impact

Had a great time hanging out tonight with our good friends, the Tavella's, and spending some time with Dustin ---------------->
while he's home from YWAM for a little bit. My kids absolutely ADORE Dustin, (we love him too!!) and God's done, and is doing, such amazing things in this guy's life that it's awesome to see, and such a blessing to have him for my kids to look up to (and his 'little' sis, Tara, too - who is also serving in YWAM). Dustin is an amazing musician, and if you'd like to check out his sound, you can hear him here.

I can't even tell you how cool it was to hear him and Bryce jamming together in the family room tonight...Dustin on electric guitar and Bryce on drums. I think Kate might have videoed a minute or two, and if I can figure out how to load it, I might try to post it tomorrow. Bryce was definitely born with a musical gift, but I'm really grateful to Dustin for encouraging Bryce so much and really playing a big part in drawing that gift out of Bryce. It was Dustin who first taught Bryce to play the jhembe, (which was very brave letting a 4 year old play with a rather expensive instrument!) (by the way, in case you aren't familiar with one, a jhembe is a bongo-type drum), and Dustin who went and picked one out for us when we were getting Bryce his own. When our friends, Luke & Laura, got married, Dustin led worship at the wedding, and L&L asked Bryce to play jhembe with him. At first Bryce was too scared, but when we assured him he'd be ok playing with Dustin, and he could just forget about all the people and just watch Dustin, he agreed. That was apparently a huge hurdle for Bryce, and he's really come out of his shell a lot since that point. (He even played with our worship team when we lead worship at Todd's parents church, and wasn't nervous. He actually said, since he played in front of so many people at the wedding, now he knows he's ok to play in front of anybody!) Dustin has taken time with Bryce whenever he could, just to connect with him, not only about music, but just in general, and Dustin may never realize how much he's impacted Bryce...but I do, and I'm grateful.