Wow, I can't believe I'm saying this but this was my 7th year of Sonshine Festival. Just for some background for all of you who don't know what Sonshine Festival is, it's Minnesota's largest Christian music festival that takes place every year in Willmar, MN and gets between 20,000-25,000 people every year. This year it was held July 13th-16th. I am a DIE HARD Christian music lover. I don't know where I would be in my life without Sonshine's influence, so I decided to write a summary of reflections of how Sonshine has impacted my life over the last 7 years...Be prepared to read a novel, I'm not your "short story" kind of girl! So first of all with the number 7 comes many revelations. In the bible 7 is a symbol meaning "last" Ever since my life was completely transformed at Challenge 2010, (A christian conference in Columbus, Ohio) God has been doing some crazy and unpredictable things in my life, that I would have never IMAGINED would take place...so with that fact established, it comes to me as no surprise that God clearly told me at Sonshine 2011 that this would be my "Last" year coming for quite some time. I'll never forget walking around the streets of Sonshine one last time and feeling this sadness in my heart, that I wouldn't be here next year...Even if I really wanted to I knew at that moment that I would be living and serving God somewhere else at this time next year. With my passion for being a European/Russian musicianary increasing exponentially day by day I believe he is calling me to go overseas to Europe & Russia next summer, which would mean I would have to miss Sonshine. Like I said, God has been doing crazy things in my life, so I am DEF not surprised. My senior year of highschool was strange...everything turned out GREAT...Also I found out recently that this fall would be the David Crowder Band's 7th and Final tour as a band...I found that fact quite a relatable coincidence to my own life....
How Sonshine Festival has Impacted my life:
Well, first of all, as I posted in a recent facebook status, " If God would have told the shy, quiet, afraid to speak english 12 year old me 7 years ago, what would take place at Sonshine Festival 2011 I would have been like "That's impossible, wrong story, wrong girl,You're CRAZY..." But 7 years later, this girl would become that person who LOVES to talk, like seriously NEVER shuts up , energetic and just LOVES LIFE AND PEOPLE SO MUCH...:) God placed the passion of Christian music on my heart when I was 8 years old and that was also the year I accepted Christ into my heart for the very first time as a child. I honestly didn't realize where this beautiful passion would take me...On a more serious note...If it wasn't for Sonshine Festival I can honestly say I would have never made it to my 18th birthday. I was that girl in highschool who stuck out for my love for Jesus and Christian music. I absolutely HATED going to a public highschool all my life. My highschool 7-12 had only about 250 students with my graduating class having a grand total of 51 students. So coming from a community that small basically everyone was alike and originality had long lost it's passion in the school I once went to...but then throw a girl named AISTE into the picture...I dared to SHAKE the walls of my highschool down!....I remember feeling SO ALONE in my passion to serve Jesus in Europe and Russia by being a musicanary. Highschool was no easy journey for me. It was a pure HELLISH torture I will thank God NEVER relieve. I was deeply depressed my 7th, 8th, 9th, and 11th grade years of highschool. The only years by God's grace that actually went well were my sophmore & senior year. The funny thing is,I hid my deep sadness SO ridiculously well that to THIS DAY not even my favorite teachers would have guessed I was struggling so deeply. Even some of my closest friends in highschool still have absolutely NO IDEA that I was having a hard time. So if I called those 2 groups of people up today I can say they would honestly be shocked that I, Aiste was the girl to go through all that. I remember my own friends thinking I was completely out of my own mind in starting a band and having such out of the box seemingly impossible ideas of changing the world. So when I felt like I was that oddball out, coming to Sonshine made me feel secure. I knew at that festival I could meet beautiful friends who shared the same crazy Jesus freak hopes and dreams that I did and that I wouldn't be judged for who I truly was! ( Maybe explain how Dawn from Fireflight's testimony changed your life your freshman summer) I remember every year I came to sonshine I would be encouraged by numerours speakers and my favorite bands. I held each and every precious word they said close to my heart...There is something about the Christian music genre that makes it uniquely stand out among the other genres of music. Let me DEFINE Christian music for you because there are so many people out there (It drives Aiste insane and makes her scream) who think by the term "Christian Music" I mean that all music in that genre revolves around Chris Tomlin style music (praise & worship). In my words, there is Christian praise & worship, rock, pop, hip hop, rap, gospel, AND yes heavy metal all associated within the Christian genre. AH. MEN. If it weren't for Christian music and sonshine festival, I would have not developed my passion for being a musicianary and starting a band one day. I would not be the Aiste I was today without it. I'm not saying Chrisitan music and Sonshine defines who I am, but rather what God did in my heart through both those life experiences that make me who I am today. My personal favorite, if it weren't for Christian music & Sonshine...I would have not fallen in love with all the musicians over the years. And for OBVIOUS reasons I will not list the names of theses musicians because that in itself would cause more controversy than America's presidential election! LOL I will just leave them wondering...Like you know how growing up girls fell in love with handsome actors...I was different because I could care less about Brad Pitt or Aaron Carter...I fell in love with handsome Christian musicians... I remember growing up, how I always looked up to Christian musicians..Like you know how most of America is obsessed with sports and looks up to athletes, that's how I feel about Christian music and musicians but in an obvious music sense. I always thought it was absolutely SO beautiful the priceless example a Christian musician set. I aspired to be like one of them one day... I knew that the person I saw on stage was transparent and what I saw on stage was who they actually were in person. They were TRANSPARENT. They loved Jesus with everything they had in them and were kind and compassionate to their family, friends and fans...Now don't get me wrong...just because a band labels themseleves as a "Christian band" does not always mean at the end of they day, they are living up to this high calling. and TRUST me I've had my share of sorting my way through the frogs, toads & princes in Christian music...Part 2 to be continued....
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