The Weekend & Our Concerts

This past weekend was our first "double header" (as Tim called it) - we had two concerts on Sunday. It was a great experience, but I was unprepared for how worn out I'd be on Monday.

The weekend started off with me going to Genoa's football game on Friday night. Jodi's cousin plays on the team, and they've been having a great year. It's been a lot of fun to go to high school football games because I'd really been missing them. As if that wasn't good enough, Jodi brought Lauren with us. She's a hoot! I can't begin to explain the love I have for this little girl...and I love the fact that she thinks I'm pretty cool. :-)

Here's a picture of Lauren all bundled up at the game. This was her "silly face" picture.



On Saturday, I was able to sleep in a bit which was nice. After making breakfast, I began packing for our weekend concerts. We left Jordan's home around 2:30 to head towards Cridersville. When we got to the church, we unloaded all of the sound equipment and began to set up. Once everything was up & running, we had our practice. After we had our practice, we practiced the praise & worship set with Joey (a teenager who played drums for the praise & worship).

By the time we were done practicing, we were all starving so it was off to check in at our hotel (which happened to be in Wapakoneta - where I lived for three years while teaching at Jackson Center), and then we went to Bob Evans for supper. The rest of the evening was spent chilling in our hotel rooms & watching the Cleveland Indians game (the Jordans are huge Indians fans!).

Sunday...wow! What a day Sunday was! We got up & got ready in time to leave the hotel around 9:15 a.m. so we could be at the church in Cridersville for one last sound check & practice (we ran through a couple of songs & then worked with Joey for a little bit). Following the concert (and after we had mingled & sold CD's), we packed everything up, loaded the van, and changed clothes before we left the church. Pastor Jon & his wife took us out for lunch (they were such nice people!) at a Mexican restaurant in Lima. Yummm! It was delicious! It was also nice to sit & talk to them for a little bit.

After we said our good-byes, we were off to Spencerville...the location of our evening concert. Upon arriving at Spencerville, we had to unload the van & set up the sound equiment once again. Then there was a small rehearsal for the evening concert (we did some different songs) before we went to change. We did have a few minutes to kind of relax which was much appreciated.

Then...it was time for the evening concert followed by more mingling (this is one of my favorite things...in case you didn't know...I love to talk). While Katie & I were mingling & selling CD's, the men (Tim - Katie's dad & fellow vocal team memeber, Jeff - Katie's brother who runs sound & sings a couple of songs with us, Jared - Katie's boyfriend, and Clyde - Katie's grandpa) began to pack up. I was really surprised how quickly they worked. We finished packing the equipment, and then loaded the van.

By the time we stopped to grab a quick bite to eat in Findlay, unloaded things at the Jordan's house, and I drove back to my house...I got home around 11:15 p.m.

I was totally exhausted, but I also had energy that comes from the concerts. It's been such a powerful, moving & humbling experience to see how God is using our ministry to change people. There is no doubt in my mind that this is what I'm supposed to be doing, and I'm so thankful I had this opportunity!

Here's a picture of us (Tim, Katie & me) following one of our concerts:



And...here's a picture of Tim. Can you tell it had been a long day? :-)