The LOVE RIOT began last week and we have been overwhelmed by the positive response! We debuted on the iTunes Christian charts at #3, only behind the two versions of Hillsong United’s latest, and along with them one of two of the only Christian bands in the top 100 iTunes overall. We’re very proud of our release and we have you, our fans, to thank for that! We hope that you’re not just enjoying our hooks, melody’s, and guitar riffs but you’re also connecting with the heart of the album: Jesus Christ and the mission he has given us to radically change our world. We hope that our album is inspiring you to take the LOVE RIOT into your city and change hearts and lives!

We want to do more than just talk about it. We want to do it! We have been thinking about ways we can partner with you to make a difference in the lives of people in your city and people all over the world. In Matthew 5:41 Jesus says, “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.” It’s great you got LOVE RIOT, it’s great you’re living for God, but that is the first mile. The second mile is going out of your way to help others find their way to Jesus as well. We’re going to ask you to think of a friend who would love our music whose life could be affected for eternity by LOVE RIOT and gift it to them on iTunes. We’ve had a lot of people asking how they can buy LOVE RIOT for their friends, and we’ve got a nifty little instruction video below that will tell you how to do just that. We’re believing that people are going to find Jesus and that lives are going to be changed for ever! 

 But we wouldn’t ask you to go the second mile without  giving it a go ourselves! John 1:5 says “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it!” We believe that we have been given a platform to help expose darkness in the world and a big need on our heart is the human trafficking trade. Slavery did not die in the 19th century, it is still alive and well today and is being used for the most despicable purposes. Women and children are being forced into prostitution. You can not even begin to imagine the mental and sexual abuse these people go through! But to cap it all of, a lot of these women and children are also physically abused. It is a big problem all around the world, even in our own city. This should not stand. 

 We are going to partner with Without Permission, a not-for-profit organization founded by Pastor Debbie Johnson, our home church’s women’s ministry pastor, that seeks to educate young women about the dangers of human trafficking, minister to the men involved in this atrocity who have rightfully been brought to justice, recruit foster families to care for trafficking victims, but most importantly, they work with law enforcement to rescue trafficking victims here in Modesto and, with the help of other not for profit organizations, around our country and present them the hope and restoration they have in Jesus Christ!

 It is such an incredible organization with an unbelievably important cause that we are going to donate 50% of all iTunes sales  to Without Permission during the month of March. We’re taking that second mile, and we hope you will as well. 

 We’re believing that your friends who will get LOVE RIOT as a result of your kindness and generosity are going to find hope and freedom in Jesus; We’re also expectant that God is going to use Without Permission to bring that same hope and freedom to victims of human trafficking. 

 Help us spread the LOVE RIOT by tweeting, sharing this link, and updating your status. Every update is a step to help in this fight with us. 

 For more information about the organization Without Permission, go to http://www.woutpermission.org/

Video instructions on gifting LOVE RIOT can be found below: