Sunday at Naz has been one of our traditions since the get go. The congregation at Naz has been supportive of our ministry in many ways. We feel like we are going home every time we come back to play for these worship services. Mike and I are especially grateful to see our families again and have them around for our final hurrah.
We worshiped with the congregation for the second and third performances. Everything went well. When we were done with the services, we packed up, debriefed and headed out for lunch.
Reflection:
The end is always difficult.
One of the key words for this past week has been "revitalization". Our tour through Chicago and Wisconsin is our spring break. I say it is my vacation. It renews my spirit and inspires me to be a better person. I like to remember that life is not about what we accomplish in our jobs or status, but rather the relationships we make and how much we help others along the journey.
This week has emphasized to the group how homelessness is still a problem all over our country and the world. We served at several homeless shelters and with Feed My Starving Children. I am glad that we were reminded that we are all one pink slip, one bad event, one foreclosure, one eviction, or one mishap from being homeless, hungry, or worse.
I hope our group made some difference. I hope that we didn't just help feed some children or help a homeless shelter operate for one more day, but that we helped feed souls. One meal will fill one person for a few hours, but feeding one soul can last for a long time and it can grow and spread to others. I hope that we spread God's word through our music. I hope that we inspired some children to lead positive lives and help others in thier community. I hope we revitalized. I hope we revitalized others as much as we were revitalized. I hope that all of this will overflow, because with God involved, it can't be contained.
We owe a great amount of gratetude to several people and groups that helped us along our way. Here is a list of people I would like to thank. I hope I don't forget anyone, if I do, please let me know and I will add you to the list
Mike Jensen - for being my counterpart in this adventure and for leading and inspiring all of us
Jared and Dani - for countless hours of planning, calling, estimating, filling out forms, and everything else you did to get this week on its feet
Libby Johnson - for putting up with the 16 of us for five days in her house, with all our messes, cooking mishaps, etc. We also thank you for the many groceries and deliciuos food and lastly for being our mom while we were on the road. It was nice to come back to a smiling face each night.
Joe and his family, Staci's family, and Chris's family - for hosting us; giving us a place to sleep and food to keep us going.
All of our contacts for working out the logistics to give us a venue to play at and opening your doors to our ministry.
All of the family, friends, and congregations that donated money to help us raise the funds for this trip.
The service trip board for all their help in organizing the trips.
Lastly a large thank you to all of the students on the trip for making this experience more special than I can express. These guys give up thier spring break to go out and serve others. They are talented and have great hearts for humanity. I am proud to be part of this group and proud of all of you - Thanks!
Mike mentioned during our debriefing time on Sunday that words can't always express what God does on this trip. This is so very true. I have often been at a loss for words on what this trip means to me and those involved.
I hope to give more insight to our trip by throwing in some pictures and some media to the blog and u-tube, so stay tuned for some more things to come. We are also looking into the possibility of producing another CD this year. Let me know if you are interested in one and I will put you on the list.
Lastly, I realized that I never gave a list of the 16 of us that currently make up Hope Overflow. So here are the names of the people who I have enjoyed traveing with for the last week. Thank you all for a fantastic break!
-Hans
Dani Johnson - vocals
Alexis Spain - vocals
Meghann Bauman - vocals
Kate Glenny - vocals
Mike Jensen - vocals/acoust. guitar
Justin Krogman - vocals/acoust. guitar
Chris Roberts - elect. guitar
Kevin Schnieder - elect. guitar
Sarah "Grethchen" Jorgenson - bass
Trevor Carolan - keyboard/piano/aux. percussion
Staci Speer - keyboard/piano/aux. percussion
Alec Amosson - synth
Laura Mackey - violin/trombone
Jared Robb - viola
Ried Keller - drums
Hans Pregler - sound engineer
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Friday and Saturday
We are already back, so this post, unfotunately, is all from memory.
I last wrote that we were getting ready to play a concert at Father Carr's Place 2B. The room we were in was great for our setup. We had a large stage and tons of room for chairs. Joe and his family run Father Carr's. They have 9? children in their family. They were very hospitable and made sure to take care of us for the time we were there.
Most of the people that came to the concert were part of the Catholic Church that takes care of the shelter or were residents in the shelter. We were not sure how our music would go over with this type of crowd. I also know that we were worried about saying the wrong message about doctrine and the differences between the denominations represented in the room. As God has done the entire trip, he made things work better than anyone could have guessed.
The concert was very well recieved. We had a warm reception from everyone. They didn't clap and dance like those at some of the other locations, but you could tell they were enjoying themselves. I had a couple of kids, sorry I can't remember your names, that were interested in the sound board and how things worked. They wanted to run the sound for me during the concert. I convinced them that this was not an option, but let them run the recording portion. They did a great job, giving me up dates of the recording status every few minutes. I hope they found some interest in the music world and will carry that on through school and into their lives.
Joe and his family were very pleased with how things went. They offered to have us come back next year and use Father Carr's as our base of operations for the week. We might need to take them up on this, as we have many contacts in Wisconsin and the locations and facilities work very well for what we need.
While I am on this topic, we had a difficult time nailing down contacts and locations for sevice this year more than ever. Many people are worried about bringing in a group this large or feel that thier congregation will not like the contemporary music and the massive amounts of equipment that we carry. If you are reading this blog and had us come to your location, I hope you were blessed by God's work through us. If you were, feel free to let us know. We would like to have some "testimonies" to help promote our work for next year. If you were not satisfied with our ministry, please let us know that as well. We would like to improve any way we can.
We also appreciate individuals spreading the word. Many of the successful contacts for this year were made from past success stories. We ask that you help us out in this way. Let other's know how God works on you and how music such as this can be a blessing to all sorts of groups.
Saturday:
The last two paragraphs are a great segway into my views on Saturday. Friday night we drove to Janesville/Milton and setup sound in Staci's church for two Saturday morning worship services. The first service was more traditional, the second contemporary. During the first service I had to drastically drop down stage volume and completely cut main volume to bring the sound down to a desired level. I was happy to hear that the congregation was pleased with the sound and the group in general.
It was not until the second sevice that I became worried, as pastor Nate granted us permission to run our sound as normal. Even though I still held back 10% or so, I still recieved several complaints from congregation members. I understand the differences in opinions between contemporary and traditional music as well as the difference in volumes. I know this subject is tricky for congregations, but I was surprised that we had seen so much success until this point and then a totally opposite perception come up.
Those that did stay for the service enjoyed the music emmencily. In fact, one of the men from the congregation came up to Mike and I afterwards, expressing how interested he was to have us come out to his church in New York to play. This would be a great opportunity that we will have to look into.
Pastor Nate and all the folks at the church were great to work with. It is a beautiful church. I am still open to trading the lights from the truck for the chandaliers and wall sconces, just let me know:)
After the sevices in Milton we headed back to Staci's house for some monster chessburgers - excellent by the way. Then we hit the road back to Cedar Falls. We setup at Naz around 7pm and went to McD's for dinner.
I last wrote that we were getting ready to play a concert at Father Carr's Place 2B. The room we were in was great for our setup. We had a large stage and tons of room for chairs. Joe and his family run Father Carr's. They have 9? children in their family. They were very hospitable and made sure to take care of us for the time we were there.
Most of the people that came to the concert were part of the Catholic Church that takes care of the shelter or were residents in the shelter. We were not sure how our music would go over with this type of crowd. I also know that we were worried about saying the wrong message about doctrine and the differences between the denominations represented in the room. As God has done the entire trip, he made things work better than anyone could have guessed.
The concert was very well recieved. We had a warm reception from everyone. They didn't clap and dance like those at some of the other locations, but you could tell they were enjoying themselves. I had a couple of kids, sorry I can't remember your names, that were interested in the sound board and how things worked. They wanted to run the sound for me during the concert. I convinced them that this was not an option, but let them run the recording portion. They did a great job, giving me up dates of the recording status every few minutes. I hope they found some interest in the music world and will carry that on through school and into their lives.
Joe and his family were very pleased with how things went. They offered to have us come back next year and use Father Carr's as our base of operations for the week. We might need to take them up on this, as we have many contacts in Wisconsin and the locations and facilities work very well for what we need.
While I am on this topic, we had a difficult time nailing down contacts and locations for sevice this year more than ever. Many people are worried about bringing in a group this large or feel that thier congregation will not like the contemporary music and the massive amounts of equipment that we carry. If you are reading this blog and had us come to your location, I hope you were blessed by God's work through us. If you were, feel free to let us know. We would like to have some "testimonies" to help promote our work for next year. If you were not satisfied with our ministry, please let us know that as well. We would like to improve any way we can.
We also appreciate individuals spreading the word. Many of the successful contacts for this year were made from past success stories. We ask that you help us out in this way. Let other's know how God works on you and how music such as this can be a blessing to all sorts of groups.
Saturday:
The last two paragraphs are a great segway into my views on Saturday. Friday night we drove to Janesville/Milton and setup sound in Staci's church for two Saturday morning worship services. The first service was more traditional, the second contemporary. During the first service I had to drastically drop down stage volume and completely cut main volume to bring the sound down to a desired level. I was happy to hear that the congregation was pleased with the sound and the group in general.
It was not until the second sevice that I became worried, as pastor Nate granted us permission to run our sound as normal. Even though I still held back 10% or so, I still recieved several complaints from congregation members. I understand the differences in opinions between contemporary and traditional music as well as the difference in volumes. I know this subject is tricky for congregations, but I was surprised that we had seen so much success until this point and then a totally opposite perception come up.
Those that did stay for the service enjoyed the music emmencily. In fact, one of the men from the congregation came up to Mike and I afterwards, expressing how interested he was to have us come out to his church in New York to play. This would be a great opportunity that we will have to look into.
Pastor Nate and all the folks at the church were great to work with. It is a beautiful church. I am still open to trading the lights from the truck for the chandaliers and wall sconces, just let me know:)
After the sevices in Milton we headed back to Staci's house for some monster chessburgers - excellent by the way. Then we hit the road back to Cedar Falls. We setup at Naz around 7pm and went to McD's for dinner.
Friday, March 12, 2010
It has been a long two days
Hello everyone,
Sorry it has been a couple days since I have posted. We have had some very busy days and many activities. So, to start, on Wednesday we went to two locations during the day. The first was the Wayside ministry project in Aurora. We started the time by working with the men who live there. Jared and I moved a bunch of boxes and then cleaned furniture that was on its way to the second hand store that the men run. After we finished up our work, the group loaded all of the sound equipment into their chapel and worshiped with all the residents.
Wednesday's theme of the day seemed to center around how God softens any persons heart with his word. The men who we were worshiping with, may come off as very intimidating to some people. Some of them are homeless because of the economy, some have served time in prison, some are in other bad situations. About half way through the music, some of these men were in tears because God was working on them so much through our music. I was terrified that these guys would be closed to our music and maybe even upset that we were there. Earlier in the day we had talked to a guy named Dan, who had mentioned a lot of churches come in and force their doctrine on the group; upsetting the men generally. God was present the entire time and changed the mood of these men drastically.
Later that night, we were at St. James working with the pastor, Booker Vance, from St. Stephens. This church is located in the South part of Chicago. This area, for those who don't know, is pretty rough. The church was having a Wed. night lenten service with a meal. Most of the people at the service were older ladies who were very sweet, but didn't seem like the type who would appreciate loud Christian rock music. God worked in their hearts as well. They ended up loving the service.
God worked on me too. I have learned so much from working with the group and working at our different locations. This trip more than any other has focused more on homelessness and we have worked closer with the groups more than ever before. We have eaten and now slept in homeless shelters along side the resident. This is very eye opening for everyone, giving us all a new and different perspective on this topic and our lives.
Wednesday was also a really bad day to be driving a 26ft truck. We had all sorts of trouble. First, we were stuck to the south of our location at Wayside because the opening under the bridge was 6 inches too short for the truck and we didn't want to chance getting stuck or hurting the truck, so we had to go several blocks out of the way to get to where we needed to be. Then when we left Wayside, we ran into a car on fire and had to take a detour. Then at St. James, we had to work around some very lowing hanging trees. We made it to all the locationis, even through all the difficulties.
At St. James, we had to choose weather we wanted to take all the equipment up two flights of stairs or use the smaller fellowship hall in the basement. Wanting to save our backs, we chose the basement, but I had to setup the board out in the vestibule. It was very interesting trying to run the sound while running in and out of the back of the room to hear how things sounded, but it was fun.
Thursday
This is the third year we have gone to the Holy Family School in downtown Chicago. The kids know who we are and are very fond of the music. Jared, Mike, and I were going through the hallway, when we arrived, and as we rounded the corner into the cafeteria, we were overwhelmed by students. The school custodian mentioned that we were like the Beatles. This kids are fantastic to work with. They have so much energy and are very polite. They knew we were coming several weeks ago and the place has been buzzing about our trip.
The concert was upbeat and crazy. When the kids were screaming, you could barely hear the band through the sound system. We signed many shirts, arms, and binders afterward. It seems really weird to us, that the students consider us to be famous, even though we feel nothing of the sort. We also helped out with the after school program by reading, helping with music, and practicing Tai-Kwon-Do with the students. As we were heading out, we shared many hugs with the kids. They are such a good group to work with. We enjoy going to this location so much each year.
We ate dinner at MacArthur's, a soul food restaurant that is absolutely fabulous. Next we headed off to Osh Kosh Wisconsin. Where we are staying at Father Carr's Place 2B, a homeless shelter, food pantry, church, etc. The trip up was long and foggy. At times we could barely see the cars in front of us. We were also exhausted and fighting sleep the whole way. Jared and I finally arrived in the truck at midnight, took care of some business, and crawled into bed. Father Carr's has two hotels on site that have been converted over to use as rooms for the homeless. One is for men, the other is for women and children.
Friday
This morning I woke up early and went out to the line of people waiting to get food from the food pantry. I talked to a man who used to work at a factory in Michigan before they laid him off because of the economy. Now he is living with a friend in Osh Kosh. After breakfast, we split into groups. One group painted a bathroom. Jensen and I took a group over to a dining hall where we worked on tiling the floor. This was a huge room, a group from Michigan State finished the first part, so we took care of the second half. The glue was messy, but we got it done.
We are getting ready to play a concert in the next 1/2 hour at Father Carr's. It should be fun. I will let you know how it goes.
-Hans
Sorry it has been a couple days since I have posted. We have had some very busy days and many activities. So, to start, on Wednesday we went to two locations during the day. The first was the Wayside ministry project in Aurora. We started the time by working with the men who live there. Jared and I moved a bunch of boxes and then cleaned furniture that was on its way to the second hand store that the men run. After we finished up our work, the group loaded all of the sound equipment into their chapel and worshiped with all the residents.
Wednesday's theme of the day seemed to center around how God softens any persons heart with his word. The men who we were worshiping with, may come off as very intimidating to some people. Some of them are homeless because of the economy, some have served time in prison, some are in other bad situations. About half way through the music, some of these men were in tears because God was working on them so much through our music. I was terrified that these guys would be closed to our music and maybe even upset that we were there. Earlier in the day we had talked to a guy named Dan, who had mentioned a lot of churches come in and force their doctrine on the group; upsetting the men generally. God was present the entire time and changed the mood of these men drastically.
Later that night, we were at St. James working with the pastor, Booker Vance, from St. Stephens. This church is located in the South part of Chicago. This area, for those who don't know, is pretty rough. The church was having a Wed. night lenten service with a meal. Most of the people at the service were older ladies who were very sweet, but didn't seem like the type who would appreciate loud Christian rock music. God worked in their hearts as well. They ended up loving the service.
God worked on me too. I have learned so much from working with the group and working at our different locations. This trip more than any other has focused more on homelessness and we have worked closer with the groups more than ever before. We have eaten and now slept in homeless shelters along side the resident. This is very eye opening for everyone, giving us all a new and different perspective on this topic and our lives.
Wednesday was also a really bad day to be driving a 26ft truck. We had all sorts of trouble. First, we were stuck to the south of our location at Wayside because the opening under the bridge was 6 inches too short for the truck and we didn't want to chance getting stuck or hurting the truck, so we had to go several blocks out of the way to get to where we needed to be. Then when we left Wayside, we ran into a car on fire and had to take a detour. Then at St. James, we had to work around some very lowing hanging trees. We made it to all the locationis, even through all the difficulties.
At St. James, we had to choose weather we wanted to take all the equipment up two flights of stairs or use the smaller fellowship hall in the basement. Wanting to save our backs, we chose the basement, but I had to setup the board out in the vestibule. It was very interesting trying to run the sound while running in and out of the back of the room to hear how things sounded, but it was fun.
Thursday
This is the third year we have gone to the Holy Family School in downtown Chicago. The kids know who we are and are very fond of the music. Jared, Mike, and I were going through the hallway, when we arrived, and as we rounded the corner into the cafeteria, we were overwhelmed by students. The school custodian mentioned that we were like the Beatles. This kids are fantastic to work with. They have so much energy and are very polite. They knew we were coming several weeks ago and the place has been buzzing about our trip.
The concert was upbeat and crazy. When the kids were screaming, you could barely hear the band through the sound system. We signed many shirts, arms, and binders afterward. It seems really weird to us, that the students consider us to be famous, even though we feel nothing of the sort. We also helped out with the after school program by reading, helping with music, and practicing Tai-Kwon-Do with the students. As we were heading out, we shared many hugs with the kids. They are such a good group to work with. We enjoy going to this location so much each year.
We ate dinner at MacArthur's, a soul food restaurant that is absolutely fabulous. Next we headed off to Osh Kosh Wisconsin. Where we are staying at Father Carr's Place 2B, a homeless shelter, food pantry, church, etc. The trip up was long and foggy. At times we could barely see the cars in front of us. We were also exhausted and fighting sleep the whole way. Jared and I finally arrived in the truck at midnight, took care of some business, and crawled into bed. Father Carr's has two hotels on site that have been converted over to use as rooms for the homeless. One is for men, the other is for women and children.
Friday
This morning I woke up early and went out to the line of people waiting to get food from the food pantry. I talked to a man who used to work at a factory in Michigan before they laid him off because of the economy. Now he is living with a friend in Osh Kosh. After breakfast, we split into groups. One group painted a bathroom. Jensen and I took a group over to a dining hall where we worked on tiling the floor. This was a huge room, a group from Michigan State finished the first part, so we took care of the second half. The glue was messy, but we got it done.
We are getting ready to play a concert in the next 1/2 hour at Father Carr's. It should be fun. I will let you know how it goes.
-Hans
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Hesed House
Today we served at Hesed House, a homeless shelter that offers opportunities to those in need with services for medical, legal, food and sleeping. When we first arrived we met with Barb, Jared's contact. Barb was very busy with a 18 year old girl, who is pregnant, that was just dropped off at the shelter by her dad this morning, with a few sacks of her clothes. She was given only 40 minutes to get out with her stuff and into the shelter. While Barb was taking care of things, she put Miss Pat in charge of us. Miss Pat took us on a tour of the facility and gave an extended informational overview of the shelter and homelessness in general.
A side not on Miss Pat; Miss Pat is in charge on many aspects of Hesed House. She is a boss, mother, and friend to all of the clients and staff at the shelter. She is an amazing woman. We were very fortunate to spend time with her today. I am also looking forward to exchanging recipes and gumbo! I can't say enough about Miss Pat and how inspirational she was to the group. We had an hour long discussion on the day upon our return to Dani's house. I think her words to the group challenged and informed everyone of things we didn't know or have chosen to ignore. She made everything very clear for us and inspired us to do more for God and our communities. I was happy to hear that worshiping with us for God was revitalizing for her. Thank you so much Miss Pat, we enjoyed every minute of our time at Hesed.
Our concert today did not end up the way we though it would. Hesed is in need of more room for their work, so space is limited. We could not find a good place to fit all the equipment and since it was a wonderful day (at 9am). We decided, that we would hold our concert outside at 2pm. God had some other plans for us. Once we started unloading the truck it started to sprinkle. We took the necessary measures to protect the equipment and decided to play on. We continued the whole concert in the rain, it was great! The rain was very soothing, it was not a downpour, but nice and refreshing. We made sure to dry off all the equipment, in fact, much of it is sitting around Dani's still drying. I ended up running sound from underneath a tarp, definitely a new one for me. This ended up being really interesting, as all I could hear was the rustling of the tarp and it was too bright to see the screen on the board. I had to pretty much run the sound from underneath the board platform so I could sort of hear the band, moving sliders by memory!
We had a great time playing in the rain for the people at Hesed. I hope everyone was inspired by God's work through worship, music, and rain.
For dinner, we went to a Chicago style pizzeria, with huge deep dish slices of pizza that are amazing. We are now all back and heading to bed to be up at 5am for a 6am load-out. I am going to go get some sleep.
God Bless,
-Hans
You can find a blog from Chris and Laura at the following site:
hopeoverflow.wordpress.com
Check it out!!!
A side not on Miss Pat; Miss Pat is in charge on many aspects of Hesed House. She is a boss, mother, and friend to all of the clients and staff at the shelter. She is an amazing woman. We were very fortunate to spend time with her today. I am also looking forward to exchanging recipes and gumbo! I can't say enough about Miss Pat and how inspirational she was to the group. We had an hour long discussion on the day upon our return to Dani's house. I think her words to the group challenged and informed everyone of things we didn't know or have chosen to ignore. She made everything very clear for us and inspired us to do more for God and our communities. I was happy to hear that worshiping with us for God was revitalizing for her. Thank you so much Miss Pat, we enjoyed every minute of our time at Hesed.
Our concert today did not end up the way we though it would. Hesed is in need of more room for their work, so space is limited. We could not find a good place to fit all the equipment and since it was a wonderful day (at 9am). We decided, that we would hold our concert outside at 2pm. God had some other plans for us. Once we started unloading the truck it started to sprinkle. We took the necessary measures to protect the equipment and decided to play on. We continued the whole concert in the rain, it was great! The rain was very soothing, it was not a downpour, but nice and refreshing. We made sure to dry off all the equipment, in fact, much of it is sitting around Dani's still drying. I ended up running sound from underneath a tarp, definitely a new one for me. This ended up being really interesting, as all I could hear was the rustling of the tarp and it was too bright to see the screen on the board. I had to pretty much run the sound from underneath the board platform so I could sort of hear the band, moving sliders by memory!
We had a great time playing in the rain for the people at Hesed. I hope everyone was inspired by God's work through worship, music, and rain.
For dinner, we went to a Chicago style pizzeria, with huge deep dish slices of pizza that are amazing. We are now all back and heading to bed to be up at 5am for a 6am load-out. I am going to go get some sleep.
God Bless,
-Hans
You can find a blog from Chris and Laura at the following site:
hopeoverflow.wordpress.com
Check it out!!!
Monday, March 8, 2010
House of Blues and Feed My Starving Children
Today was a fantastic day in so many ways. Our first priority of the day was to travel to the House of Blues for a concert with around 200 children from local schools. The House of Blues is a very interesting place. The venue is very ornate with a plethora of art around the room all over the place. The room has two balconies and sunken continental seating area. The performance was fantastic. I spent the entire time walking the room, taking pictures, video and giving notes to Mark and Jeff, the sound engineers. Anna was our contact for the program. She is a very passionate person and loves bringing groups in for the kids.
We are all blown away by the thought that we had a chance to play at such a prestigious venue. Many famous artist have set foot on the House of Blues stage and we were in aww by the architecture, atmosphere, and power of the space. Hopefully we will get some pictures and video out on the web for everyone to see and hear.
Our next stop was in Aurora at the Feed My Starving Children warehouse. We arrived early and were put to work attaching 100's of label to the food bags. This was very fun, as we kept the staff entertained by singing all sorts of songs, especially Sinatra. It just so happened that the lady who was working in the warehouse had a Sinatra CD and put it on for us - what a coincidence.
For the actual pack we were split into teams to fill the bags of food that are shipped to children in many countries around the world. The food consists of rice, soy bean, veggies, and a chicken flavoring. It is nutritious and tasty too. One bag can feed a child for six meals. Our packing team packed around 1700 meals in the two hours we volunteered. This will be enough to keep 17 children from starvation for a year.
This system and organization is superb and has thoroughly though through all the red tape you run into when working with overseas food relief. I commend all the people involved in this organization. I also commend Starbucks for sending there employees to work in the community and also monetarily giving back to support this good cause. About 8 of the Starbucks employees were working along side us to do the pack. I really wish they would have brought some samples. Some of the zombies in the group (Jensen) could have used the caffeine.
Great day overall and really fun too. We had BBQ ribs for dinner. We are now all full, tired and heading to bed. Tomorrow is Hessed House day.
I will keep you up to date on day four of our trip.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Day One and Two of tour
Hello everyone,
So, I had hoped to blog about the first day of tour, but did not get a chance. I have good reason to miss the first day, as I will explain soon.
The day before tour starts with the kick-off concert. The kick-off concert has always been a rush for us, as we are throwing everything together at the end of a very busy academic and event heavy week. This year went very well. Some of the stuff was last minute, but made it none the less. We barely had a chance to get the projector up and running, but ultimately made it. For the first concert we had a great crowd. Many of the people in the audience were students still on campus, parents, friends, and family.
After the concert we packed up all the equipment and figured out how we would load the truck. Loading the truck is like playing a large game of Tetris. Every piece of equipment has a specific way it needs to go in and if it does not fit tightly, stuff will shift around in transit. The first time through always takes some time to figure out, but after that, we move extremely fast. We made it home by midnight, which was nice, because most of us had not packed and needed to be back at 8am.
Day One:
The first day of tour started out like so:
8:05am - Dani recieves word that Jensen is locked out of his car and needs a ride.
8:30am - expected departure time
8:35am - while loading truck, a bag full of grocies falls and breaks open a jar of pickles, leaking pickle juice all over the back of the truck.
8:38am - the keyboard is loaded into the back of the van, while it is warming up. Trevor and Staci shut the rear van doors and for some reason all the doors lock.
8:45am - With no luck from security, Jensen calls locksmith to open the van.
9:00am - Locksmith arrives
9:01am - Locksmith unlocks van
9:10am - Departure
Wow, what a fun way to start the trip! Very eventful, but the back of the truck smells like pickles.
Once we hit the road, we also discovered some fun things with our vehicles. We have two white Deery vans. One seats 11 and the other 15. Also, we have a 26ft moving truck for all the equipment. The following chart describes the peculiar problems we have with the vehicles:
Van one: (also known as lockness)
- randomly locks doors
- has drastically different temperature between back and front seats
Van two:
- randomly locks and unlocks doors while driving
- side door does not shut easily and can only be securely shut by being pushed from the back, not the handle
- the CD player/radio only plays in mono, unless the driverside door is open and then you get the sound in stereo
The Ryder Truck:
- the windshield wipers turn on at random times
- the drivers seat is air cushioned (cool) and bounces like crazy (not so cool) I thought I was going to loose my cookies during the first leg of the drive
The vehicles are really interesting. We have had a great deal of fun finding out what is wrong with them.
Once we arrived at Alleluia, we had a great reception. Our contact, Michelle, and sound contact, Scott were a great help with everything. Since we were behind schedule with the locksmith deal, we had to setup on the double. The group setup incredibly fast and we were ready to go faster than any time I can think of.
The service was great, the dinner was excellent, and the concert was wonderful. We had many people in attendance and they were very appreciative of the worship. The church's we have been to have provided wonderful hospitality. The members of Alleluia had a potluck dinner with salad and soups. Everyone was very nice and it was a beautiful sanctuary to play in.
After we packed up at Alleluia, we traveled to Lutheran Church of the Atonement in Barrington. Mike was there to meet us. We looked around the room and decided that it would be more beneficial to use the in-house equipment. By the time we were setup and ready to head to Dani's, it was somewhere around 1am.
There was a very magical moment during our sound check at Church of the Atonement. We were all very tired, but the sound during "How He loves us" was very moving for all of us. It was great to see the pastors reaction. Now back to Dani's for devotion and sleep.
Sleep tonight @ 1am - 4hours - back up at 5am
Day Two
Departure - 7am
Service - 8am
The services at Churh of the Atonement were a great deal of fun. The sermon this morning was on the Prodical sons. Yes sons, as the pastor talked about how both sons had put distance between themselves and their father, but only one came back to the fold. Great teaching! We were all tired, but learned a great deal.
Again, everyone at this church was more than helpful and hospitable. We are truly thankful for all the help and hospitality for our ministry. Thank you to everyone for your generous support.
Also a side note, I saw in the program that the church has a sound engineer named Hans. I did not get to meet him, but would like to say hello to Hans at Church of the Atonement. The Hans sound engineers need to stick together, since I am relatively sure there are only the two of us.
After the three sermons this morning, one of the members of the church came up to us and said that he was the proprietor of a local restaurant and wanted to take us out for lunch. We, of course, agreed and had a delicious lunch at Egg Harbor Cafe in Barrington. Thank you so much for doing this for us! The Malibu Chicken sandwich was great!
After lunch we went back to Dani's. Most everyone went to sleep except for a few of us. Jared, Gretchen, and I started cooking dinner. We made fettuccine Alfredo with chicken, bread, salad, brownies, and lemon bars. Needless to say, this was a large dinner to put together for 16 people. We had a great deal of fun and some mishaps. The bread did not raise very well, so it became more like bread sticks instead. We also had the sauce boil over. Jared tried to catch it, but it went too fast. A couple burns later, we had feast of a meal. By the way, if you would like to try some of the pasta, let me know. I have more leftovers than I can shake a stick at or at least fit in the fridge. Plus, nobody like my idea of pasta for breakfast.
I will write more later, but I need to head to bed for my 5 hours of sleep. Goodnight!
So, I had hoped to blog about the first day of tour, but did not get a chance. I have good reason to miss the first day, as I will explain soon.
The day before tour starts with the kick-off concert. The kick-off concert has always been a rush for us, as we are throwing everything together at the end of a very busy academic and event heavy week. This year went very well. Some of the stuff was last minute, but made it none the less. We barely had a chance to get the projector up and running, but ultimately made it. For the first concert we had a great crowd. Many of the people in the audience were students still on campus, parents, friends, and family.
After the concert we packed up all the equipment and figured out how we would load the truck. Loading the truck is like playing a large game of Tetris. Every piece of equipment has a specific way it needs to go in and if it does not fit tightly, stuff will shift around in transit. The first time through always takes some time to figure out, but after that, we move extremely fast. We made it home by midnight, which was nice, because most of us had not packed and needed to be back at 8am.
Day One:
The first day of tour started out like so:
8:05am - Dani recieves word that Jensen is locked out of his car and needs a ride.
8:30am - expected departure time
8:35am - while loading truck, a bag full of grocies falls and breaks open a jar of pickles, leaking pickle juice all over the back of the truck.
8:38am - the keyboard is loaded into the back of the van, while it is warming up. Trevor and Staci shut the rear van doors and for some reason all the doors lock.
8:45am - With no luck from security, Jensen calls locksmith to open the van.
9:00am - Locksmith arrives
9:01am - Locksmith unlocks van
9:10am - Departure
Wow, what a fun way to start the trip! Very eventful, but the back of the truck smells like pickles.
Once we hit the road, we also discovered some fun things with our vehicles. We have two white Deery vans. One seats 11 and the other 15. Also, we have a 26ft moving truck for all the equipment. The following chart describes the peculiar problems we have with the vehicles:
Van one: (also known as lockness)
- randomly locks doors
- has drastically different temperature between back and front seats
Van two:
- randomly locks and unlocks doors while driving
- side door does not shut easily and can only be securely shut by being pushed from the back, not the handle
- the CD player/radio only plays in mono, unless the driverside door is open and then you get the sound in stereo
The Ryder Truck:
- the windshield wipers turn on at random times
- the drivers seat is air cushioned (cool) and bounces like crazy (not so cool) I thought I was going to loose my cookies during the first leg of the drive
The vehicles are really interesting. We have had a great deal of fun finding out what is wrong with them.
Once we arrived at Alleluia, we had a great reception. Our contact, Michelle, and sound contact, Scott were a great help with everything. Since we were behind schedule with the locksmith deal, we had to setup on the double. The group setup incredibly fast and we were ready to go faster than any time I can think of.
The service was great, the dinner was excellent, and the concert was wonderful. We had many people in attendance and they were very appreciative of the worship. The church's we have been to have provided wonderful hospitality. The members of Alleluia had a potluck dinner with salad and soups. Everyone was very nice and it was a beautiful sanctuary to play in.
After we packed up at Alleluia, we traveled to Lutheran Church of the Atonement in Barrington. Mike was there to meet us. We looked around the room and decided that it would be more beneficial to use the in-house equipment. By the time we were setup and ready to head to Dani's, it was somewhere around 1am.
There was a very magical moment during our sound check at Church of the Atonement. We were all very tired, but the sound during "How He loves us" was very moving for all of us. It was great to see the pastors reaction. Now back to Dani's for devotion and sleep.
Sleep tonight @ 1am - 4hours - back up at 5am
Day Two
Departure - 7am
Service - 8am
The services at Churh of the Atonement were a great deal of fun. The sermon this morning was on the Prodical sons. Yes sons, as the pastor talked about how both sons had put distance between themselves and their father, but only one came back to the fold. Great teaching! We were all tired, but learned a great deal.
Again, everyone at this church was more than helpful and hospitable. We are truly thankful for all the help and hospitality for our ministry. Thank you to everyone for your generous support.
Also a side note, I saw in the program that the church has a sound engineer named Hans. I did not get to meet him, but would like to say hello to Hans at Church of the Atonement. The Hans sound engineers need to stick together, since I am relatively sure there are only the two of us.
After the three sermons this morning, one of the members of the church came up to us and said that he was the proprietor of a local restaurant and wanted to take us out for lunch. We, of course, agreed and had a delicious lunch at Egg Harbor Cafe in Barrington. Thank you so much for doing this for us! The Malibu Chicken sandwich was great!
After lunch we went back to Dani's. Most everyone went to sleep except for a few of us. Jared, Gretchen, and I started cooking dinner. We made fettuccine Alfredo with chicken, bread, salad, brownies, and lemon bars. Needless to say, this was a large dinner to put together for 16 people. We had a great deal of fun and some mishaps. The bread did not raise very well, so it became more like bread sticks instead. We also had the sauce boil over. Jared tried to catch it, but it went too fast. A couple burns later, we had feast of a meal. By the way, if you would like to try some of the pasta, let me know. I have more leftovers than I can shake a stick at or at least fit in the fridge. Plus, nobody like my idea of pasta for breakfast.
I will write more later, but I need to head to bed for my 5 hours of sleep. Goodnight!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Almost ready
Well, it is Thursday. We have our kick-off concert tomorrow and then we head to Chicago on Saturday. I am down to three items on my checklist. We are in good shape. Tomorrow will be interesting. I need to pick-up the truck and have some doctor appointments I have to go to. Then make it back here in time for the concert. Tomorrow night will also be our first shot at loading the truck. This is always great fun, as we are basically playing a large game of Tetris with all of the cases and equipment. After the first time around, everything works out well, but the first time is always a fun challenge.
Also, I just found the firewire 800 cable I need to connect my computer to the external hard drive, that will go fast enough to keep up with all of the audio channels. I was getting worried about this, since I found out Best Buy does not even carry these cables.
My tasks for tonight are to copy down the reciepes I need to take with us to Dani's house. I love cooking for large groups of people, so this will be great fun. Yesterday, Jared and I bought enough food for a small army. Since we are basically a small army, we should be good to go. The Wal-Mart checkers always look at you odd when you purchase four bags of apples, eight loaves of bread, four packs of bottled water, etc, etc. I usually have some sort of humorous comment ready for their odd glances, but they asked Jared if it was for a trip before I had a chance to comment.
I hope many of you will come see the concert tomorrow in Neumann. We would love a good sized audience. It is a great time to come worship.
-Hans
Also, I just found the firewire 800 cable I need to connect my computer to the external hard drive, that will go fast enough to keep up with all of the audio channels. I was getting worried about this, since I found out Best Buy does not even carry these cables.
My tasks for tonight are to copy down the reciepes I need to take with us to Dani's house. I love cooking for large groups of people, so this will be great fun. Yesterday, Jared and I bought enough food for a small army. Since we are basically a small army, we should be good to go. The Wal-Mart checkers always look at you odd when you purchase four bags of apples, eight loaves of bread, four packs of bottled water, etc, etc. I usually have some sort of humorous comment ready for their odd glances, but they asked Jared if it was for a trip before I had a chance to comment.
I hope many of you will come see the concert tomorrow in Neumann. We would love a good sized audience. It is a great time to come worship.
-Hans
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