My last update I did, I was saying how much I enjoyed the spring with the flowers peeking through the ground and the warmer weather starting to come. Well…..it is now the beginning of May and it is still cool, the flowers are not where I thought they would be by now and this coming weekend is my first outdoor show for the year and the weather is suppose to be raining and a high of 61.

That may all sound like I’m complaining, but I’m really not. I definitely enjoy the warmer weather but not the really hot days. It is no fun as a trumpet player to be dripping wet in sweat after your first song and try to keep a mouthpiece from slipping off your face for a long concert. Not fun at all.

Things are going well right now. God continues to bless us every step of the way in this ministry. Many lives have changed this year and I’m excited to see many more change. Just the other day I had a guys come to two separate concerts. The second one he came to he had to travel several hours for, but when he came to the second show, he brought his dad. He knew his dad would like the music, but really knew that his dad needed the message. After the concert was done and things began to clear out, I saw both of them praying with the pastor, and later found out that the dad received Christ that night.

Stories like that just amaze me. I am so in awe that God does things through us and uses us in ways we don’t even know sometimes. I never met the guy, but found out that the trumpet was his favorite instrument, and God used the trumpet that night to speak to that guy in a personal way that will forever change his life and his eternal existence. WOW!!!

Praise God that stories like that aren’t because of me, but because of God. I never want to get in God’s way of doing His thing in the way He does it. Even on my best day, my work doesn’t even measure to what God can do through me in a split second.

Please continue to pray for our safety as we clock in many hours on the road, pray for our families and pray that God continues to use every breath and note for His glory.

Thanks for checking in,

Chiz

April is here and our flowers around the yard are starting to peek through the ground. What that means to me is that repairs and projects that have been put off during the winter can start soon. Our equipment that we travel with is used quite a bit, and when we are on the road, things often get a “quick fix” just to get by, now all of those kind of fixes need attention.

Most people think that Pastors only work one day a week and the rest of the time they have it easy. Well, we know that’s not true, but I really would like to know what people think we do. There is so much more to do then just playing my horn. Booking, planning tours, contracts, promotional, book keeping, itineraries, follow ups, traveling, setting up, tearing down, fund raising,…….there is just so much more that goes into one concert that people don’t realize that we do and when you multiply that 280 concerts a year, you will see why things get over whelming sometimes.

Now a days, it seems that people measure their success by how busy they are; I don’t want to do that and I really don’t care how busy I am, I just want to serve God with every breath I take. All the things that we do in this ministry are all worth it when people’s lives are changed at a concert. That is our drive and our mission.

Kelli and I just celebrated our 17 year anniversary this past Saturday, Kaitlin got her drivers permit and Brooke lost her two front teeth. The boys are doing great, but all of us are looking forward to summer break so we can all be together more.

Please continue to pray for us as we travel and spread the Gospel. Pray for God to use us, make us effective and keep us safe.

Thanks for checking in.

Chiz

I truly feel that I am VERY blessed. I have the coolest job in the world. I get to travel all over the world using my trumpet to serve God. I have had the opportunity to play for Presidents, dignitaries, and other well known people and have played at some really cool places, but the greatest blessing I have had and still have on this earth, is my family.

Being away from them as I am on the road is very hard. I have missed our anniversary many times, I have missed birthdays, band concerts, family events and much more. Even with a track record like I have, they are all behind me 100%. We are not a perfect family in anyway, but we are close.

We as a family are just about to celebrate a big event! Kaitlin is turning 16 !!!!!!!!!!! Her birthday is March 22 and it will be a great day. She has been planning her party for a long long time.

It doesn’t seem like she has been in our care for 16 years. I know that I have gotten older and fatter, but it doesn’t seem that long. I really wish I could just slow life down sometimes. Time just flies by so fast.

The ministry is doing very well right now. The schedule continues to fill up, concerts have been going well and most importantly, peoples lives are being changed. Those of you that check in on a regular basis may get tired of me always saying that peoples lives are changing, but this is what we do. Chiz Rider Ministries and the Rider family exists to bring people to a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the coolest job in the world and because we have the opportunity to do it, we are blessed.

Feel free to shout out to Kaitlin through this website or friend us on Facebook and send a birthday wish, she would love it.

Thank you everyone for checking in,

Chiz

Today is Valentines Day, the day of love.

I maybe out of line for some people when I say this, but no one should need one day of the year to remind them how they should treat their spouse everyday. Could you imagine how our lives would be if God needed to be reminded to love us. WOW !! God love us so much and He loves us all the time. God’s love is not shown with roses or chocolates, but by His amazing grace and His gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.

It is because God loves me and because of His awesome amazing grace, that I get to be part of this really cool ministry. Things right now in the office are hopping and the schedule is filling up quickly for 2014. I still have a couple of holes I would like to fill up later this year, but I am confident that those dates will fill soon. Our concerts have been going very well and we are seeing many people turn their lives to Christ.

My son Chase has been coming out and playing with me as much as he can. I know he has to be in school, but I really do wish he could be out on the road with me full time. He is doing a great job and I’m very proud of him.

I am thankful that God loves me and that He doesn’t need me to do anything at all to remind Him to love me. He is a forgiving God that loves everyone. Not just one day a year or even occasionally, but He loves us all, all the time. Do you know Him? If you don’t, let yourself begin to experience the greatest love of all right now, by clicking on the “True Salvation is just a click and prayer away” link in the upper right hand corner of this page. Don’t live another minute without knowing the awesome Love of God.

Thanks for checking in,

Chiz

Happy New Year!!!

We have kicked off the year with a few great concerts already and we are really looking forward to a great year ahead. The schedule for this year is almost completely done and it looks like we are blessed to have a packed year of concerts. We finished 2012 with a little over 810 people receiving Christ and I pray that God will use us even more this year to reach whoever He puts in our path.
We are always trying to change things in our concerts to make it fresh and exciting as well as playing requests as we get them, but I am very excited at what we are now doing and what we are working on to put in our concerts in the next few months.
Please pray with us that God will bless this ministry with a freshness and sharpness in presenting the Gospel like we have never had before. Pray that we have no breakdowns as we travel and that our time on the road can be problem free this year. I never expect a perfect life on the road, but it is so nice when we can be 100% focused on the concerts and presenting the Gospel without distractions.
Thanks a lot for checking in and praying for us. I will hopefully see you soon at a concert near you.

Chiz

Merry Christmas Everyone,

The Christmas season is in full swing and I am having a lot of fun. So far our Christmas shows have gone well and we are not even half way done with the tours yet. I will say one thing ……to all my Georgia and Florida friends, I had so much fun playing for you guys and I am looking forward to coming back, but I really struggled getting in the Christmas mood and doing Christmas shows for you last week when it was over 80 degrees outside. Now I’m back north for the rest of the year where the temperature is under 40 and that’s awesome.

I am looking forward to seeing God do some really great things the rest of this month and feel so blessed to able to do all of this for Him. I ran into a person the other day in Florida that said he was not doing anything about Christmas this year because the end of the world is coming on December 21st. I talked with him for a short time, and tried to share with him, but sadly, he is very focused on the wrong things in life. I gave him my number and told him to call me on the 22nd, but he did let me pray for him. I will tell you all something that I am thankful for……I am thankful that my God is so much bigger and better then a group of people that think they have figured out the end of the world. I really felt bad for this guy and was happy to have prayed with him and hope he does call me later.

There is always a lot of focus on ministries doing work in foreign countries to help spread the Gospel, but we have sooooo much work to do here too. God has blessed us tremendously this year and we have seen over 780 people accept Christ as their Savior. That is really cool, but I still am restless to know that there are people right next to me all the time that still need to put their lives in God’s hands. There is no better place to be, and no greater thing that you and I can help somebody get – it is a gift that doesn’t need wrapped with a pretty bow or placed under the Christmas tree, but it is the greatest gift anyone will ever receive. Share the Gospel of Jesus with them. Help spread God’s greatest gift this season, and see how so much better Christmas can be when you share the real story of Christmas with someone.

Check out our new newsletter that will post in a few days.

Thank you to all of you that check in on us and pray for us. God has taken us through a very hard year with many challenges but also many blessings. I am looking forward to next year’s ups and downs and seeing Him use us to lead more people to His Son Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

There is a lot of times that people focus on the bad things in their lives. I’m sure God hears more requests coming from people’s prayers then prayers of thanks and praise. I know that there is a lot of that in my life, just look at the last several updates on the website. Things are really tight this year with finances and it has been a struggle and a focus for us. But right now, I just want to thank God for what He has provided and how He has taken care of us and taken care of us in ways we don’t even know.

Thanksgiving is less then two weeks away. It is a time that we get together with family and friends, we eat way to much and have good fellowship, but this year, be sure to use Thanksgiving for being thankful. God has given us so much in each of our lives and we need to thank Him for it.

It is a lot easier to see the needs we have then to see what has been provided, but if you just think about it for even one minute, you will see God’s blessing on you and your life. I am extremely thankful for my awesome wife, my great kids, the coolest job in the world and I’m thankful that God has used me, and a simple piece of brass, to lead over 720 people to Christ this year so far.

That is my prayer of thanks and praise to God, what is yours?

Our schedule is really full for December, so be sure to check it out and see if we are close to you and then come on out and enjoy a really fun Christmas concert. Thanks for checking in and praying for this ministry.

Chiz

A lot of my updates I do from the office when I am at home, but today, I’m writing from St. Joseph Missouri. I have some really good friends here that are in youth ministry and I always have a great time being here for a few days playing all over this area. This specific tour is just 10 days, but in those 10 days I have over 3200 miles in Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas and 16 shows. I love these kind of tours!!!!

We are seeing some awesome things happen at the concerts with people making decisions for Christ. When it all comes down to it, that is what it is all about. I will be totally honest…..there are some days that I really wonder what the heck I’m doing at some of the places I get to, but after I start that first song and then when I get to the invitation and see people respond, it becomes obvious of why we are there. God is so cool!

I know that it is only October, but can you believe that I am getting requests for Christmas music already? As a matter of fact, my first request was back in the end of August. That’s weird! But Christmas is coming up and we have a busy schedule of Christmas concerts. So be sure to come out and see us if we are close to you.

Thank you for checking in and praying for our ministry. Finances are still tight, but God is in control.

Chiz

It is the end of September already ? I thought February was the shortest month of the year! This year is definitely not dragging. I know that in a lot of these updates I share that we are very busy and that the schedule is very full and that is true, but we are drowning in work in the office. Finances haven’t been great at all this year so being able to hire someone is off the table right now. Even if we could right now, I’m not sure whether I would hire for the road or the office.
With churches kicking back into normal mode from the summer, we are finding ourselves on the phone and answering emails and still not getting caught up. As of right now, we should finish 2012 with 284 shows. We are very blessed to have most of next year already done and many things already on the schedule for 2014. Finances are tight because of crazy fuel prices, higher taxes and those things directly effect what people put in our love offerings. It certainly has not been an easy year, but it has been a GREAT year because we have seen over 630 people turn their lives to Christ.
If you would like to be part of what we do, please feel free to go to our “Ministry Support” page or drop us a email letting us know you are praying for us.
There is one thing I am holding on to these days, it’s knowing that God will never give us anymore then what we can handle. He has always been in control and I pray that He takes more control of our lives then He ever has before, so His will, will be done.
Please checkout one of our concerts when we are in your area, and please continue to pray for our ministry as we travel all over the world sharing the Gospel through a simple piece of brass.

Thanks for checking in,

Chiz

I wanted to post pictures of this horn ever since I got it a few months ago, but this is what Scott Hartman at hydroprintservices.com can do with one of my old horns. How cool is this.

Thank you Scott.