Immediately following its headlining “The Light Meets The Dark” tour, which wrapped Nov. 29, the band boarded a flight to San Pedro Sula in Honduras to get a more intimate look at the work of partner organization, Compassion International, through meetings with pastors and directors of three different Compassion-run projects.

The band also spent time playing and interacting with sponsor children within the programs, including taking part in an impromptu soccer match on a rain-soaked pitch, leaving the musicians and kids covered in mud but drawn closer together.

“We have been working alongside Compassion International for several years by advocating child sponsorship at our shows,” Donehey said. “Before we left for Honduras, we heard a lot about the problems with gangs in that country and the positive impact Compassion is having on the lives of gang members. When we arrived, we got to sit with kids and hear their stories. We listened to their life dreams. It made us want to do even more to support Compassion International because we were able to directly see the impact of sponsorship on the lives of individual children, families and entire villages.”

“The point of this trip was to show them first hand the work of Compassion,” said Spence Smith, artist relations manager for Compassion International. “The guys have a great head-knowledge about poverty, slavery and other issues we face in the world, but they didn’t have a personal reference point to fully understand the magnitude of these problems.”

He continues, “The band got 1,700 kids sponsored on its fall tour then immediately went on its first trip to see our work. I'm really excited to see what 2011 holds for Tenth Avenue North and Compassion as we continue to partner together in some bigger ways.”

About Tenth Avenue North:
Modern pop band Tenth Avenue North – composed of members Mike Donehey (lead vocals/acoustic guitar), Jason Jamison (drummer), Jeff Owen (electric guitar/background vocals) and Ruben Juarez (bass) – saw its sophomore album, The Light Meets The Dark, debut in May 2010 at No. 1 on the Nielsen Christian SoundScan chart and No. 15 on the Billboard Top 200 with first week scans of 21,583. The album also secured the No.1 Christian Album chart position at both iTunes and AmazonMP3, and reached Top 5 on the iTunes overall chart.

Named GMA Dove Awards New Artist of the Year at the 40th Annual GMA Dove Awards, Tenth Avenue North first impacted the music community as the best-selling and most played new Christian artist of 2008, scoring three No. 1s at radio (“By Your Side” finished the year at No. 2 on the Hot Christian Songs chart, and at No. 3 overall for the decade on said chart) and saw its national debut Over and Underneath (5/20/08) cross the 100,000 unit sales mark in less than seven months. To date, Over and Underneath has surpassed the 300,000 mark in total album sales.

The breakthrough band received two nominations for the 41st Annual GMA Dove Awards in the Group of the Year and Song of the Year categories and the smash hit “By Your Side” claimed the coveted Song of the Year honor.

Tenth Avenue North continued the momentum gained from its first headlining tour in 2009 (executed with only one album under its belt) with feature slots on the 2009-10 Winter Jam and Casting Crowns tours, plus a very active summer 2010 festival schedule. This fall, the band undertook its second headlining tour – The Light Meets The Dark Tour – which saw Tenth Avenue North play to more than 67,000 fans and sell out more than half its hard ticket dates, along with generating sponsorships for 1,700 children within Compassion International programs.

For more info on Tenth Avenue North, visit the JFH Artists Database.