Nancy - Sun, 05/20/07, 12:50P - At Home
I know it’s a little early to start writing for the tour journal (tour’s 11 days away), but I’m just sooooooooooooooooooooooo excited I couldn’t wait!!! The last couple weeks Kim’s been having Tuesday/Thursday practices in an extra effort to prepare us for that fateful day. A while ago I started thinking about how I would write this year. In 7th grade, I was very much “I had this for lunch and that for dinner,” and in 8th grade it was more hurried and rushed. But this tour will have lots of downtime that I will use to carefully plan and execute successful entries. Maybe I won’t have to bother Jeff about bleeding the battery on his computer.
For tour preparation we sang “Lifesong” in church today for youth Sunday. Last night I talked to Jill and she said she was “so nervous” about singing harmony. The nice lady who helps with praise band, Tracy, taught Jill the harmony part, and it sound amazing this morning. And the senior testimonies. Wow. I don’t cry easily when someone is talking. I teared up a bit. This year’s seniors are amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I really can’t wait till tour, and as a small three-year-old said before her class Christmas party, I must “sleep in a hurry”. (The 3 year old was me, and in this case it means sleep, eat, live, function, etc. in a hurry for tour).
Now if I’m lucky Jeff will post this before tour.
Jeff - Thu, 05/31/07, 8:35p - On the bus to Memphis
We're on the road, at last. Rehearsals this week went pretty well, much to my surprise. Because God's Light abandoned the special Tuesday and Thursday practices they'd been doing in May for finals week and did not practice over the Memorial Day weekend, Monday evening's was the first rehearsal in 8 days. The choir sounded surprisingly solid, however, and the Tuesday and Wednesday rehearsals were also good. This leaves me wondering when the annual disaster will strike. There is usually one bad rehearsal or rough performance that kind of wakes everybody up, but maybe that won't happen this year.
There's a buzz of excitement on bus 2 as I write this. OK, I lied, it's about 10 decibels noisier than a bad day at Chuck E. Cheese, but I'm letting it go right now. Things will calm down a little bit tomorrow, I expect. It's a long bus-riding day tomorrow. Remind me to thank whoever put these bus groups together for giving me half the 7th-graders on the first leg. :-) Actually the odds were pretty good, the 7th-grade class is so large that they take up about half of two different bus groups. They got to sign up for bus groups last, so there wasn't a group with enough room for all of them. We could have rearranged the groups, but frankly I don't think any of us counselors want all of the 7th-graders in one group. :-)
Once again I'm assigned to a bus rather than a group, so Andrew and I will have the luxury of leaving stuff on the bus overnight if we want. I doubt Andrew will do that, however, as his most prized possessions are in his bus bag. I didn't realize that he had brought his sleeping bag on the bus until after we'd already left. [Editor's Note: Actually, Andrew took full advantage of the fact that he did not have to take his stuff off of the bus, to the point where I had to nag him daily about cleaning up around his bus seat so that the cleanup crew could negotiate around it. Generally all he took off of the bus was his GameBoy. Next year I'm definitely not going to pack so much stuff for him to do on the bus; he spent most of his time playing cards, playing with his GameBoy, or using his GameBoy to negotiate to get someone else's video game.] He said he planned to sleep on the bus, but I had to point out to him that he already had a blanket stuffed in his pillow case. He's already discovered that he is a popular guy, since he has good Gameboy games and is (sometimes) willing to share. For some reason he seems to get along well with the Panosian boys and Charlie Sharitz. Andrew tried to ditch me at dinner to go with them until I reminded him that I had the money.
I just realized that we don't perform tomorrow night either, so that means we won't sing again until Sunday morning at the Air Force Academy, and won't do the full service until Sunday night in Cortez. Let us hope that Cortez will not be the aforementioned disaster. :-) We've been fighting with the new sound system some this week. A huge thanks to Michael Gresham who spent way more time sitting in our rehearsals than he had planned, but without whose efforts I would have a difficult time sleeping. I think the vocals will be fine, but it may take us a day or two to get the monitors figured out. No big deal there, and no news. As we, the band, have gotten older (gracefully, I hope) we've gotten a lot pickier about what we want for monitoring. Time was when we had a small sound board that Ed & I ran while we were playing, no less. Now we have an entire bus luggage compartment load of gear to deal with and a dedicated sound person. To say we've gotten spoiled is to understate the case. :-) Come to think of it, "crotchety" probably descibes the band better than "aging gracefully" at this point. I'm not including Jan in that statement of course. :-)
Nancy - Thu, 05/31/07, 11:30p, At Germantown UMC, Germantown, TN
I LOVE CHOIR TOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Andrew and I have begun a game of tag. Currently, he is IT, but I most likely will be IT by the time the evening is over. All the guys are running around and playing basketball. Terry is obnoxious about a spades game. I will not concede defeat! There's supposed to be some quote by some famous dude along those lines. I remember! John Paul Jones, Father of the Navy, said, "I have not yet begun to fight!" My bus group was with the 7th graders today. [Editor's Note: Actually Nancy was with half the 7th-graders. I was with the other half. Lucky me.] Surprisingly, we coexisted quite nicely. Libby Bullock is quite a sweet girl, from the bit I talked to her. I love John Denver and James Taylor. On the bus I started to write a journal entry that entailed my story of how I came to like James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James". I think I've successfully recruited another journal author! Folks, meet your new best friend, Kimmi Herring!
Me: Kimmi, what are your aspirations in life?
Kimmi: What? I wanna work with my poetry and uh stay firm in my Christian roots.
Me: Well, those are worthy goals in life! Um, What's another question I could ask you?
K: What's another question you could ask me? What I wanna be when I grow up.
Me: Please answer.
K: I wanna be a poet or a preacher, or both!
Me: Anything's possible? How do you feel about our spades loss?
K: Well, considering it was my first time playing spades, I guess I'm not that disappointed, and at least we didn't have to eat 3 fireballs at once!
Me: I concur. How do you feel about that?
K: What's it mean to concur?
Me: To agree. Please, study your vocabulary! Just kidding! How do you feel about Gilmore Girls, the show of all shows, ending?
K: Nancy, you brought it up! *upset* It's over! I'm so sad Rory turned down Logan! And, Luke and Lorelai kiss and it was soooo sweet! And then, I loved how Luke like sewed together the whole town's linens to pull off Rory's surprise party! It was so cute and sweet and so Gilmore Girly!
Me: Thank you Kimmi. But since there's only 15 minutes till devotion, I'm going to have to continue this tomorrow. Good night!
I'd love to continue this entry, but I must become undirty.
Nancy
Nancy - Fri, 06/01/07, 9:14a CDT, On the road to somewhere (We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.)
I got cut off by devotion last night, therefore cutting Kimmi Herring’s interview short. Allow me to recap.
Me: How do you feel about Gilmore Girls ending ?
K: …
I LOVE COOL FIELD THINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tim said they might be rice patties!
To the interview:
K: …Gilmore Girls is always inspiring me to be what I want to be and to learn my pop culture.
Me: That’s cool! I never attempted to learn the references.
K: And they also inspired me to name my next dog Paul Anka.
Me: Last question! What’s your favorite color and why? Also, what’s your favorite college?
K: Favorite college, ooh, ow. No, I like, I’m trying to think. I really like Oxford University, but I’ll probably not go there because I’m not British or smart. (This coming from a girl in the IB program at Campbell!).
Me: Thanks so much Kimmi!
K: You’re welcome. I enjoyed it!
Last night we pulled into Germantown pretty late. It was one something by the time I crawled under the covers, and two something before I finally achieved forty winks. That fancy medicine doesn’t seem to be doing its job! Just kidding Mom, Don’t freak. ?. A 5:30 wake-up called for a short night. This morning I played Uno with Andrew and then Go Fish after breakfast. He’s really cute kid, and very fun to hang out with. As a matter of fact, he’s reading over my shoulder.
I love granola bars and bananas for breakfast! But Emilee Kraemer did give me a mini chocolate donut and a bit of Apple Jacks. Gotta love convience stores! I should’ve gone with Amanda to the Iron Skillet’s breakfast buffet. Sounded good.
Well, Kimmi’s waiting for the computer for her first ever journal entry! Can you believe that some people don’t know about the tour journal! Those of you whose mouths dropped open in shock, I’m in complete agreement! But that won’t be the case after the talent show, if I have anything to say about it…
Spades beckon!
Oh, Jeff’s devotion last night hit the spot. The week before tour I] wasn’t really as excited as I’ve been in years past. But I know if I do what Jeff said to and concentrate on God and our mission, everything else (all the fun and games) will fall into place.
Now spades beckon!
Nancy
Nancy - Fri, 06/01/07, 11:52a CDT On the bus in Arkansas
I was mistaken when I said we were on our way to somewhere. In reality, we were on our way to nowhere! I have been having awful flashbacks of Iowa. (If you don’t remember, please refer to the 2005 tour journal). Fortunately, we’ve seen lots of trees and some hills. That makes me smile.
A terrible crash occurred today on an interstate in the middle of Arkansas. A double FedEx truck collided with another thing and the tore in two. Packages littered the median. As of this broadcast, one person is injured. Traffic backed up for miles. No reprieve is expected until late tonight. Thank you for your prayers for these people.
I decided to say something of a serious note, and we actually witnessed the immediate aftermath of aforesaid accident. Each fact is as observed by me.
Kimmi - Fri, 06/01/07, 11:45a CDT, On thr road to Kansas"
Hey Whoever is reading this,
So I’m on the bus on our second day of tour, we’re driving through Arkansas. All we have done today is stop for breakfast, me and my friends went to the perto mart, and I baught ben and jerry’s ice cream, it was awesome. So here I am now, on the bus.
So yesterday, I wrote this poem that is about our tour theme, extreme spiritual makeover. I know it’s not very good, but I love writing poetry, so I wrote it, and I thought I just might share, but you have to promise not to make fun of it. So here it goes:
My Tour Poem It’s the beginning of a journey It’s time for a change within me This is an extreme spiritual makeover So I’m praying God, just takeover Please be my guiding light And I promise this time I won’t put up a fight I’m putting my life in your hands Because I know you have greater plans Please make me the flower you unfold today And please never let this passion fray I’m willing to stand up for you now And I as your child want to make you proud Please make my soul pure white again And wash away all of this sin I live in I know I did things you didn’t want me to But now I just want to please you Please Lord help me turn over a new leaf And Help me make you the only thing in which I believe So this is me crying out to You, Lord Tonight Please help me through this fight
So yeah, I know not the best poem ever, but it gave me something to do, and when I write my poetry I just feel so connected to God. I love writing, even if I’m not any good at it. So, I’m really excited about this tour because I’m really seeing it as a time for change in many ways, but most of all spiritually. This tour my goal is to just grow as much possibly in my walk with God. So I’m really excited about this tour because I’m not a seventh grader, yay!! Ok, so that’s not the only reason. I’m really excited about going out west, I’ve always wanted to, but I never have.
This tour though, I’m kind of skeptical about how many people are really taking in the whole spiritual aspect of everything. This really worries me because if we aren’t living in God’s word, how can we go out and properly spread it? So I just hope that more people will take some time in their tour and just spend time with God, it doesn’t have to be long, just some time!!
Well I guess I’m going to go, just for now, don’t worry I will be back to write more, but for now I need some sleep. So for now if your reading this, pray for our choir, that we will all take in the glory of God, and properly spread the great message of God. And also pray for our safety. So for now, I must say bibi!!
In Him,
Kimmi Herring
Jeff - Fri, 06/01/07, 2:48p CDT, At some mall in Fort Smith, Arkansas
We pulled into Germantown UMC last night at about 11:00p, and got all of our sleeping gear unloaded pretty quickly, so we were able to have about an hour to kill time before devotional and bedtime. Since we hadn't really been on the bus all that long, the kids were pretty wound up, so it's probably good that we gave them an hour to unwind, but it would have been nice to really wear them out. I didn't really get to sleep until about 2:00a, and woke up at about 5:30a, but I slept for a little while on the bus. Anyhow, tonight is just annother church night, no performance, and I can sleep some more on the bus this afternoon.
This is supposed to be our lunch stop, but I'm not all that hungry, and the laptop batteries died on the bus, so I'm sitting next to a plug so I can charge my laptop instead of eating. Just so you don't think this tour journal thing is easy. :-)
Nancy - Fri, 06/01/07, 3:34p CDT - On the road to Kansas
I've said many times "We're not in Kansas anymore" and We're almost out of Oklahoma, home of Oklahoma! the musical! I've finally decided that I will include many people's opinions on things this year. It gives me something to do, amuses the (my) public, and allows for many to participate as well as me not reading all my books in the first three days. Next victim: Joseph Cook!
Me: Hello! How are you today Joseph?
Joseph: I'm pretty good today, Nancy!
Me: What do you think about Oklahoma?
J: We're in Oklahoma? We're not in Oklahoma! Hey Tim, are we in Oklahoma?
Tim: I think so.
J: It looks a lot like the previous two states.
Me: Ok. That's reasonable. What's your favorite card game?
J: My favorite card game would definitely have to be spades.
Me: Why, may I ask?
J: Because it's the only game anyone ever plays on choir tour, and it's entertaining.
Me: You were playing speed with Kimmi before lunch.
J: Yeah, what about it?
Me: You said people only ever play spades.
J: Well, that was that was just a little. We got a little sidetracked. And I completely owned Kimmi in speed!
Me: What are you enjoying most about tour so far?
J: Well, there hasn't been anything except bus rides so far, but the best thing would probably be how much me and John (Traylor) kill everyone at spades!
Me: Thank you Joseph, and I'll catch up with you later!
J: Yeah, you're lucky that I penciled you into this.
I usually would have changed the last quote to make it less derrogatory towards me, but in 7th grade I made a commitment to excellent journalism. As Walter Cronkite says, "That's how it is!" And so I say, "That's how it is on this 1st day of June, 2007."
Cal got pulled over this afternoon/morning! An Arkansasian policeperson caught Cal (and subsequently the other two buses) for speeding at 5 miles over the speed limit (75 as opposed to 70). So we pull off to a rest stop, and we sit there for about 10 minutes, just waiting. It turns out that Cal received a warning and we continued on our way. Fort Smith, Oklahoma is far far away from anything I've ever known! As we rode, 12 came, 1 came, and 2 came and went. Finally, after nearly starving to death (heehee!) we arrived at Central Mall. I grabbed my purse, Andrew, and three friends and rushed to the restroom. Then yummy food filled my tummy! We found a store called Rue 21 that had the most adorable clothes and shoes, etc. But we only had 5 minutes left, so we had to rush to the bus.
Last night the Secret Person drawings occurred. My secret person is someone I know okay,but not super well. I'm not really sure how to go about getting to actually know my person. Wait! Writing this has planted an idea in my head! I will not go into detail, but it involves a SPADES game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All my problems (except lack of sleep) can be solved by spades. I shall continue to plan and execute my idea tomorrow before arriving in Colorado Springs!
John Traylor bought a skeleton biker doo-rag. It's actually quite inventive. But Joseph says it makes him look weird.
I'm basically bored and want to write because I don't want to sleep. But I'm going to sleep now.
I'll be back later to interview the next choir tour enthuse!
Have fun without us!
Nancy
Nancy - 06/02/07, 12:11 CDT, In Colorado, a most beautifamous state
Interview: Will Deakin
Me: How is tour so far?
Will: I think it’s fun b/c you get to travel a lot to places you normally don’t get to go to.
Me: Cool! I personally think Colorado is beautiful. And you?
W: It’s pretty cool from what I’ve seen. I’ve only been in here for like an hour.
Me: Do you like cheese?
W: Sure, why not?
Me: What do you do at school before it starts?
W: Uh, nothin’ really. I just open a window and look outside.
Me: What do you think about the double rainbow yesterday?
W: I didn’t see it. I was asleep.
Me: Aw, party pooper. :P I’ve got some other stuff to do also, so I’ll have to cut it short. Thanks Will!
W: No problem!
Me: Enjoy your book.
Jeff - Sun, 06/03/07, 2:35p MDT, On the bus to Alamosa
Well, I haven't written anything much in the last couple of days, but I've got some time this afternoon to get caught up. Germantown UMC was really good to us, and I'm looking forward to being back there again on Saturday. I forgot to ask the folks at Germantown if I could use their internet connection, so I didn't get the website updated there. On top of that, I must have not completely shut my laptop down before I closed it, because the battery was completely dead by the time I fired it up on Friday morning. "No problem", I thought, "I'll just break out the spare battery". Turns out I used my spare in a meeting at work and never charged it back up either. So that was Friday, and most of what Nancy typed that day she did on Tim's laptop.
Between the half hour we lost to the faithful law enforcement of Arkansas and the two hours of driving through a really nasty thunderstorm, we didn't pull into Salina until really late. We had planned to run the whole performance for practice, but we were too tired to even try it. A few of their youth hung out and waited to help us get settled in. I feel bad that we didn't get to sing for them a little bit. They were really nice hosts, so maybe we can go see them again when we go to Mt. Rushmore or something.
We had to pull out of Salina pretty early because we had to be in Colorado Springs by about 2p to go up Pike's Peak. We did make it, but not with any real time to spare. It was somewhat rainy at the bottom of the mountain, but not real cold. That all changed about 2/3 of the way up though. By the time we go to the top it was about 27 and snowing profusely. At least the folks who worked there called it snow. In Andrew's words, it looked more like "it's raining Dippin' Dots". Sort of like soft sleet. Also lightning, which made it a little exciting getting on and off the train at the top. Since Pike's Peak is the tallest thing around, it catches a lot of lightning strikes. Some of us got held on the train for a little while until the lightning let up. The altitude always nails a few people, and we had our share, but everybody survived. Going up to Colorado Springs, which is above 6000 ft. above sea level, is bad enough. Adding on the bodily adjustments of having to go from there up to 14,000 ft. on the same day is pretty rough on your average, 700-ft-above-sea-level Georgian. The first time I did this trip I was running 25-30 miles a week, and the weather was sunny, meaning the barometric pressure was higher. This trip and the previous one up Pike's Peak got my attention a lot more. It's all good when you come back down though, the increased oxygen is like an adrenalyn hit. It also makes sleeping really easy. Room check last night was pretty easy, everybody was so zonked out that folks were already asleep in the rooms that I checked.
Good sleep, and a reasonable time to leave the hotel (8a local, 10a ET) made for a much easier morning than the last two. The Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel is beautiful, the choir sounded really good this morning. The dry air worked on us a little bit, but the wonderful acoustics in the chapel more than made up for it. The music director at the academy was kind enough to take us on a tour of the chapel and the worship areas for the other faiths. The Cadet Chapel is really an amazing piece of architecture.
Now we're heading for Alamosa, Colorado, and then the Continental Divide and Cortez, CO on Monday night. Alamosa and Cortez are both churches we visited on our last trip out west. I remember one of them, but I'm not sure which one. :-)
Nancy - Sun, 06/03/07, 11:50p MDT, At Alamosa UMC
Ok. I was almost asleep when Jeff woke me up to write. Note this: he's not making me write, but strongly urged me to. [Editor's Note: Nancy states this a little strongly, in my opinion. What I said was, "sorry I did not get the computer back to you sooner, I got tied up talking to someone, do you still want to type tonight?", which apparently translates in Nancy-world to "do this or I'll harm your children", or something]. So I dragged Olivia Powell off the floor to be interviewed.
Me: I love tour.
Olivia: I know, tour's awesome.
Me: What's your favorite part? Please be concise.
O: Well, um, I mean I liked the Air Force Academy, but so far I have to say the girls' (and Newsome) aerobic session when we were left at the church w/o host homes. We had more fun than the host home folks!
Me: I agree. I got a couple of good pictures of you dancing.
O: Great! Blackmail. (sarcastically). Hurry up, I'm so tired, I wanna go to bed.
Me: Me too. Good night Olivia, thanks for losing sleep for the good of the Internet reading community!
O: No prob!
The Air Force Academy chapel is actually several chapels in one, kinda like the National Cathedral, Mom. We arrived about 9ish (the service started at 10), and practice The Lamb Has Overcome, For the Beauty of the Earth, Bow the Knee, The LIght of that City, and something else. Then to enter the pews, Kim ordered the choir to hustle, one behind the other. We practiced that several times.
The Protestant chapel itself is absolutely gorgeous. There are 17 spires on the roof, and inside there are stained glass light/window thingys. The colors began dark and become lighter the closer you get to the altar. It symbolizes coming out of the darkness into the light. The acoustics are amazing in the building, so we sounded great! The organ in the balcony. Oh my gosh it's soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo big and pretty and beautiful. My new dream is to play that organ someday.
After the service the music director gave us the partial grand tour of the other chapels. OUt of respect for the Catholic chapel (Our Lady of the Sky), he asked us to be completely silent. God's Light was quiet for an entire hour! The chapel had a mosaic that is supposed to represent the entire world in one wall. The wall contains two Carrera marble statues: one of the Virgin Mary and the other of the angel Gabriel. ON the side walls, there were the stations of the cross. In each station, there was a little cross of olive wood from the Garden of Olives in Israel.
The Jerusalem chapel is a circle within a square. That represents the entire world inside of God's hand. On display outside the entrance to the circular synagogue was a portion of the Torah. It was found hidden in a warehouse in Poland in about 1957. It survived the Holocaust. Dr. Galema (the music director) challenged us to figure out which chapter in which book the scroll is open to, even though it's written in Hebrew. The answer was quite simple. It was written on the sign! Oops, I shouldn't have told you. Now you'll have no reason to go the Colorado Springs and see the freaky-to-me Buddhist chapel. The Buddhist chapel used to be the all-faiths room, but then they converted it into the aforesaid chapel. It was actually kinda interesting b/c there was a statue of Buddha and some kneeling mats on the floor. It's just different from what I'm used to.
Ok. That was basically 10 or 15 minutes of information overload. I'm falling asleep right here on the pew in the narthex, so I'll leave you with this tidbit. Freshmen cadets at the academy can only walk on certain marble strips. I could say poor Ely, but he'll live with it. I love choir tour and I'm going to finish updating tomorrow b/c I'm on Jeff's bus! You'll get information minutes after it occurs.
Soon I'll interview Elizabeth McMahon and the new 8th grade girl Brittany(sp).
As Jay the youth minister says, peace and chicken grease!
Nancy
Jeff - Mon, 06/04/07, 7:05a MDT, At Alamosa UMC
OK, I definitely remember Alamosa UMC, but I guess the sanctuary I was thinking of is in Cortez or somewhere else. I'll find out for sure tonight.
The service last night went pretty well, I thought, for a first shot. This church used to have pews in the choir loft. The last time we brought the choir here the problem with our setup was not the size of the choir as much as the layout of the sanctuary. I ended up being trapped behind the piano and a wall so I couldn't see Terry at all. Since then they've removed all of the fixtures in the altar area, so there is a lot more space. Unfortunately the choir is about 40% bigger than the last time we came out here, so I wound up trapped behind the piano and a wall and couldn't see Terry .... deja vu.
The people here are really nice. There were some families that took about 20 people each, I think, so they must be pretty brave. There are about 40 of us left in the church. I'm OK staying in the church, but getting even some of the choir into host home vastly lessens demand for the showers, so I'm good with that too. One time, in Superior, WI, they were supposed to house about half the choir (I think the choir was about 80 at that time), but in a real loaves-and-fishes kind of moment people kept deciding they could take more kids and more kids ... Connie kept sending more and more people to homes and in the end we only wound up with about 15 of us in the church, with the leftover ice cream. I'm pretty sure that everybody made out well on that deal. I expect we'll be back to Alamosa in six years. This Colorado Springs to Alamosa to Cortez to Page/Grand Canyon swing works out pretty well on time. We've gained a bus every time we've come back to Alamosa though. The thought of needing *4* buses is pretty frightening. :-)
Nancy - Mon, 06/04/07, 11:20a MDT, At the Continental Divide
Lewis and Clark crossed the Continental Divide with Sacagawea as their guide. Not really, because Sacagawea only guided the Corps of Discovery to the camp of her people, the Shoshone. The group's actual guide was an elder named Old Toby. Going back east, the corps had a guide from the Nez Perce tribe, from the other side of the Rockies. Ok, I'm tired of history lessons. History belongs in the school (of life).
I've had sooooooooo much water already today! I think two and a half water bottles before 11:00. It makes for an uncomfortable bus ride. I refuse to forward more details.
Nancy - Mon, 06/04/07, 10:42p MDT, At First UMC of Cortez, CO.
Wow. One word: Wow. Tonight’s concert was the best since Boston last year. During Light of that City, I kept getting chills. God was here. In this very room. While we, insignificant singers, were singing praises to Him. Wow. After the concert, God reenergized us to travel to a nearby supermarket to buy snacks and drinks, etc. I purchased a banana, humongous water bottle, and a box of peanut butter granola bars for the bus this week. Today is Olivia Boggs’ birthday! I’m her birthday hug monkey. I feel special.
For a brief interlude, an interview of 7th grader Jason Traylor.
Me: What did you think of tonight’s concert?
Jason: I thought it was really good.
Me: What is ‘really good’?
J: Um, I really loved Pie Jesu and um, what was that? I Can Only Imagine.
Me: Tell me about Mesa Verde.
J: I found it interesting because how the ruins like stayed together all the years.
Me: I think that’s cool too. Did you go down in the pit thing?
J: Yes.
Me: Please take a brief intermission.
We visited the Continental Divide today. Can you say snowball fight?????? The snow was soooooooooooooo cold but white and bee-yoo-tiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The snow was very very prettiful. Oh, here’s Jason back.
Me: What did you get at the supermarket tonight?
J: A “Celebration” birthday card for my brother, whose birthday is on June 11.
Me: How many snowballs did you throw at the Continental Divide?
J: About thirty.
Me: You hit anyone?
J: Of course!
Me: Who?
J: You, Nehy, Kat, Ben, and several others.
Me: Thank you, Jason. Do you have any words for the folks back home?
J: We’re partying like Rock Stars!
Me: Good night Jason, sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite!
J: Thank you for interviewing me.
Me: My pleasure!
Claire and Jeanne (fired up on energy drinks) have come to join me and keep me company. Jeanne says, “I think choir tour is spectacular!” They’re taking tremendous effort to be still and quiet, but it’s working! Claire says, “(a whole bunch of gibberish).”
It’s time for Raymond’s Gang now, but I’ll continue typing. I feel very important on Tim’s computer. I misplaced my little blue book, and I’ve been staring intently at the stage, but so far it’s a no show. I miss my little blue book!
I’m tired, but I’ve spent my getting-ready-for-bed time writing for the world. Hopefully Kim will give me a slight reprieve from lights out. I’ll have to ask.
Winding down from a God-high,
Nancy
Nancy - Tue, 06/05/07, 8:53 MST Time, Leaving the hotel in Page, AZ
The dam shop was boring. The dam wall was boring. The dam museum was boring. The dam itself was boring. However, the dam boat was NOT boring!!!!!!!!!!!
About 6-ish we arrived at the boat marina. We climbed aboard the Canyon Something and set forth on our 3 hour tour. But luckily for us, the boat did not sink, and we made it home safely. Poor Gilligan! The first bit of the tour was filled with picture taking and talking. Approximately halfway through, a group of senior girls started singing some of the tour songs. Soon underclassmen joined in, and we provided the good people of the boat with an impromptu concert. We sang Light of That City w/o accompaniment, and Thomas sounded sooooooooooo good! After Amy started with renditions of Disney songs, Newsome, Shaefer, Patrick, and Ely sang Prayer of the Children. I walked over to where they stood and listened as they blended their unique sounds into a simple, clear melody and harmony. Those are my big words of the day.
Kim gave two options for dinner tonight: the restaurant at the hotel or ordering food. Me, Gracie, Olivia P., Lizzy, and Casey ordered a large cheese and a medium pepperoni. While we waited for it to come, I took a freezing cold shower and the others went down to the pool. I borrowed Casey's flat iron and straightened my hair. There's only 5 minutes till devotion, and I need to charge my phone and iPod. Mom, turn your phone on!!!!!!!!!
Peace and chicken grease,
Nancy
Jeff - Tue, 06/05/07, 9:45a, On the way to Four Corners
Nancy's right, as usual. The service last night was really breahtaking. There were a couple of little glitches, but we really connected with the nice people at Cortez UMC. They were very receptive to the music, and the choir really feeds on that. They also fed us very well (in the physical sense, as well as the spiritual) last night and made us a great breakfast this morning.
Most of the choir walked to the store for junk food after the performance last night, but Tim, Dylan Fincher and a couple of other people went across the street to the Frisbee park to throw a Frisbee. A bunch of the guys played a bunch of basketball and other outdoor stuff, so we got some energy run off. I slept pretty well, personally. Only one shower for 130 or so people, but I got my shower. Seniority has its privileges, occasionally.
Now we're off to Four Corners, and then on to Page, AZ. Today we'll walk around at the Glen Canyon Dam, which will undoubtedly resurrect the litany of "Dam" jokes. The kids get tired of those jokes after about 15 minutes, but annoyingly, some counselors never do. It doesn't help that the real name of the gift shop at the Glen Canyon Dam is "The Dam Store".
We had to stop at a weigh station on the way out of Cortez. Apparently you have to pay a per-passenger tax on commercial buses in Colorado. On my bus we started a contest to see who could guess closest to the actual weight of the bus. Unfortunately they didn't actually weigh the bus, but it didn't matter: the second-highest guess was 50,000 lbs., by Jacob Wine. The gross vehicle weight of the bus (empty) is something like 49,800 lbs., so it was pretty clear that Jacob was going to be closest, even with passengers and luggage thrown in. That's because the highest guess was Jeannie Bosworth, who guessed 1 trillion lbs. We're giving Jeanne Miss Congeniality and a half bag of red-hot Cheetos that Andrew didn't finish.
Jeff - Tue, 06/05/07, 11:45a, Leaving Four Corners
We pulled into Four Corners just as I was finishing up the last entry, so I decided to write a little more on the way out. We took pictures at the monument and walked around and looked at the Native American crafts. I kept going back to look at these beautiful Christmas ornaments, but by the time I decided to hit Thomas up for some cash, they had been sold. Probably to people in our group. I got contact information from the lady who ran the stand though, so I'll probably buy them later.
One of the vendors at Four Corners suggested that we should sing at the monument (the official name of Four Corners is the Navajo National Monument), so the choir sang "Amazing Grace" and "Shut De Do", adding to a long list of places that we've sung. One of the vendors stopped Jan & Kim on the way to the bus and gave them some free food for singing. The kids on my bus are a little upset that they didn't get fed too, since they were the ones doing the singing, but it's the thought that counts. :-)
We're on our way to Page, AZ, the dam tour (I warned you), and the boat ride up Antelope Canyon tonight.
Nancy - 06/05/07, 1:27 MST, En-route to Page, Arizona.
[Editor's Note: The timeline above is not a misprint. I didn't change timeframes, Arizona did; they don't do Daylight Savings Time in Arizona. No, I don't know why. Yes, it does annoy me. As I enter this, we have already done the boat ride, so I can tell you that Kim had a moment of sheer panic when we missed a turn going to the boat and wound up in Utah (we're very close to the border). For a few minutes she thought we might have missed our appointment time, but then she figured out that the boat dock was on the Arizona side of the line.]
I love being on bus 1! First, Kim’s on the bus. Second, Cal’s driving. Third, we get food and bathrooms first! Yay! The extra good thing about today is that Tim is on the bus, so he’s letting me type on his laptop. Tim is a very kind person. [Editor's Note: I am permanently assigned to bus 2, so I probably ought to be more offended by that first part than I am. Oh well. - Jeff]
Right now we’re driving through Monument Valley. The rock formations are absolutely astounding. After lunch at a grocery store in a small community, it’s a refreshing treat to see goats on the hillside. Yum. Tasty goats.
For the second day in a row, we were allowed to sleep in a bit. I washed my hair and woke up Olivia Boggs and Lizzy Davis. Each sleepily grunted and continued sleeping. The church last night had been iffy on 114 youth (Adam swears it’s 113) traveling with only 20 adults, and was sympathetic to the counselors’ plight. However, the counselors have no plight because all of us are so remarkably well-behaved. [Editor's Note: Obviously I'm not going to let that statement go by uncontested. :-) I would not call our situation a "plight", but I would not agree that *everyone* in the choir is all that well behaved either. :-) - Jeff] By our behavior and singing, Kim told us we gave the senior citizens hope for the future. Hope for the future is one of the 5 themes of the Old Testament. The other four are God’s character, God’s provision, human response, and consequences. In our case of spreading the Word, His character is provider, His provision is places to stay and a supporting home base, human response is following His commands and disobeying the Ten Commandments, and consequences are some sort of discipline for those who disobeyed and an amazing time for the entire choir on tour (because we’re obeying the Great Commission). And I mentioned hope for the future before.
Four Corners was pretty close to Cortez, about 38 miles. We entered the monument from the New Mexico side. The flea market-type stalls contain beautiful handmade necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and other items. It took me a while to figure out what to buy for whom and where the best prices were. I finally found a deal on a necklace/earring set and some other bits. A lady had just finished making a necklace I bought. The actual four corners platform sat in the center of the horseshoe. Several groups of people stood around the center circle waiting for a chance to take pictures. I squeezed in a picture of myself, me with Kimmi, and me with Casey. I’ve been hanging out with Casey some over the past few days. We’ve been reclaiming the friendship we had in 4th grade.
Kim told us about the preacher’s servant heart this morning. The minister of 1st UMC of Cortez is retiring in 3 weeks to move to Cheyenne, Wyoming to help care for his youngest daughter (she has MS). His original plan had been to spend 10 years at the church, revitalizing it and the community, and then retiring there. But now, after 8 years, he’s going to leave and help his daughter and son-in-law. Yay preacher!
This afternoon we will go to the Glenn Canyon Dam. We will shop at the dam store, and we will go to the nice Marriott Hotel and change, and then we will go to a sunset boat ride. I am excited about the dam viewing. Kimmi is ready to type now, and I’m pretty much out of stuff to say.
About the tasty goats. I didn’t really eat them. Tim just suggested I say that, so blame Tim if you actually thought I ate goat. In reality I had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans.
I love choir tour!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Peace and chicken grease” (courtesy of Jay),
Nancy
Kimmi - Tue, 06/05/07, 2:30p MST, On the way to Page, AZ
Hi there. Since Nancy just told you what all we have been doing, I won’t go into all of that because that would be boring now wouldn’t it? So so far tour has been amazing! I am having a blast.
So I have to say since my last entry on how our choir needs to focus more on our own spiritual walk with Christ, I think a lot of people have had a change in heart. I wish that you guys could have heard our concert last night, it was so powerful and uplifting. I don’t think there were very many dry eyes. Do you really want to know why we did so well? We did so well because right before we processed in Kim realized we forgot to pray and asked us to say a silent prayer to ourselves, and I really think God just heard our prayers. This one little detail made me realize how powerful prayer really is, and that God really does listen if you just take the time to talk to Him. Maybe if we took more time out of our day, and just prayed, then we would always be a little more joyful, can you imagine? Wouldn’t that be great?
So today has been a very uplifting day. When we were at Four Corners we sang Amazing Grace and Shut De Do, and so many people were touched by it Mrs. Kim said. There were even a couple people video taping us as we sang that I could see. Those are the kind of moments that you just feel so good, because you feel like you're really getting through to people, you feel like your making a difference, and I think people are shocked by that because we are teenagers, and we are supposedly horrible people. Wow, are we proving everyone wrong, we are a great group, we are God’s light for our generation, and not only us, you would be surprised how many youth out there are actually really good Christian-moraled kids. I just pray that people will start to realize that, that we can make a difference, even if we are young, and a totally different generation.
Ok, so I’M gona write a poem now, but mind you I am making this up as I go along, so it will probably not be that great, but oh well!
We Are The Light Of Our Generation They say we are a horrible generation They say that we will destroy our nation I promise we aren’t all bad Some people just like to follow crazy fads Why can’t people see Why can’t they see we can show generosity It’s not fair that we are stereotyped When our reputation is really media hyped We try to do God’s great commission But it’s hard when people hinder our mission I just wish people would give us a chance Because all we want to do is praise God with song and dance Why can’t people realize we are the light of our generation We just want to make a change in the nation We are God’s Light And God is the reason we put up this fight
Well, I guess that’s about it for now, talk to you all soon!!
In Him,
Kimmi Herring
Jeff - Wed, 06/06/07, 12:45a MST, At the hotel in Page, AZ
I can't wait to be out of Arizona, just so I can fix one of the three hours that my watch is now off from the reality of good old Eastern time. :-) Andrew, on the other hand, loves resetting his watch and will happily do so for any reason, including his watch not matching Kim's, or any other source that he considers an authority for that matter.
Many of our kids are apparently relying on their cell-phones to get the correct time for them. This is handy when you're changing timezones like we are, but there's a drawback that emphasizes the depth of our reliance on technology, and the fallacies thereof: When you're this close the edge of a timezone, you don't know which cell-tower your phone is using. You have no way of knowing whether the tower you're syncing time to is in the timezone you're in.
Thus ends my Luddite rant for today ...
The Glen Canyon Dam was fun to see, but as Nancy's already said, it didn't really require as much time as we allocated to that stop. We had already decided not to do the guided tour because it was going to take a lot of time, and they wouldn't have had room for the whole choir anyhow. Without the tour down inside the dam, it only takes a few minutes to check out the overlooks. That said, I enjoyed that stop. I'm partial to dams; my grandfather was the power-plant supervisor at Norris Dam in Norris, TN, where I spent most of my youth. My father worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority also, so we would detour on road trips sometimes to see a TVA dam. I've been known to do that myself. I think dams, to me, stand for family and stability. After my father's memorial service, I took a detour out to Norris Dam on the way to the grocery store with the kids. Much to my surprise, they were spilling water over the top of the spillways of the dam. Norris Dam is the furthest upstream on the Clinch River, so it only very rarely gets enough water behind it for TVA to waste potential power by spilling it over the top of the dam rather than directing it through the turbines. Before that, the last time I had seen water spilled over the dam at Norris was when I was 13, I think. I called home and said that I was coming back to get my camera so I could take some pictures. By the time I got to the house, everyone else had left. When I got back out to the dam they were all there, taking pictures on their own. Somehow I think my dad would have appreciated the fact that we went from his memorial service to the dam to take pictures of the water spill.
The boat ride up the canyon was memorable for multiple reasons. First, the water is about 60 feet lower than it was the last time we were here. I spoke to the boat captain, and she said that they have had several years of lower-than-average snowfall in the Rocky Mountains and Sierras. Snowmelt is the principal source of water for some of the five rivers that feed Lake Powell, the lake held by Glen Canyon Dam. Lower snowfall means lower water levels in Lake Powell. When we were here before, the lake was at an average 30 ft. below the historic average. Today it was 90 ft below the historic average. However, a couple of years ago it was another 60 ft below that, but the lake has risen back to its current level since then, so a few good snowfall winters could well restore Lake Powell to it's recent average level. The boat captain was happy to hear that there was a lot of snow at Wolf Creek Pass when we were there, as it means there's still a good bit of snowmelt to add to the lake.
The second reason that the boat ride was memorable was the stunning view, which I remembered from the last time. It was partly cloudy this evening, so the colors weren't quite as vivid as six years ago, but no matter. It was still a great ride. Once again, we were asked to sing, so sing we did. Probably 8 songs from the program by the time we were done, along with some random other stuff. I had gone downstairs to take some more pictures, so I unfortunately missed Thomas singing his solo acapella.
Andrew announced to me last night that he thinks Thomas' solo is the best. He is far from objective, but I'm glad he's proud of his brother.
When we got back to the hotel Andrew was very intent on going swimming, so we ordered a pizza for delivery and headed to the pool. I stayed in the hottub, but Andrew bounced back and forth between the hottub and the pool for awhile. He is comfortable enough with most of the choir kids now that he will hang with just about any of them, especially the girls. He is something of a lady's man, it appears. :-) He spends a lot of time with Nancy and Kimmi in particular, but also with just about anyone else who will pay attention to him. He is also friends with anyone who will swap video games with him. He likes the 7th-graders, particularly Charlie Sharitz, who sat with Andrew for two different long bus-ride days. We got back to the room just in time to get our pizza. Unfortunately, Andrew was completely asleep by the time devotion rolled around. He's been fighting some sinus irritation today, so I decided to give him a break and skip devotion so I didn't have to get him out of bed. Andrew sleeps really heavily, and it was likely I would have had to carry him the entire way. He is not a small kid anymore.
Kim is letting us sleep in tomorrow. We don't have to be ready to load the bus until 8:30a. A veritable holiday. Tomorrow we take an easy 3 1/2 hour or so ride to the Grand Canyon. Tomorrow night we sing on the rim of the canyon, the highlight of my previous trips out here. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to that.
This tour has had a strange rhythm, because we left Thursday, but didn't sing a full program until Sunday night. It's as if choir tour didn't really kick in until last night, but we've been out for 5 days already, plus we're on a 3-hour-later time schedule. The altitude also takes a lot out of you too. The air is much drier here, which means that you dehydrate much more quickly, even in low heat. Georgia bodies have to stay hydrated in this dry air or bad things happen. We're all suffering something akin to slow-motion jet lag right now. :-)
Jeff - Thu, 06/07/08, 6:53a, at Yavapai Lodge, Grand Canyon
The days go so fast that it's hard to remember where we were the day before. I was starting to write about the trip down from Cortez, but it was Page we left yesterday.
We pulled out from Page on time, and Andrew announced that we were stopping at Walmart in about 15 minutes, per Kim's instructions. We said 20 minutes, adding the prerequisite time-lag for us to be late (as usual :-) ). There must have been some kind of time warp, because the Walmart was only about 2 minutes away. :-) Andrew caught a lot of undeserved grief about that. Andrew likes playing on the microphone on the bus, so he lives for opportunities to tell the kids to count off or tell Lane to sit down.
The trip from Page to the Grand Canyon was made a little interesting by some strong, gusty winds that blew up a lot of dust in places and caused the buses to jump around a little bit on the road. It's kind of like that push you get when you pass a tractor-trailer on the interstate, only a lot more of it. That went on for a couple of hours until we got down toward Flagstaff and there were more trees to block the wind. We had a few decent gusts at the Grand Canyon, but it wasn't too bad there, fortunately.
We had a couple of hours of free time at Grand Canyon Village to eat and look around, so Andrew and I walked the half-mile or so up to the area on the rim of the canyon where we'd be in the evening. This is my third time to the Grand Canyon so I can find my way around pretty well now, at least in the Grand Canyon Village area. By the way, Andrew's reaction to the Grand Canyon was to observe that "if you fell off the Grand Canyon, you'd still have three minutes to live". I don't know how he came up with three minutes, but you get the point.
The performance last night was a little shaky at the beginning, but it got better after a couple of songs. Jan Fishbeck said that she's pretty sure she has job security after hearing them try to perform a couple of things acapella that God never intended to hear unaccompanied. The choir resurrected things in fine style, however. A number of SFUMC folks and relatives were there; Cindy Kelley told me it was going to be 19 people, I think, but I didn't try to count. David and Maggie Adams' parents were in Colorado Springs to see us there, along with some other family members. We've had the usual SFUMC support on the road, which is even more cool when you consider the distance that they had to travel this time.
Nancy - 06/07/07, 5:04p MDT, On the way to Albuquerque
New Mexico looks like Arizona. Arizona looks like Colorado, minus the Rockies. Colorado looks like Kansas. Kansas looks like Arkansas. Arkansas looks like a really boring state. Basically, I slept for a really long time. I'm extrememly tired because I woke up at 4 to see the sunrise over the Grand Canyon. My dad picked me, Kimmi, Tim, and Caroline Swift up outside the hotel about 4:30 and drove us over to a point near where we sang last night. We arrived just as the sky began lightening. As we waited for the golden orb to peak over the horizon, the canyon slowly brightened and became visible. Finally, about 5, the eastern sky showed spots of gold illumination. The striations of the far canyon came to life and color slowly but surely. First the white glowed, then the red. The beautiful sun lit up the plateaus and ridges within the canyon, casting shadows on their far sides. Finally, the gold ball shot about the far rim and the entire canyon burst into color.
Don't worry, Tim got pictures. When we got back to the hotel, I saw an enormous buck. Luckily, Kimmi got a picture.
We haven't done much of anything today but ride the bus in a race to Albequerque. I slept for a long time, and had a Subway sandwich for lunch. This morning Jan and I beat Ed and Patrick in Spades 515 to 470. Yay for us!
Now Andrew is begging me to play Uno, and I need to sleep some more. I'll write more tonight after the talent show!
Peace and chicken grease (sorry Jay. I stole your hat and your saying!)
Nancy
Jeff & Nancy - Fri, 06/08/07, 12:41a MDT, at St. Paul UMC, Albuquerque
The infamous God's Light Talent Show has come and gone. Talent is in the eye of the beholder, apparently. Several acts exhibited actual talent. Most of them -- not so much. Among the actual talents exhibited were Ali Forbes and Lauren Justus singing "The Broken Road", and doing a fine job of it; Katherine Tierney demonstrating her ability to fold 21 shirts in 60 seconds (she missed a couple or it would have been about 23); and Kat solving a randomized Rubiks cube in 1 minute and 11 seconds. In the not-really-talent-but-still-weird-enough-to-mention category was Emily Elmore touching her tongue to her nose and the end of her chin and Andrew arching his back to touch his feet to the back of his head. Then there were the usual skits and non-talent sorts of slams on various choir members and counselors that have come to characterize the so-called talent show. Decorum prohibits mentioning them here, and good luck getting your kids to admit to any of them. :-)
Off to bed, we have to eat breakfast and be ready to load up at 6a, a scant 5 hours away.
Jeff - Fri, 06/08/07, 3:34p CDT, On the road to Mustang, OK
Boy, that five hours of sleep sure was scant ... My sleeping-bag got left on the bus, so I slept on my air-mattress with my blanket. Not too bad, except that Andrew didn't get a lot of air in the mattress so I was partly on the ground when I turned over. I feel like I slept OK though. The whole choir was pretty tired from the short night the night before, and being outside so much for the previous two days. There wasn't a whole lot of chatter, even in the Senior boys' area where I was. When Lane's not talking, you know we're exhausted. :-)
Load-up this morning went pretty well (my sleeping-bag was on the bus, thank goodness). My bus, bus 2, slept most of the morning, until we stopped at a steak place called Big Texas, which was not surprisingly somewhere in Texas. The steak I had was excellent. Jennifer Lingerfelt let Andrew and I join the group of 7th-grade girls that she had put together, so my lunch group was Andrew & I, Jennifer, Claire, Emily Elmore, Libby, Colleen & Janie. It's surprising how much cow a bunch of 7th-grade girls can put away when they're inspired.
Now we're back on the road to Mustang, OK, to a church we've visited before. I think they came to see us at SFUMC once too. Supposedly we're in host homes tonight. I hope so, I need a real shower pretty desperately. :-) Yesterday's was quick and cold, and today I washed my hair in a bathroom sink. Forgot to shave both days too, so I'm starting show some pretty serious road wear.
Speaking of road-wear, Libby Bullock, who already has a nifty little scar in her right eyebrow from a hide-and-seek accident (no, I did not make that up), suffered another cosmetic setback when Janie ran into her with a hot iron (not flat on, fortunately). Libby now has a scar on her upper arm where the edge of the iron hit her. She looks like the victim of a very small, very cute bar-fight.
My 7th-grade girls have taken to tour pretty well. The guys are a little rowdy, but they're getting the hang of things pretty quickly. The last time I had the 7th-graders on my bus, it was actually pretty calm. Too bad I can't say the same thing for the 8th-grade guys I had on my bus yesterday. :-)
Here's hoping we get to Mustang on time, so we can do some decent sound-checks and practice a little. Prayer of the Children has gotten strangely weird the last couple of times that the guys have done it.
Jeff - Sat, 06/09/07, 4:41p CDT, On the road to Germantown, TN
We got into Mustang, OK a little behind schedule, but could have performed on time if we'd really worked to get set up and stuff. Fortunately, the good people of Mustang UMC were very flexible and decided to feed us before we performed and push the service back from 7:00p to 7:30p. That allowed us to do a pretty good sound-check. The performance went very well, the best so far, I think. The audience was very into what we were doing, which always makes us sing better. There were a couple of glitches early, but nothing big, and the middle of the service on went very well. Prayer of the Children, which was pretty rough in Albuquerque, went much better last night. Overall I think this was our best performance, and certainly the performance that we needed for our last full service before homecoming.
We did not have host homes last night, but that turned out fine too. Mustang has a nice gym and plenty of space for us to sleep. The only little glitch was one shower per gender, but I solved that problem the same way I usually do: stay up about an hour past lights-out and shower before I go to bed.
Last night the senior counselors took the Seniors out for ice cream while the rest of the group was doing devotional. About half the Seniors came up through the choirs at SFUMC, but about half joined at various times after 7th grade. My memories of this group in Tomorrow's Promise are mostly the abject terror I harbored in rehearsals for their musicals, that always turned out to be baseless at performance time. They never seemed to know their lines in rehearsal, but they could always pull it out in performance (Lane). It's certainly meaningful that about half of this class did not come up through our choirs. Increasingly over the last few years a substantial chunk of our growth has come from the addition of new members who are not 7th-graders.
This morning we visited the Oklahoma City Memorial again. It is my second time there, but it's not much easier. The Memorial is very beautiful, and very moving. A park ranger gathered us together and talked to us awhile about the bombing and the memorial. The mixed ensemble sang "Pie Jesu", which was written in response to the bombing, the boys ensemble sang "Prayer of the Children", and the whole choir sang "Light of That City". They sounded very good on all of them, and the other folks visiting the memorial seemed to appreciate the performance.
Tour is winding down now. Tonight are our last-night festivities, back at Germantown UMC. We'll sing there tomorrow and then head back to Smyrna for homecoming. It's been a good trip, but I'm ready to be home again for awhile. I started a new job back in March, and I've really enjoyed it. I'm actually looking forward to getting back to work this year. I'm looking forward to being home tomorrow night.
Nancy - 06/09/07, 5:48p CDT, 1 mile away from Pottsville, AR
I love bus days! The talent show Thursday night was hilarious (Mexican Water) and a bit bothersome (my act). I basically did nothing. I did however get to sleep on a hard gym floor after seeing several of my friends come down with nauseous stomachs. Poor Kimmi and Sam Cole had a 24 hour stomach bug and felt terrible yesterday. Someone critized me for wanting to write for the tour journal, but I love to write and type and share my experiences on tour with the world.
This morning we went to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. We entered from the 9:01 Gate. That Gate symbolizes the minute befor the explosion that innocence was lost. Running in between the 9:01 Gate and the 9:03 Gate was a reflecting pool. THe dark stone contained a shallow layer of water over it. The pool ran along what used to be NW 5th Street. The two remaining walls of the Murrah Building have large granite slabs made of rubble from the building with the names of the survivors. On one side of the reflecting pool is the Field of Empty Chairs. There are 168 chairs of bronze and glass, 19 of them smaller because they represent the children that died. One of the boys in choir told me about his sister that was killed in the bombing. I felt so bad for him, but he found his sister's tile on the wall. I'm glad that he at least got to see that.
The fence was filled with cross chains, t-shirts, and other bits and pieces. Someone left their tour t-shirt on the top of the fence. Someone told me it might have been Jeff...
All in all, the memorial was very moving.
Last night I went to CVS with Casey and Sarah Cook and Adam and a few others. There was a dodgeball tournament, but I washed my hair and bathed. For me, cleanliness comes before beaning strange people with balls. As it is, I went to sleep pretty early.
I learned how to play Hierarchy today. It's an endless game that is an endless classic. (Just a bit of endless joking).
This morning I set a list of 5 things for me to do: Secret Person letter, talk to Jeff, write for the journal, play a game of Hierarchy, and sleep. So far I've done everything but the talking part, so I'm going to do that right now!
I love choir tour, but I'm about ready to be home!
And that's the way it is,
Nancy
Jeff - Sat, 06/09/07, 9:40p CDT, On the road to Germantown, TN
I can truthfully say that I'm ready to be off the bus for awhile. This is the longest trip that we do, and at least 5 of those days are almost solid bus-riding: 2 days out to Colorado, 1 day from Colorado to Albuquerque, and 2 days back to the Southeast. That doesn't count the 6 hours or so that we'll put in tomorrow getting from Germantown back to Smyrna. My backside has put on a lot of miles, this trip.
Today has been somewhat unique in the history of God's Light Tours. This morning we got hung up in traffic for awhile around Tinker Air Force Base because of an air show there. I figured out it was an air show when a B-2 Stealth Bomber banked right in front of me. We saw some stunt flying before we got too far away from the base to be able to see anymore. Then just now we passed a pretty large brush fire in Arkansas. We've actually seen a forest fire from a long way away once before, when we were out in New Mexico six or twelve years ago, I forget which.
Looks like we'll be pulling into Germantown between 10:00p and 10:30p. The good news in, since it's the same church that we stayed in a week ago Thursday, we already know the layout for sleeping and stuff.
Jeff - Sun, 06/10/07, 7:57a CDT, At Germantown UMC
I got back into the gym after our last-night festivities at the early hour of 3:30a, and flipped on my MP3 player to hear a Joni Mitchell line, mid-song: "I've been traveling so long, how am I ever going to know my home when I see it again?". Seems pretty appropriate. :-) That's from "Black Crow", from her Hejira album, in case you were wondering. It's one of two or three Joni Mitchell albums that used Jaco Pastorius on bass guitar. If you know who Jaco Pastorius is, you probably already knew that, and if you don't then you won't care. It's one of those little trivia items I throw in every once in awhile to sound intellectual. It is an excellent album, and one of her lesser-known, so if you're a Joni Mitchell fan or a bass guitar player or both and haven't heard this album, I recommend that you go get a copy.
Last-night stuff went well, if not at all briefly. I heard that the last of the crew didn't finish up hugging each other until 4:45a. I feel pretty lucky to have gotten down by 3:30a. This Senior class is our largest, by far, but most of the kids that I'm close to have started pulling away in the last few months. Many of them are heading off by themselves and are already mentally preparing for the separation of distance and college. They've done a pretty good job of leading this year, and tour has gone very smoothly in large part due to their efforts. In the words of one of our members, "it certainly will be quieter next year". One of the guys actually apologized for the grief he'd given us through the years, but the truth is that they weren't all that big a problem. Even in their less mature moments they were loyal to the choir, and that counts for a lot.
As I type this I'm listening to the choir sing "Shut De Do", with an enthusiasm that belays their lack of sleep. I have to give them credit, they've mostly managed to turn it on when they needed to. Let's hope they can get through the morning services without anyone falling over, asleep.
Germantown UMC is a beautiful church. I'd like to stop here again. Their sanctuary sounds really nice.
Jeff - 06/11/07, 1:10p EDT, Back at work
The trip home yesterday was quiet. Kim insisted that we sleep on the bus for awhile. My bus had most people asleep for at least four hours after our lunch stop. People didn't really wake up until about the last hour and a half, which was about right.
The worship service last night was glorious. A good measure of how we're doing is to watch Barbara & Joey and see how long it takes them to start crying. Last night it was pretty early. (You have to modify that scale if Jeri Chafin is around, she generally starts crying before the service starts, and tends to influence people around her. :-) We have a general rule that Joey Hatchell and Jeri Chafin must sit together, and out of the direct line-of-sight at God's Light performances, lest they take the entire choir with them into boo-hoo land). The turnout was wonderful. It was great as always to see all of the past God's Light members in attendance at homecoming.
Finally, as always, I can't begin to thank you all enough for all of the support, monetary, spiritual and otherwise, that you give us throughout the year, and especially while we're on tour. Clearly this ministry would not be possible without an enormous amount of support for a great number of people. I hope that you all feel that you are a part of the God's Light ministry, because you certainly are. It wouldn't happen without all of you.
Signing off for another year,
Jeff
Nancy - 06/11/07, 7:21 EDT, At home at last
Once again, I’m finishing up the tour journal (I hope). Mom woke me up 2 1/2 hours ago. Big improvement from last year (1 PM). I’m sitting at the computer and yawning, even after 16 and 1/2 hours of straight sleep. James’ birthday is tomorrow and Aunt Leann is over to see him. I’m upstairs on the computer (obviously). As I’m reading this year’s journal while I’m typing, Jeff still has not updated from what I wrote yesterday on the bus. So I suppose I need to cover everything from about 12 through now.
After returning the sacred object to its owner (aka giving Jeff’s laptop back to him), I cuddled down under my blanket and proceeded to sleep for 4 hours. I haven’t listened to about 25 songs on my iPod yet, and I haven’t listened to a bunch of others in a long while. So I put it on shuffle all my songs. I woke up after I ran the battery out. Then I spent the last hour or so talking with Jeff (he came back to visit with those of us who were awake), Patrick, Ely, and Schafer (before he went back to sleep). Schafer actually was my secret person, and he told me that he hadn’t expected me to have him. It wasn’t that hard though. I mean, I’ve known him since I was about 6.
Surprisingly enough, we pulled into the church early, with enough time for a real sound check! All of the food was heavenly, especially the lovely blueberry pound cake. There were too many desserts to choose from. But thankfully there were vegetables. I nearly died this trip without vegetables. Mom served us about 5 vegetables for supper tonight (thank goodness!), and I ate a good serving of all of them! Yum, yum
Ok. Enough with the sidetracks about food, etc. Jeff’s already re-capped the homecoming concert, so I don’t need to use my scant energy to do so. (When Mom woke me up, I told her I just wanted to go back to sleep). Instead, I will share the lessons I have learned from the “Extreme Spiritual Makeover” Choir Tour 2007. First: It doesn’t matter what people think of me. They may critize me for the things I like to do, but if I enjoy the activity, I will continue doing it. Second: Not only do I love playing with and being around little kids, I also love giving devotions and speaking to people about Jesus and faith and other stuff like that. Third: Lauren Smathers said I might be God’s Light president in a few years.
The last one was a half-joke, but the other two are completely serious. I’d like to thank the seniors for livening up choir the past 6 years (three of which I experienced), and being great role models and leaders. That’s basically what everyone said during the senior stuff, but I figured they’d like to read it sometime.
It’s really scary to think that I’m half-way through God’s Light. My freshman year went by so fast, and tour also. It makes me sad to think that the 135 people that went on tour will never be the same family that we were while on tour. I’ll miss the jokes and the cards and everything else. I almost wish it was tour year-round, but that would take all of the excitement out of preparing for tour. But life goes on, and God gives us even greater gifts. And all of the members of God’s Light ’07 will have an unbreakable bond for forever. I contemplated this during Homecoming, yes.
Mom wants me to fold my clean clothes now, and I’m about ready to go back to bed. I have a full summer ahead of me (I’m going to camp Glisson for 3 weeks in July), and I need my rest. Thank you Lord for an awesome church family!
Until next year, that’s the way it is,
Nancy
P.S. I almost forgot. Thanks for telling me and my mom how much you appreciate reading the tour journal. You have no idea how much that means to me. N.
jeff - Tue, 06/12/07, 5:42p EDT, At home
I left out a couple of important thank yous: A gigantic, huge, monumental "thank you" to Nancy and Kimmi for their contributions to the tour journal. You guys did a great job and I deserve a good kick for not thanking you in print sooner. My apologies.
I also wanted to let all of you know that Joey Hatchell emailed to tell me that he used Erin Brannon's, John Newsome's and Katherine Tierney's senior insights from the tour book in his sermon on Sunday, 06/10, along with one of Kimmi Herring's poems from the tour journal. His sermon was from Matthew 6:11, on not worrying about our children so much and allowing God to be in control of them. Yet another little wrinkle in the powerful witness that is God's Light.
Yours in Christ, Jeff