ONE Voice

Kris is too kind- he always has been. WE raised 0ver $31,000 for the ELCA World Hunger Appeal, but HE completed an Ironman (for the second time, and a half an hour or so quicker than last time), HE arranged the performances, and let's face it: HE sang the songs (much better than I did). Most importantly, he chose the cause: to help put a stop to one of the great injustices of the world. He even came up with the idea of wearing ONE t-shirts every time we performed (see the pictures below) and discussing world hunger at every performance. I am truly blessed that Kris and I are friends and that we got to take this journey together. Many people in this world will be blessed by our efforts, and our involvement will continue.

Kris and I met at Lenoir-Rhyne and we supported ONE during our tour, so I smiled when the two became one (no pun intended) early last week. ONE has started a Campus Challenge, which will help heighten awareness at colleges around the country. I was excited to get involved, and when I did, a very real and exciting thing happened. I signed up and looked at the LRC page to see that we were ranked in the top 5 schools in the challenge (and still are). A small, private, liberal arts college that sometimes struggles for student involvement has signed up almost 400 people (that would be one quarter of its student population) and is finding ways to take action.

I write this for several reasons. First, by blogging about ONE, Lenoir-Rhyne will receive points in the challenge. Second, it's a great cause to get behind (check out the link to the right). But, most importantly, I do this because I went to a school where i was involved and made friends from all walks of life. One was Kris, who allowed me to share in his walk and showed me that there are ways we can help without having money, spending money, or even asking for money. I smile when I see white on people's wrists; I actually broke my band today and need to replace it.
I felt so much pride when I saw that L-R was participating in this challenge that I called Kris and talked with him about it. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't know what ONE is; I wouldn't know what hunger is (in the "global" sense), and I wouldn't be able to say that I helped raise $31,000 to help stop world hunger. I did it with my friend; WE did it, as one.

~Nick

Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord

A Long Overdue Update

Thanks to the help and prayers of many, many people during the past year, Nick and I were successful in raising over $31,000 for the ELCA World Hunger Appeal! This far exceeded our goal of $20,000, which we'll say was ambitious from the beginning.

Nick is still in the Hickory area of North Carolina, but I have moved on to Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, where I've been pursuing the MDiv studies since July. We still keep in touch, but unfortunately our music has had to be done individually due to the distance. I'm sure some day soon we'll be able to try our hand at a reunion performance. :)

The Normies still encourage you to continue to support ministries and organization that fight the injustice of hunger. Particularly, we will always encourage you to support the ELCA World Hunger Appeal and the ONE Campaign. Stayed tuned as be will be frequently posting on these subjects during coming weeks, months, years, and millenia.

~Kris

Make A Joyful Noise to The Lord

Free Samples

58 - free music
Originally uploaded by Mr. Kris.

Nick and I have both been busy, so we haven't posted here in quite a while. But we have some more performances lined up, so it is time to get back together and do what The Normies do. :)

We've finally been able to record ourselves. You can find that story and the free mp3 samples by clicking on the picture included with this post. Enjoy!

Latest Updates

The Normies
Originally uploaded by krislitman.

Hey everyone (or no one) that is reading this! We took a break from performing in December but spent the time working on new songs. We had a performance in Charlotte in mid-January at Holy Trinity Lutheran (see the included picture).

An article was in the January edition of The Lutheran magazine about me (Kris) and the athletic/musical endeavors I'm doing to combat hunger. I'm glad the article also made mention of Nick and the amount of help he's been.

We are working on a few gigs in the near future: a couple in Tennessee, some more in North Carolina, and (amazingly) one in Idaho! The Idaho gig is possible because of a woman named Margie who is very devoted to the hunger-cause. That will be June 21, and Nick is looking at his schedule to see if he'll be able to make a vacation out of the trip.

~ Make a Joyful Noise to the Lord!

An Aside

It is not mentioned much on this blog (nor will it be) that I (Kris) compete in triathlons. If you've followed the link on the sidebar to my Janus Charity Challenge page, you will have realized that The Normies are a part of a larger fundraising endeavor for me as I am competing in the 2007 Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I'm racing in it as a method to get the word out about extreme poverty and hunger, and how we have all the resources today to end this plight...if only we had the moral will to do so.

This morning was the Thunder Road Marathon in Charlotte. I competed in the relay division, which means that I ran the first half of the marathon (13.1 miles) and two other friends shared the second half. It was bitterly cold out there, reaching record low temperatures in Charlotte for the day. When I begin the half-marathon it was around 25 degrees and by the time I finished it was still below freezing.

The cold weather really made running hurt; I couldn't feel my legs, the sweat coming through my wool cap and upper body clothing was freezing as soon as it reached the surface, and I had to labor to keep everything moving. Around miles 4 through 8 of the course I was asking myself the question, "Why?" I could have been at home sleeping. I could have been warm in thick clothes and drinking coffee. I could have not chosen to compete in these races and live this lifestyle.

Then the thought came to mind: "You are doing this to prepare for the Ironman. You are doing the Ironman to help the world's hungry." That gave me the boost of confidence I needed. The last four miles or so of the course were still difficult, but I was able to lift my head up a little more and improve my pace. In the end, I finished the 13.1 miles in one hour and 39 minutes, which is only nine minutes off my personal best for the distance (which took place in upper 70 degree weather).

I just looked at the results and we (me, Doug, and Patrick) finished 2nd out of 9 men's relay teams. We had a finishing time of 3:26:16. So we still did very well considering the conditions. We are all pleased with the day and we definitely learned from it.

~Make a joyful noise to the Lord

Wow - That Was Cold!

(FYI - the Blogger folks are fiddling around with their program and I am currently unable to italicize, bold, or insert a picture. I'm sure they'll figure it out soon)

I made it up to Greensboro shortly before 9 p.m. and got to meet everyone that was participating in the LYO Rally. I got the tour of the place and was very happy to be included in their weekend.

Most of the performance was done outside around the firepit. I think everyone thought it was bitterly cold outside, but in looking at the airport weather listings it only got down to 46 degrees during the time of my perforamce. However, there were sustained winds of 10 to 14 mph during this time, and that might have been the killer. My hands were the first body parts to go numb, which would usually be a problem while playing the guitar, but I was surprised at how well I pulled off most of the songs. I did have to stop during the middle of "If You're Gone", by Matchbox 20, because I couldn't get my fingers to move as fast as they needed to.

We moved inside for the last three songs. They wanted to hear Weird Al's "You Don't Love Me Anymore", so I did that one more time and then I finished, as usual, with "Grace" and "Mothers of the Disappeared", both by U2. Prior to these last two songs I spoke about what it is Nick and I are doing, why, the state of hunger in our world today, what the ELCA World Hunger Appeal is about, and how they can join the ONE Campaign. I must say that they were probably the most receptive crowd for this message that I've seen.

~ Make a Joyful Noise to the Lord

GSO I Go

Nick and I were planning to take a bit of a hiatus during the month of December, but then the call came. :)

The call was a last minute request to play at the North Central Cluster (of LYO) Fall Rally in Greensboro. Apparently someone backed out on them that was supposed to provide music on Friday night, so The Normies were contacted to fill in. I've had the pleasure of working with a young lady named Sarah during the last couple of days on the phone and through email to coordinate this last minute gig.

Unfortunately, Nick and his wife, Mandy, already had plans for the evening and it was too late to change them. So this performance will be another solo by yours truly, similar to the Columbia performance.

My plans for Friday were to meet with other members of the ONE Campaign in the Charlotte area to discuss plans to organize some events. I was able to contact one of the other leaders with the organization, and fortunately she is able to meet 30 minutes in advance of the planned time. That'll give us time to discuss a few things, then I can leave so she can carry the conversation on with anyone else that shows up. It's a little unfortunate that I won't be able to meet some of the other ONE members, but I think they'll understand when it's explained that I'm skipping out of the usual meeting in order to raise money for the hungry. :)

~Make a Joyful Noise to The Lord