Thursday: Maybe One of the Most Profound Experiences

Another day full of adventures, including a twinge of sadness and one of the most profound experiences I've seen in all my years of doing these trips. This is the blog for Thursday.

We begin as we often do, at breakfast. But not with waffles because we shifted hotel brands. But I've been introduced to a new hotness: the automatic pancake maker. You push a button, and in relatively short order two pancakes drop out of the machine. You can watch them cook. Here's a picture of Phoebe operating this one. I took another picture of the one at our hotel this morning that shows the front. It's amazing.

Nick had to miss the baseball game in Durham, and Landon felt bad about it. So Landon took action. Landon is good people, y'all.

We want to make sure all the passengers are secure. Hulk, Button, and [as yet unnamed] are belted in. I'm hoping they'll name her Daisy Crumpet.

We sang two concerts on Thursday. They were both at the North Carolina State Veterans Home, just in different cities. We started in Fayetteville, NC. This concert had to be outside per the facility's regulations regarding outside groups. At the beginning of the concert, only 1-2 singers were in the sun, but by the end it was 6-8. For singing outside, they did a great job.

I had a little help conducting...

This was the mat on the way in.

Of course we did our visiting, and actually it was during the visiting that something interesting happened...maybe one of the most profound things I've experienced on a music mission trip. And that's saying something.

Susannah came to me to ask if a couple of our singers could go inside the building. We had to ask permission for that, because on the face of it the answer was no. Joyce had listened to our concert, and she wanted a couple of our singers to come in and sing to her husband. He was actively transitioning. The facility gave us permission to send 3 singers. Joyce selected two pieces of music she would like them to sing, and in they went.

The choir finished our visit and then headed to the bus, and the trio were the last singers to get back. They came around the corner with Joyce, and she immediately began telling me how remarkable their time had been.

She said he had been unresponsive for some time. She had no idea if he was even aware of her presence, though of course she hoped he was. But when they started singing, he awoke. Her husband was alive and present with her...with them. He told them he had written gospel songs, and he sang one of them. It was as if a switch was flipped, and for a moment, they were together again.

She ran to her car and came back with money. She said, "You have to have this. I want to give it to you." I declined to accept it. But she said, "If you knew my heart right now, you'd ask for more. You just have no idea what you have done for me today." Seeing she wouldn't take no for an answer, I accepted her donation. She hugged each of us. She told us she loved us. And she went back inside to be with her husband.

The four of us took a moment to gather ourselves back up before we got on the bus. And we grabbed a tissue on the way in.

I think this may not be quite the right order. I honestly can't remember. But at one point I went to talk to Susannah on the bus, and I found this. Priorities, people. The coffee, much like Daisy Crumpet, is secure.

Robyn? I would like my 1000 Sjogi points in negotiable bearer bonds, please.

"Sir, this singer is ready to enter the bus, sir."

Our photo contest for the day was "Cool Shades, Bro." Here's Wesley's entry. He and Lucy both won yesterday by exploiting their knowledge of my quirky movie quote addiction, and he tried that again. Honestly with Wesley saying "As you wish," he almost won with it.

Also, we watched Princess Bride yesterday. I'm only telling you because this is required watching. I've literally watched it on every youth choir tour I've ever been on. It's tradition.

Our afternoon concert was at the Salisbury North Carolina Veterans Home. We were in a room that has been completed less than 2 years, and let me say this: this was acoustically the best room for singing I've ever sung in at one of these facilities. It had a high, arched ceiling, and it allowed us to sing more easily...and as a result we sounded better than ever! And if you look behind us in this picture, you'll see a large box/piece of furniture. It's actually a bird cage. The birds were singing with us.

Nick asked me to write into the blog here that he decided to take a nap in the middle of the concert. But since sleeping on your feet doesn't work for humans the way it works for some animals, so while he began his nap standing up, he finished his nap on the floor. After that, he sat out the rest of the concert. Actually a few others joined him shortly thereafter. But the rest visited per usual.

Random picture of choir siblings...

Traditional picture the girls take. (I believe it's also tradition for the guys to decide they want to make a photo tradition and then not do it).

More cool shades bro pictures...

This is the winning photo. I'm not sure why they are doing it in the bathroom, but I love the play on words. Nice job, ladies.

After our concert, we checked into the hotel and got ready for dinner. Then we headed to Maggiano's.

At senior night dinner, we eat, and then we hand out a number of awards. The first awards are attendance awards, including certificates (and a small gift card) for 80% attendance, 90% attendance, and perfect attendance (no perfect attendance this year). Also, new this year, best attendance award...for the 2 who attended the most: Cole and Mariann.

Next we handed out tour awards.

The Rookie of the Year award is for the singer(s) on tour for the first time this year who seem to have the best handle on what it means to be a part of the choir and to be on the music mission together. This year's recipients were Landon and Phoebe (notable: you may notice later that Phoebe is a graduating senior, but this is her first time on tour!).

The Fresh, Radiant, and Sincere award is for the singer(s) who smiled the most/emoted the most during the concerts. This year's recipients were Carter and Eva.

The Chaperone Award is for the singer(s) who the chaperones found the easiest to chaperone/most helpful along the way.  This year's recipients were Seth and Elena.

The Director's Award is for the singer(s) I want to recognize for their contributions to the tour. This year's recipients were Ian and Grace.

Then it was time to recognize our seniors. I presented them with a binder full of pages the choir had written on and pictures of their time in choir. It also contained a ticket to ride on next year's music mission trip. (I usually give them a tshirt and a letter from me, but due to reasons I'll be giving them those items later). Here are our seniors:

Seth

Nick

Grace

Phoebe

Lee Rachel

After we finished, I let the seniors decide if they wanted to share next year's tour destination with the group. The decided they would, and then, on three, each of them said a different city. They huddled together, said, "ok we'll really tell you now," counted to 3, and...did the same thing. I mean, eventually I'll tell all the other singers where we are going...

We also said thank you to our bus driver, Wes. He's been delightful this week. Below, you can see him at dinner and also being a good sport and allowing himself to be someone's entry in the "cool shades bro" photo contest.

One more round of applause for our graduating seniors. We'll miss you guys, and we wish you the very best.

Wednesday: Take Me Out to the Ballgame

#notmywaffle

We gathered for breakfast one more time at our hotel in Alexandria before heading to the Washington Monument. We had mostly settled into a routine here after 3 days, and the ministry of waffles continued to grow and thrive.

Packing up the bus. Reese and Ian jumped right in and started putting the bags under. This is a job for young and spry people! I noticed this morning it was different folks, but I appreciate those who are willing to step up and get it done. It's a lot better when 1-2 people are doing this job so everyone else can get on the bus. (True confession: this was actually one of my favorite jobs when I toured with my college choir).

We headed to the Washington Monument. I managed to Taylor Swift some tickets to go up inside (by which I mean I found out when the tickets were going to drop and then obsessively refreshed my browser until they did and snatched them up as quickly as possible. This is something a lot of folks don't do in DC because it's hard to get in, so I was pumped to make it happen for our group. Before they went up, though, Sir Trots a Lot had a photo op. Michael and Elena photobombed him.

Up at the top of the monument...inside and out.

When they came out, we had a group photo. That's the Lincoln memorial in the background.

Then I had everyone turn around to take a photo in front of the Washington Monument.

Sometimes to get a shot you have to do odd things. In this case I hopped the chain and went illegally into the grass and then had to lie down and put the phone on the ground. But it was #worthit. Good picture of the choir. Ellen got this picture of me while I was taking the picture.

We set out for our concert, which was at Whitaker Glen in Raleigh, NC. We wound up a little late because reasons, but they were very gracious, and actually one person said they were glad we were late because it meant they could hear the concert. Sometimes things just kinda work out.

And...visiting with the audience. You see what I mean. Pictures of the concerts start to look similar: good group shot, and then shots of the youth visiting with the audience. 

My contact at Whitaker Glen commented on how easily our singers interact with the residents. Part of that is practice...we've done this a number of times now. But part of it is also a credit to the youth who are genuinely interested in participating.

After the concert we went to the hotel to change and then headed to the ballpark for a Durham Bulls game. It was a great night for it. I enjoy minor league games more than majors. The atmosphere is just so much fun. 

Every time I go to any baseball game ever (even my son's baseball and daughter's softball games), if there's a conference on the mound, I say, "Candlesticks make good gifts." It's a reference to Bull Durham, which though it is funny, I cannot recommend to you as an employee of the church. My favorite scene is the pitcher's mound scene where they gather because they are dealing with a lot of things that have nothing to do with baseball, one of which is that nobody knows what to get Millie and Jimmy for their wedding. The manager says that candlesticks make good gifts. So many times I've said that or posted the picture, and yet never at a Bulls game at home. Until now. "Candlesticks make good gifts..."

Look! Wesley and Lucy are in the choir and allowed me to take a picture of the three of us together!

One of the reasons I enjoy minor league games is the antics. This dude's shooting the tshirt gun. I wonder where the shirt will go...

Another reasons minor league games are fun: it's a lot easier to get on the jumbotron. Eva was very excited to be on it a total of 10 times throughout the game! But my favorite was probably when they did "Titanic Cam," which means you have to do the titanic pose...and Cole and Wesley made it happen.

The photo contest was "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." It wasn't really fair, but both of my kids won when they uploaded a picture of a mound visit captioned "Candlesticks make good gifts." What can I say? They know me. Actually Wesley said "Candlesticks make good gifs" for a little extra dad action in his joke. But there were some other strong entries.

And ANOTHER reason to love minor league games. It's easier to get balls. We got 5 of them throughout the evening.

Question: is Trots a Lot more closely related to us or to the bull?

Siblings! Look at that sibling love there.

Got a nice pic of the choir once the game ended. Good looking group!

And a good pic of the front of the ballpark.

Oh...and in case you're wondering who wound up with the tshirt from that earlier pic, it was Eva. 10 times on the jumbotron and a free tshirt? This was her entry into the photo contest.

And then we went back to the hotel. I didn't wind up doing an arrival post. Maybe next year I won't do those because most of the time they seem to come too late to be helpful. In any event...things are going. I can't believe it's Thursday (I'm writing the blog for Wednesday). 2 concerts today, senior dinner, and 2 concerts tomorrow, and this trip's in the books. It's been a lot of miles, a lot of singing...and a lot of fun.