Looken’s Weblog

It was a long ride from Maine to Mass. I sat by RuthAnn. We had some good conversation.

Maine reminds me of North Dakota, although I have never been there. Is it possible to relate some place, to a place you have never  been?

The coolest thing we saw was the biggest globe ever. The thing is pretty huge, I was impressed. Apparently there is a running joke that someone thought we were stopping for 45 minutes to see a huge globe.

In fact, Dr. Ledge tricked Lacey into thinking we were stopping for an emergency bathroom break of 2 minutes, when in fact, we were already at the church. She was letting everyone know that it was an emergency… I bought it, but I didn’t lookoutside, I was trying to connect to their wireless.

After the globe, we sang in Mass….
(At this point I fell alseep writing this original log. I was typing things that didnt make sense. So I quit. Overall it was a good last 4 days. We traveled forever, we popped a tire on the van, I stayed with crazy old lady and slept in the room that one of her great grandaughters apparently died in. I got home early and got to attend my church’s play! It was an amazing tour).

Today was set on being either a homework day or a go to beach in the freezing cold day. I chose the former.

I read some Othello in a quiet nursery with Joanna. It was quite cold. That might have had something to do with the rock that was propping the door open in the front of the church. Not sure why it had to be there for 5 hours. Clearly it was a sauna in there to some people.

At lunch time there was very awkward boy playing basketball… very… awkwardly. We all gathered in the gym one by one with our little paper bags that included, guess what????–Thats right! A deli sandwich. Deli sandwich #24 it seems like. While I am eating my deli sandwich in peace with the Ledgerwoods, this boy is intensely playing basketball with himself…. it was entertaining for all 45 of us, I’m sure.

We traveled to this small Christian school about 30 minutes away, and honestly I was not looking forward to singing at this place. Don’t think anyone was. I thought this one was going to be a “Get in and get out” type place. We had a cute skit of “You are my sunshine.” The kids really enjoyed that. After the concert, I was still in the get in get out mode, until a teacher stood up and talked to the kids about how difficult it is for us to travel (she had traveled before) and minister to each place we stop at. Everything she said was true: Our relationships on the bus get crazy, we are tired, its hard to keep a good testimony. It was such a blessing to hear someone who understands. Then she asked a 6th 7th and 8th grader to pray for us. So as we surrounded all these kids in a small cafeteria room, they prayed for us. Expressing their appreciation for us, how fun it was, and how much they enjoyed our ministry. That was exactly what I needed. We go to these places, and sometimes you wonder if the people were even blessed by it, which makes you wonder why you are even on this tour… but then you hear it from their lips that it did bless them and it lifted their spirits and you are reminded of why you are doing what you’re doing.

At night we sang at a church with amazing acoustics! With bellies full of Tacos, Nachos and amazing desserts, we sang our little hearts out. It sounded real good. I will have to ask Philip if this was the best one so far. He is the decider of such things.

There is something about churches in Maine and having auditoriums upstairs… with random handicap chair carriers that lead up the stairs.

House was cool. Cute little girls rode back with us to a house with 2 other cute little boys. It was a LOG CABIN!! My mom’s dream come true! The room we (RuthAnn and Lawson) stayed in had Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling to illuminate the room. It was very peaceful. We played with one little girls animals. These animals were freaky and funny at the same time. They were little bobble head animals: dogs, cats, horses, and then… a skunk. RuthAnn spotted the skunk, “Can I see the skunk?” She holds it, “I’m very fond of the skunk.” HAHA!! I laughed for awhile. Then I found a hedgehog. Clearly this little girl had awesome toys.

    We had a chapel concert this morning at Trinity. Chapel concerts are always fun, because Dr. Ledge does this very funny piano piece about Mickey Mouse’s travels.

We took a much needed Wal-Mart stop. Blessings upon Mr. Hibbs’ little bald head.

Still have not had a Starbucks drink in about 7 or 8 days… Even in Boston with all of them on every single corner. So whose fault is that? (We could blame David Luttrell.)

I traveled with Alysha Cole, and a little with RuthAnn. I’m not sure if sleeping was involved on this bus ride. But the long haul was worth it when we arrived at Portland and got out to observe the most photographed lighthouse. We walked along the rocks and had an amazing time! Walking along the rocks in a skirt was a challenge, but we managed.

The lighthouse was pretty… but I was a little disappointed, ya know? It was just a normal lighthouse. The rocks were much cooler.

The church we sang at belonged to Kat Alley and company. The concert went well, I guess, but the walls sucked our sound into themselves… that doesn’t normally make a good concert. The top row people (this includes short little me) had an interesting difficulty: There was this drop ceiling thing that came down just about to my neck, and we were all standing RIGHT in front of it. We had fun making fun of the fact that we could all rest our heads on the wall. I can’t imagine fainting up there.

The family we stayed with had an amazing house!! Designed by themselves, it was set back in the woods and just… oh man, it was gorgeous. Scarlet and I shared a King sized bed!! It was a blessing. There was also Wireless internet!!! I did some thangs and at about 12:15 I realized that I hadn’t watched Lost yet for this week… So I did. And it was good. It answered a lot of questions. Would have made a great episode for the ending of the season, but thanx to the ending of the Writer’s strike, there shall be more.

This morning we ate rrrreeeaaallll early, but it was ok! All is well.

The church seemed kind of dead. Like… where are the smily people? Those people who laugh? Like my step-dad; He’s one of those lively people, even my pastor and youth pastor… We also sounded dead… the walls seemed to suck the sound out of our mouths. I don’t like when that happens…

Once we got on the bus to head to Concord, NH, it was time to finish “Of Mice and Men.”…. It’s sad! Why do I have to read a book that has an unhappy ending and that I did not necessarily like, JUST because it’s a classic?! Is this a rule?

Jenny Fredricks was my seat partner. Jenny is cool.

When we pulled into Trinity Baptist Church, Chad was standing up anxiously awaiting his footsteps into his former home. I was expecting it to be bigger for some reason. I mean, it’s a good size church, but I was expecting a balcony and everything. The place had amaaaazing acoustics. Just talking in it before practice, I knew it was going to sound good.

We always have a devotional before our performance. Just us. Tonight’s devo was given by Brian Lawson. It was a simple devo about changing our Focus, because honestly it was not on the right thing. We were sick and tired of singing, and we needed to refocus on God. After another talk by the guys, and a moving talk from Chad, the Lord seemed to be doing a work in every single one of out hearts. I know I needed to “make it fresh,” as Dr. Ledge said.

When we got up there to sing, there was something very different. All of our hearts were in this one. This performance felt like the one real performance that we had been practicing and pretending for 8 days. After finishing”My Eternal King” I almost cried. I started focusing on the words, and it just got to me… I know, it may sound like a little much, but it was such a good performance by all.

The Lord completely changed our focus in a matter of minutes.

Chad preached an awesome message. I’m staying in the coolest room Ive stayed in so far. College boy’s room (hes at BJ) that is painted orange with Vincent Van Gogh paintings everywhere!! We got to watch Father of the Bride Part II. Ate pizza and salad. Sweet mom and high school daughter.

Can’t wait to sing at the school tomorrow!!

Quotes: Eric Johnson: “I will devour your sound!”

Getting to the church was a breath of fresh air. Dr. Ledge was late for our luggage packing of the vans and busses this morning. It’s always great when the director is late.

Driving to Boston was a plus because it was a free seating day! Thank you, Jason Floyd. I sat by Cathy Brier and played her some tunes. This was my one task on Mel’s list of things to do on tour. So that is accomplished. I played her a wide range of genres and styles. She likes some of my stuff!!

We entered into Boston with 2 rules: Stay in groups of 3, and return back to the bus by 4:30. Boston became our land to conquer! While I was walking off the bus, I felt the need to play “Boston” by Augustana. It was just one of those, live in a movie moments. So Eric Johnson and I shared an earphone as we walked the streets of Boston listening to… “Boston.” It was a good moment.

Ben Huseby, Eric Johnson, Anthony Nielson, Dave Luttrell and myself all set forth to paint Boston red (Ironic to use this phrase because the Freedom Trail is painted in red). First stop Harvard, or rather how to get to Harvard. The subways in Boston are way cooler than DC, at least the Green Line. Harvard was amazing! The buildings are like Old Main just replicated all over campus. The big buildings we kept ooing and awing over were actually dormitories!! These things are huge! There were a lot of tourists on campus. I can’t imagine tourists on Maranatha campus. Taking pictures with the Cederholm Grave or something.

We tried to sneak in a dorm, but we did successfully enter a lecture hall. Apparently we were in some kind of woman’s studies area… don’t ask…. The library was great… from the distance we were at from it.

I got a Harvard T-shirt!!!!!!!!

Back on the Freedom Trail (which takes all around the city to see historical sites), we discovered The Old North Church, Paul Revere’s home, and the spot of the Boston Massacre, which by the way is an intersection now… Took us awhile to realize that.

While Joanna was meeting some extremely cute guy with an accent at a distant bookstore somewhere in Boston, I was drinking a raspberry mocha kiss, sitting on the ground looking at a photography book at the biggest Border’s I have ever seen in my life.

We met up with Jackie Peirce and Shannan Delany.

After traveling we stopped at the church we were to sing at the next day. So what does that mean: auction off to families for the night! We got a good family… just not necessarily a good group… or… person in the group… Immaculate house! Organized… scarily organized… The night of the church was interesting…

Tomorrow is Concord!

Quotes: “I wanted to be back here with my peeps.” -Ruth Anne

Joanna and I took full advantage of the already at the church deal and got up at about 7:30, got down to the bus at about 8:45.

The pastor of the church gave us a little Baptist Heritage tour around Connecticut and Massachusetts. Saw the home of Samuel J. Mills, the first mission school, and (a little off topic) John Brown’s house… or rather a plot of land with a rock on it. The pastor knew a lot of history.

We ate at this amazing Pizza place! The pizza was better than any of those chains like Pizza Hut or Dominos. One of the pizzas had some kind of ricotta cheese sauce with tomatoes on it. Mmmmm. We thought we were going to have a picnic pizza party at the Hay Stack. We were going to go down in history and name it The Hay Stack Pizza Meeting, but alas, a Greecian restaurant was the place of our picnicing. It was a bit like a Buffet: Each table had its own pizza. So if I did not want the sausage pizza on my table, I went over to Joanna’s and got a cheese slice. It was good times.
We visited the Norman Rockwell Museum. That was amazing! Real original paintings! To top it all off, we sang Upon Your Heart in the main room with these heavenly acoustics. Ruth Anne, Matt George, Eric Johnson, and I all got a picture with the 4 Freedoms to e-mail Mr. Licht so he can wallow in his jealousy.

After a looooong drive back to the church, I finally got to sit in the van, which is heaven on earth while on tour. Arrived at the church in New Britain, sang a ditty. We didn’t seem to be in the center of the pitch most of the time… the room seemed to suck all the sound out of us, so that may have something to do with it.

My host house was interesting… I think that is all I will post about it… Not the best house I have stayed at this tour. In fact it may be quite the opposite. The dog is the only thing that kept me sane. Great dog who slept at the foot of my bed and then cuddled with me when I awoke.

Tomorrow is Boston…. Come quickly, Boston.

Welcome to Connecticut! We got to sleep in this morning. That was such a blessing. I awoke from my “bean bag” bed thingy, and started the day.

Seating was done by major, so there was this long line of Humanities seats. We all chimed in for a “Yeah Humanities!” My partner was Eric Johnson. Good times. Once we got into Hartford, it was “oooos” and “awwws” all the way through. These houses are absolutely amazing!! They are all build so unique, I wish we could have walked around and taken pictures of them.

If I were a Bible character, I would be Enoch, cuz I would never die, come back during the Tribulation, and shoot fire from my mouth! (We get a question everyday…)
Once we got to our church (which was about 45 minutes away from the big houses) some of us decided to take a little journey. A bunch of us took a walk outside and just had a blast, Took some random pictures. Pretended we were on a quest much like Lord of the Rings. Eric smashed a lot of bottles. Jared and I found Bamboo!
I’m trying to let my nails grow out… lets see how that goes…

Our performance went well. My singing lesson with myself went pretty well. It gets better. I keep remembering tidbits from my sister and my music teacher in high school. Singing really is 90% mental. I learned that perfect pitch is innate, and not necessarily learned.

When we were all auctioned off to houses, Jason forgot about Joanna, Genna and me. I was a little hesitant to get stuck with the assistant pastor and his wife, but when it was announced that Joanna and I were together with them we got the good news of, “Alright, you guys get it real easy tonight. You don’t have to leave the church.” We got to stay above the church in the parsonage (which by the way, had excellent WIFI!) They took us out to Friendly’s where I enjoyed a mint cookie crunch thing. Either their cat didn’t like us, or it constantly had its hair stand on end… not sure, but neither Joanna nor I enjoy the presence of cats.

Both pastors looked as if they could be in the Mob.

We attempted to watch The Untouchables but after 10 minutes we were falling asleep. Good movie, just too late at night. I saw a scene from Guys and Dolls. Funny plot! Good lookin actors.

Quotes: From Jenny, Erin, and Eric-Random lines from Pygmalion and “yeah?!” after every line.

After a strange sickness in the middle of the night, I got up from one of the most amazing beds I have ever slept in, and got ready to travel for 7 hours to New Hampshire. (Someone is talking in their sleep… I think its Kelly Kolas…)

Another small world experience: The lady I stayed with has family in Hagerstown (extremely close to home) and she lived in Fayetteville at one point in her life. Nice lady.

My seat buddy was Tori! WOOT! She is awesome. Across from us was Scarlet and Dave Lutrell… hahaha!! Poor Scarlet. We get off at this rest stop to go potty… and of course when all the girls get off and we enter the building, we see an “Out of Order” sign… This is after Dr. Ledge said, “Make it quick, we are behind schedule.” We found one on the next exit.

Made an exciting Wal-Mart stop! Phillip got some gooood chicken. I got much needed razors (thats what I forgot and had to buy at walmart, Mel)… Played some Soduko… Heard a good message from Jason Floyd for our Devos… Heard some bad news from Mr. Davis that may have cause a lot of emotion on the hearts of Kiddie Campus workers. Don’t know all the details, but tonight is when it hit me that prayer is amazing: A few days ago, I was having one of those “God, where are you?” moments… and through spending time in His Word and praying (especially praying with Chamber members) I have felt His presence more and more.

I really hate singing in Micah’s ear… Yes I am THAT close to his ear…. and I have been singing lightly for fear that I hit a wrong note, but I am actually getting a voice lesson out of tour. There are so many different places in your throat that you can sing from, and if I am going to be clean and clear on my notes, I have to sing on the front of my throat (difficult to explain) with my head up. Genius! I know. I kept putting my head down to be face to face with Dr. Ledge. Now I can still be but be in the proper position. Glory!!

I’m in a cool house. Kelly, Lenay (spelling?), and I have the basement all to ourselves. I am sleeping on this huge bean bag bed thing. It’s somewhat comparable to those Love Sacs… but its not quite one of those.

No fainting tonight!