartedly must agree with the cheesy tourist sloganed t-shirt....... I Love New York!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There Are Still Good Musicians Out There

I was checking out a friend’s blog and over hearing another friend sing a couple weeks ago. Then those two random incidents collided when both those friends were across from my cubicle discussing an artist named Brooke Fraser. The song was Shadowfeet. I went on a quest to find Brooke’s music. I found two titles: What To Do with Daylight and Brooke Fraser Live at the Aoteo: Auckland New Zealand. What a breath of fresh air! I was just listening to the song C.S. Lewis. When I was hit in the face by the line:"If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy, I can only conclude that I was not made for here". Whoa!!!! This is music that will speak to your heart as well as your situation. Get some headphones, get alone and check out Brooke's stuff she is phenomenally dope!



C.S. Lewis Song lyrics

If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy,
I can only conclude that I was not made for here
If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary,
then of course I'll feel nude when to where I'm destined I'm compared

[CHORUS]
Speak to me in the light of the dawn
Mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh and with all creation groan as I wait for hope to come for me

Am I lost or just less found? On the straight or on the roundabout of the wrong way?
Is this a soul that stirs in me, is it breaking free, wanting to come alive?
'Cause my comfort would prefer for me to be numb
And avoid the impending birth of who I was born to become

[CHORUS]

[BRIDGE]
For we, we are not long here
Our time is but a breath, so we better breathe it
And I, I was made to live, I was made to love, I was made to know you
Hope is coming for me
Hope, He's coming

The Sweet Spot

There is just something about this time of year that makes it the best time of the year, my favorite time of the year. If I could I would put the day before Thanksgiving up until New Year's Day on repeat and let it play the rest of my life. The weather would be ideal (especially here in Soflo), hurricane season would not exist, and I would be always eating that incredible Thanksgiving Day spread that the fam always has (plus leftovers)! That would indeed be ideal. But life doesn't work that way. At 12:01 AM on Friday morning Thanksgiving Thursday turns into Black Friday, and then it is a slow continuous fade till New Years Day. The magic disappears and the only reminder that it was ever here in the first place are the holiday lights that the neighbors leave up far too long. Such is the ebb and flow of life I guess. I get that but I don't have to like it. Lol. But still if there was a repeat button, I would be ready to push it come 11:59 AM on December 31st.

"Proverb, I'm gonna need that pop tart". WHAT????

As I wind down my thoughts from my Summer musicianary trip to Cambodia, I have to tell this story. I was talking with my boy Aaron Monrok the other day and I forget what made me think of it but I had a flash back. We were in the van on our way to some remote village. We had stopped so some of us could revolutionize (ask me by email lol). A few of the teammates were walking around and engaging the natives. I took the time to go back to the van and have a snack. We were encouraged to bring stuff from home to help with being so far away from home, and nothing does that like...... a Pop Tart! So I got to the back seat of the van and was digging my pop tart out of my bag when team member Mike Kultun came to our van. He was saying how they just met and prayed with this woman. Meanwhile I was hearing but not really listening to Mike talking. I was all into how good my pop tart was gonna be. As Mike continued on, I found my Pop Tarts and got them out of my bag. No sooner than I had opened them and raised one to my waiting mouth when I hear the words " "Proverb, we're gonna need those pop tarts"! Surely Mike had no idea what he was saying. Surely he knew you don't try to separate a man and his pop tart, especially this man. Mike was buggin! My response was "What"!!?? He repeated his statement like was actually gonna give him my snack. Then it hit me. What a display of selfishness. How did I look to a van full of missionaries? It was just one pop tart, I had more. The sad part was I was encouraged by most teammates to hold on to it, as it was mine and I brought it from home for me. As conviction buckled me in the back seat of the van, I offered up my Pop Tart. I realized that was a small price to pay for being on such a great adventure with God. Then the greatest thing happened as I offered it up, some more food from another van was miraculously provided. I felt like Abraham when he saw the ram. My pop tart had been spared! Well, you get the picture. Anyways, the point is every day we will get tested. The question we have to ask our self is..... When asked to, will we give up our pop tart?

Proverb's Musicianary Trip: Banteay Chhmar, Day 11

This footage was from day 11 of my trip. The footage does not do the road justice, it was incredible bumpy! It was a long hot dusty rewarding day. Hopefully this clip will capture the feel of our days on the trip. Enjoy!

Proverb's Musicianary Trip: The Story of Preah Net Preah

John Clark of Musicianaries International tells the story of the Town and the Church of Preah Net Preah. Enjoy.

Proverb's Musicianary Trip: Jim McCandliss Talks About The Work Of Musicianaries International Inc.

I got a chance at one of our rice distro to talk with Jim McCandliss (president of Musicianaries International Inc.). We talked a bit about the purpose behind the Rice For Cambodia Tour 2009. Enjoy.

Proverb's Musicianary Trip: In The Van Day 2 Pt. 2 Phnom Penh, Cambodia

It took a while for me to get this one up but here is the follow up to Pt.1
We had just got back from the orphanage. Enjoy!

Proverb's Musicianary Trip: In The Van Day 2 Phnom Penh, Cambodia

From The Top Pt. 2

At the news of Bobby's graduation, I was stunned and confused. I knew God was calling me on this trip but what would happen to the trip now? Well, enter John Clark. My friend Aaron and I met with John to see what was goin’ on with the trip. Was it still happening? How would that look without Bobby? He assured us that although there was a lot of grief in and around the organization that the trip was going forward because they believed that is what Bobby and God would want. Whew! Cool, so we are still going to Cambodia! Then John told us what the trip would look like, what we would be doing. He talked about the feel and the vibe of the Kingdom of Cambodia. He talked of its people who seemed to be his friends. He spoke of them not as people he was going to help but as friends he was going to see again and hang out with. I was really intrigued by that. He spoke a lot of serving them and loving on them. He got me amped to go, not that I was not before but now I was all in! As with any mission trip I had to raise support to get me to Cambodia. Even in economically stable time this is a challenge, but in these present days even more so. People have so little to spare. When they give now a days, some of them are literally giving the widow's mite (Mark 12:41-43).

So with the support of my wife and family, I wrote this letter with God's guidance:

"I am writing to tell you about a unique mission’s opportunity I have in front of me. I have been invited by Musicianaries International, Inc. to go on a mission trip with them to Cambodia! This is unique because I will be using my Holy Hip-Hop music as a ministry tool as well as doing typical missionary field work. I went on a mission trip to the Middle East, which was life-changing, but to go and use my music…Wow! What an amazing thing!

I will be arriving in Cambodia on Wednesday, July 1st and departing on Monday, July 13th. The following is a description of what a “typical day” could look like according to Musicianaries International, Inc.

“Each day is quite unique but days are typically spent traveling, distributing rice at least once a day, sometimes up to 3 times a day and free medical care. The nights will have concerts with up to 30,000 in attendance, and a few evenings we will be doing television shows with live audiences and about a 1.5-3 million viewing audience.”

I want to invite you to be a part of the trip by helping me take the gospel to the nations. Here is how you can help:

Give: You can give to send me. The trip will cost around $3,200, with the first half due by April 4th and the remainder due by May 29th. I know that we are in tough economic times, but just pray about it. If the answer is yes, give! Give and know that God will supply for your needs beyond what you are sacrificially giving for this trip.

If you would like to give, please make the check out to:
Musicianaries International, Inc.
Place a sticky note or attach a note by paper clip to the check stating that the check is for Proverb Newsome’s Cambodia mission trip fund.

Send your check to:
Musicianaries International, Inc.
P.O. Box 31868
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33420-1868

Your donation will be tax-deductible in the USA (Fed tax ID# 65-0885954). You will get a tax receipt at the end of the calendar quarter and at the end of the year.

Pray: You can pray for me and the entire team that is going. Pray for our safety, our effectiveness, our travels within the country, and good health for the entire trip.

Tell: Let your friends who may be willing and able to give know about the trip.

Whether you decide to help in one or all of the above ways, you have my deepest appreciation!

Pray, Listen, Obey.

Proverb Newsome"

I penned this and sent it to all my friends. I even sent it to my fans thru my website www.proverbnewsome.com. I put it out there with full faith that God would provide even in these times. Before we knew it my internal trip cost were covered. This was a testimony to my wife who was in but had serious doubts about actually raising the money, but was now seeing God's hand at work. The rest of the fund raising was a exercise in faith. As I went to trip trainings to get me acclimated for my time in a foreign country, we waited for the rest of the money to come. This wait was an extended period of time that pressed right up to the time I was to leave to go. We were beginning to doubt then 1 week before we got a call saying that my trip cost were covered! God came thru. What an awesome time of trusting and obeying. Oswald Chambers was right there is not accounting for the afterwards of obedience. Now it was just a matter of getting the stuff I needed to take. Some clothes, kicks, and personal items. I was going to Cambodia.

My Music!!!!!!!! Check out the Widget!

From The Top Pt. 1

Now that I have begun to process my trip, I thought that I would start at the very beginning. I have been asked "how did you come to go on a mission trip to Cambodia anyways?” Well, the trip found me actually. My friend Aaron Mondok was about to sign on as Musicianaries’ videographer and was told by the organizations founder, Bobby Michaels, to keep an eye out for musicians. So Aaron being a good friend, asked if he was looking for any Hip-Hop musicians too? Bobby laughed and said why do you know any? That was the beginning of a very long journey. Aaron then asked me if I was interested in going to Cambodia. Then he told me about his convo with Bobby. I gave Aaron a CD (A Common Man’s Opus) to give to Bobby. This led to some phone tag and eventually a 30 minute plus phone convo with Bobby. He was very excited at the prospect of having me on the trip. He told me he loved the CD and that the Cambodians would love the music as well. He also stated that I would probably be the first Hip-Hop artist to visit the country. Of course I was a little skeptical at that statement but ok I’ll roll with it for now. So I told I would love to go but need to talk with my wife and pray (in my heart though, I was in 100%, it’s not like the devil is going to invite me to go preach the Gospel in another country right?). So I did just that and let them know later that I was in. This was the first and last time I would ever talk to Bobby.

After our convo, Bobby was leaving for Asia and Australia for a month, but had been very sick with the flu. He was traveling in Cambodia when he suffered some very serious heart issues. A web update on Bobby's condition said: "This morning he woke up and said that he was 'feeling the best he had in 2 weeks.” Around noon (Cambodia time) Bobby passed out. They took him to the local health clinic as there is no hospital in the small town they were in. "After running a few IV's through him, it was evident that he needed to get to a hospital," said a family spokesperson. An ambulance brought Lee (Bobby’s wife), Bobby and a Doctor and his wife (who's a nurse) that were attending the conference to the main hospital in Phnom Penh which was a few hours’ drive. Jim and Cheryl McCandliss met up with my parents at the hospital in Phnom Penh. They soon found that Bobby's heart is only working at 30 percent, there is fluid around his heart and there is not much blood flow to his heart. He had an infection in his cardiac artery. But, he had the best cardiologists in Cambodia looking after him! Jim McCandliss, who was traveling with Bobby, was asked what he thought of the hospital and he said, "The conditions are very basic, but that he was confident in the Doctors' and nurses' abilities."

The spokesperson said the rest of the tour was on hold right now and it looks like they will be in Cambodia for a few more days than scheduled. In the morning the Doctors took Bobby out of the room to go run some tests. On their way down to the exam room, Bobby's heart stopped beating and they resuscitated him and took him immediately into surgery. They put 2 stents in his heart and removed a blood clot. After recovering from this surgery, he was then transferred back to his room where his wife was waiting for him. While they were setting him back up in his room, his heart failed again and once again they resuscitated him. The reason for this was that the muscles were too weak to do their job. His heart was accepting the stents though, and Bobby did really well for the next 6-8 hours. He had tubes down his throat and needed to rest and stillness. He had been quite restless though during all of this. Bobby was resting in Thailand, trying to regain enough strength so that he could undergo surgery. But because Bobby's organs were beginning to shut down, the doctors had no choice but to try to repair his heart. Shortly after going into the operating room, before the surgeons could start the operation, Bobby's heart stopped with an instant 'flat-line.' The medical team tried for 45 minutes to resuscitate him but his heart did not respond.

Then I got this email: "Our hearts are aching as we tell you that Bobby passed away this evening.”We are deeply saddened by our loss...but rejoice that Bobby did get totally healed...with a new heart, kidneys, and any other part that might have needed fixing. The Lord knew the plans He had for Bobby...and today was his graduation day as he went to the One he loved the most and served so faithfully. We know he was carried away in the arms of Jesus.

Wow, I didn’t know what to expect next. I knew I was called to go but what was going to happen to the trip now? The rest was a test of faith. How it turned out was amazing! Stay tuned for part 2.

Goodbye Kampuchea!!!!!!!!!!!!

What an amazing time I have had here in Cambodia! It is now day 12 of my trip. Hopefully you have been keeping up with me on Twitter(www.twitter.com/proverbialman) and facebook.
I have posted a few blogs while I have been here but once I get home and process the whole trip with the help of my journal ( thanks Sabrina & Cyndi) an many photos I will post more. You will probably here about my trip for some time to come!
I have had some amazing concerts, carried many bags of rice and just been amazed at how little the Cami people have yet how happy and content they seem with it. I want to personally thank you for your prayers while I am away. I have felt them. Keep them coming because I fly out tomorrow night to come back home to Bomb Beach, USA. thanks also if you gave to send me!
Look out for video footage on my youtube page too!

Souljournin'With God,

Proverb

Boom TV & Ensuing Madness

On Saturday the music team and myself got to be on TV. The channel was TV 3 and it has show called Boom TV. It is the most watched show in all of Cambodia. An estimated 4.5 million people watch this show. It's a very big deal. So we went for sound check it went well. We were the only Christian group on the show. All the other acts were native and secular at that. Prior to coming here our team leaders told us that the culture was modest and all that stuff but once we came back at show time I was not able to tell that at the station. It was like America. Dudes with saggin pants and chicks in tight fitting gear. It would appear that Hip-Hop has touched Cambodia at least in a fashion sense. In any event when it got to our time to perform we had a great time! We sang I Am A Friend of God, then I did a song from my CD (Get At It), then we did Lord I Give You My heart. After a short commercial break my new friends Melanie & Daud both did their solos and we ended with One Way. It was a great night of worship!
So today we got to walk around what is know as the Russian Market. We were done shopping and heading toward our vans and 10 yards away I saw a dude waving at me or at least I thought it was me. The vendors here are kind of aggressive here and then I thought maybe it's not me he is waving at. As I got closer he said to me, "Hey did I you on TV 3 last night! I politely said yea shook his hand and found my team (who spread the story around all day of how I had a fan).It was very surreal. I am blessed to be on a very talented team of musicians & singers and happy to be doing God's work here in Cambodia.

Stay tuned for video!

Horrific Story of Tuol Sleng & The Killing Fields

Thursday the team and I got to visit the genocide museum in Cambodia called Tuol Sleng. At one time it was the high school the best and brightest that Cambodia had to offer. Think of a really elite high school in your town that everyone wants to go to and then you'll have a good idea of what Tuol sleng was. Pol Pot who was the evil guy that brought Cambodia to it's knees in the mid to late seventies, once applied here but was rejected. This is a fact I found out while on the tour. When he came back to Cambodia in 1975 he turned this elite learning environment into a torture chamber.
Here Cambodian were forcefully interrogated to give up anyone in their family on any of their friend who were educated. They had the eyes gauged out, their finger nail pulled from the cuticle and tortured with water. As we walked through the room where this happened, I could still see the blood spatter on the ceiling. It was old and faded but very distinct. Dr. Setan Lee, who is a killing field survivor said that when he first visited Tuol Sleng after the reign of Pol Pot, that there was still the stench of human bodies, and when as the blood was even more visible. This was reminiscent of when I visited Dachau, which was a Nazi concentration camp in Germany.
It was a very heavy day. A lot of pain still lives there.

When we left Tuol Sleng, we then went to the Killing Fields. Here an estimated 20,000 people were slaughtered by the ruthless Khmer Rouge. The most unsettling thing for me was not seeing the mass burial sites, although that was hard. It was not seeing all the exposed human bones (and in some cases the pieces of clothing that were attached to them) everywhere. The unsettling part for me was seeing the tree were the Khmer Rouge used to kill infants. They would hold them by the ankles a swing & smash them against a tree that is still there. I saw it! Our guide that was taking us through the Killing fields ( not Dr. Lee at this point) was very descriptive. I could since the disdain in his voice as he said the names of Pol Pot and the other Khmer Rouge leaders. He was bitter and upset. He has every right to be because 30 years later the Tribunal is still going on. One of the leaders Duch has been back to visit the Killing fields. The guide is not a believer so his anger is eating him up and you can her it when he speaks. We were told by our team leaders that he drinks to forget his pain. This is what he told to them. We prayed with him after, he was visibly touch by it. This was a very heavy day.
I am glad I came to Cambodia because now I know why there are kids with bloated stomachs and no clean water. Khmer Rouge ruined this culture. They are trying to rebuild and move on but have such a long way to go. we are here to show them God cares about their struggle and that he want to show them, through Musicianaries how deep His love is for them.