Sara Groves' Art*Music*Justice Tour

Dear friends,

Sara Groves is my very favorite Christian singer. Her lyrics so consistently and beautifully reflect what I'm thinking and praying about. I'm so excited that she's going to be in Tampa in October. Thad and I are planning to go over for the concert and spend the night there, since it is a two hour drive. She'll be on the Art * Music * Justice tour with Brandon Heath, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken and Charlie Peacock. I haven't heard most of these artists, so I can't vouch for everything they stand for or sing about. However, I do like two of the songs I've heard from Brandon Heath lately.

I love their emphasis on Art * Music * Justice because this is what the Lord has graciously been bringing before me in the past two years. They don't just talk about it -- they live it! I was so touched by Sara's documentary of her visit with the International Justice Mission to Rwanda that I showed clips of it in my English class last spring.

Anyway, you can go to the following web site and click on something to be able to download free music from all of these artists. This is free if you give them e-mail addresses for just three friends, or you can pay whatever you want for it.
http://www.myspace.com/artmusicjustice

You can also find the concert schedule on that site, or check out Sara's own site at http://www.saragroves.com/. You can list to samples of her music there, too.

Blessings,
Virginia

P.S. Here's part of the scoop from the e-mail I got earlier today.

SARA GROVES TEAMS WITH ACCLAIMED ARTISTS FOR ART*MUSIC*JUSTICE TOUR
Fall Tour to Feature Brandon Heath, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, and Charlie Peacock
Benefiting the International Justice Mission and Food For the Hungry, tour Aims to “Add to the Beauty, Seek Justice and Give God Praise”

NASHVILLE, TN....8/13/08.... Critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter Sara Groves has gathered a group of fellow-acclaimed artists and friends Brandon Heath, Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken and author/artist Charlie Peacock, for her ART*MUSIC*JUSTICE tour this fall, which will benefit both the International Justice Mission and Food For the Hungry. The International Justice Mission (http://www.ijm.org/) is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. Food for the Hungry (http://www.fh.org/) works in more than 26 developing countries providing disaster and emergency relief, and implementing sustainable development programs to transform communities physically and spiritually.

With dates running from September 19th through October 26th (concert listing below), the tour is a unique concert opportunity to “add to the beauty, seek justice and give God praise,” desiring to further educate the church on God's heart for justice, gain advocates for the oppressed, and show evidence of a God at work in this world. Each evening will bring inspired music and stories of God's people in action and their heroic experiences across the globe. Incredible stories of rescue from the International Justice Mission will be told, while giving audience members the opportunity to be involved in Groves 'adopted' village in Rwanda thru Food for the Hungry."God is mighty to save and is actively rescuing the oppressed through His people,” comments Groves. “ Scripture references to the 'slave, the poor, the oppressed' are not figurative. There are 27 million people enslaved today, after more than in 400 years of trans-atlantic slavery. God is calling us to respond. All of us on this tour want to convey, it is not a burden to help, it is an adventure. We’re excited to get out there and share what God is doing!" To listen to audio of Sara sharing about the tour, and for more tour information, please go to: www.myspace.com/artmusicjustice.

Free Music! In addition, all of the artists on the tour are offering songs on NoiseTrade.com for the price of telling three friends about them or paying any amount they choose in exchange for an immediate download. Webb co-created NoiseTrade.com after the success of giving away over 80,000 full downloads of his project “Mockingbird,” Through NOISETRADE, any artist can freely distribute their music online via NoiseTrade’s embeddable widget. For the Art*Music*Justice Tour widget, go to www.myspace.com/artmusicjustice.

UPDATE ON OCTOBER 17: It was an awesome concert, well worth the 200 mile round trip. View my pictures here on Facebook.