Celebration

We are back at Redwood Christian Camp. There’s a guy here named Bob Best who is known among past Celebration-ers.  He is leading worship for the week and we are backing him up. It’s a little different than what we are used to but we are here to serve the camp and that’s what they are having us do. It’s nice because we don’t have to wake up unless we want breakfast, but most of us woke up just in time for lunch today. It doesn’t really feel like we are doing that much work. We  do get to do one song at the beginning of each worship set as a group. Other than that we are on a rotation to sing with Bob and the instrumentalists are still doing their thing. Nate is playing keys and I may be playing acoustic  guitar sometime during the week.

Please pray for us during this last week of tour here at camp. We need it!!

So, it’s taken forever, but I finally got all the pictures off of the camera, on the computer, and on the internet!

This is a couple of us leading at camp.

Josiah, looking cool as usual and Ryan with a Nord on Hammond action going on there.

Check out Dr. Funderburk playing the tambourine at Kesha’s church!!

Here’s us on July 4th and at Kesha’s church.

This guy has 6 grammies.

Gretchen and Mike got to see us on July 4th.

Justin is so good on that Cajon!!

Nathan was so excited at Kesha’s church!

Here’s us at Kesha’s church and Ryan Cowden got to see us at his home church in Visalia.

This last one is of Josiah Lee!! (Mike and Gretchen Lee’s boy)

Hope you all had a great 4th of July! We had a great concert up in Scotts Valley. Mike Lee showed up with his family and kids. It was great. There was a carnival and a home-town parade and ice-cream and snow-cones and cotton candy and sunshine and good food and 4TH OF JULY!!! Hurray!! (No fireworks though. They didn’t want to add to the crazy fires up in the Santa Cruz Mountains…)

During the day we got to do two 20 minute sets. To start those off we had Andrew VanVlear in his lovely American Flag pants on the guitar. He’s been working on a take down of a cool patriotic medley on the guitar. It was sweet!! We provided some sweet background music for the carnival and then cheered Sophia Lee on in the parade. Our concert was great. I think we had an extra motivation to be perfectly on the music because Mike Lee was there. Not that we aren’t always perfectly on the music… but that just gives us an extra edge.

Last night we spent the night at Bethany College in the women’s dorm. There was Cranium playing and lots of good fun.

We drove today to the small town of Escalon, CA. We set up and then went to the Red Robin for some burgers. Concert tomorrow and then back to camp!!

TTFN!! TaTaForNow!!

Dr. Funderburk joined us today. He flew in for the day into San Jose and spent the day with us. We got to go back to the Santa Cruz board walk and ride the roller coaster this time. That was really fun. He also bought us a great lunch on the pier at Santa Cruz.Dr. Funderburk is the best dean a school of music could ask for. He cares about us and what we need, and he practices his own instrument every day. When we got to Kesha’s church, Dr. Funderburk sat down at the piano while we set up to practice scales. I personally appreciate the fact that our dean is a disciplined, accomplished musician.

Other than roller coasters we had an amazing concert at Kesha’s church. During the sound check, Kesha kept telling Nathan to turn up the mains until she was confident that we were as loud as the normal worship team at the church. My ears were ringing when we were done. Justin was really happy because he could hit the drums without worrying about staying quiet.

I am again without my camera to put up pics. I should be able to do that tomorrow.

Happy July for tomorrow. Don’t forget to use hands free cell phones while driving. It’s the law now as we are constantly reminded by freeway signs.

Keep praying for us!

Today we sang in two different venues. One was at Justin’s church in Visalia, CA. We then packed up our stuff and booked it all the way up to San Lorenzo, CA. If you want the larger cities as a reference point, it’s the same as driving from Fresno to Oakland. Don’t forget the time it takes to get everything out when we get to the church and set up then sing. And oh yeah, there was traffic too. And Teryn and Ryan did not have any air conditioning in the truck because it was broke and it was really hot and humid and AAHHH!!!! It was a crazy day, but the concerts were still good!

At Justin’s church we all gave little boy our autographs. That was really strange to me. It seemed to take away from what we were doing to serve the people and point them to God. I don’t think I like being viewed as a celebrity when I am leading people in worshiping God. It takes the focus away from God.  Needless to say, it was still fun anyways.

Tonight the guys are all staying at the church. They have beds for us upstairs (and wireless internet throughout the church!). It should be fun! 

I unfortunately do not have my camera tonight to put up pics of today and camp which still need to be posted.  Looks like I have my work cut out for me with those. Keep praying!

We’ve been having a great time here in Redwood Christian Park. The best part about this place is how relaxed you can be. We wake up in the morning, sing a little, then sleep or whatever, and then sing in the evening. We don’t have to drive anywhere or set up so everything is completely relaxed. Best job I’ve ever had.

We had a beach day on Wednesday and took a little trip to the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Some people from the camp were there and they treated us like celebrities. That was really weird. Kesha has even been asked for an autograph. CRAZY!

Tomorrow we have a lot of driving all the way to Visalia, CA to Justin’s church and the next day we drive just as far back up north. It going to be a lot of driving, but we should have some really good concerts after all the extra practicing we’ve been able to do this week. We’ve learned a couple new songs to replace some of our normal concert rep. I’m excited. We’ve got to try out some new things on the congregation here. They’ve sort of been our guinea pigs…. but they’re people… you know.

I will have some good camp pics up soon! Keep praying for us, and save the date of July 13. We have a concert at Christ Community Church in Buena Park. It’s only 25 min from APU so you should come if you can!! 

We have officially made it half way through our six weeks together as Celebration. It has been fun. It has been van cramped. It has been musical!

We now reside at the Redwood Lodge at Redwood Christian Park. We are leading worship for the week at June Family Camp. It’s perfect. Our lodge is less than a rock throw away from the “Tabernacle” where we lead worship. (Oh, and we only had to setup once for the whole week because we are in the same place!) Last night we led worship for everyone that had made it to camp. There are families with babies and high schoolers. There are old couples and young couples. Oh, and get this:

There was a guy who proposed marriage last night, and this couple is in their 70’s!! It was so cool!

This morning we split into 2 groups. The majority lead worship for the adults. Teryn, Andrew and myself led worship for the youngsters. I played the acoustic guitar, Andrew worked the keyboard and Teryn kept rhythm on the Cajon. It was great fun! 

We don’t have to drive anywhere while we are here, so we will get to practice for at least two hours everyday. We are going to learn new songs and perfect songs that may have problem spots. This is the life!

Pictures of camp are soon to come. Keep praying for us!

Teyrn in Yreka

They loved us in Redding

Check out this sweet, cute, rockin’ baby!

Oh the boards. And Kelsey joined us! Bye Kelsey! Have fun in Africa for 2 years…We’ll miss her a lot.

The tearing down part is always fun…

All of us!! Aren’t we such a good looking group…

“Always” in Brentwood

Josiah is the coolest bass player ever!

This was Ashley’s home church. Check out the giagnormous setup!

Karen rockin’ the cello.

Oh, cute couple!

This is Karen’s carrying situation. Cello on back. Backpack on front. Rolling suitcase on right hand. Garment bag in left hand. Whew!

Hope you enjoy our pics!

Sorry I haven’t posted in a few days. I haven’t really been able to use any internet. This connection I found from the neighbor of my host family… yes I’m stealing wireless internet.

We have been to Yreka (say the letter “Y” and then the second have of the word Eureka to pronounce that one) which is in far northern CA close to the oregon border. We went to Redding, CA and played at another mission. Now we are in Brentwood, CA in northern CA (just in case you mixed it up with the one in SoCal.)

We have had some good home-stays and met lots of people. At the mission we got to meet several people with awesome stories of God changing their lives. They loved us at the mission. That concert in Redding had the most people so far and the people there joined in more than anywhere else. In Brentwood we played at a huge church which had a sanctuary that holds 1700. The setup was fun for that one. In the morning we are to have Ashley’s mom’s famed pancakes. I don’t think a day has gone by in which Ashley has not mentioned them. I’m excited!

Here’s hoping for more internet connections in the future, and of to Camp we go!!

I’ll get up some pics soon. RIght now: Sleep!!

Well, we went back to Portland! We met up with Carly Martin at her home church, hit the town, and played a good concert.  I think some people thought it may have been a little loud, but most thought we had it at a good level. I got to talk to a girl in High School about coming to APU after the concert. We are getting to do what we were sent out to do: advertise our school. This brought me back to what John Wallace said about his class at APU and how many of them came because of a small group. We also met a woman who said her daughter was in a Small group when she was a freshman at APU and led one her senior year. It was fun to hear about some of the history of the groups.

After Portland, we sent out for Seattle, WA. I think Seattle is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve been to. I really enjoy it. We got to see the city, Pike’s place, the Bay, and a Starbucks on every corner. Today we got to work with the men at the Bread of Life Mission on First and Main. It was great. We got to meet some great men and hear their testimonies. After dinner with the Men, we got to give them a concert. I have never seen so many grown men cry. I think we really touched a lot of them. We have a long drive ahead of us in the morning. Off to Yreka!!

The Mission

August Rush??

The guys found a Leslie!!

He turned my sorrow into dancing again.

Karen got a new haircut in Seattle!

Darnell is a Preacher!