It was a Thursday night in October, at a "Catch the Fire" conference at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. Jacob was sitting near the back of the room next to his buddy Jon on one side, and Adam on the other.
Half way through the sermon an odour wafted by. Adam began looking around and asked Jacob "dude did someone wearing a lot of perfume walk by?" but they both agreed that no one had moved past us. The smell subsided, but then returned, and this time a weighty presence came with it, and both Adam and Jacob began to giggle as this joyful sensation passed over them. Then the smell moved away again. With it went the presence of God that they had been experiencing. This was a weird kinda thing, but not completely unfamiliar, as both Adam and Jake had felt this type of thing before.
It happened five or six times in about twenty minutes, and a few people around them were getting distracted by the giggling boys at the back, so they moved to the very back of the auditorium, and collapsed on the ground, thinking that here they could soak in this experience without bothering anybody. Adam had to go to the loo, but couldn't stand up. He tried, and fell over again. It was pretty funny.
After a while Jacob began to inquire of the Lord as to what was going on, namely what He might want to say to Jacob, since He seemed to be going to great lengths to get his attention. Immediately Jacob had a picture in his mind of he and some of his friends making music together in St. Stephen, but the friends he had envisioned each lived in Ontario. Jacob mentioned it to Adam when he got back from his slow journey to the washroom. He said "As soon as I got here tonight I felt the Holy Spirit telling me that it was time to make the album that I had wanted to make. Up until now I have only played music on other people's albums, and haven't done any of my own stuff.
So, yeah I'm in." The two lads went together to find Michael, whom they knew to be sitting near where they had been before, and they told him the idea. He was obviously excited about the prospect of making music, but also clearly hesitant about all of the small hoops he would need to jump through to get the time off work, write some songs, etc...
So now there were three. Together they phoned Marcel and asked him, and he said yes immediately. And thus was born Reluvnotion. Adam, Jake, Mike, and Marcel, each of whom filled different, and fundamental roles in the band. Michael plays guitars, Adam plays pretty much any thing, but mostly keys and guitars, Jacob plays mostly bass, and the occasional guitar, and Marcel pounds the drums (and like the rest of us, plays some mean guitar).
So the idea was there, and the band was assembled. Next they had to choose a time to get together in St. Stephen, and New Year's sounded like a good fit. Everyone was able to get the time off work, and between the four of them had all the amps and instruments needed. The final two pieces of the puzzle were the venue, and the actual recording of the music.
Marcel owned enough recording gear to do a top-rate job, but it would prove to be very difficult to play drums and record at the same time. That's where Jamie Joustra comes in. He too owns and operates a goodly amount of sound engineering type stuff, and he needed a break from the routine, so he came along to help at the sound desk.
Jamie - we luv ya!The band drove to St. Stephen on January 3rd, and made the mistake of stopping at the White Wolf in Stratton, where it took them nearly two hours to serve six sandwiches. They arrived in St. Stephen late that night, set up the gear in the local Vineyard church, and thus had a venue. Everything came together, almost as though God had a hand in it.
The band practiced all week, and taught each other new songs so that Saturday night they could throw a concert. The practices went well, and the night of the show Reluvnotion was ready and rehearsed.
Mike nearly wet himself with stage fright, but he fought through it, and his songs were stupendously awesome blues and rock worship songs. Jacob played some acoustic folk-rock tunes, Marcel did likewise, and Adam busted out some sweet Pop/worship type tunes.
The audience enjoyed themselves, but frankly, the band could have been terrible and they would have loved it, simply because there's not much to do in St.Stephen.
After Reluvnotion had done each of their original tunes they closed the concert portion, allowing for anyone who needed to leave to politely see themselves out. The band then proceeded to play some more traditional worship songs.
Michael put down the guitar and just sang, Adam, Marcel and Jacob stayed on their instruments, and the Spirit of God came and did his thing.
People sang from their hearts, danced, knelt down, prophesied, laughed, cried, sang new songs to the Lord, and the band played tighter and more beautifully than in any of their previous tunes.
While there may come an album from the whole thing, and Reluvnotion could have some kind of future together as a Band, at the very least, for one week they came together to pursue God, and for one night He came down and let his children sing to him. Numerous folks who were at the show that night said that they had never felt more free to worship, and a few of the band members agreed that it was one of the most incredible times of worship and nearness to God that they had ever known.
By faith the story isn't over here, but I thought you would want to know where Reluvnotion came from, and only God knows where we're going. God bless you!
