MIFFLINTOWN - Christian music fans in the Juniata Valley will have the rare chance to hear veteran band Seventh Day Slumber in a venue close to home this month.
On its Small Town America tour, the band will stop at the Central Juniata EMS Building, Mifflintown, at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 25 to perform with guests Cory Lamb and Southbound Fearing.
Tickets are $5 and are available at Friendship Bookstore, Guardian Angel Bookstore, PAX Salon or by calling 320-2014.
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Members of the Christian rock band Seventh Day Slumber will perform Sept. 25 at the Central Juniata EMS Building, Mifflintown. Their new album, below, is scheduled for release in November.
Founded in 1996 by lead singer Joseph Rojas, Seventh Day Slumber infuses pounding drums and scorching guitars with honesty and candor about God's love and mercy for his children.
Rojas shares a powerful testimony of how God transformed his life of drug addictions, abuse and a felony conviction into one of music and ministry of Christ's love.
The frontman's musical beginnings were fostered in the context of pain and hurt. When he was very young, his abusive father left, making his mother the sole provider for the poor family.
At age 12, his mother bought him a small guitar and an amp at a pawn shop, Rojas said. Addicted to drugs, the teen began writing songs to cope with his pain, he said.
Then one day, while in the back of an ambulance because of a drug overdose, Rojas said God became real to him - more than just some superhero in the sky.
"God did for me what 10 rehabs couldn't do," Rojas said. " I look back at life and all I've been through and all the horrible things I've done and the bad choices I've made. It's crazy to look back and consider where I am now and how God has helped my life."
Now a family man, Rojas takes his wife and three children on tour with him.
The band and crew are his support team, good friends who help each other through difficult times, he said.
Rojas and his band do not shy away from sharing their struggles with fans.
"We want the audience to know they can overcome struggles, addictions, hurt," Rojas said. "It doesn't mean you won't hurt any more, but your pain and your past doesn't have to control you."
Just as God reached out to Rojas, the band hopes to share Christ's love with the people in small towns across America.
Seventh Day Slumber created the Small Town America tour to highlight the sometimes forgotten rural communities - where struggles and problems are just as real as the big cities, Rojas said.
"We want them to know they are not forgotten," the lead singer said. "God loves them."
And the band did not cut corners for its tour, either.
"This is the biggest, most expensive concert we've ever done before - with the lowest price," Rojas said.
Audiences can expect to see flame throwers, stuff that goes boom, an insane light show and an emotional rock experience, he said.
Rojas will share his testimony, and the band will play music from its new album "The Anthem of Angels," scheduled for release on Nov. 15.
"I believe people will leave different then they came," Rojas said.
