 dishes of hope for the Lord. I'm Amy Schaefer. I am here with Tom and with Sydney. Tom, some great rich stuff today. Oh, yes. I mean, you just heard the shofar band. They just have and you mentioned food and that's a good analogy because I had a chance to speak with them earlier and they have a hunger for God. So we're going to be talking to them. We're going to talk about worship and how worship and it enters into that that whole thing, Sydney, of that hunger, that desire for God, that and what God is doing. We even talk about things like the Pittsburgh blessing and some other things that they've done where you see the whole church is involved in units unifying things like that and the worships part of that. Yeah, it's beautiful when we come together and spirit and truth to worship and one thing about the shofar band and you're going to learn more about is that they're from they're in South Africa. So I just love that, you know, as the body of crisis, like a lot of times, you know, I feel like we focus on what's going on America, but God is on the move everywhere. And it's just so important for us to say I love like hearing different styles of worship and songs of worship, because I think about when we are gathered together one day in heaven, every nation, every tribe and every tongue, how beautiful is that going to be all of us collectively coming together? So we're so excited that you're tuned in today. We just pray that this show today that you would just be saturated in the presence of God. If you're watching from home that you would just really just embrace the Holy Spirit in your heart and in your home. Yeah. And I think too, sometimes the hung to be hungry for God is is kind of coincides with being on fire for God. Like there's just a passion. There's just a desire for more of him. You need to hear from him. You need to worship with him. You need to be reading his words. You need to be in the house of God like there is a hunger for him. So that's what we're praying for you today. Absolutely. It's interesting that so far band doesn't play so far at all. It's that it's that thing that welcomes us in, you know, it's the call to seek God. And that's that's what they talk about. And we're gonna, you know, just take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll be with the two members of the show far band every now and then life gets the best of us. And we need a reminder to keep calm and trust God simple, but striking the keep calm and trust God box of blessings provides messages of reassurance to help carry you through tough and challenging times. These small cards fit into the palm of your hand and will turn your focus to the one who is in control of everything. Inside you'll find 51 colorful double sided cards featuring a combination of inspirational scripture versus and faith based quotes. Add it to a get well basket or use it to encourage a teacher, family member or friend or save it for the times you need encouragement. Be sure to ask for the keep calm and trust God box of blessings when you give today. It's our way of saying thanks as you encourage others by providing life changing Christian television through cornerstone TV. Call us at 888-665-4483 or give at ctvn.org slash donate. We've had an opportunity already to hear show far band and we're joined by one of their members and well two of their members really, Tosca Ferndale and James Pringle guys. Welcome to hope today. Welcome. Thank you for having us. Thank you so much and Tosca, you're kind of more behind the scenes, right? Yes. Yeah. Well, we'll get we'll get to you in a second, but James, tell me about show far band. How did you begin and what has God been doing? So we are from a family in family of churches in South Africa. I'm called show far Christian Church. Church started about 30 years ago in a very small town in South Africa called Stellenbosch. It's a university town, but very influential town in terms of our history as a nation. You know, a lot of leaders come from that town have come through that university and changed a lot of the politics over the years. So you can imagine with South Africa's history and we we were planted there about 30 years ago and the church has grown since then and about 13 years ago. We just felt God leading us to we need to start singing our own songs as a church family. So that's when the I was part of the team that started show for bands. So we brought out quite a bit of music over the years, but really our vision has kind of grown from there beyond just serving our church family, which we love. We love our church family. But God has just connected us with other amazing movements and other amazing churches, other worship movements. And we just seeing God really move in the space of worship within South Africa and even beyond. Well, I want to ask you about that. But first, Tosca, tell me about this collective idea. Like how many people are involved? So we're about 23, 23 people on the WhatsApp group. So 23 musicians, but not just musicians. And we also have videographers and photographers. And it's really a creative creative collective. And the heart is really to glorify God with songwriting and just creating unto his glory. So what's it like James to write your own songs? I mean, there's a worship songs in the church to kind of go make the rounds and I've been to South Africa. I've heard the some of the same songs that we sing here. But what's it like to write your own music? What kind of partnership with the Holy Spirit is that? This is something I'm very passionate about. I really believe in the power of songwriting. I believe songs shape so much of our understanding of who God is. When you think about a typical church service, you know, if I had to ask you what are the parts of the preacher a week back, maybe you would remember one or two themes, but it's the songs that come with us into our week and into our days and they inform us as to who God is. And so we just felt as a community it's powerful to sing songs that are for the global church. So we love singing songs from all over the world. And it's amazing that God would anoint songs like for instance the blessing when COVID-19 hit that went worldwide. But we also believe that God speaks to a community as well. There's things that God is doing in our context and in our community and we believe in discipling and training, raising up songwriters who can capture what God is saying, what the Holy Spirit is saying for us. Because we need to be obedient to what God is saying to us as a church family. Not necessarily to what he's saying to another church on the other side of the world. So we believe in both and we love writing songs. Yeah, I mean I love that too. In fact the whole blessing going viral, that actually started in Pittsburgh here and actually with the Pittsburgh blessing were a couple of worship leaders that we know they just started getting everyone together and that's kind of like spread out from there. So it's kind of a cool thing when we see that. But I love the creativity of writing new songs. Tosca, with you working behind the scenes, working with everybody, you got a bunch of creatives, it's like her and cats, you know, what's it? Literally how she describes her job. So what's that like? It's incredible. I think it's, for me, it's a privilege to be able to kind of be in the middle of what the Lord is saying and like James is saying, I think one of the privileges of being able to write your own songs and to give expression to what God is doing locally, it's very precious. And I think a lot of times, and specifically in Africa and in South Africa, I'll say our songs, but the sound of South Africa or Africa doesn't necessarily go as far as it can because there isn't necessarily always resource or order or just people that can get it on to the right channels and move it. So I think that, you know, like you said, the herding of the cats is sometimes what is necessary to really give, to give that expression the time it needs because I really, and I'm a firm believer that every tribe and every tongue and every nation has been given something and we need what that tribe and that tongue has to see Jesus more fully. So as much as we can receive from the church in America, the church in Europe or I mean for us the church in Burundi, it enlivens and it gives expression and it makes more full the view of God that we could have. Right, isn't it great when you hear a culture develop worship music in that culture's heart music? I mean James have you seen that? What's it like when you really, you know, see a culture like really released that way? Absolutely. I think what is so special for us, we love our country, we're going to speak about South Africa a lot. Everybody's invited to South Africa. It's the greatest nation in the world. Sometimes it's really a beautiful nation. But what is really special about us is we, and I think it's here in the States as well, but there's just such a, there's so many different cultures. There's so many different, we've got 11 official languages and so for us as a nation, you know, we have these songwriting retreats and we get people from different expressions, different backgrounds, different denominations, different cultures, different languages and we put people together in a room and so what we're trusting to come out is something that is, you know, culturally relevant but also something new, something new that God wants to release for us as a nation. This is what South African worship sounds like and so we're excited, we're still exploring. I guess that's my answer is that we're only kind of stretching the surface of seeing what it looks like when cultures, all races, all tribes, all times come together in worship. Yeah, and again, I love that. When I hear, when I go to another country and I hear just the same songs, it's okay. It's like, I wonder what it would be like in their music but let me ask you both this. What is God doing? Okay, so you, as you're worshiping, as you're holding meetings, what kind of things are happening? James, I'll start with you on that one. I think the word that would describe for me what God is doing is hunger. There's a hunger in South Africa. We were chatting earlier that you were involved with YOM and we've got great friends with fine fragrance there, a branch of YOM. And we had a privilege to do a kind of a tour with them earlier this year. And these are people like Andy Byrd and Francis Chan coming to South Africa and they're saying they haven't seen a hunger really outside places like Brazil that they're seeing in South Africa. And so God is really stirring just this absolute hunger. You also spoke now about what happened in Pittsburgh with the blessing. You saw the same thing in South Africa with COVID-19, so much destruction, so much heartache, but how God used that to unite the church. We've seen churches taking hands, movements taking hands. I've been involved in ministry for 14 years, not that long, but from my experience pre-COVID, churches very much kind of did their own thing. But I think we're just seeing this beautiful taking on of hands of different parts of the body because we realize how much we need the different parts. And even though I agree with everything that you do and your expression doesn't appeal to me but we realize how we need one another. Yeah, it's interesting I was talking to you earlier before the interview and Tosca, you mentioned when we were on lockdown and I thought to myself everybody in the world knows what that means, right? It's like the one universal experience that we've all had. But Tosca, what have you seen as you've sort of seen from maybe a different vantage point what have you seen God doing? I always say this, but worship is the precursor to revival and the fact that the Lord is bringing so many worship movements together in South Africa makes us very excited that the hunger is real and the hunger is present. But the Lord is bringing everyone together and really purifying. I've seen there's repentance and there's just this desire to know and to see God for who he is without the stuff, without the frills, just raw Jesus. And I believe that hunger gets met with intercession, it gets met with worship and then revival breaks out. And there are incredible prophecies over our nation. It says that revival will start in the southernmost of Africa and move up and then through Africa and into the world and I really with great earnest believe that we're seeing that, we're seeing this revival but it's not happening because shuffleband is great or that church is great or fine fragrance is great. It's happening because the church of Jesus Christ is allowing themselves to be knit together by the spirit of God and Ephesians 3 verse 10 says that it is the church that Jesus himself has chosen to prove to the rulers and principalities and authorities of this age the surpassing knowledge of Christ and I really that's what we're seeing. The church standing and showing South Africa the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ. I love that. I'm getting excited right here right now. Come visit. Let me ask you, real quick how do you get the music, shuffleband music? You can get us on Spotify on Apple Music, on Amazon Prime Music on YouTube shuffleband. If you type us in you'll find us. All one word. Shuffleband, one word. What about with an F not a PH? I'm sorry. Well, Tosca, James, thank you so much for being with us and thank you for sharing your heart and your music with us today. Thanks so much, Tom. We'll be right back. Thank you Sea to the End family for blessing us back with your words of encouragement. Hi, I'm Sydney Goldman host of Hope Today. The Godola family wrote to us and said you are all being used by our savior Thank you for all you do there on camera and behind the scenes. We love to make Jesus shine right here at Cornerstone Telstra Network. Hope happens here and you know why it's because of you. Thanks you for your faithful partnership. Hope happens here and we really are thankful for you. And also don't you love hearing what God is doing all over the world in South Africa? I did not know that you know boots on the ground in South Africa that they are so hungry for God. I mean, we how do we know that unless we hear and to hear their stories? And I know that my husband just came back from the Middle East and in Egypt. And he said the sound of the worship that's happening in the Middle East, the sound of the people crying out for God. He said it's interesting that they're not praying like for their comfort. They are praying, God, I will be done. We are a living sacrifice. So, man, I think there are some lessons for us today that we hunger and we thirst for God that it's so easy in our culture to be so comfortable, so cozy. And if we're not careful, we can fall asleep in the light and become lethargic and Sydney. That is not going to happen because we're on air here to stir the fire. I think it's just so important when you just saying stir the fire and just how are you today immersing yourself in the fire of God? Are you allowing yourself to be cleansed? Are you allowing yourself to be purified? One thing I love in the interview with Tosca was just saying about this whole idea of repentance that I think a lot of times when it comes to we all are crying out, we want revival, revival. But the thing is, first, we have to be revived in our hearts. And that is a process where we just lay ourselves before the altar of God. And we say, Jesus, here I am. And we allow him to do a deep, deep work in us, because if we're expecting the world to know Jesus, but there's a lot of things that are jacked up in our hearts, the world is actually going to reject it. We need to be purified by the love of God. And we are just so grateful that you have just been with us today and just experiencing the shofar band, hearing their story, hearing their music. And, you know, we just want to encourage you even today that maybe you want to be purified deep in your heart. Give us a call at our prayer line at 888-665-4483. We always have prayer partners standing by. Well, we are so glad that you joined us on today's program. And we want to close out with worship. And we just encourage you to listen to shofar band as they sing the song. We give our lives. Have a good one. Your love is never a rock that is strong and sure. Jesus, you gave it all. So you deserve our all as a sacrifice. We'll seek your face all our days. You deserve it all. Our hearts, our voices. You deserve it all. One thing our hearts desire. Jesus, you're all we see. Beholding the King of glory. Face down at your feet. Jesus, you gave it all. So you deserve our all. You deserve it all. Our breath. On tomorrow's Hope Today, finding ways to move forward in the face of uncertainty. Author and speaker Brian Zaire offers practical advice for navigating through the difficulties of life with a plan that is filled with hope and triumph. That's tomorrow on Hope Today. Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers, whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.