For the past several years, we've had a Kids Music Mission trip to Chattanooga in April, followed by the Afternoon Choir Music Mission in May and the Youth Music Mission in June. The calendar dictated a little bit of a shakeup this year, so our Kids trip is in March! For the superstitious among you, we are throwing caution to the wind! We are leaving on Friday the 13th, and we are returning on the Ides of March. So throw some salt over your shoulder or whatever it is you're supposed to do to send us positive waves.
The Kids Music Mission theme this year is "Amazing Grace," mostly because that's one of our best songs. The program has a flow in terms of energy, but unlike many of the programs we've offered on tours over the years, this one doesn't have a particularly strong "through-message." Instead, we'll be relying on the kids themselves to send the message, which is simply that God loves you.
We probably won't tell people that outright. Honestly in my experience "God loves you" doesn't land very authentically. What we will do instead is sing...and then listen. We will stop. We will pay attention. And we hope they will feel heard...and in feeling heard they will feel loved.
As usual on the Music Missions, I'll update this blog regularly with pictures and stories of our journey.
This year, I'm asking you, gentle reader, to contribute. If you have a moment, please either post a comment below or better yet send me an email (jcowden@ogumc.org) to send a message to the choir. It could be a simple message of encouragement or a story of your own that is related to what you see here.
We ride at dawn. Not really. We leave tomorrow evening. Let's get this party started!
~Mr. John
