We’re on our way! As I write this, we’ve hopefully made our last stop of the evening (in Magee, MS) and we anticipate arriving in Long Beach around midnight. We made great time on the road and arrived in Vicksburg around 4:30 p.m. and even had time to make an unplanned bonus stop. Years ago, when I was in choir, we went to the Vicksburg National Military Park. There are monuments to each of the states represented in that epic Civil War battle (the consensus on the vans was that Gen. Grant of the North defeated Gen. Pemberton of the South) and the Illinois monument is the largest of the monuments. It is a domed structure with a hole in the ceiling and it is an amazing sound when the choir stands in a circle inside the building and sings a cappella! The choir sounded great!
The people of Bovina Baptist Church were most gracious and fed us well also. I served there 1983-84 as Minister of Music and Youth and had one of my former youth group members in attendance (she’s 40 now and has a 16 year old daughter!). The students sang very well and we were able to take some photos and video of the concert and hope to have some pictures posted tomorrow.
In the morning, most of the group will be leading the camp for the Preschool of First Baptist Church, Long Beach but a few of us will be helping to do some prep work for the playground equipment at the new facility (this includes pulling roots, breaking up dirt clods and other high tech manual labor). Trust me, we have some students who will excel at this project!
We look forward to some great days ahead. Even though we’re spread out on three vans, the students are having a good opportunity to visit and build relationships. Here are the immediate prayer requests:
- A good night’s sleep
- Focus for Monday—we work in the morning and sing twice in the afternoon
- Travel mercy for Rebecca Niven and Joy Lintelman as they drive to meet us tomorrow
Thanks for your support! Please leave a comment to let us know that you’re keeping up with us this week!
P.S. We arrived in Long Beach around midnight and everyone is fine!
June 9, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Randall and Student Choir–thanks for the update. Being a history fan, Vicksburg is one of my favorite places–hope that you got to see the Neches Trace. I am excited about the great day that you had yesterday and thankful for your safe travel. Young people–you will look back on this week and what the Lord will do through you often in you life, so savor the time. I pray that He will give you opportunity to lead someone to Christ this very week…
Bob