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.