JesusBranded Blog

Bible Cover Redesign

2008-10-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

So I've been going through my share of design blogs lately, and I've run into this project by UK-based designers Crush Design & Art Direction Ltd. They were commissioned to re-do the book jacket of the Bible, and here is their result:

The inspiration from the illustration is described on FontFeed by Yves Peters:

The inspiration for the cover illustration came from the back cover copy lines... The text mentions “Mankind’s poisoning of a beautiful world” and asks “The cause of wars and intolerance, or the most important book ever written? How well do you know the bible?” So the idea germinated to conjure up a really contemporary image of the Garden of Eden. On the flip side of the image Crush tried to illustrate the possible “poisoning and destruction of a beautiful world”. Therefore the illustration shows Adam and Eve fat with the overindulgence of a consumer society gone out of control. The trees have died from pollution and skulls illustrate the destruction of the animal kingdom.

As an illustrator, I appreciate the aesthetics of the book jacket, although I can only imagine the ensuing discussion arising from the possible sacrilege some people may view it as. Should the Bible's book jacket be treated with a reverence that should prevent it from being modernized, or does this contemporary take on the cover only serve to further the good news to those who wouldn't otherwise be bothered to even pick up the Bible? What do you guys and girls out there think?

Sam

The Disposing of Cheap Perfume

2008-09-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder if Jesus gets the best of us.

Life can become a routine sometimes, and by no means are our spiritual disciplines excluded from that. When repetition turns into a complacent sort of familiarity, it may take a while for us to realize that we've slipped into a monotonous sort of auto-pilot, just motioning through habits with a real risk of forgetting the value behind them. From reading scripture to corporate prayer, and from designing shirts to tithing, the team and I here at JesusBranded know what we value but are always at risk of becoming too busy to remember the substance behind what we do. By God's grace He always reminds us before it gets too late, so through that we're really learning how to lean on Him and not just our own abilities and disciplines. We just don't want to become empty of all the passion and fervor that He's blessed us with from the beginning, finding ourselves down the line as just tired hollow shells of who He intended us to be. We're so grateful that He always intervenes and reminds us exactly when He needs to.

I really do hope that when the Holy Spirit examines our hearts, that He can testify on our behalf and say that He gets the best of us. Like the woman who broke her expensive alabaster jar of pure, fragrant nard and anointed Jesus, we all hope to be earmarked for only offering our best to Him. In the words of King David, "I will not sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing."

Let's ditch the motions and cry out for our generation. It's time we do away with the cheap perfume and ask Him to reveal to us individually what it means to be at our fragrant best to Him.

We love you all, and keep you in our prayers as much as you keep us in yours!

Sam from JesusBranded

A Redemption From Obscurity...

2008-08-26T21:51:00.000-07:00

I have not been very familiar with the Book of Ruth.

I was reading up on passages in the Bible concerning God and social justice, and the story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz was referenced; I think I spent a good 5-7 minutes thumbing through the pages looking for the Book of Ruth (I was in the Job, Proverbs, Psalms area, haha) before I finally gave up and used the Table of Contents only to find out that this 4-chapter book was snuggled right in between of Judges and I Samuel. I evidently need to brush up on my Old Testament book order... but in hindsight, it seemed an appropriate beginning to a lesson about obscurity- and the quite glorious redemption from it. (Oh, God... You're so clever...)

Ruth's story, simply put: Widowed, loyally living with her mother-in-law who was also widowed, in Bethlehem where her people (Moabites) weren't exactly in great standing with the Israelites, making her a foreigner with not that much going her way. Not very impressive on paper, undoubtedly; and I can only assume the day-to-day living of such a life wouldn't prove so comfortable either. And yet, such is God's inexplicable workings that Ruth, through a series of circumstances earmarked by her obedience and submission, goes from an unenviable widow to a direct ancestor of David, Solomon, and ultimately Jesus himself. Her legacy may have been unbeknownst to her during her lifetime, but she became an active agent in defining human history.

I try to imagine who Ruth was before she married one of Naomi's sons- what her family was like; if she had any siblings, and if so, what her relationship was like with them; what kind of friends she had; what kind of desires and hopes she may have had for herself, if during those days luxuries such as those could be had, and so on. I try to imagine her and her failed Plan A , then look around at my peers, my siblings, my colleagues, my parents, and myself with all of our failed Plan As, Bs, and Cs. I know for me there is a very real fear of living a life of uselessness and obscurity, and I see it and feel it with our entire generation- but I see Ruth, her circumstances, and God's hand of redemption and it restores my hope for the purposes and plans for every one of us. Her legacy was defined by her faithfulness to love (in her case, Naomi, her mother-in-law), and it would be an honor for of us once we're able to say the same.

"...where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God... May the Lord deal with me if anything but death separates you and me..."
Ruth 1:16-18

Love you guys and girls!

Sam from JesusBranded

Oh, Missing All Of You...

2008-08-12T11:57:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! First and foremost, on behalf of the entire JesusBranded team, we want you to know that we missed all of you this summer! For the last three years we've been driving and flying around the country to come and hang out with you, but this year we had a lot going on at home, so we diligently stayed home and did what we had to do... we've been thinking about all of you though, and we hope you've missed us too!

One of the things we've been working on is changing up the website starting this Fall season. We're gonna do our best to make it easier for you to get connected with us - whether its through you buying our shirts, reading our blogs, sharing your stories, and even connecting with other believers all over the world! So be expectant of the new JesusBranded.com, because we want to build our community around YOU.

Another change you can expect from the new JesusBranded.com is that we are going to be writing a lot more. We started JesusBranded as a way to really pour our faith out to the world, so we hope that our blog can become a resource for encouragement, affirmation, and community for everyone. So please help spread the word about us!

We hope you all had a very blessed and abundant summer, and again, we really missed seeing you face to face and hanging out with you! Til next time...

Love,

Sam from JesusBranded

I love my JB hoodie

2008-03-23T05:31:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll, this is Edward... 'the video guy'

I haven't been up to much, leading worship at church and video producing

our youth praise team all geared up in JB

this picture is from the local Christian Korean Times newspaper

I'm guessing none of you have ever read it...

so I finally got a facebook profile a couple months ago

The best part about it is the pictures and albums and people commenting on them

and I've come to notice how much I wear my favorite hoodie everywhere I go

the 'My Father's Heart' hoodie...

check it out, these pictures we're accumulated from the past couple months

here I am at a thai restaurant

bowling

bible study (honestly trying to stay awake after not sleeping for 27 hours)

trying to dunk

watching football with friends

playing drums on Rock Band

singing karaoke

my turn to rock the mic like a vandal

getting too excited over Wii boxing

sleeping on the floor of my friends house using a soda-pop bottle as my pillow

(i say soda-pop so it doesn't bicker between those who call it soda and those who call it pop)

getting 3 star massage treatment

ruining my friends ghetto picture

more ruined photos

dancing in the street

on the sidelines of a church basketball game

and finally at my local late night Denny's restaurant

I don't know why I put my hand up

Happy Easter everyone. Remember this day as the reason for who we are and remember to celebrate the resurrection all the time, not just once a year.

Season Four Preview!!

2008-02-15T10:28:00.001-08:00

Hey guys and gals! I know we're running low on some sizes of our Lost and Found Collection, but that's a praise report for us, because that means that 1.) we're doing something right, and 2.) you guys and gals like our stuff! But, we know it can be frustrating, so to hopefully help ease the stress, here's a sneak preview of the upcoming release that's set to come out at the end of March! We hope that you can get as excited about it as we are, so that you can get your shirts early before things sell out! Remember, once we sell through, it's tough beans til the next release... =)

Anyhow, this next collection is called The Journey Home, and it is very close to our hearts- Salil (our fearless CEO) and I (Sam, lead designer) were eating at Red Robin last October, and we both told each other that we felt like God's been leading us towards revelations of our identity as sons and daughters, and we both confirmed in each other's revelations that God really wanted to call the orphaned hearts back home to Himself... That's where this fourth collection was born, and I wanted to simply communicate how much we are lavishly loved by our Poppa, so much so that He continually reaches His arm to us, that even as we make our beds in the depths of Hell, His arm is never too short to save, and that He stoops down to make US great, that He fights to win us daily and He never tires of it...

He is an amazing Poppa, don't you think? Anyways, before I trail off, here is a sneak peek of JesusBranded's Fourth Collection: The Journey Home...

We hope you like it! We'll keep you posted on the actual release date soon!

Love all of you!

Sam

victim, perpetrator, bystander.

2008-01-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, I just ran into this quote, and it kept me still for a good minute or so.

"...Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander."

I'm not sure who the person is who said it, but I believe it's a powerful word for all of us who are running after God's heart. Most of the time, we spend our moments hiding under the worldly radar as to avoid being "victims" of discussions, arguments, and confrontations about our faith; and we spend just as much time walking the line between piety and sin so as long as we don't commit something "that" bad as to be seen as "perpetrators" by men and women we strive to please. The most powerful message in that quote was that "Above all... YOU WILL NOT BE A BYSTANDER..." urging a sort of awareness that spurs action, that consequentially incites betterment; a far cry from being fearful of becoming a victim and being maliciously unloving to others.

I don't know, I guess all these terms and parallels get muddled up at the end of it all, but I hope that those words urging us not to be bystanders during the course of our lives will ring out and speak its own conviction into those who allow God to work through it.

Whew.

Love you guys and gals (even if I can't fully articulate it well sometimes...),

Sam

ps, we're working on our next release for March, and it's gonna be goooooooooooood!! Keep an eye out...

Where'd 2007 go?

2008-01-16T11:56:00.000-08:00

Wow, time flies! Welcome to 2008 everyone!

Sheesh, ok, so this is our first blog in a bit, and I want to open it up with a silly video our team took while they were doing ministry in India during Christmas:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Gnuq9FfHo3k

Sorry I can't embed it, but click it, it made me laugh for a bit.

Anyhow, two of our team members, Salil and Aiden, went to India to help out with the Orphanage Project during Christmas-time, and although they're not strangers to ministry in India (these two go there almost every year!), they come back still as blessed as the last time. Here's a longer video from the Orphanage Project founder:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=w1krJw6zQJI

The last minute of this video showed the team clothing children with our Jesus Ninjette shirts as a part of our Clothe-A-Nation project we launched during the summer of 2007. Praise God that we were able to see that project through!!

Anyhow, we'll post more pics when Aiden gets back (he's still over there...).

____________________________

Again, happy 2008 to all of you! May this be the year of expansion over everyone:

"... Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left..."

Take hold of it!

Love you guys and gals,

Sam

Should Christian T-Shirts be Banned From Schools?

2007-10-27T19:10:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: What you're about to read, you will see, is quite obviously the opposite of how we at JesusBranded feel.

Christian t-shirts can be found everywhere, in almost every form and fashion. There are some for old people, some for young people, and a few that can swing either way. More and more school aged children are picking up these shirts, some of which can be found at http://www.jesusbranded.com/. When they wear these shirts to their local schools, it presents an interesting question. Are Christian t-shirts hurting the chance to provide good education?

Prayer has been taken out of school, the Ten Commandments are off of the walls, but still, students are wearing their t-shirts with pride. How much of a distraction is this for our nation's children and for the teachers who are putting in hard work? Though there is no hard evidence to give us insight into these things, many people within the educational world feel like Christian t-shirts are doing more harm than good.

Why do Christian t-shirts negatively affect the ability of students to get their work done? In a word, they're controversial. The majority of these shirts aren't just touting the love of Jesus. Instead, they are presenting an "in your face" type of evangelism that makes some students uneasy. Other t-shirts make children feel inferior if they don't support the same views. These t-shirts take away from the purpose of education and move the focus from the class material and onto the subject of the shirt. In a word, this could be described as unacceptable.

What can be done to rectify this situation? Teachers are hoping that Christian t-shirts and all other controversial religious gear go the way of prayer in school. They are hoping that school administrators take a stand against distraction and get Christian t-shirts out of schools. There is no guarantee that anything will be done, but teachers know that these t-shirts will continue to make their job harder, rather than easier.

It's time for school principals and administrators to do the right thing. Get the Christian t-shirts out of schools and stop letting children spread their message in that way. School is a place where learning should take place. If any kind of t-shirt is taking away from that, then something has to be done to make the situation better.

They say all press is good press, but when I got this article in my inbox yesterday I couldn't believe what I was reading! I mean, people can wear the most horrible shirts and nobody complains and everybody talks about free speech - but when a Christian wants to speak freely about his/her faith through a shirt...then all of a sudden there is a problem. Oh well, the bible does warn of persecution...

Anyways, sound off and let us know what you think. Any problems from wearing your JB shirts? Better yet, any testimonies?

Much Love,
Salil

yowzah, it's been a while!

2007-10-16T13:42:00.000-07:00

Hello, JesusBranded kids! It's Samuel again, back after a little hiatus from the blog... The JesusBranded team has been a bit busy with things as of late, and that's mostly thanks to all of you who keep visiting us and supporting us by purchasing our shirts! Tim has been busy in the warehouse keeping up with all of you, Carl's been busy getting the new designs ready for holiday release, and I've been busy working on brand new pieces for Spring 08! Things are moving well for us, so thank you for being in partnership with us through your support and prayers!

Anyhow, I just wanted to get reacquainted again with the blog, so expect to hear more from us in the near future... Keep on dropping us a line just to say hello, we love hearing from all of you.

Talk to you guys and gals soon,

Sam

Last New Heights Blog... WITH VIDEO!!!!!

2007-09-16T02:22:00.000-07:00

Ya'll know who this is...

... If you don't... my name is Edward

I'm the 'Video Guy' here at Jesusbranded

This is the last of the new heights blog, the California tour is over

and I'm back home...

A new song from New Heights, this is the acoustic version - NeverChanging

so here's some pictures from the rest of the trip

san fran

i dunno but i look like a fry, yo, in my yellow sweater...

"hey lets all jump!"... i guess jumping pictures are played out

new band photos that they'll probably never use

Erik, the drummer, is wearing the 'Thousands and Counting' shirt from our Acts Chapter 2 collection

Thank to Lee and James for taking us out to eat and giving us shelter

san diego beach

some people we met in socal

danny, the guy Travis wrote the song Semper Fidelis for, is wearing JB merch

uh oh....

this is the only picture i took with my brother, who's in the Navy stationed down in San Diego

I should have done something more appealing to give to my parents

BTW, I'm wearing the 'Fire In My Bones' shirt from the Acts Chapter 2 collection

KEN OAK BAND

we also ate dinner with them and watched the worst movie every made this year

I won't even mention the title

also, the girl standing on the WAY right is wearing the 'Oil of Anointing' shirt from the Acts Chapter 2 collection

and now, randomness

i need more sleep... man, I'm still wearing the Fire In My Bones shirt, I LOVE IT

why only 14 mph? why not 15? 10? 20?...... 14?

on hollywood blvd

Spiderman smelled rank... tacos or something salty...

but the shirt I'm wearing doesn't stink! That's also Jesusbranded merch, for GXP ministries

they set up for a movie staring Will Smith, called John Handcock...
so next year when you watch this movie, look for the truck halfway in the ground

and our favorite

New Height Tour part 2

2007-09-08T12:29:00.000-07:00

here we are at joshuafest

frisco pics
You can see from behind, but I'm sporting the Thousand's and Counting t-shirt

thanks James for taking care of us

so at san fran, the guys went shopping
but i'm a scrub... I don't need clothes

I gots my Jesusbranded shirts

NewPort beach

chris wouldnt get off the phone for the picture

playing with slow shutter

a message to his beloved
...it's a heart

travis is also -like me- a dragon ball fan...
he's throwing an Apple fireball
thanks to open aperture and wrong white balance

New Heights Tour with Jesusbranded so far

2007-09-06T22:18:00.000-07:00

This here is before we set off down south I-5...

This is Chris, the bassist for New Heights, lying in the trunk of the 4Runner

also sporting the Restoring Intimacy hoodie

me and travis (lead vocals, guitar)

I'm wearing some JB merch

dale the guitarist

and Erik the drummer

this is travis sleeping with his eyes open

some mountain we had to go around that took 2 hours of driving time

new band photos haha

our cabin/motel

JesusBranded in Japan!

2007-08-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

So if you're like me and you surf every page of youtube

you might have ran into this

JESUSBRANDED IN JAPAN!

well, I really don't know what she's saying...

The title of it say's 'I'm back on youtube!'

but you should watch it all the way to the end

I just skipped it to the last minute

She still speaks in japanese but you get the idea.

Well the Jesusbranded road tour is over...

But I'll be going on tour down California as a roadie with the band New Heights; tuning guitars, setting up equipment, helping load and unload things, eating denny's at every stop, driving for hours, sleeping on the floor, listening to every single one of my songs on my iPod, energy drinks to the max, trying to find wireless on my laptop, singing 99 bottles of rootbeer...

and selling Jesusbranded t-shirts!

So check out www.myspace.com/newheightsmusic to see their tour dates and look for me!

This is an old video I did for New Heights when they did a show at the Show Box here in seattle

edward

Freeeeeedom Fest '07

2007-08-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

[placeholder for FreedomFest '07] Come back soon for updates!

Hello, Kingdom Bound Kids!

2007-08-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

Our second and last stop on the East Coast was at Kingdom Bound 2007. Though we did not sell as much as we would have liked to... we made the best of it, and had fun. I mean, it WAS at an amusement park!

It was really humid in our tent... and even moreso in our booth. We had no breeze, but Archbishop High School was giving these really helpful fan things:

(as modeled here by Carl Ng)

So, for the most of this festival, I neglected my camera, so there aren't too many photos. But I managed to squeeze some out.

Our booth. Very bare. We were pretty hidden and hardly anyone saw us :[

Lita and Carl playing, what is NOT Christian DDR, but Digital Praise! We got owned for saying DDR, haha.

If you've stopped by our booths before, then you've probably heard this before: "1 shirt is $20, if you get more than 1 than they're $18 each. The sales are the ones with blue (or white) tags in back... and those are $14 [tanks are $10]. And long sleeves are $23. So, basically, if you get more than 1, it's $2 off are the regular price, minus sales." And then we usually get the blank stares right after that, haha.

Yeah... Lita and I met a couple celebs. Don't worry about it ;]

Since I rarely used my camera... here are some 'Photobooth' photos off my Mac. Enjoy:

(I don't know why Lita's eyes are like that, haha)

Nathan Finochio. Look him up... he's really good! He played his whole set with just a piano. I couldn't get over it.

And now photos of our friends wearing JB!

...it doesn't end here. We had some complications at the Buffalo Airport; due to weather, our flight got delayed 2 hours. So, long story short... we ended up in Philadelphia for a whole day.

This the apartment we got to stay in. It was really nice change from all the hotels we stayed in. It had a very homey (sp?) feeling to it. Just no continental breakfast, haha.

Lita and I found a toy store on Chestnut Hill. We ended up eating lunch at Chestnut Hill Grill and Sidewalk Cafe, looked through the botiques, had coffee at National Award winning Chestnut Hill Coffe Co., ate at Kasaka's Sushi Bar and went to the local mall (of course), haha.

We were waiting for the bus... at the wrong bus stop, haha.

Before we got some sushi. We thought we should look pretty cute... or something.

And Carl just wanted a photo, hahaha.

So, ok here's what happend. After being delayed in Buffalo, we missed our flight to Pittsburg which we would transfer to Seattle. So, we took the 2-hour delayed flight to Philadelphia where we stayed the night, and all of the next day there, then we leave the morning after. We get to the airport that morning... and find out the flight is overbooked, so we miss that one. Then, we get standby on another flight, and miss that one as well. Sooo, now we head back to make a new itinerary: Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, Pittsburg to San Francisco, San Francisco to Seattle... finally! It was pretty insane.

By then,

...we were tired, haha. But at least we got home safe and sound.

So until next year East Coast, keep blessing The name that is holy and let everyone know the Good News,
AJ

Soulfest-ers! This blog's for you...

2007-08-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

It's AJ again, here to bring you the photo-blog(s) for our East Coast trip. Despite the dust at Soulfest and the humidity of Kingdom Bound, overall, this trip was quite adventure. We met some really cool people and saw some great Christian artists.

This is us in a jam-packed car headed to New Hampshire coming from the Int'l Airport in Boston. Carl, Lita and AJ can ALSO be Carlitaj... I know, I know, clever. But really... there were 6 huge boxes, a huge luggage and our own luggage in that SUV.

This is how you know you're on the East Coast. Toll booths.

After driving for over 2 hours stopping at Concord's 'Super Wal-Mart' we finally arrive at Soulfest.

We really didn't plan to wear the same exact same outfit! But pretty cute, huh? It's like twin tolo or something, right?

Carl really wanted that beach ball from the Revolve kids. So, he made Lita spin the wheel... and well, look how happy he is!

Here's a Soulfest tradition.

These are the guys of Relevant Magazine who we shared a tent with. Hands down the coolest guys we met all throughout our East Coast tour. L-R: Dave, Nate and Cory. They pretty much stalked us all the way to Kingdom Bound ;]

And as Lita and I hung out with those guys... Carl did this. Yeah, we pretty much left him... but there's was hardly any traffic in our tent. Carl looks relaxed though!

Since we were really close to the mainstage I was able to see a lot of the musicians. So, here are some of the bands I shot:

Charlir Hall

Bethany Dillon

The Afters

and Chris Tomlin

This is Ashley Clark with her husband. She fell in love with our shirts and asked if it'd be cool if she can wear them on stage and give us plug during her performance. And we, of course, said yeah! She is also heading/working with a organization called Indigesound Global Outreach. Look it up, it's pretty awesome!

And now, our friends wearing JB:

Keep worshipping Him. Peace,

AJ

oooh, a quick shout out...

2007-08-24T11:55:00.001-07:00

Speaking of Creation 2007, I just wanted to say thanks to some friends who we've met along the way:

The fine young lady to my right is Rebecca, and she works for Revolve Tour, a movement that seeks to encourage and grow young women of the faith. We met the summer of 2006 while they toured the same festivals as us, and grew to be pretty awesome buddies. She even let my girlfriend stay at their plush hotel during the 2006 storm at Ohio, while the boys of the JB team had to camp inside a flooded and soggy tent!! And to the left of me is her sidekick extraordinaire, Sean, who hands down is top 5 of the funniest people I have ever met. I can't necessarily explain his humor, but it's sideache inducing. Anyhow, I love these two, and I wish them well! To those of you who love JesusBranded, please check out Revolve Tour and give them your support, they are doing great things for the future women leaders of the Church!!

These lovely people surrounding me are the guys and gals who we shared the vending tent with at Creation 2007: YWAM Denver, YWAM Idaho, Liberty College, and Acquire the Fire. There really is nothing like sharing a weekend (in some cases, the whole summer) with our brothers and sisters in Christ, sharing stories, intertwining experiences together as we all pursue our likeminded goals. Again, as you support JesusBranded in whatever way, please also help support our friends here, since they've all thrown their lot in so that the future leaders of our nation are rooted in the love of Christ. Let's all be partners to shape our generation and the generations to come.

Argh! So many great memories of the summer! AND NOW I'M BACK BEHIND A DESK TIL NEXT SUMMER!!!!!

Sam

Creation West Coast '07

2007-08-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, it's AJ, one of the photo/design interns hear at JesusBranded. I'm here to bring you the blog for Creation Fest 2007! I'm sorry it took so long... but right after Creation, I headed over to the east coast to sell more JB tees at a couple other festivals. And now, I'm back at the office to bring you photos and somewhat 'witty' captions to accompany them.

Here's our truck bed. There are 7 huge shirt buckets in there.

This is a view from our campsite... it was basically VIP, because that's just how we do at JB. And over yonder is the BFC campsites... they had likes 3. Every morning our tent would feel like a sauna... it was pretty much unbearable. By the end of the trip, Sam and Tim slept in the truck bed together. It was pretty cute.

The security had to slow down the morning crowd so that they wouldn't run and trample one another. Crazy kids. You wouldn't catch me running in this kind of heat... or running at all. :]

Here's Sam & Tim headed to get some REALLY good festival food. If you didn't already know... we're kind of a big deal here at Creation. I mean, the strut says it all.

My nose started to bleed as we ate. Awesome. Censored, due to graphic material (sort of).

An ingenius idea. A hut where mist comes from the ceiling... It was 95 degrees there with 100% humidity. And I think that's Matt Moses of Deity Phobia playing with his air popping gun thing.

Here we have our friends (and brother/sister team) Melissa and Michael Mangin. (You might remember Melissa from last year). They were the very first ones to come by our booth this year wearing JB... and they spent good portion of the afternoon looking for our booth. So, we were all pretty excited when they came. On the last day they were a great help; they sold plenty of t-shirts and helped us pack up the booth and load the truck. :]

Yeah, we got really busy.

Here we have my friends Melissa (Missy), Jacquie (Jacq), and Preston (P-Bo). They were an awesome help, and some great entertainment for Tim, Sam and myself. They came out from Issaquah Thursday night, helped out all day Friday, and left Saturday morning. We love you, kids! Come back next year, please :]

This was candle-light ceremony. It was really cool to see. I didn't get a candle though :[

Here's the late night show with Sean Macdonald. Great way to end the night, for sure.

Look in the red circle. Does that shirt look familiar? ;]

Tumbles and cartwheels for free JB pins, haha. You got to love these kids :D

And now our friends wearing JB:

See you next year Creation!

missing our wisconsin...

2007-08-15T16:10:00.000-07:00

I think I've thoroughly monopolized this blog... yikes.

Anyhow, hello again guys and gals of the faith. I'm super behind with these blogs- so for those I promised that you'd be up in our blogs "within 2 or 3 weeks," I ASSURE YOU I'M NOT A PATHOLOGICAL PROMISE BREAKER! So, even though it's a bit overdue, here you go Wisconsin: Me, Carl, and Chris' photo tribute to all y'all!

Here's our lovely tradeshow-esque booth. You know, we're really glad we didn't do the normal merch setup where we're separated by a table from you guys and gals- most of the fun we had was kickin' it with every single one of you and getting to chat and know everyone to some degree! (Well, we don't look happy in this photo, but it's ok- we're trying to look tough and earn some photo street cred...)

Ah, Carl. The photo is so good, I'm leaving this caption alone. In fact, write your own caption and leave it as a comment! Let's see what we get!

You guys probably remember that we had a chiropractor in front of our booth- and here's Chris taking full advantage of their free checkup, only to find out that his back is super wacked out, and they said its most likely from sleeping contorted in a car for 11,000 miles. Teaches him to just sleep while Carl and I do all the driving...

Now, this is mostly for old school fans of Saturday Night Live, but I think it's awesome that comedian Victoria Jackson waltzed into our booth and bought one of our shirts for her show!

Fireworks! On Friday night, apparently, it's LifeFest tradition to end the night with an awesome display of nightsky goodness! (We must've taken 20 or so photos, but this is the only one that turned out... bummer.)

AND NOW, AS PROMISED, WISCONSIN'S CLAIM TO FAME:

This last photo is our good friend Kat and her sister Lexi, and of course, their lovely mum. Kat and Lexi totally were awesome and helped us pass out our buttons to everyone- totally thanks to their mum for letting them hang out with us!

Here's Kat, Chris, and Carl enjoying their shaved ice, which they did quite a lot. Chris at first was excited at his mishmash of flavors until it got too sweet, and it totally explains why he's fiendishly eyeing Carl's bowl instead...

Here's Kat, Lexi, and their mum along with Carl, Chris, and I as we pack up on our last night there. That was quite a draining day for everyone, for many reasons...

And here's our sign off as we wrap up our booth- goofing around with newfound friends! That's what really helped us out during our grueling 5 weeks away from home: everyone of you who took the time not just to look at our shirts, but to really hang out and chat with us, and in doing so were real blessings to us. So, thank you so much, Wisconsin! I'm totally looking forward to hanging out with you guys and gals again next year... so until then, be well, walk in fullness, and continue to live JesusBranded!!

Lost in nostalgia,

Sam.

we're almost and kinda famous!

2007-08-13T12:36:00.000-07:00

Word up! Check it guys and gals, JesusBranded snuck into Brio, a magazine by Focus on the Family!

They did a section on awesome shirts, and we got to be a part of a cool group like-minded people...

Hey! That's OUR AWESOME HEAVENLY DOVE OF FIRE SHIRT! LOOKIT THAT!

So for all you gals who own this shirt, feel free to join us in feel almost and kinda famous! Thanks so much for your support!

Nothin' but maaaad love,

Sam. on behalf of everyone at JesusBranded, of course.

Leeland Wearing JesusBranded!

2007-08-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post showing our good friend Jack (keyboardist) from Leeland wearing Wonders and Signs… man that is one popular shirt!

Check out their MySpace page with more videos from their blog here: http://www.myspace.com/leelandmusic.

we went 12 hours worth of backwards.

2007-08-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

Hello, Virginia!

The title may seem irrelevant, but the reason we said that was because homesickness was hitting fever pitch after Illinois, and then we realized that Virginia is the opposite direction of home (which is Seattle for us) from there! It's all good though, we buckled down and trekked out there, and were DOUBLY blessed by all the fantastic people we got to hang out with. KingsFest was one of the best times we've had as a team, and that's all thanks to you out there who took the time to chat with us, get to know us, and even ditch your youth group meetings to come and hang out with us instead (you know who you are...)! Anyhow, without further ado, here is our picture story:

Carl was very intent on spelling out JesusBranded with our 1" promo buttons. Natural typographer, this guy.

Unfortunately during our stay in Virginia, we all got sick, since we're newbies at the road life. Here's Carl showing how all three of us must have felt at the time.

So, we pretty much spent a lot of our money at the local Krogers buying kleenex, dayquils, nyquils, juice, fruit, and of course, good ol' ramen. We had a craving one night at 11 pm after we worked the whole day, so we went ahead and bought a potpourri of ramen to binge on.

And this is how happy that made me.

This is what three combined packs of Korean ramen looks like. Mmm, good until the first five bites...

Anyhow, enough of the ramen and onto the collage of cool people we met:

Oh, right. Here's Mister David Crowder and his gang visiting us and hanging out at our booth. Such nice and awesome guys, these fellas. And quite the talented musicians too...

Anyone else notice why he likes 1982 alot? (look at his shirt, and look at his shirt again in the Ohio blog; and if you've ever seen his show, he likes to take everyone back to 1982, courtesy of Bon Jovi.) Mister Crowder, if you're reading this, will you shed some light on the significance of 1982?

Here is the rest of the band, taking photos with some of our friends that we've just recently met that day.

And here's Carl surveying the booth as we get ready to pack it all up and move on...

But not until we say goodbye to our friends...

...and have an ice cream sandwich eating contest...

...and pose for one last photograph...

...before we pass out in fetal position on the concrete.

Good times, Virginia, great times. We hope to see you again next year, but until then, keep in touch! We love you all, thank you for making our stay in Richmond memorable and warm, we can't wait to hang out with you guys again!

Next year, any volunteers to go on any rides with us? We only got to ride the volcano one, and I am told there's FAR MORE to the King's Dominion than just that!! What a bummer!!

Love you guys,

Sam

cornerstone hijinks.

2007-08-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

Oh man, it's totally been a while since we've updated our tour blog! Apologies from me, since I've been frazzled by the road and haven't been able to get myself to post our carefree tour antics... but, here I am, back behind my desk. So here in order, our last three weeks of the tour starting with Cornerstone in Bushnell, IL:

Here's what our booth looked like in good ol' dusty and musky Cornerstone.

Here we are (Me, Carl, and Chris) at the end of our workday, cheesing it up for our friends from YWAM Denver, who made us pose for this photo. Okay, so maybe they didn't really MAKE us pose for it. We kinda like posing for photographs. If you couldn't already tell from the past other blogs.

Here's Jae from YWAM Denver, who took the previos photo of us. She's so rad, and I'll tell you why. I met Jae last year in Ohio, when we were both stuck in mud at AliveFest, and I watched her team spill a steaming pot of spaghetti all over the muddy grass. It was awesome to see her again this summer, and she totally blessed us with her spunk. We JesusBranded boys got a bit tired and (sorta) irresponsible at Cornerstone, so we started waking up late and showing up 2 hours after the vendor tent opened, so Jae felt sorry for us immature boys and helped our customers out when we weren't there- and she did it without being asked, just out of the goodness of her heart! Needless to say, we felt a little crunchy about it, so we were never late to another one again. Thanks Jae, for helping these boys grow up a bit!

Here's Chris admiring the steps that I shaved into his head the night before. He attempted to give himself a haircut, and it went horribly wrong, so I had to give him a trashy mullet, and we decided that the steps gave him awesome flair.

Speaking of ill-matic, here's Chris going full circle to the 80's with his breakdancing moves on the cardboard, courtesy of our neighbors at Christie's Pure Style. Too bad we never got a photograph of our neighbor Mike from St Louis Christian College, who owned me twice in a handstand competition.

Here's Chris and I using folded up chairs as pogo sticks. We tried to race from one side of the tent to our booth, but we kept falling over. No injuries though, thank God. Whew. Look how intensely I wanted to win. Tongue out and everything.

Carl demonstrating some impressive facial elasticity.

Hahaha, look at the classic look on Carl's face. Presumably directed towards Chris's awkward looking stalker face.

In the middle of all the hoopla is Kyle from the band Jonezetta, who blessed us so much with his down-to-earth nature and heart for ministry. His low key behavior was humbly disarming, and on top of that, he rocks a great show with his band. Here we are posing with him and a handful of his adoring fans, although sadly, this is NOT a flattering photograph of anybody involved. Here's the story: Chris, Carl, and I have been making fun of a campy korean idiom that sounds like "KOO-REH" all weekend; the campy part being that whenever you say it, you have to flash peace signs frantically a'la Japanese-Tourist-esque. Well, we tried to get all these people to do it with us, but the timing wasn't quite the best. So instead, we all just look a little bit silly.

________

Unfortunately we didn't take very many photographs at Cornerstone, since we were starting to get really exhausted after being on the road nonstop for two weeks... Carl was starting to get physically sick from his allergies, while Chris was starting to really feel the toll of homesickness; and of course, as all the vendors know, days at Cornerstone were looooooong and hot! Anyhow, even though we didn't have very many photographs (much to my regret), we still want to thank all of everyone who made our time there blessed:

-Jae and the YWAM Denver team, who snuck me a couple of chicken soft tacos and let us hang out with their massive industrial cooling fans.

-The girls from LilyWhite Designs, who kindly gave us peanut butter sandwiches, and for also being awesome friendly neighbors.

-Mike from St. Louis Christian College, who we schooled a bit in the art of dancing awesome.

-The cool kids from Scare the Dark, who were kind enough to bang the door of our hotel room and sneakily run away.

-Our friend Rebekah Wilson and her posse, for bringing us coke and for offering us spaghetti!

-and of course, Cameron and Blake from Ephraim Clothing, who we've had the awesome pleasure of getting to know this summer. Blake bro, work on your dance moves, and we'll see you in the pit again...

And now, onto Virginia...

our prayers for liz...

2007-07-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, we just got back from our 5-week trip away from home, and before anything else, we here at JesusBranded send our prayers out to all of our brothers and sisters from Lifefest in Wisconsin who are affected by the events that took place on Saturday.

"...Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another..."

We love all of you. Please keep Liz's family and friends in prayer.

Sincerely,

All of us at JesusBranded