Sing Your Praise 5:37 Bach Violin Concerto 13:36 Mitch McVicker "Here and Now" 20:39 Mitch McVicker "Only Love" 25:37 Screen Door 30:44 Step By Step 32:44 Mitch McVicker "Lemonade Song" 36:30 Homeless Man 39:40 Hard To Get 42:40 The Breaks 50:00 Song For Mary 54:54 If I Stand 55:47 Creed 1:00:42 Calling Out Your Name 1:05:38 Mitch McVicker Gospel Rain 1:12:35 John 1:23:27 Ready for the Storm 1:26:56 Bach's Cello Suite 1 in G Major (Eric Hauck) 1:30:46 "No Not One" (Jesus Knows all About Our Struggles) 1:34:00 No Trouble At All 1:36:20 Awesome God 1:37:58 In September of 1997 some family friends asked my parents if they could host "a few musicians" for "a few weeks", not saying who the musicians were. My mom agreed, and Rich Mullins, Mitch McVicker, Eric Hauck and Michael Aukofer showed up a few days later. When they arrived, my mom thought Rich was joking when he told her his name! This video was taken by Sharon Henryson on September 6, 1997, about two weeks before Rich Mullins went to his home in heaven. Rich Mullins, Mitch McVicker and Eric Hauck were kind enough to perform during the Kruse's monthly "Second Saturday Sing at Seven", which is still going on to this day. I was 16 at the time of this recording, and getting to spend time with Rich during his last three weeks was quite life changing for me. I remember the first time I met him in my living room. "Isn't Jesus amazing..." he said. It shocked me, and I agreed with him simply out of conviction. But he meant it! Also - he told me that his managers told him he "looked like sh*t". To hear that word come out of Rich's mouth kind of shocked me at the time, though I know that Rich had a reputation of speaking honestly and occasionally shocking people. Rich sometimes rolled his own cigarettes and smoked on our back deck. Also, Rich was in the process of converting to Catholicism. After he told my mom this, she asked sarcastically, "Does this mean you will worship Mary"? Rich's response - a simple "Yes" - was almost certainly also filled with sarcasm. I am guessing Rich was simply tired of defending his interest in Catholic Christianity, and he responded with his famous brand of "eyebrow raising" humor. One day during those three weeks, Rich and Mitch invited my family and a couple of friends to the studio for a day. The studio was an old abandoned church in Elgin (Chicago suburb) filled with thousands of dollars of equipment, instruments and computers. I remember ash trays filled with cigarettes in the studio upstairs as Rich and Mitch were meticulously recording Mitch's first album. I also remember showing Rich my first song that I had written. He listened intently and told me, "Not bad for a first song". Honestly, though, he was just being generous - something Rich did quite well. One story my mom told me was when Rich came home from recording late one night and shared with her that he was going to write a new song that night. "How do you just write a song?" My mom asked. "How do you cook as well as you do?" He asked back. The next morning my mom asked him if he had written a new song last night. He then performed a finished "All The Way To Kingdom Come" for her. It may be prophetic that this was possibly the last song he ever wrote. This "encounter" with Rich also created new friendships. Among other amazing experiences, I have had the opportunity to work as a musician and learn from Rich Mullin's percussionist - Michael Aukofer. Michael has become an award winning international composer, and he currently leads the music program at West Ridge community church in Elgin, Illinois, where I also get to perform on a regular basis. It's amazing how a moment can alter the entire direction of our lives!

• published: 06 Sep 2011
• views: 129173