The Emmanuel Quartet: Phillip's Journal

Joey wasn’t able to get a minivan with Stow-and-Go seats this weekend so he had to rent a Chevy Traverse. Since the seats didn’t go all the way down, there was no way to fit in all of our gear, especially now that we have the huge gig rig. So we had to make the painful decision to leave one of our subwoofers and one of our stage monitors behind. We decided that we could huddle close around one stage monitor and position a subwoofer strategically so that we’d still have a big sound. It wouldn’t be a problem at Tullahoma since it was a smaller church, but Joey knew he’d have to adjust the system at the Madison Campus church since it would be considerably larger.

When we got to the hotel, I began to unpack and iron my clothes but I couldn’t find my tie. With a stomach-lurching feeling, I realized that I’d left the tie on my ironing board at home because my hands were full when I was packing and I couldn’t pick it up. I could still see it sitting there and I remembered saying to myself, “Don’t forget to get your tie.” I told Tim and then called Joey’s and Ryan’s room and told them the problem. Our only solution was to wear our black shirts and suits without ties for the church service, which is something we don’t normally like to do. But we had no choice and I bravely accepted The Gourd Award for the weekend.

The Gourd Award is an actual smiling pumpkin trophy that Joey had made several years ago after an off-hand remark one day in which he had meant to say something like “goof” and “nerd” in the same breath and it came out “gourd.” The term quickly became part of Emmanuel Quartet pop culture, typically in reference to someone doing something stupid, i.e., “Phil forgot his tie. What a gourd!” So my punishment is to carry The Gourd Award around until one of the other guys does something foolish, then I pass it off to him in a grand ceremony involving flashing cameras and laughter from the other two who managed to scrape by without receiving the dreaded symbol of shame.

Sabbath morning we woke after getting an extra hour of sleep due to Tullahoma being on Central Time. Since we’d set up our equipment at the church the night before, it was nice to have an extra hour of sleep. Although we were close to the church, we had to be there very early because of their order of service. The members at Tullahoma prefer to have their church service before their Sabbath School classes, so we were there at about 8:30 AM to prep our equipment and sing for the 9:00 AM service. It went well even though we were missing some speakers, and we adjusted quickly to singing around one monitor.

Since the church preferred that we not conduct honor sales, we went ahead and took down our equipment and packed up the van. But before we left, one of the children’s Sabbath School teachers caught us in the lobby and asked if we’d like to come sing for the kids in her room. We had plenty of time so we said we’d do it. We had so much fun leading the kids in songs, and when Joey found a guitar he taught us all some songs that he does for the kids at his church. Somehow the other teachers got word of what we were doing and they ushered us off to their rooms too. We had a lot of fun laughing at ourselves mixing up the words on “Peace Like a River!

When we got to the Madison Campus church, Joey asked the man who let us in if we could use their stage monitors. He said we could, and it really made a difference. Since the church was large and circular, we were able to use our third stage monitor as a house speaker and fill in some of the gaps. And we were able to hear ourselves quite well using their monitors. After sound check we saw some people making their way in and we recognized the Carney family, old friends from years back. We also got acquainted with a family who were fans of our album “The Hand of Mercy” and had been listening to it for years after hearing us sing in the Nashville area in our younger days. They were anxious to get some new music after the concert and I chatted with them in the lobby for a long time about “The Hand of Mercy” and what makes it such a special album. There was a very good turnout for the concert and we had a wonderful time praising the Lord with our church family and speaking about the ministry of Adventist World Radio.

After packing up and conducting our sales, we were all starving so we went to the nearest Pizza Hut. We were all in the mood for pizza, and while we waited for our order, we had the Gourd Award Ceremony. Ryan had held on to the award for several months for various incidents, like bringing the wrong suit, losing one of his shirts, and almost running over Tim with a car (don’t ask), so he was very relieved and excited to pass on the award to me. Although I was less than cheerful, I received the award without complaint because it was obvious I deserved it. Inwardly I vowed to never forget my tie again.

We’ve been very fortunate to have a wonderful partnership with RTZ Audio Visual, a company which Joey uses in his job at the GC. They’ve provided us with a lot of sound equipment at cost or less, which has been a tremendous blessing to us out on the road.

We’d been using a brand new Allen & Heath mixer from RTZ for several months and during that whole time we’d been transporting it loose and unprotected except for one of my towels wrapped around it. Fortunately, a couple of weeks before our February tour Joey had gotten an SKB Gig Rig road case to transport the mixer, microphone receivers, amp and effects mixer. RTZ shipped it to my house since I keep our equipment there, and I was in charge of figuring out how to install everything into the Gig Rig.

When the Gig Rig came via FedEx, it took both me and the driver to get it off the truck and onto my porch. I was expecting a smaller case, but it was fun taking an afternoon to set it up and install the equipment. After I’d installed everything, I sent pictures to Joey showing the rig in its closed and open positions. We were both skeptical that it would fit in our rental vehicles!

When the tour date came I struggled to get the rig in my truck along with everything else, and we had similar problems organizing the jigsaw puzzle in our rental van. Joey had also recently purchased a small 25-key synthesizer for us to bring on stage so that Ryan can play an entire chord for our starting note instead of relying on one note from the pitch pipe. Finding a place for the keyboard was easy, but the ungainly metal stand it came with was a different story. But the Lord was good and everything fit well enough for us to get underway to Huntsville, Alabama. We got to the church at about 8:30 PM and someone was there to let us in. Since we had to set up new equipment, it took a little longer than usual. Then we ran into technical difficulties.

Everything in the new road case worked fine, but no matter what we tried, the new synthesizer wouldn’t work. We could get it to power up and it was obviously working, but no sound came through the mixer to the speakers. Joey called the tech support number for the company, we all took turns reading the manual and after an hour of no results, we decided to pray. Almost immediately afterward, Joey had an epiphany and pushed a button on the mixer and we heard glorious sound coming from the speakers! If only we’d prayed an hour earlier, we wouldn’t have lost an hour of sleep that night. Fortunately we’d traveled into the Central time zone, so it didn’t make us too terribly tired the next day.

The concert went well the next day, but it was strange getting our notes from the keyboard. It’ll take some time to get ourselves used to it, but I think it’ll be much easier once we do. We had a couple of false starts, but fortunately they weren’t catastrophic! We took down the equipment after the concert and headed to Lawrenceburg for an evening concert there.

After driving for about half an hour, Ryan started looking all around his seat for his cell phone. After a fruitless search of the van, we decided to stop somewhere and have a more thorough look. None of us could find it so we tried calling it, to no avail. He couldn’t remember where he’d last seen it, so the only option was to go back to the church at Huntsville and have a look. Joey called the church on our way back and he got hold of someone who was just leaving. He said that he’d call a man named Jack who lived closer to the church. Jack would be there waiting for us when we got back. Having learned our lesson about prayer the night before, we asked the Lord to help us find Ryan’s phone. As we pulled in, a very elderly man was there and he was very hard of hearing. It made explaining things difficult, but we managed to get through to him what we needed. He let us in and we spent another twenty minutes thoroughly searching the sanctuary and all the other rooms that weren’t locked.

Finally Ryan suggested that the phone may have gotten packed up in some of our equipment cases accidentally and that we should just head back toward Lawrenceburg. He later confessed that his phone was getting old and that he’s been wanting an iPhone for a long time anyway so it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we never found the old one! Un/fortunately, when we got to Lawrenceburg and started unpacking, I found his phone at the bottom of one of the speaker bags and I thought it would be smashed. When I looked at it, it was still on and working! The reason we never heard it ring when we called it was because it was on vibrate. When I showed it to Ryan, there was a mixture of relief and disappointment in his voice as he said, “Thanks for finding my phone, Phil.”

Right before the concert we saw some familiar faces in the lobby. Melvin Christiansen and his wife Elizabeth, along with their five children had heard we were going to be in Lawrenceburg and had come to hear us sing. Back in their academy days at Highland, Melvin had sung tenor briefly with Joey and Tim in the Highland Academy Men’s Quartet (HAMQ). The roots of The Emmanuel Quartet go back to those early days of HAMQ singing on campus, nursing homes and local churches. It was good to see Melvin again and to see how his family has grown.

After the concert we talked with the church members at the sales table and when we were done we talked with Melvin and Elizabeth for a while. We even convinced them and their kids to take some silly photos with us and we all laughed at how they turned out. I couldn’t get Melvin to take a stab at singing tenor on a song with the guys and he kept saying that he couldn’t remember any of the notes or words!

Heading home that night we were thankful for a weekend of answered prayer and for the ability to continue doing what we love by spreading the news about Adventist World Radio.

Our schedule this month led us to Franklin, North Carolina and Waynesville, Tennessee, two churches we hadn’t visited in a long time. Since it was the middle of winter, it was only natural that at least one of us would be under the weather. When Joey arrived in Collegedale he told us that he’d been battling a sore throat the week before and that he wasn’t sure how his voice would sound. Tim and I admitted that we’d been under the weather too. Then Ryan said that he wasn’t feeling well either, so we said a prayer before we left that the Lord would bless all of our voices and especially make Ryan and Joey feel better. We didn’t feel like practicing on the way to Franklin, so we just listened to music and talked after stopping for supper.

Our schedule this month led us to Franklin, North Carolina and Waynesville, Tennessee, two churches we hadn’t visited in a long time. Since it was the middle of winter, it was only natural that at least one of us would be under the weather. When Joey arrived in Collegedale he told us that he’d been battling a sore throat the week before and that he wasn’t sure how his voice would sound. Tim and I admitted that we’d been under the weather too. Then Ryan said that he wasn’t feeling well either, so we said a prayer before we left that the Lord would bless all of our voices and especially make Ryan and Joey feel better. We didn’t feel like practicing on the way to Franklin, so we just listened to music and talked after stopping for supper.

Sabbath morning Joey felt better, but his throat was still scratchy. Ryan, however, felt worse than the day before and we were all praying for healing. The Franklin church was friendly, and, despite our illnesses, the people seemed to enjoy our music and the concert. After our honor sales and a fellowship dinner, we headed over to Waynesville. Ryan was feeling a little better by the time we arrived and after setting up he found a quiet room to rest for a while. 

Right before concert time I was in the lobby of the church and a young lady approached me. She told me her name was Danielle Holcomb and that she’d attended Heritage Academy in the late ‘90s. She’d remembered us coming there to sing while she was a student there and said she was very happy to find out that we were still together as a group. She introduced us to her daughter Jade who wasn’t even born when we last saw Danielle, but she’d grown up on our music and knew all of the songs from our album “The Hand of Mercy!” Danielle was happy that Jade would get to see us perform live and that they’d get to hear some new music from “A New Day.”

The concert was fun and we were able to share with the congregation the fantastic work that Adventist World Radio is doing all over the globe, and how lives are being changed through their broadcasts. I noticed Danielle and Jade singing along with every song we sang from “The Hand of Mercy” and it put a smile on my face. After the concert and sales, Danielle wanted to take some photos with us to go with the ones in her collection from the last time she saw us. This time she added Jade and we had fun goofing around with them taking pictures and making silly faces.

On the way home we mused about how many young adults in the past two or three years have told us things like “I grew up listening to your music” or “I heard you guys in a concert when I was a kid.” We never used to hear those types of comments until recently and it was a bittersweet event for us. It made us all feel old to be reminded that many years have passed since the quartet began and that we were those kids’ ages when we started. At the same time, we were flattered to realize that it’s a type of “coming of age” for any music group when a fan tells you that they grew up on your music. It means that we’re maturing and becoming more recognized for our music and, in the final analysis, those thoughts outweighed the reminders of age. 

As we drove home, we imagined ourselves singing until we’re 90 years old and then hoping that the Lord will return before then so we can sing in the heavenly choir. We’ve got many years of singing and praising God ahead of us and we’ll keep going until He returns!

December tours are always special because we’ve usually worked up one or two Christmas songs to sing for the concerts. This year we planned on singing one or two songs from years past, in addition to “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” which we’d worked on before but never quite perfected enough to perform. We had a two-hour drive to Kingsport, so we knew we could work on it in the van.

December tours are always special because we’ve usually worked up one or two Christmas songs to sing for the concerts. This year we planned on singing one or two songs from years past, in addition to “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” which we’d worked on before but never quite perfected enough to perform. We had a two-hour drive to Kingsport, so we knew we could work on it in the van.

When Joey arrived at the music building, he commented that it seemed colder in Southeastern Tennessee than it did in Maryland where he’d just left that morning. It did seem pretty cold as we said our hellos and loaded the van, but our spirits are almost always high these days when we go on tour so the cold didn’t bother us much. On the way to Kingsport, Joey reminded me that our old Laurelbrook classmate and friend Steve Cohen attends the Greeneville SDA Church and that we’d probably see him at the Saturday night concert. I hadn’t seen Steve since graduation day in 1991, so I was looking forward to the concert at Greeneville. 

The trip wasn’t long but we had enough time to practice “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and Joey added some interesting ideas to what we’d already worked on. We only had time to work on one verse and chorus, but we thought that with two other songs, it would be enough for a Christmas segment in the concert. We went over “Light of the Stable,” and “Do You Hear What I Hear?” which are two of our favorites and two of which we’ve done for several years now. 

Between the rehearsal and stopping for supper, the time flew by and we were at Kingsport before we knew it. We were let in to the church and started the process of unloading and setting up the equipment. When we were all set up, we practiced “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” with the system and it sounded very good. Later at the hotel that night, we rehearsed a few more times until we felt comfortable with the changes and then called it a night.

When we got up the next day the sky was gray and it looked very cold outside. After breakfast we made our way back over to the church, and by then some light snow had begun to fall. It was beautiful and didn’t seem to be causing any hazards on the road, but we were a little worried that people wouldn’t come to church if the snow kept up. Over the years we’ve discovered that the Lord will always send the people who need to be there and all we need to do is get up front and sing. So with that in mind, we enjoyed watching the snow come down inside the cozy, beautifully decorated church while we waited for the service to start.

Ryan had the children’s story for only four kids, but they were enthralled with his tales of the larger-than-life squirrels that inhabit the Wisconsin woods. By the time the story was over, there were quite a few people filling the pews. The concert went well and we even pulled off our first performance of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” with only a few minor glitches. During our rendition of “Great Gettin’ Up Morning,” Joey surprised us all with a change of lyrics right in the middle of the song! During his solo he’s supposed to say, “When you see the stars a-fallin’” but instead he pointed to the window and sang, “When you see the snow a-fallin’” and everyone in the congregation smiled, including me, Tim and Ryan! When Tim’s solo came, he changed the words to match Joey’s!

When the concert was over and we finished the honor sales, we shared a fellowship meal with the congregation. Then we packed up and made our way over to Greeneville. The snow had stopped, but it was still pretty cold while we loaded and it was nice to get settled into the warm van. As we drove, we went over the rough spots in “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and rehearsed our other Christmas songs. It was getting dark when we arrived at the church and the wind was cold as we unpacked. The church was warm and nicely decorated for Christmas with poinsettias, wreaths and beautifully lit trees.

As we set up, Joey and I heard a familiar voice up in the balcony. I looked up and saw Steve Cohen turning on the stage lights for us. He came down and talked for a while and it was nice to reconnect with him after not seeing him for 20 years. He hadn’t changed much and I found out he still enjoys running sound and lighting, which is something he’s remembered for at Laurelbrook. With Steve’s help we got everything up and running very quickly and ran over our newer songs again. The church had great acoustics and we were very happy with the sound.

“O Come, O Come Emmanuel” went even better at this concert and the natural echo in the church made the “drone” sound from Tim and Ryan during the verse even more powerful. I enjoyed going into the chorus and the way the song evokes the hope that resulted from Jesus’ birth. I can’t wait to finish learning the rest of the song and eventually put it on a Christmas album.

When sales were over in the foyer, Joey and I posed with Steve for some “class reunion” photos. We told him that we were singing at Laurelbrook’s alumni weekend in April and that we hoped he’d be there. It was really nice to reconnect with him after so many years. I’m looking forward to April and to seeing some classmates I hadn’t seen since graduation and reconnecting with those I see often. It always reminds me of the reunion we’ll all have in heaven some day.

To get the most value from Joey’s trips down from Maryland we always try to schedule two or three concerts each weekend. And even though this was the weekend of our big joint concert with Message of Mercy, we still needed a Sabbath morning concert, so Joey had been working with Pastor Wendt from the Pikeville SDA Church to have us sing for their morning service on November 20. It was going to be a tight schedule driving from Pikeville in time to set up at Collegedale Community, but Joey planned for the time change, so he knew we’d be OK.

Pikeville is close to Laurelbrook Academy and Joey had advertised in many of the local churches, so we weren’t surprised to see some of our Laurelbrook friends in the pews when the concert started. John and Barbara Ellis, and Rodney and Brenda Herra were all staff at Laurelbrook when Joey and I were there and they’ve been supporters of the quartet for years. The Ellises’ daughter Carolyn and the Herra’s son Rodney Jr. (a.k.a. Bubba) were married not long ago and also attend my home church of Bowman Hills.

After the concert we set up a table on the church’s porch for our honor sales and it was a beautiful day to be outside. We got a chance to talk to the Ellises and Herras for a while and take some pictures with them. Since we were in a hurry, the pastor and wife had arranged for us to take some sack lunches that church members had prepared so we could eat on our way back to Collegedale. It was very helpful and we appreciated their thoughtfulness.

Despite our best efforts, it took a while to take down our equipment and get away from the church. The Collegedale concert was at 6:00 and we were wanting to be there at 4:00 to set up and rehearse a few songs with the ladies. We lost an hour due to the time change and didn’t arrive at the church until about 5:00, but we set everything up in record time and Kim’s son Caleb helped me and Jaclynn set up the product tables.

As 6:00 came closer, we were all nervous and excited because the church was filling up fast! We knew we had promoted the concert with posters all over the area and bulletin inserts, but you can never tell how many people will come to a concert. So many factors can change (like weather) at the last moment and there’s no way to predict attendance unless you sell tickets. We’d thought about tickets, but in the end we decided to plaster the area with posters and pray that God would bring the people who needed to be there.

When we stepped out on stage after our introduction, it was a bit overwhelming to see that most of the seats were filled and more people were coming in. We opened with our new nine-voice version of “Swing Down, Sweet Chariot” which went very well and got a great response. After that, most of the anxiety we may have had faded away and we enjoyed ministering to the audience. We alternated sets of Emmanuel Quartet music and Message of Mercy music, and between sets we sang together as one big group. One of the highlights of the concert for me was when the ladies performed their own acappella version of “Can He, Could He, Would He.” At our last rehearsal they’d told us they had a surprise for the concert, and that we’d have to wait until then to hear it. Needless to say, we were both surprised and impressed with their rendition! Another highlight of the concert was “I’ll Fly Away.” The quartet had planned on ending one of our sets with that song, but we’d all decided in rehearsals that it would be fun to have sort of a “sing-off” between the groups, so right in the middle of the song, the ladies jumped up from their seats on the front row, marched on stage, stood in front of us and took over the song! We pretended to look surprised and affronted, then upstaged them and took over another verse. Then we decided to play nice and finish the song together. It was lot of fun and the audience really loved it!

Other songs that we performed together included the acappella numbers, “Steppin’ On the Clouds,” and “Riverside Medley” which was a favorite of mine. Both of these songs were fun because there were moments where two or three of us would step out front and have a duet or trio. Another highlight was calling up on stage our former bass, Danny Anderson, to sing “Job” an old favorite of ours. We learned “Job” many years ago and won a national talent competition singing it back in 1997, so it’s been a special song for us over the years. It was great to have Danny’s voice filling in the bass line just like on the recording of “The Hand of Mercy.” Before the song, Danny joked that the last time he sang with us, he and I both had more hair, and that got a big laugh from the audience. Even though we hadn’t sung with Danny in a while, the song went well and we all really enjoyed it.

Toward the end of the concert the quartet sang a beautiful song from Message of Mercy called “Endless Hope.” We’d been working on it for a long time and Joey mentioned to the audience that this would be the first time that The Emmanuel Quartet had ever sung with a soundtrack. During all of our rehearsals we’d had a difficult time adjusting to the track after singing for so many years with only four voices. It was challenging, but we pulled it off and got a good response.

As a grand finale to the concert, we’d worked up a big arrangement of “Sail On” from the Heritage Singers. Joey sang the lead for most of the song and then he and Darlene did a duet toward the middle. We even threw in a little choreography at the end with all of us moving across the stage like we were in rowboats. It was a lot of fun!

After the concert we all made our way to the front of the church where our product tables were set up. There were a lot of people who wanted our newest CDs “Hymns By the Book II” and “A New Day” since we hadn’t toured much in the Collegedale area since those albums had come out. Sales were good for both groups and about half of us stayed at the tables while the others started taking down the equipment.

For several days afterward, we were all on a high about the concert and were all looking forward to doing it again in the future, with perhaps less nervous feelings and a few less bumpy spots. We found out after the concert that when we’d asked the congregation to sing along with us on the song “God Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens” from our new hymns CD, that there were no hymnals out in the church pews! We’d asked them to turn to the hymn and sing along and we were wondering why no one was singing! When we found out, it all made sense. Plus, when one of the ladies from Message of Mercy told Joey that they couldn’t hear me in the house mix, he kept turning me up but it didn’t help. When he was taking down the system later, he found out that he’d been turning up Tim’s volume instead of mine because our cables were reversed in the mixer!

Despite all the complications, we’ve heard nothing but positive comments about the event, and it encouraged us to make another attempt in the future, possibly next November in the Atlanta area. God has proven to us that He can bring the people in when we take a leap of faith and trust Him.

We were slated to perform at two churches in Georgia this weekend so there wasn’t a great deal of travel involved once Joey arrived in town. We headed for the Statesboro, Georgia Friday evening to set up at the SDA church.

This was the first weekend that the guys would see me after I’d decided to shave my head and I told them I did it so I’d look more like Ryan and Vin Diesel. Since Ryan gets all the attention, and Vin Diesel is a superstar, I thought maybe it was the shaved head that was the secret. Turns out there’s more to it than that, because somehow Ryan still gets more attention than me. I think maybe it could be his bass voice...

I’d actually been thinking of shaving my head for a while, and without thinking what time of year it was, I did it in mid-Fall with Winter around the corner. Now I know why Ryan wears a hat when it’s cold. Even a little hair is some insulation against the cold wind, but when you have none, a hat is your only defense. Fortunately it was still the dog days of summer, so I didn’t need a hat just yet.

The next day, Pastor Murdock and the congregation at Statesboro were friendly and appreciative of our concert. Joey and I got to see a friend from our college days, Lowell Hanson, and as we packed up our gear we chatted with him and got caught up on the missing years.

Our next appointment was at the Wimbish Rd. SDA Church in Macon. Joey had worked with Pastor Maurice Witt for this concert and we had a good turnout for a Saturday night. We’re still getting used to our new pre-amp and subwoofer, but we’re happy with the sound and how much fuller our music feels.

Ever since our concert in August at Carrollton when we sang with the group Message of Mercy, Joey and Kim had been coordinating together on a possible date for us to perform a full joint concert. We wanted it to be around Chattanooga since both our groups are well-known in the area, and we wanted a big enough venue to house a good-sized crowd. Joey and Kim thought that the best choice would be Collegedale Community Church. After talking with the church’s music coordinator, the date was set for November 20.

After our Carrollton weekend, we’d gotten together as a group at Jaclynn’s house to rehearse again and choose some more songs. At that rehearsal the guys and I had gotten to meet Jessica Perry and her newest bundle of joy, Jack. It made our sound even fuller to have all nine voices coming together during rehearsal.

Since Joey was in town for our tour, we’d decided to get together at Collegedale Community for another big practice session. We all met at the church and Joey integrated the two sound systems together so that we could hear how it would sound the night of the concert. Kim’s mom Carol usually runs their sound system, and when Joey realized he needed a special adapter, Carol volunteered to run over to Guitar Center and pick it up. I think she was happy to have Joey set up and run the system so she could concentrate on listening to us sing.

Jessica’s husband Ryan was there with their three children, and while we practiced he made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for us and them. He’d brought the stuff for the kids, but I think he overheard some of us talking about being hungry so he asked any of us if we’d like one too. He and Jessica have three beautiful and well-behaved kids. It was nice to get to know the Perrys and to finally get to practice with Jessica on stage with us.

We found out today that the ladies of Message of Mercy have a unique sense of humor when somehow in the conversation it came up that Jessica works in a dental hygienist’s office and suddenly they whipped out four sets of those fake “bubba” or “billy bob” teeth, put them in and posed for pictures! They told us they used them as an illustration in their concerts, but I think they just enjoy being silly now and then, just like we do. It was Halloween, after all.

Earlier this year Adventist World Radio had asked if we could schedule more tours in North and South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia since those areas don’t get covered by many of their field representatives. Since we don’t tour in those areas often either, Joey booked concerts at the Roanoke SDA Church in Virginia and the Valley View SDA Church in Bluefield, West Virginia.

Joey and Tim both flew in from Atlanta and met me and Ryan at the University. I think Tim had been visiting relatives and had arranged to fly to Chattanooga with Joey on the same plane. They told us that they’d had to wait half an hour at Avis for a Grand Caravan. Since we really can’t tour without a vehicle with stow-and-go seats, they had no choice but to wait.

When the guys got to Southern, we had to go over to Ryan’s office and make up some self-addressed, stamped envelopes for our honor sales system. Joey hadn’t had time during the week to get it done and he hadn’t expected the delay at Avis. So we set up an assembly line in which we each had a job to do when the envelopes came out of the printer. Even though we knew we were running late, we had fun harassing each other when one of us couldn’t keep up and slowed down the whole works.

By the time we left Collegedale it was about 4:00 and we still had a five-hour drive. We managed to get to the Roanoke church at 8:53 after stopping only once to get some food to go. At the church we met the wonderful folks who had arranged to meet us so we could set up. Carol Doudiken, whom Joey worked with to arrange the concert, her husband Tim and their grandkids Hunter and Hannah were all there waiting patiently. When we got set up they requested that we do a sound check with our song “Mighty Is the Word” which had become one of their favorite songs after getting a copy of our CD “A New Day.” We obliged them since they’d waited so patiently, and they really enjoyed it, especially the kids. In the past months we’d been recording our new album “Hymns By the Book II” so we also sang “Lord Who Dost Give to Thy Church” and “God Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens” for our sound check, two of our favorite obscure hymns we’d chosen for that album.

The next morning we got to meet Roanoke’s pastor, Eugene Kitney, a very tall and imposing-looking man who was very friendly and had a great sense of humor. We tried to pinpoint his accent later at the potluck dinner and Ryan guessed correctly that he was originally from South Africa. He’s also the Director and Senior Instructor at the Kaizen Gojukan Karate Dojo in Roanoke. I think he’s the first pastor I’ve ever met who is trained in the martial arts.

The concert was good and we even sang “Mighty Is the Word” for the Doudikens and Joey thanked Carol for helping him arrange the concert and the whole family for waiting up for us. We had a nice fellowship dinner afterward and it was too bad that we had to leave so soon. But we had to get on the road to Valley View which was almost two hours away.

When we arrived, there was a couple there to greet us, Jonathan and Rosalie Stockil, whom we also found out were originally from South Africa and knew Pastor Kitney very well. As we set up our stuff, Jonathan worked on getting the projector to turn on. It refused to turn on and we all took turns working on it. We tried changing the remote batteries and even used a long pole to see if we could manually push the “on” switch, but all to no avail. Jonathan called one of the sound guys to see if he could come and figure out what the problem was. The Stockils were very helpful and made sure we had everything we needed. We’re always thankful to have such gracious people available to help us get ready for a concert.

While we waited, I wandered around outside in the parking lot and came across an orange-and-white tomcat. He was battle-scarred but very friendly and came up to me meowing and rubbing on my leg. He was so friendly that I had to keep him from going inside the open church door! Jonathan saw me out there with the cat and told me that he was a stray that had been hanging around the neighborhood for a long time. He said he keeps getting into fights and won’t let anyone keep him, but he gladly accepts food and affection. He also said that the whole congregation likes him and helps take care of him.

When the sound guy arrived he was able to get the projector to work in about 30 seconds, but don’t ask me how he did it. I still don’t know.

It wasn’t long until the concert, so we found a room to get changed into our AWR shirts. As I took mine out of my bag, I noticed a big circular white blob on the top left side. As I examined it, I knew immediately what it was. Three months before, at the General Conference Session in Atlanta, we’d worn those shirts with big “AWR is Here” stickers plastered on the front. Apparently I had washed and dried it when I’d gotten home and had left the sticker on. When I’d hung it up I never even noticed the sticker residue. But there it was, and, try as I might, it would not come off. We ran over to the closest store and I bought some Goo Gone, hoping it would do the trick.

Time was running out before the concert was supposed to start, so I frantically applied the Goo Gone while the guys teased me mercilessly and simultaneously gave me advice on how to get the glue off. Fortunately the glue came off easily after a little Goo Gone, but then I became worried about the big wet spot where the glue had been. By concert time it was hardly noticeable, but the whole time we were singing, there was an overpowering scent of orange rind that managed to waft all the way over to Ryan’s side of the stage.

The pastor of Valley View is Ron Patterson, whom both Joey and I knew from our college days. Ron and I had many theology classes together, and it was nice to see him again after so many years. When the concert and sales were over, we made our way downstairs where the church had prepared a very nice supper for us, including hot soup, muffins and fruit. It gave us some time to relax and catch up with Ron before heading home. He told us about the history of his time there and many of the miracles that had been happening among the members. It’s wonderful to hear and see God’s hand moving through His church body. We left West Virginia having been fed physically and spiritually.

Joey had accidentally booked his flight home for very early Sunday morning, so instead of staying at a Hampton Inn on Saturday night, which we normally would do if we were that far from home, we had to drive back almost five hours that night. On the way home we debated whose mistake was more noteworthy, my laundry goof or Joey’s flight booking blunder. Five hours later, we really didn’t care anymore and were just glad to be home!

For several months, we’d been tossing around the idea of singing with some good friends of ours, the ladies from the group “Message of Mercy.” Both of our groups were known to each other, and both have been around for a long time, so it only made sense that we should sing together. We wanted to sing together on at least two songs, and since MoM (as they’re affectionately called ) sings a few acappella songs, Joey started working on a quartet arrangement of one song the ladies do called “Steppin’ On the Clouds.” Meanwhile, the ladies would learn our version of “Swing Down, Sweet Chariot.”

Kim Neal, who is a charter member of MoM, coordinated with Joey and they’d decided that since both groups were going to be singing at the Carrollton SDA Church this weekend, we should get together and sing our joint songs there. So we met with the ladies at the Collegedale Community Church to rehearse on Friday evening before heading down to Decatur, Georgia for our Sabbath morning concert at the Belvedere church.

I knew Kim from when she attended my home church, Bowman Hills, and I’d heard MoM sing many times over the years, but I’d never really gotten to know Kim or her family very well. They now attend the Collegedale Community Church, along with several other members of MoM. As we all started to trickle in for rehearsal, introductions were made and we started getting to know each other. The other members of Message of Mercy are Joey Tolbert, Darlene Hubbart and the newest member, Jaclynn Huse. When they’re available, Jessica Perry, Christina Romero and Erika Anderson also sing and play piano for the group, but unfortunately they wouldn’t be able to join us for our grand venture this weekend.

We’d all been practicing the new songs individually or as separate groups, but this was the first time we’d be practicing as a “mega-group” with all eight of us. It was a lot of fun, and as we rehearsed we fine-tuned parts and added notes here and there. It was so much fun that during each pause in singing, little groups of us would break off and start talking about how much fun it was! But after a while we buckled down and really got to it. Since both groups have a member named “Joey,” there was a bit of confusion for a while until we decided to call ours “Joe” or “Joey D” when addressing him. We thought about calling him “Joseph” but it just sounded weird. We kept plugging along with rehearsal and by the end of a couple of hours, we were all getting excited to perform the next day at Carrollton.

The guys and I left and headed over to the music building at Southern to load up the Grand Caravan that Joey had rented for the weekend. We like Grand Caravans because they have Stow-and-Go seats in the back and plenty of room for all of our equipment. Joey was trying out National as our new rental company and we were glad they had a Grand Caravan in stock. As we were leaving, Joey realized that he’d left his backpack over at the church. It holds his laptop which has all of our multimedia for our concert presentation of Adventist World Radio, so we had to make another trip over there to get it. Fortunately some of the MoM ladies were there to let us in.

When we got to the Atlanta Belvedere church that night, a man named Tony was there to let us in so we could set up. We had some new equipment we were trying out, including a tube pre-amp that Joey wanted to test out on Ryan’s channel. We also brought a new subwoofer which added a layer of complexity to our wiring, but when combined with the pre-amp, it made a big difference in the warmth and depth of Ryan’s bass. When we started our sound check I noticed that Tony was in the back singing along and I could hear that he was trying out different parts. As we left, I mentioned it to him and he said that he sings in a church quartet there at Belvedere. It’s always nice to meet a fellow quartet singer, and there seems to be an immediate connection when you meet one. We got to the Hampton Inn at about 11:30 and we were all probably asleep within half an hour.

Next day as we were preparing for the concert at Belvedere we wondered how the ladies were doing over at Carrollton. Our concert went well and the congregation at Belvedere was very appreciative and friendly. Later we found out that MoM’s concert went well too and that the people there were intrigued to hear that we’d all be singing together at the program that evening. Our friend Sam Ball pastors the Carrollton church and his wife Traci had set up this event with Joey back in April when we were at their other church in Douglasville.

We arrived at the Carrollton church in the mid-afternoon and set up our sound system. The ladies were there relaxing after their concert. Joey and Kim had decided that we’d try to integrate their sound system into ours so that we’d have enough mics for everyone. During the sound check it seemed to work well, even though there were a few bugs to be worked out. After we practiced our joint songs, the girls ran through a couple of songs that they were going to do during the concert. During one of their songs they play a video of clips from the film “The Gospel of John” and it was a nice touch. It brought home the lyrics of the song and made me think about its meaning.

The concert started, and when it came time for “Swing Down, Sweet Chariot” and “Steppin’ On the Clouds,” I’ll admit I was nervous, and I’m sure the others were too, but both songs went very well and it was awesome to perform with eight mixed voices on such fast-paced acappella songs! After “Swing Down” was over, I could feel our confidence building and “Steppin’” was much easier. The congregation seemed to really like it too, and Traci mentioned afterward that we should’ve done more songs together. I could see the wheels turning in Kim’s and Joe’s heads as they thought about how we could work up another joint venture in the future.

When we packed up the equipment and said our goodbyes to Sam and Traci, we were all ready for a late supper, so someone suggested we go to Moe’s. Sam and Traci told us where there was one close by and we headed out. When we got there, Darlene and Joey (Tolbert) wanted tofu dishes (which I was surprised find out that Moe’s serves) so their meals took a little longer than the rest of ours. They were standing in line for a while after we were all sitting down and they joked that the staff of Moe’s had to go out back and “kill the fatted soybean!”

While we ate, Joey (Davis) and Kim started working on plans for us to do a full joint concert together in which each group would not only perform our own songs, but in which we would also sing more songs as a “mega-group.” We all really liked the notion and started brainstorming ideas for when and where.

When we finished supper, we took some funny pictures out in the parking lot and then parted ways. We needed to get back on the road since we had to sing the next day in Pikeville. It was such an awesome day hanging out with such talented and friendly fellow musicians!

Several months before, Pastor David Wendt from the Pikeville SDA Church had contacted Joey and asked if we’d like to join him and his church at the semi-annual “Sunday Sing” held at the Pikeville First Southern Baptist Church. Many churches in the area gather there several times a year to hear local groups, soloists, choirs and musicians perform two or three songs each. The organizers hold the event to unite the community and to remind everyone that despite religious and philosophical differences, we can still get together and enjoy good music.

The program was scheduled for 7:00, so we thought we’d arrive at around 5:00 even though we weren’t setting up our sound system. We’d been told that the church had microphones, and since we weren’t singing a full concert, we weren’t planning on using any of our stuff. So we headed for Pikeville in plenty of time and as we wound our way through the narrow mountain roads of Highway 30, we practiced new songs and discussed the future.

After an early supper we drove over to the church and waited around for someone to come and let us in. It was about 5:00, so we weren’t too worried yet. But at 5:45 the parking lot was still empty. Joey said, “Did I get the dates mixed up? There’s nobody here!” He started to call someone and when he looked at his phone he said, “Oh no..” He had completely forgotten that Pikeville was in the Central time zone and that it was only 4:45! Of course we teased him about it the rest of the day because he rarely makes mistakes like that.

At about 5:00 (Central Time) someone did come to let us in and after checking out the church’s sound system we decided that it would be fine for what we had to do. We found a room to rehearse and warm up a bit, and when we went back out into the sanctuary we found that Joey’s parents had arrived. They live at Laurelbrook, which isn’t very far from Pikeville, and since they rarely get to see Joey they took advantage of us being so close by.

There were many musicians ahead of us, so we just sat back and enjoyed the music for about an hour. There were several choirs, but there were also some duets and groups. At the halfway point, the pastor got up to thank everyone and to ask for an offering to be taken for their community food bank. He told about how many families had been helped last year by the generous donations. Just as the deacons were standing, the electricity flickered, then went out completely. When the chatter died down, the quick-witted pastor said, “Maybe we should take up an offering for the electric bill!” When everyone stopped laughing, he quickly amended that the bill had been paid and that he was only joking. There was still enough daylight filtering through the stained-glass windows, so once everyone’s eyes adjusted we could still see pretty well. The offering plates were passed and then it was our turn to sing.

The pastor announced us and asked if we wanted to continue. Tim jumped up and said “We don’t need no microphones!!” So we followed him up front and sang four or five songs in the semi-dark using our fortissimo voices so we could be heard in the back. It was fun because we rarely sing without mics unless we’re rehearsing, and it’s completely different to sing to an audience when you’re “unplugged.” During his introduction, Tim said, “It’s OK that the lights are out because we sound better than we look!” The crowd really enjoyed our set and started clapping along with our songs. Right before our last song, the power came back on and we finished just before it got so dark we couldn’t see. This weekend was the first time we’d ever sung in the dark, and the first time we’d ever sung with Message of Mercy...but it wouldn’t be the last!

Every five years the Seventh-day Adventist Church holds what is called a “General Conference Session,” which serves as a forum for electing world church officers and voting changes to the church's constitution. According to the minutes of the very first session, Seventh-day Adventist leaders met in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1863 "for the purpose of organizing a General Conference." Since then, the frequency, size and venues for the Session have changed, but the purpose has remained the same. The theme chosen for this 59th Session was “Proclaiming God’s Grace.”

The quartet had been asked to sing during the second weekend of the week-long session being held in Atlanta, Georgia. Adventist World Radio wanted us to sing at their booth and to sing during Jim Ayer’s presentations on the Adventist Mission stage. I was looking forward to the event since it would be the first time I’d ever been to a GC Session.

Ryan was scheduled to be at the session working at the booth for Southern Adventist University, so it was just me, Tim and Joey who drove down to Atlanta on Friday. Not long before, Ryan had been hired by Southern to work in their Marketing and University Relations department as the Graphics Design Manager, so he had helped design and put together their impressive booth. When we arrived we made our way to the Georgia World Congress Center. Joey’s wife, Reiko, was also already in Atlanta as part of her job with the Office of Archives and Statistics. So when we made our way through Atlanta and found the GWCC, our next order of business was to find Ryan and Reiko.

The GWCC is so large, that it took us quite a while to find everything and locate the booths. We found Ryan first since Southern’s booth was very large and easy to spot from a distance. He couldn’t leave, but we told him to call us when his shift was over so we could eat lunch together. It took a while to find Reiko in the main hall, but when we did, she said she’d come eat with us too. We touched base with the folks from AWR and then took a leisurely tour around the massive building.

After lunch we followed Ryan to the hotel room he’d been staying in all week, and where Tim and I would be staying as well. It was a suite with an extra room and sofa bed, so there was plenty of room for three of us. Joey stayed all weekend with Reiko at her hotel, despite our teasing about how he should stay with us for the sake of solidarity!

We sang on the Adventist Mission stage Friday evening, but it was very hard to hear ourselves. There was so much noise and the room was so large that we had to tell the sound guys to keep turning up the stage monitors. Despite that, we never could hear ourselves well and we felt like we were shouting into the microphones. We sang for about half an hour, and between sets of 2-3songs Jim Ayer told incredible stories from the show he hosts called “Making Waves.” He admitted later that he also had a very difficult time hearing himself and was a little hoarse afterward from all the shouting. Jim is the Vice President for Advancement and a good friend of the quartet. That night we slept well since we’d walked all over the GWCC, but we had no clue how much walking was in store for us over the next three days!

During Sabbath the next day we spent most of our time at the AWR booth and walking around the main exhibition hall. After lunch we gathered back at the booth and sang some songs at Jim’s request. Joey borrowed some mics from the Adventist Mission stage, and although the little speakers had a hard time overpowering the ambient noise, the people who gathered around seemed to be able to hear everything pretty well. We sang about five songs and then Ben Schoun, then President of AWR, spoke for about 15 minutes. Then we did another round of songs between stories from Jim.

Throughout the day, I saw lots of people I knew. I saw my Laurelbrook classmates Dan and Julie Graham, Ted Struntz and his family and even a co-worker from many years past. Joey’s parents were there too, and they’d brought some of Joey’s nieces and nephews along. They were happy to see Uncle Joe and to hear us sing a little.

At the AWR booth we were introduced to a gentleman named Alphayo Laizer who is from a Massai tribe in Tanzania. His village had been introduced to the gospel message through AWR and he was there to represent the thousands of people who are being impacted by the power of radio in remote areas. We enjoyed talking with him throughout the weekend, and on Sunday he bought one of our CDs. He said that he was excited to share it with his friends back home because they all love acappella music!

Saturday night Reiko suggested that we go eat at the food court of the CNN Center. Ryan said he’d eaten there during the week and that we should go just to see how big the place is. We noticed that lots of restaurants had signs that said things like “We Serve Vegetarian Dishes!” and “Veggie Plates Here!” They were obviously trying to capitalize on the huge numbers of Adventists in Atlanta! The nice part was that we didn’t all have to eat at the same place. So we took off to different restaurants and met back at the common area tables with our food. While I was in line, I ran into my old college advisor and teacher, Ron du Preez and his wife Lynda. After a few minutes of chatting, he remembered me and we spent some time catching up.

Sunday morning we spent more time at the AWR booth and they were gracious enough to let us set up some of our CDs to sell to people passing by. That afternoon we were scheduled to sing at an AWR donor event for certain donors who were at the session. It was a long walk over to the hall where the event was taking place, so we left early and got there in time to check out the sound system. It wasn’t much of a system and definitely wasn’t designed for singing, but Joey adjusted it as much as he could to fit our voices. We sang a few songs as the event got started, then sang some more after lunch, which was provided to us and the donors courtesy of the GWCC. It was exciting to hear Ben, Jim and many others tell stories about the work the AWR is doing to finish God’s work all over the world. At the close of the event, AWR staff passed out copies of our album “Hymns By the Book” to all the donors. We even had a few ask us if they could purchase other CDs later on.

Definitely the highlight of the entire session for us was being able to sing in the Georgia Dome across from the GWCC. The Dome’s official website notes, “The Georgia Dome is the largest cable-supported domed stadium in the world and is the home venue for the Atlanta Falcons, host to Super Bowl XXVIII and XXXIV, host of the gymnastics and basketball events for the 1996 Olympic Games and host to both a Men's and Women's NCAA Final Four. The Dome is equipped to handle large non-sporting events which include everything from major trade shows to concerts by such entertainers as the Rolling Stones and U2 to religious events by such ministers as Billy Graham and T.D. Jakes.”

In preparation for the session, we had to submit some songs to the committee in charge of music selection many months in advance. Out of the songs we sent, two songs were chosen for us to sing at Monday’s session of meetings at the Georgia Dome; “Twenty-Three” and “The Ballad of Elisha’s Bones.” All of the voting and constitution changes took place each day at the Dome, and many musicians from all over the world had been asked to sing on different days throughout the session. Our turn came on Monday morning.

We got up very early so that we’d be sure to be at the Dome well ahead of our time to sing. We knew we’d probably have to go to makeup and get instructions. We also wanted lots of time to warm up and shake off the nerves. Not only would we be singing for hundreds, or maybe thousands of people at the stadium, but the meetings were also being televised on Hope TV and 3ABN. Needless to say, we were very nervous, but by the time we got there and talked to all the stage managers, got our makeup on and warmed up, we were ready to get out there and do it.

The Georgia Dome is huge. Its capacity is over 70,000, and even though there weren’t that many people there, it’s still daunting to sing in such a large acoustic area. When we started our song, we noticed quickly that we had to slow down so that we could adjust to the natural echo and reverb in such a large area. But to our ears it made “Twenty-Three” sound just that much better with all those tight minor chords bouncing around everywhere. The song went very well, but later when we sang “The Ballad of Elisha’s Bones” we were a little concerned because all day most of the music had been very somber and serious. “Elisha’s Bones” is a very up tempo and lively Southern Gospel type of song and we were afraid it would be too much of a contrast. But after it was over, the stage managers told us that it was exactly what the meeting needed to wake people up and change the pace. Many people told us afterward that it was the perfect choice!

While we were backstage we had the chance to hear many other musicians sing and get to know them a little. We met a duo of male Hispanic vocalists called “Hermanos Inoa” during our time backstage, and using my limited Spanish, we tried to communicate to them how much we liked their music. They spoke hardly any English, so it was up to me and my rusty vocabulary to convey to them our appreciation and to translate to the guys that the Inoa Brothers liked our music too. I managed to figure out that they also wanted to exchange CDs with us, and since we didn’t have any with us, we had to meet them later and get them one. It was a memorable experience meeting them and being reminded that music can transcend even difficult language barriers.

It was an amazing privilege for us to be able to be a part of a global church event like the GC Session and to represent Adventist World Radio. We walked many miles in the Georgia World Congress Center in the space of four days, but it was very well worth it. As wonderful as it was, I heard many people say that they pray for Jesus to come back before the next GC Session. And to that I say, “Amen!”

Hot on the heels of a long trip to Pennsylvania to sing for camp meeting, we headed out the following weekend to sing at another camp meeting, this time in West Virginia. This was another tour that had come about during our trip to the General Conference last year to sing during Annual Council. After our concert, Larry Boggess, the president of the Mountain View conference in West Virginia approached us and asked if we’d like to come sing for their camp meeting in the summer of 2010. We agreed and Joey began to work out the details of the trip.

Since it made no sense for Joey to fly to Atlanta, then back north again to West Virginia, he decided to rent a car and drive from Maryland to Charleston, WV where he’d pick us up after our flight from Atlanta. Tim, Ryan and I left Chattanooga on Friday at 8:30 AM and after an hour and a half layover in Atlanta, we arrived in Charleston. While we were there waiting for Joey, a number of people who had just boarded a plane bound for Greensboro had to disembark because of problems with the air conditioning in the plane. Little did we know then that we would be in similar straits by the end of the weekend.

Ironically, when Joey arrived he said that the A/C in his vehicle had also stopped working on his way down. Even though we were north of Tennessee, the summer heat in the Northeast was still unbearable, so he’d switched out cars when he got to the airport. It was nice to drive to our destination in comfort and we were thankful for the A/C.

After driving for about two hours we found our motel in the town of Mill Creek. We knew we were out in the country when we found a sign on the motel lobby door that said, “For motel room key, see gas station attendant.” Needless to say, we thought this was unusual, but sure enough, when Joey talked to the man at the gas station next door he came over and checked us into two rooms and gave us a phone number in case we needed anything. It wasn’t a very big motel, so we thought that this was a very efficient use of personnel if the same person owned the motel and the gas station!

We unpacked and got settled into our rooms, then decided to make our way over to the meeting site. We drove through the beautiful West Virginia countryside toward our destination which was the Valley Vista Adventist Center in the town of Huttonsville. Valley Vista is 308 acres and doubles as a summer camp for kids and a camp meeting site. It’s nestled in a valley between rolling hills and can only be accessed by crossing Becky’s Creek, a beautiful mountain stream which called invitingly to Ryan as we drove over the bridge. He gazed longingly at the creek and dreamed of all the trout he could catch if he had more time and had brought his fly-fishing gear.

Valley Vista is a beautiful site for a camp meeting. After we found the main auditorium, which is actually a large open pavilion, we stood outside and enjoyed the view. About a half mile away we saw a doe running along the tree line. We speculated that there were lots of deer hidden in the woods since it was such a secluded place. Behind the auditorium were the campers and tents and further down were the lodge, pool and tennis court.

Before the evening meeting we met with Elder Boggess and talked over the details of the weekend. He was happy we were there and that we’d made it safely. He was very attentive to us all weekend and made sure we had everything we needed. In fact, everyone was extremely friendly and happy that we were there. Elder Boggess had tried to find someone to help us with a sound check, but no one was available, so we just did what we could. We weren’t sure at first how many people would be there since it was the second weekend of the camp meeting, but by the time the meeting started, the pavilion was pretty full.

We’d decided to sing “I’ll Fly Away” since it’s a great opener, but on the first few notes I noticed that it didn’t sound quite right. Then I realized that I couldn’t hear Ryan. Apparently his microphone wasn’t working at all. I think we all realized it at the same time because by the time we were halfway through the first verse, Joey had stepped over to share his mic with Ryan. People in the audience were grinning and chuckling as they realized what had happened, but we went on with the song and it turned out fine once Ryan’s bass was added. That’s what can happen when you don’t get a sound check!

After the meeting we headed back to the hotel and settled in for the night. Tim and I were sharing a room that was a few doors down from Joey and Ryan. In the middle of the night there was a terrible noise like something metal and heavy was being dragged across the floor of the room above us. Then there were loud footsteps and shouting accompanied by more scraping. Needless to say we were a little worried, but since the police didn’t show up and the noise subsided a little, we went back to sleep since we were so tired.

The next day we asked Ryan and Joey what they’d thought of the noise but it turned out they hadn’t heard a thing. As we left early Sabbath morning we saw two men sitting in metal chairs on the balcony in the room above mine and Tim’s and it appeared that they were drinking. And it appeared that they’d been drinking there since about 4:22 AM when they woke us up. I said a prayer for them as we left, both that they would stop drinking and that they wouldn’t wake us up again that night!

The day went well as we started off with a good breakfast over at the lodge. I saw a friend whom I knew from my college days, Linden St. Clair. He was there with his family and it was nice to see him again after so many years. I always enjoyed working with him and I appreciated his thoughtful manner. We also spent time at breakfast with Maury Bascom, an affable fellow from Maryland who was impressed with our sound and wanted us to come to Columbia later in the year for a special program. After breakfast we headed over to the pavilion for the morning service.

We sang “Give In To the Lord” for special music and after the church service was over, Ryan said he wasn’t feeling well, so we took him back to the hotel to rest. The three of us came back to the camp ground for lunch and then went to see what we could do about the sound system for the afternoon concert.

We sorted out the microphones and speakers as best we could and Joey went back to get Ryan for a sound check. As we waited for concert time, we stood right outside the side entrance of the building which led to the backstage area. We were enjoying the scenery and the light breeze that was cooling us off when we noticed some rain clouds. As it started to sprinkle we ducked back inside to let the shower pass. It cooled everything down and as we stepped back outside there was a beautiful double rainbow hanging right over the mountain closest to camp. Looking at the gorgeous colors of the rainbows against the bright green of the mountainside we all commented on how good God was to bring us there that weekend. It really put us in a good frame of mind for the concert.

After the concert we were all feeling a little hungry, especially Ryan, who had skipped lunch since he wasn’t feeling well. In the course of the conversation, I casually reminded the guys that it was my birthday so they asked me to pick what I wanted to do for supper. On the way in to Huttonsville the day before, we had spotted a German/Austrian restaurant called “The Schnitzel Haus” and I’d commented on how odd it was that there was such a place in the mountains of West Virginia. I asked Joey if it would be feasible to drive back out there and get back in time to sing for the evening meeting. He was doubtful, but he said that we could probably make it if we hurried. So we jumped in the car and took off, none of us really remembering how far The Schnitzel Haus really was!

We drove and drove, all the while Joey was looking at the time and getting more anxious. Just about the time we were ready to turn back, we saw the little building with all the international flags hanging from the roof. We went inside and noticed the down-to-earth feel of the decor. The people who were dining gave the impression that they were regulars, and they seemed to be enjoying their meal. It took a while for us to decide what we wanted since none of us had really ever sampled German cuisine, but while we waited, the owner of the restaurant, R.J. Kuen, came out to check on each table. He chatted with everyone and when he came to our table, I believe he thought we were businessmen or something since we were all dressed alike! I tried out my rusty German and he seemed pleased that I could converse a little with him.

The service was good and the food was even better and it was a shame we had to wolf it down. We jumped back in the car as soon as we finished and hurried back to the camp. Later that week when I got home I searched for any online information about the Schnitzel Haus and I found out that Mr. Kuen had traveled in various areas of the U.S. and decided to settle in West Virginia. He had visited there and enjoyed the scenery, which reminded him of Austria and Germany. When he decided to open a restaurant which had authentic food from his home country of Austria, he was surprised at the local response.

It was close getting back to the camp, but we made it in time for our song. After we sang for the meeting, we set up our product table by the back door of the pavilion. The ABC book store was in a room there, so it was easy for people to have us sign their CDs and then take them into the store to pay. We stayed for about an hour, then headed for the hotel after saying goodbye to Elder Boggess.

Our flight was very early the next morning, but it was Father’s Day and Tim and Ryan were happy with leaving early since it meant they’d be home by early afternoon to spend time with their families. We left around 4:30 AM and there was dense fog for miles. To make matters worse, we kept seeing deer on the sides of the road when we’d go around a corner. As the sun came up we could see that there were lots of deer lining the road. I think we counted over 100 in just a few miles. It made Joey a little nervous because he’s had several incidents with deer over the years. It was slow going, and we prayed the whole way to the airport!

We made it to the airport unscathed and said our goodbyes to Joey who would be driving on back to Maryland. The Charleston airport isn’t huge, so we milled around waiting for our flight to depart. As time went on, we heard an announcement that our plane was having some mechanical trouble, but that it was expected to be repaired in time for the flight. But it wasn’t meant to be. An hour after we were supposed to have left, we were still getting announcements of mechanical trouble. No other flights were leaving for Chattanooga or Atlanta any time that day. We were very frustrated, and decided that the only way we’d get home is to rent a car and drive. Ryan waited at the rental car booth for a long time and finally found out that there was only one car left that was within a price range we could afford. It seemed like a miracle, so we snapped up the car and headed for home.

The five-hour ride home was frustrating, but we had lots of good conversations and listened so some good music. It was about 6:00 PM when we got into Collegedale, which left Tim and Ryan very little time to spend with their families on Father’s Day. But we were thankful to be home safely after running the deer gauntlet and were glad our plane hadn’t had engine trouble while we were in the air! God is so good, and He reminds us of that fact every day.

For several months Joey had been working out the details of a trip to Pennsylvania and this was the first weekend of the Pennsylvania Conference Camp Meeting. Tim, Ryan and I left the Chattanooga airport on Friday at 5:40 AM and, after a stop in Atlanta, we landed in Washington, D.C. and the Reagan International Airport at around 11:00 AM. After riding the Metro for almost an hour, we met up with Joey at the designated parking lot and we took off for Hamburg, PA.

We were all sleepy for most of the drive, but we tried to stay awake for Joey's sake since he was driving. It was about a three-hour drive and when we got into Hamburg our GPS took us right through town into a construction zone and a dead end. We finally got on the right track and headed out into the country and Blue Mountain Academy. The academy was hosting camp meeting this year and Tim was looking forward to visiting there since he'd attended BMA during his Freshman year.

When we arrived we walked around the campus and let Tim show us some of the buildings. He showed us the choir room, library and some of the classrooms. When we walked into the gym, Joey started asking around for his contact from the conference office. We found her after a few minutes and she tried to arrange for someone to help us with a sound check, but no one became available. She did give us some beautiful gift baskets which contained all kinds of snacks and goodies. We also got information packets with our performance times listed, so they were very helpful.

We walked around some more and then decided to go to the hotel and change for the afternoon meeting. When we got back we sang "I'll Fly Away" and since we had no sound check, it was a little shaky. Ryan's mic rumbled quite a bit, but about halfway through everything seemed to balance out and the sound was better. We also went to the Juniors' tent and sang "I Want to Be Like My Lord" and they seemed to really love it. Some of the leaders were very impressed with our music and asked us if we'd come back the next morning and sing for all the kids, and we agreed. At supper we were asked if we could sing "Near to the Heart of God" for a prayer invitational song for the evening meeting. We'd never sung the song before, but we agreed and went back to the hotel to pick out our parts and practice.

After working on the song for about half an hour and rummaging through the snacks in our gift baskets, we were satisfied with the song and headed back over to the school for supper. We'd been given meal tickets in our information packets, but I'd put mine in the pocket of my jacket, which I'd left at the hotel since we'd decided not to wear suits for the evening meeting. But since the cafeteria staff knew we were all together as a group, they let me go through line without my ticket. The food was very good all weekend, but because of our schedule I think we only got to eat two or three meals there. During the evening meeting, our debut of "Near To the Heart of God" went very well and so did our special music number. The sound system was still very hard to work with, but we made vocal adjustments as we went.

The next morning we decided to eat breakfast from our gift baskets since we knew we wouldn't have room to take them back with us in the car or on the plane. When we got back to the school, we made our way over to the kids' tents to sing for them. It was a beautiful morning with just a little fog, so as we walked we warmed up and rehearsed a little and enjoyed more of Tim's memories of his time at BMA. At each tent we sang "Movin' Up to Glory Land" and "This Ole House" which the kids seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Even the adults were smiling as I did my little "ooo hoo hoo hoo hoo" part during "Movin'." While walking between tents, Joey came across a family from his home church in Maryland. I thought to myself that it was such a coincidence that they happened to be there, but then Joey reminded me that Maryland isn't as far from Pennsylvania as Tennessee is!

While we waited for the church service Tim took us to his old choir room and we practiced some more. Many people ask us how we find time to practice since we live so far apart, and the answer we always give them is "We practice when we're on tour!" During our wanderings in the building, I came across a friend from my home church in Tennessee, Shari Ziesmer. She and her family had driven all the way to Pennsylvania and it actually was a coincidence to see them there!

When the church service started, we were in the side stage area with the others who were going to be on the platform. There was a lady there who was preparing to sing, and when she saw us she became a little distraught because we were obviously there to sing too. She asked one of the people in charge what was going on and he told her that there had been a mix-up and two special songs had been scheduled. She was a little upset that she'd gotten ready and driven a long way that morning, but we reassured her that we didn't mind at all if she sang too. I'd heard her practicing with a track earlier that morning, but I thought it was for another meeting. Unfortunately when she went out to sing, her CD refused to play over the system, so she walked back to the side stage area and acted resigned to her fate. We felt very bad for her and it made us thankful once again that we sing acappella and the only thing we have to rely on is our own voices. However, even that can be a mixed blessing!

We performed "My Savior First of All" for the service and it went pretty well. It's a difficult song and it was made even harder by the fact that the sound system wasn't exactly to our liking, but it still turned out OK. After the service we went back to the hotel to change into our afternoon concert clothes so we'd have a chance to get a sound check after lunch. We had a good lunch at the cafeteria and I got to chat with Steve Laubach, a friend from college who had sung with me in the Die Meistersinger male chorus.

About an hour before concert time, we went over to the gym to see if someone was there who could help us tweak the sound system so that Ryan's bass wasn't distorting or feeding back. Joey made some gentle suggestions to the man who was there and we managed to sound decent for the concert. People started streaming in around concert time and by the time we'd sung one or two songs, the gym was pretty full. The concert went well and our presentation of Adventist World Radio drew some hearty "amens" from the crowd.

After we finished, we were standing off to the side of the stage resting, drinking water and trying to cool off when Joey surprised me by pointing out an old academy and college friend of ours, Lonne Kwiek. I hadn't seen Lonne in many years and I had tried to follow his movements around the country after we'd both finished college. I had no idea that he'd moved to Pennsylvania, gotten married and had a son! When I walked up to him, his eyes lit up and we gave each other a big hug, although I think his years serving in the Navy had made him grow because I didn't remember him being so big and tall. We talked for a long time and took some photos of his wife and son, whom he introduced as Jennifer and Jaden. Lonne told me how he and Jennifer met and the miraculous circumstances of Jaden's birth. It was great to see him happy and to catch up on what's been happening. Joey and Lonne had been roommates in college, so they had catching up to do as well.

We said our goodbyes and drove over to the Adventist Book Center where we were going to be selling our CDs after the last meeting. We waited a while for Joey's contact to show up and then squared away all the details of the sales. Then we headed back to the hotel to rest a while and change before our last song for the evening meeting. We decided to sing "Immanuel" which is our unofficial theme song and it seems to always be a good way to end a concert, sermon or meeting.

When the meeting was over, we headed over to the ABC and set up our CDs on a table in the middle of the store. We sat behind the table and signed CDs when people asked us to, which was, to my recollection, the first time we'd ever been able to do that. It was a great experience to be able to talk to people as they milled around the store and help them pick which CD they wanted. They all seemed eager for us to sign them and enjoyed watching Joey show us how to rip off the cellophane wrappers! At about 10:00 PM the store closed so we packed up and headed back to the hotel, but we were hungry so we wanted to stop to eat somewhere first. As we looked around for restaurants, we started thinking about names for vegetarian Adventist fast food places like "Beetza Hut" and "Turnip King." That's what happens when you've gone without food for too long!

The next morning we weren't in a hurry for our flight out of D.C. so Joey and Ryan had been talking about visiting the Cabela's outfitter store in Hamburg. I asked if I could just stay at the hotel and rest until time to leave because I wasn't interested in going. But they convinced me that I'd enjoy it and I'm glad they did. Cabela's is much more than a sportsman's outfitter store. When Ryan told me that it was "part outfitter store, part natural history museum," I decided to go see what all the fuss was about.

The store looks massive from the outside, but once you get inside you start to realize just how big it really is. Out in the parking lot you're greeted by a huge metal sculpture of an explorer in a canoe with an Indian guide. Inside there are perfectly preserved specimens of all types of animals from antelope, elk, deer, bears, rabbits and even moose. arctic wolves and polar bears. There's a pond of giant carp in the middle of the store with a bridge across it and an entire corner of the store dedicated to stylized aquariums full of trout, salmon and other game fish. We probably spent almost two hours just browsing and we could've easily spent all morning, but we had to drive back to D.C. for an afternoon flight.

We had to go back over to the campus before we left and square away the CD sales with the director of the ABC. Also, Joey had arranged with a friend from Maryland to pick up some frozen veggie meat to take back with him, so we didn't leave Hamburg until around noon. We had an uneventful trip and the three of us were not looking forward to getting back to the heat and humidity of Tennessee. But we were glad to be going home and to have had the chance to visit Tim's academy and to sing for such wonderful people. I hope we can go back in the next few years.

Back in 2008 we’d ventured down South to sing for our old friend and former Emmanuel Quartet member, Will Labrenz and the churches he pastors in the Pensacola, Florida area. We hadn’t seen him since then, and because we’d recorded “A New Day” after our visit, Will and Joey got together and put together another tour to Will’s churches. Also since that time, Will and his wife Christy had a son named Elijah whom none of us had gotten to meet, so we were glad to get the chance to see him for the first time. And it’s always nice to hang out for a while with Will, Christy and their daughter Bailey.

It was a long trip down, and we were tired, but we cheered up when we met Will at the Milton church. We’d called him when we were close and he came out to unlock the church so we could set up our sound system. It always helps to be able to set up the night before so we don’t have to rush around Sabbath morning in our suits and ties trying to lift all the heavy equipment. Another benefit is that we don’t disturb any Sabbath Schools or meetings going on in the sanctuary during the morning. So after setting up and chatting with Will about the next day’s details, we headed to the hotel and a good night’s sleep.

Several weeks before our trip, Joey and I had been talking with our good friends from the Mobile, AL area, Gary Hilton and Jonathan Stewart, about them coming to the concert at Milton. Joey told us a few days before leaving that they wanted to sing the barbershop version of “The Lord’s Prayer” with us as a double quartet. Ryan, Joey and I know the song pretty well from performing it when Daniel Warner sang baritone with us. Tim, however, didn’t know it that well, so we rehearsed it on the way down. It’s a very difficult piece to learn, especially the baritone and bass parts, but we all agreed to give it a try.

Sabbath morning after we drove to the Milton church, Gary and Jonathan arrived along with Scott Roberts and Jimmy Ely, the other two members of their barbershop quartet called “N2Deep.” It was Jonathan who, years ago, had sent us the sheet music of “The Lord’s Prayer” so we could potentially sing the song with them at an event they were planning. It never worked out for us to sing with them, but we learned the song and performed it many times in our own concerts. So after handshakes and introductions were over, we got down to the business of rehearsing the song on the church’s front steps. We went over the song about three times, and it was helpful to me, Ryan, Joey and Tim to have the other guys there to remind us of how each part went and to help correct any mistakes we had learned.

The concert went very well and we even asked Pastor Will to come up and sing a couple of songs with us. We did some of the older songs like “Dry Bones” and “Steal Away” from our first album called “God With Us.” It was a treat to sing with Will again and to bring back some of the memories that went along with those songs. We were a little shaky on some parts, and I even switched the lyrics around on “Steal Away” but the congregation seemed to love it. And when N2Deep came up and we did “The Lord’s Prayer,” it was a very beautiful and moving sound. After the concert and the honor sales were over, the guys from N2Deep sang a beautiful barbershop arrangement of “Fairest Lord Jesus” in the foyer. It’s always great to hear a familiar song done in a unique way, and a lot of the church members stayed around to hear it. After we packed up and said goodbye to the guys, we headed for Will’s second church, Crestview.

Will rode with us since Christy, Bailey and Elijah weren’t going to Crestview right away, so Will was able to show us the way and point out interesting things in the town. It also gave us a chance to catch up on how he’s been doing. He told us that Crestview has a mid-afternoon service so that he’s able to preach at both Milton and Crestview on the same day. When we arrived at Crestview, the church members were starting their Sabbath School classes, so we joined in the class being held in the sanctuary after we set up our equipment. Even though it’s small, Crestview was a very friendly church and we felt very welcome.

During the concert, Will came up and told the story of how he’d joined the quartet back in 1990. He told about how, at Highland Academy, Joey and Tim had posted a sign-up sheet in the boys’ dorm for all those interested in singing in a quartet. Will told how excited he was when they asked him to audition and Joey spoke up from the front and said, “He was the only one who signed the sheet!” When the laughter subsided, Will continued telling about his time with the quartet before it was called “The Emmanuel Quartet.” In those early academy days, the guys had decided to call themselves the “Highland Academy Men’s Quartet” or HAMQ. They taught themselves enough songs to perform a concert and began singing around campus and in local churches and nursing homes. I joined the group in 1993 and, after changing our name to The Emmanuel Quartet, we began touring while Will was still in academy.

It’s been a fun and interesting journey for the past 21 years, and even though we’ve had several members change over that time, many people still remember The Emmanuel Quartet as Joey, Tim, Phillip and Will, probably because we were together the longest amount of time. It was nice to hear Will sing with us again.

When the concert at Crestview was over, and we finished the honor sales, we headed to Blue Angel Parkway, one of Will’s churches that we hadn’t been able to visit the last time we were there. The people there also seemed to enjoy Will singing with us and telling about how he joined the group. After the evening sales and everything was packed up, we all went to a local Mexican restaurant along with Christy and some of her relatives. The restaurant was getting ready to close, but they went ahead and let us come in. The food was good and it was nice to spend time with one of our closest friends and his family.

It was a great weekend of music and friends, and we hope to be able to sing with these guys again someday, if not here on earth, definitely in heaven.

We headed to Cartersville, GA on Friday evening and even though we’d been to the Cartersville church several times, it had been at least two years and we always receive a warm welcome there. Plus the drive down gave us time to rehearse some new songs we’ve been working on. Next day, the concert at Cartersville went well and we drove to Douglasville, GA to sing at the Heritage SDA Church, pastored by our good friend Sam Ball.

I attended Southern Adventist University with Sam and we both graduated in 1996 together. He went into the ministry and the quartet had the privilege of singing at one of his churches back in 2002. We sang at the little church in Macon, GA then, but we didn’t get to see Sam because he was away at a meeting in Chattanooga. Sam’s wife Traci was gracious enough to put us up in their home and we got to spend time getting to know her and their kids. Joey knew Traci from when they both worked at the McKee box factory at Southern while attending school there. On that trip Traci had suggested we go see “The Big Oak” which is a 320 year-old oak tree in the heart of town. I remember that as being a highlight of that trip. It was amazing to think all the history that tree had been through and to read how it had been preserved through the years.

The last time we saw Sam’s and Traci’s family they only had two kids, Kaitlyn, who was about 3 or 4 and Alex, who was only a baby at the time and was affectionately called “Bubba Chunk.” Now they’re both operating as older brother and sister to two younger siblings, Paxton and Zachary, who are about the ages that Kaitlyn and Alex were when we first met them. It was strange to see Kaitlyn being so motherly and Alex acting so grown up. But I think Kaitlyn remembered me and Joey, especially when I reminded her that we watched Mark Lowry videos at our first meeting. She told me that Alex didn’t really like to be called “Bubba Chunk” any more, but he didn’t seem to mind when I told him that I pinched his cheeks when he was a baby and that I thought “Bubba Chunk” was a cute nickname. I noticed that Kaitlyn seemed to enjoy bringing up that nickname again. She also liked reminding him that she remembered our first visit and he didn’t.

During the concert I noticed that Kaitlyn seemed to know the words to every song we sang from our album “The Hand of Mercy” because she was mouthing the words. Afterward, Traci said that they’d had a cassette of the album that Kaitlyn had worn out and that she was planning on getting a CD along with our newest albums. Kaitlyn seemed happy to hear that news.

When our product sales were over and most of the people had left, we all had a chance to sit and chat for a while. Sam showed me his new Droid smartphone and went through some of the applications that are available. We talked about our old professors at Southern and some of our classmates. As we talked Sam started thinking about having the quartet come to his other church in Carrollton, GA. He and Joey worked out some of the details there on the spot, and now I think we’re scheduled to be there in July.

It had been a long time since we'd traveled to South Carolina, and for this weekend Joey had been able to book a concert in Columbia, SC and he also managed to get us back to Augusta, GA.
We left Collegedale a little later than we intended because Joey's plane was delayed and his luggage took a long time to arrive at baggage claim. But we still arrived in Augusta at a decent time. I have relatives near Columbia and since we were going to be so close, my sister Crystal rode with us so she could spend a week with my cousin and her daughter. The vehicle Joey had rented was upgraded to something slightly larger than we normally rent, but it was still a tight squeeze for five people with all our luggage and all the sound equipment. It was fortunate that we only had a four hour ride, and we were all glad to stop and stretch when it was time for supper.

We arrived at the Augusta Hampton Inn around 9:00 PM and my cousin Jennifer was already there to pick up Crystal. She brought her 3 year-old daughter Donnia with her and Donnia was happy to see Crystal. Crystal had stayed with them for a few months back when Donnia was only one year old and she still remembered her. She got a little shy around the guys and they all thought she was so cute. As the guys went inside to check in, I said my goodbyes and the girls said they'd see us at the Columbia concert the next day.

Joey had asked for another single room with a hide-a-bed and we were fortunate to get one. Ryan realized that Augusta is where The Masters golf tournament is held and we thought it was also fortunate that it wasn't the weekend of The Masters or we probably wouldn't have gotten a hotel room at all.

Our concert at the Augusta church the next day was a first in the history of the quartet. Joey had arranged the date with Pastor Boles before they realized that it was communion Sabbath. Since we'd never sung during communion before, we weren't sure how things would go, but the pastor had everything organized beforehand. We did a half hour concert before the main church service and we used that time to also present the ministry of AWR. We went five minutes over our time, but we managed to sing eight songs and tell our stories of hope in only 35 minutes.

In addition to communion, it was also Thirteenth Sabbath and all the children's classes had a special program planned so there was a lot going on. The kids did a great job singing and reciting verses. I was particularly impressed with one of the primary classes which gave a presentation about the Israelites' tabernacle in the wilderness. They were very knowledgeable about all the articles of furniture and how everything related to the plan of salvation.

When the kids’ program was over, it was time for the communion service. There were about 160 people at church that day, so it took a while for all of us to separate into the different rooms. I had the privilege of washing Ryan’s feet and praying with him while Tim and Joey washed each other’s feet. The Ordinance of Humility always makes me grateful for Jesus’ life and for the fact that He “humbled Himself and was obedient even to death on a cross.”

Pastor Boles had asked us to sing a song during both the passing of the grape juice and the bread. We chose to sing “Softly and Tenderly” and “My Savior First of All” and it was a moving experience. I’ve never heard music during the communion service before, and I think it added a sense of quiet reverence to the service. We stayed on the platform after our each of our songs and the deacons served us the bread and juice. We felt honored to be a part of such a sacred service.

We found out later that there was a lady in the congregation who had been able to go to church for a long time because of illness and today was the first day she’d been able to go in several months. Augusta wasn’t even her home church and she’d been invited by a friend. She said that she was so blessed that there were so many special programs going on that it was almost like it was just for her!

Pastor Boles had arranged a special meal of haystacks in the fellowship hall for the quartet and some of the church members. As we ate, we shared stories of God’s protection during our years of traveling and singing. We heard an amazing story of an angel that was over 100 feet tall guiding and directing semi trucks during a heavy storm and protecting a church member from being hurt in an accident. It was a wonderful time of fellowship.

We weren’t in a hurry to get to Columbia, so we took our time getting there. We still arrived early and, since no one was there yet, we dozed in the car while we waited. When people started to arrive, we were let in to the church to set up, and not long after we got ready, Jennifer and Crystal arrived. Donnia still acted a little shy, but she started warming up to us as the afternoon went on. She heard us during our sound check and told Crystal, “Aunt Kristie and Aidan are going to love this!”

Kristie is my cousin Joshua’s wife and Aidan is their son. They live close to Jennifer and Donnia, so Aidan has been sort of a big brother to Donnia. Josh and I spent most of our childhood together and it was unfortunate that I didn’t get to see him at the concert because of his work schedule. But it was good to see Aidan and Kristie, and, true to Donnia’s word, they both loved the music and Aidan seemed impressed that four guys could make music the way we did. My aunt Donna and uncle Jamie also came to the concert and I had the privilege of showing off a whole row of my relatives during our introductions.

Tim’s sister Stace and her husband (who is also named Tim) have been trying to get us to come for a concert at the Charleston, SC church where they live. We’re still working on that, but since we were going to be in Columbia, they decided to make the two hour drive to hear us sing and to see Tim. They seemed to enjoy the concert too, especially our songs from our album “The Hand of Mercy.” They’d brought their son Kasey with them, and he’d requested before the concert that we sing “I’ll Fly Away” which is his favorite song from The Hand of Mercy. We were hesitant to sing it, because we hadn’t sung it since the trip to the Philippines, but surprisingly it was one of our best performances of that song we’ve ever done!

After the concert we headed to Cracker Barrel with my family and we had a nice time catching up and watching Donnia eat. The guys all thought she was a cutie and Ryan had to kiss her chubby cheeks before we left. Since Crystal was staying with them for a couple of weeks, we said our goodbyes and headed back to the Augusta Hampton Inn. On the way back to Collegedale the next day we spent most of our time rehearsing new songs and talking about a new hymns album. If it’s in God’s plan, we hope to release “Hymns - By the Book Volume II” by late Summer or early Fall.

Headed for warmer climes, we left Collegedale for Jacksonville and St. Augustine Florida this weekend. I brought all the equipment and met the guys at the music building around 3:00. We had wanted to leave around noon, but Tim wasn't able to leave work until 3:00. Joey had gotten a Ford Escape and it was a very tight squeeze to fit everything, but Joey managed like he always does.

It was a long trip but, as always, we used the time to practice and discuss important issues like future tours and campmeetings this summer. As we rehearsed, we tried singing some of our faster songs very slowly. Some of them actually sounded pretty good. Then somehow we thought it would be fun to sing our slow songs at double or triple speed. It's surprisingly challenging to sing a song at an abnormal pace and it was hard not to laugh at the way we sounded. In fact, at one point we were going so fast that Joey mixed the words to “Swing Down” and “Turn You ‘Round” and he and Tim laughed for about five minutes!

We got to the Jacksonville hotel at about 11:30 and by midnight we were asleep. The room must have been a deluxe suite because it had a full-size couch with a hide-a-bed, two desks and a refrigerator. Ryan took advantage of the hide-a-bed and everybody seemed to sleep pretty well even though it was only about six hours.

The church wasn't very far from the hotel and after breakfast we headed over. We were met by some church members who let us in and we got everything set up. Pastor Michael Miller arrived and we were able to square away all the details of the concert. The pastor had heard us sing over 15 years ago and had recently come across our website. He said he was happy to find out that we were still singing. He’d contacted Joey and they’d set up the concert.

When Joey was setting up the laptop for the concert, he met the sound man for the church, Ken Grant, and they realized they'd met each other at the Pathfinder camporee at Oshkosh. Ken also runs the PathfinderRadio.com website for the church and he asked us if we'd like to do a radio interview before we left and we agreed.

The concert went well except for the fact that only one channel on the laptop audio was working which meant we only heard music and no dialogue. So Joey had to improvise during his talk since he couldn’t play the videos he had planned. The sound guys were up in the booth working on it, but were never able to fix the problem. We managed to muddle through and everyone was very understanding.

We stayed for the fellowship dinner and after we packed up the equipment we did the interview with Ken. He spent about half an hour asking us questions about the group and how we tour and practice. Of course he had to promote the fact that I'm the only single guy in the group!

On our way to the St. Augustine church, Ryan took us on a tour of the town since he and his family vacation there often. We drove by an old Spanish fort and many other tourist attractions including restaurants with names like "Fountain of Youth" and "Barnacle Bill's." We never really figured out why, but there were an unusual amount of tourists in town for it being the off season. We could see the beach and ocean from the car, and like a magnet, it drew us toward it. It was a nice, sunny day and we were surprised to see only a few people on the beach since there seemed to be so many tourists in town. You can’t do a whole lot at the beach in a dress shirt and tie, so we didn’t stay long. But it was nice to feel the sun after an unusually cold Tennessee winter.

When we arrived at the St. Augustine church, no one was there to let us in. But it wasn’t long before someone came and unlocked the doors. Shortly after we started bringing in our equipment, a young lady named Holly told us that she’d be running the church’s sound that evening and that Joey and I might know her mom, Dawn Garber Clark. We both looked at each other and said, “You’re kidding!” as we realized at the same time that she was the daughter of a schoolmate of ours from Laurelbrook Academy. Dawn was a Senior when Joey and I were Freshmen, but I always remember her smile and her positive outlook. Holly said that her mom would be there later for the concert, so we were looking forward to seeing her after about 20 years.

While we set up and got our sound check, some childhood friends of mine, the Perez family, came into the sanctuary. I had contacted them the week before to let them know we’d be coming to Florida, but I wasn’t sure if any of them would be able to make it. The youngest daughter, Danielle, is almost 18 now and she hadn’t even been born when I first met the Perezes. Ron and Carol and their kids Justin, Heather, Sarah and Danielle moved from Florida to Tennessee around the time I graduated from academy and entered college. They spent several years attending our church and school, and as Danielle and Sarah grew up, my family babysat them often and made lots of memories. When the family moved back to Florida several years ago, it was rare that we got to see them, so I was glad for this chance to see Ron, Carol, Sarah and Danielle. Justin and Heather and their spouses weren’t able to come to the concert, but of course I keep up with them on Facebook.

I was able to spend some time catching up with the Perezes before concert time, and Joey and I got to see Dawn for a few minutes too. She said that she would stay for as long as she could, but she had to go pick up her other daughter later. She said she’d never heard us sing before, so we told her we hoped we didn’t disappoint!

The pastor at St. Augustine is Robert Hayes, and he came to greet us around concert time. There were a fair number of people in attendance when the concert started, and I noticed that even though Dawn left to pick up her other daughter Heather, they both came back and listened to the rest of the concert! I told her afterwards that it made us feel special that she came back to hear the rest of our songs.

During our introductions, we always make a big deal about me being single, and when I said that, in all my travels I’d never met someone willing to marry me, Ron kept pointing at Sarah. I had to mention, even though I know it embarrassed her, that when Sarah was five years old she always said she was going to “marry Phillip.” I’m sure it was equally embarrassing for her boyfriend Michael.

The concert went well, and the laptop sound was working this time. Sarah and Danielle were singing along to every song that we sang from “The Hand of Mercy” album since they had worn out a cassette of that album when they were growing up. We noticed that during the entire concert there was a man over on the left side of the church reading a book, and he never seemed to look up or be aware that he was in a concert. We debated later as to whether or not he may have been deaf, but in any case we were glad he was there. We never know how the Lord will bless someone just by being at one of our concerts. We’ve learned that there’s always a reason for everything.

After the concert Carol bought some CDs to replace the worn out cassettes they’d had for years and, after we packed up everything, Ron invited us to go eat with them. Right before we left, Sarah requested that we sing "Dry Bones." We told her that Ryan didn't know that song, but he said that he'd be willing to try it. He did better than Tim and Joey who've sung that song for years and were still getting all their bones mixed up! Aside from that, the song went well and we all got a good laugh.

Out in the car we told the GPS to look for a Cracker Barrel, but it took us on some unexpected twists and turns. We were laughing about the GPS’ pronunciation of street names again when we finally found the restaurant and pulled in. We had a nice time with the Perezes and when it was time to hit the road, we said our goodbyes. We got back to the Jacksonville hotel pretty late, but were up early the next day to head back home. We used to sing in Florida all the time and it was nice to be back down there again.

Since we’d had such a good experience with the Toyota RAV4 on our last tour, Joey got another one for this trip to Georgia. I’ve been keeping the sound equipment at my house since Joey is cleaning out the storage room at the end of December, so when I arrived at the music building we transferred everything to the RAV4 and took off. No sooner had we said a prayer and the vehicle began to roll, than Ryan opened up singing the first line of “Movin’ Up to Glory Land.” And like a Pavlovian response, the rest of us joined in without realizing what was even happening! We had an uneventful trip down, but we made good use of the time by practicing “Movin’” and “We Shall Wear a Crown” since we were going to sing them both for the evening concert at Auburn.

None of us got much sleep Friday night because we’re still sharing one room. The beds were smaller than usual and we all had a hard time staying asleep. The next morning we all seemed to take a little longer than usual getting up and getting ready. We dragged our feet to breakfast, and after a little coffee, we all seemed to be awake enough to sing.

Our morning concert was at the Buford Family Church. The members are currently renting a space from the Gwinnett Vineyard Church and the auditorium was festively decorated for Christmas when we arrived. We found out that the Buford church is a planted church from members of Auburn, Duluth and several other churches in the area. Some of the audio/visual crew were there to meet us and help us get everything set up. As we were unpacking the equipment, I noticed that one of our microphones had a bent battery terminal and they were very helpful in getting it fixed.

After setting up, we found a room to warm up and chat for a while. As we sat in the warmth and quiet of the room, it was hard not to give in to the sleep deprivation of the night before and take a nap. But we all managed to stay awake by singing and talking. While Tim was out of the room for a while, Joey, Ryan and I all three squeezed onto the two-person couch in the room and planned to make the “hear no evil, speak no evil, do no evil” gestures when Tim came back into the room. But he took so long coming back that we began to suffocate on the couch and gave up.

At concert time there were about 30 people in attendance, which we thought was admirable for a church plant. Things went fairly well for a morning concert and the congregation liked our songs, especially the kids. Afterward, we were invited to a fellowship meal, which we really enjoyed. There were some very tasty dishes, including some vegetable rolls and barbecue “meatballs” that we all liked. The congregation was very friendly and as we were leaving, we were invited back to sing for the Duluth Adventist Christian School for one of their chapel services.

On the way to Auburn, Tim, Ryan and I succumbed to the lethal combination of full tummies, vehicle motion and lack of sleep. I tried to stay awake for Joey’s sake, but I just couldn’t make it. We decided to stop for a restroom break and some more coffee so we could make it through the evening.

When we arrived at the Auburn church it was much earlier than we expected, so we sat across the street and dozed for a while. There were quite a few cars there and people were going in and out. After about half an hour Joey and I walked over to see if we could get into the sanctuary. Joey went to the restroom and I walked around until I noticed that the lights were being turned off and I saw a man in the main hallway who appeared to be leaving. I told him I was with the quartet and asked if it would be alright if we brought in our equipment. He said he’d go ahead and stay while we brought in everything.

I walked back to the car and saw that Tim and Ryan were still asleep, so I tried to gently wake them up so we could move the car over to the church. Tim’s brain was a little fuzzy, but they both woke up when I closed the door. Ryan volunteered to drive over and we started unloading about the time Joey came to the door. The man who let us in introduced himself as Steve. He had his two children with him and they were very interested in what was going on. They asked a lot of questions and were fascinated by our sound check. We decided to practice “Movin’” and they started singing along and clapping to the rhythm of the song!

We rested for about an hour in the mother’s room, but when the kids came in Tim told them some stories. Their dad came and got them at about 5:30 to go eat, so we talked about the set of songs we’d do that night. By consensus we decided to sing “Movin’” for the first time in about 10 years. With one dissenting vote from Ryan, we decided to sing “We Shall Wear a Crown” for only the second time ever. The first time we sang it was right after “A New Day” was released. It was at the Morning Pointe retirement center back in July of 2008, and the song went very badly. So badly, in fact, that we never got the nerve to sing it again. We also weren’t thrilled at how the song turned out on the album. But so many of our family members love the song and we’d been looking for another upbeat number for the concert, so we decided to throw it in.

At concert time there was a good crowd there and as we sang our faster songs, the congregation seemed to enjoy those the most. “We Shall Wear a Crown” went so well that we later decided to make it a permanent part of the concert. Everyone absolutely loved “Movin’” and lots of people were singing very high with me on “oooh hooo hooo hoo oovin’” as they laughed out loud at our antics during that part! We ended the concert with “Draw Me, Lord” and the Holy Spirit was there as we invited Him to bless us all as we parted ways.

Steve and his kids helped us pack up everything after the CD sales, and his son was very happy to have gotten a copy of “A New Day.” We thanked them as we pulled away and tried to warm up again after loading in the cold December air. We were all pretty hungry by this time, so we started typing in restaurants into “Julie” our GPS unit. As we drove we began to laugh harder and harder at Julie’s mispronunciation of certain words. “Chipotle,” for example, was pronounced “CHIP-i-tel” with the accent on the first syllable. She would pronounce “GA (Georgia) 20” as “Gaaaah 20” which elicited peals of laughter from us. But the one we laughed at the most was when she started saying the word “doctor” for the abbreviation for “drive.” When she said to “turn left on County Line Doctor” it was more than we could stand. Needless to say, it was a fun trip home.

It's not often that you get the chance to revisit childhood memories and the places where you grew up but, for Joey, this weekend gave him that opportunity. For this tour he'd been able to book a concert at his childhood church in Dothan, Alabama. On Friday he arrived in Chattanooga early enough to make a surprise visit to his parents at Laurelbrook. It was his mom's birthday and they were both happily surprised to see him since he lives so far away.

Joey had enough time to get back to Collegedale and meet us at the music building at 3:30. He said it was the first time he recalled the three of us waiting for him instead of him waiting on us! Our rental vehicle for the weekend was a Toyota RAV4 and Ryan had expressed his sincere doubt that we'd be able to pack everything into such a small space. It turns out that Joey had the same reservations when he picked up the Toyota at the airport but the lady at AVIS had assured him that it would work for our needs. Joey started packing and we were all surprised when everything fit, including our luggage, with room to spare for me and Tim in the back.

On the way down to Dothan, we had a lengthy discussion about what types of songs we should record for our next album. We decided to try to include some more well-known and popular songs, and one of the first we decided on was “Movin’ Up to Glory Land” which was a song we’ve performed over the years, but were never satisfied with the ending. In fact, “Movin’” had been intended to go on our third album “The Hand of Mercy” but we couldn’t get the harmonies and the ending to sound quite right in the studio, and it was replaced by “I’ll Fly Away.” So right then and there in the roomy RAV4 we started practicing “Movin’” for a while. Ryan slowly began remembering his part from when he was in the group before. I had forgotten most of my part and Joey had to refresh my memory. In the process, we decided that it sounded better if Joey and I swapped some of our notes, and as we practiced we came up with a wonderful new ending that we were all happy with. It was exciting to revive such a great song because we all remembered how much people loved my “mooh ooo ooo ooo ooovin’” line during the chorus.

Some of the other songs we decided on were “In That Great Getting’ Up Morning,” “Joshua Fit the Battle,” "John the Revelator” and “Only a Boy Named David.” We’ll still have several original songs that we’ll put on the album, but there will be a lot of familiar songs for people to sing along with. Of course, our “Hymns – By the Book” album has been our best selling album ever, so we may record another volume of hymns before our next gospel album. We’ve already got those picked out too, and we included some very familiar and “singable” hymns, so whatever direction the Lord leads, I think people will be happy with our next recordings.

When Ryan was in the quartet back in 2002 we sang at the Dothan church, so it had been about six or seven years since we’d been there. On that tour we had time to drive around Dothan while Joey marveled at the things that had changed since he was a kid and all the things that were still there. This time we didn’t get to drive by Joey’s childhood house, but we did drive through the middle of town and see how much has been built in the past few years. There were still a lot of signs about pecans and peanuts all over town and Joey said that Dothan has always been popular for the Peanut Fair, boiled peanuts and pecans.

We had a good concert at the church the following morning and Joey was teased by some of the older church members who knew him as a child. One man said that the church was still being repaired from when Joey was a kid! After the concert we overheard several of the ladies competing with each other good-naturedly about who knew Joey the best. The first lady said she’d been friends with his mom. The other lady said she babysat him and his brother. Then the other lady said she’d changed Joey’s diapers, and it went on and on in greater detail! Joey asked me to take a lot of photos of him with the church members so he could show his parents some of their old friends from Dothan.

Our next church was a providential arrangement at the “last minute” that the Lord had helped Joey organize in Oglethorpe, Georgia. When we pulled into the parking lot, Joey exclaimed, “We’ve been here before!” I admitted that it looked familiar, and Ryan thought he remembered it too. It turned out that years ago we’d performed there as part of a benefit concert for an ill church member. Ryan said that the position and orientation of the church to the road seemed a bit out of the ordinary, and he found out later that the church had been moved from a location down the road to the present location. During the move, which I think he said happened back in the 60’s, the truck pulling the church had gotten stuck on the bridge which was visible from the parking lot. It had stayed stuck for several days and it caused all kinds of traffic problems. They were finally able to move the church from the bridge, but it explained the reason for the church’s unusual relation to the road.

In addition to the Adventist church there, Joey had heard about a group of Mennonites in the area who already knew about the quartet and our music. He was hoping that some of them might come to the concert at Oglethorpe because he’d sent out invitations to them as well as several other churches. Pastor Short and his wife came shortly after we arrived and we got a chance to talk to them for a while after we set up the sound system and the product table. He was concerned that there wouldn’t be many people there because of the short notice, but we assured him that the Lord always makes sure the right people come. That’s one thing we’ve seen over and over again through the years.

At concert time we noticed that there were some Mennonites out in the pews, and it was nice to know that they felt welcome at an Adventist church. There was a good crowd as we started the concert and Pastor Short began with opening prayer. When he stepped up to the mic I noticed that the cable was in a loop on the floor right by the pastor’s foot. As his prayer ended I tried to stop him from tripping, but I wasn’t fast enough and his foot got caught in the cable loop and he almost fell. He got his footing as I grabbed for the mic to keep it from falling. Of course there was a loud boom as all this was happening, but everyone was just glad the pastor didn’t fall.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the music and our presentation about the ministry of Adventist World Radio. Even though the congregation was small, the Holy Spirit was there and it was an evening of worship and excitement about the finishing of the Lord’s work. After the concert there were several people who wanted to buy CDs, including two of the Mennonite ladies who’d come. Joey got a chance to talk to them for a while. We’ve discovered that many Mennonite groups all over the country enjoy our music because we only sing acappella. It was very encouraging to see them welcomed warmly at Oglethorpe and to know that God is using our music to reach people in all types of churches and belief systems.

After a long day, we were tired and ready for the hotel. We stayed at a hotel close to the church and in the morning we drove home. I’d printed the words to “Movin’” the night before for Ryan and we practiced it for a while along with a couple more. We’re all looking forward to the next album!

I met Joey at the storage room at around 3:00 on Friday because I had the only key to the new lock. We were afraid that we'd have to cut the door open again (see ''A Class Reunion”). Fortunately my key worked and we were able to get the product and equipment out with no drama!

After dropping my truck off at the music building we went to get our case of water and Ricola drops. Sitting back at the music building Joey started wondering where Tim and Ryan were. All of a sudden he yelled, ''I was supposed to go pick up Ryan at his house!'' So when Tim arrived we headed to get Ryan who had the nice QSC speaker that we used last tour. Then Tim realized he'd forgotten his Filipino Barong shirt, so we went by his house after getting Ryan.

The Georgia-Cumberland Conference had invited us to sing at the Retired Workers Retreat this weekend at Cohutta Springs Camp in Cohutta, Georgia. For me and Joey, the camp holds a special place in our hearts because it was the site of our first ill-fated meeting during the Summer of 1983. We were both enrolled at Cohutta Springs for Summer Camp and, as it so happened, we were both assigned to the same cabin, but not the same room.

We won’t say that Joey was a pest at 10 years old, and we won’t say that I had a bit of a temper, but we will say that he and I weren’t the best of friends during our week at camp. During one of our more physical disagreements, our camp counselor pulled us apart and made us both do the “dead cockroach” while the other boys went swimming with another cabin. This form of punishment involved both of us lying on our backs with our arms and legs in the air until we either gave up and/or learned our lesson about not fighting. Of course we both tried to outlast the other, which only made the pain worse. I don’t remember who “won” but I do remember that we seemed to be able to tolerate each other after that incident. And now, 26 years later, we’re the best of friends. And I’m very thankful to God for Joey’s friendship and for his talents. I thought about Providence as the quartet drove through the camp. Not much has changed over the years and the cabin Joey and I shared is still there.

Joey was driving pretty quickly because of our late start and we got to the camp about a half hour later than we wanted. We made it in time to square away the sound system, eat supper and find our chalet so we could change clothes. The retreat organizers put us up in one of the nice chalets on the opposite side of the lake from the conference center. There was enough room in the chalet for Joey and Ryan to each have their own rooms while Tim and I shared a room. We were happy that none of us had to share the same bed like our last tour!

Back at the conference center we got to speak to Steve Haley who is my former pastor and who is currently serving as the Conference Vice President for Administration. He's been a supporter of the quartet for many years and had requested that we be the special musical guests for the weekend. We also got to chat with Conference President Ed Wright. He knows Joey from his trips to the GC headquarters in Maryland. Steve and Ed introduced us to the speaker for the weekend, Don Jacobsen. Steve introduced us at the start of the meeting and we sang “I Want to Be Like My Lord” and “Softly and Tenderly.”

The sermon was very inspiring, taken from the story of the paralytic who was let down through the roof by his friends so Jesus could heal him. Afterward, Steve asked us to sing another song to close the service and we chose to sing “Twenty-Three.” Joey accidentally pitched it down a whole step too low! Ryan was scraping the bottom of the barrel and we all had trouble with the harmonies because it's one of those songs that has to be sung in the right key or it's very difficult to sing correctly. Ryan hit his lowest notes right on key and we got a hearty “Amen” when we finished.

Mrs. Jacobsen told us afterward that she really enjoyed ''Twenty-Three'' because of the minor chords and the way the song resolves at the end. She said that there aren't enough of those types of songs and that she liked the close harmony. So even though we sang the song too low, the ''Holy Spirit Filter'' must've been in place and it made the song sound better than we thought!

The next day we were scheduled to sing a song for special music during the service. It went well, and after the service Joey got a call from his parents saying that they were going to come to the afternoon concert and bring Joey’s brother Woody’s kids with them since they rarely get to see Uncle Joey. They ate lunch with us and we were able to take some goofy pictures with them before the concert. After lunch, they sat right in the center of the front row since they’re such big fans of the quartet’s music and they know all the songs by heart. They listened to our sound check and enjoyed being with their “Uncle Joe.”

The concert went very well and we pulled out some of the more familiar songs that we knew the retirees would enjoy. We also presented the ministry of Adventist World Radio and it was a pleasure to talk to many retirees after the concert about their years of service with AWR. Some of them were very happy to see that AWR is still a thriving ministry and that we had joined with them as ministry partners.

We had our CDs for sale after the concert and after the crowd started making their way back into the auditorium, we decided to pack up and go home. They were showing “The Best of Candid Camera” and serving popcorn, and as we were taking down our equipment, we got distracted by some of the more hilarious gags that were being shown. It was hard to stay out of the way of the projector, but we managed to get everything taken down and packed. As we left, I thought about what an honor it was to sing for such a dedicated group of people who have given their lives in service to God. I feel privileged to have participated in an event that pays tribute to them.

We decided recently to try and cut some of our touring expenses by reducing our sound system, driving a smaller vehicle and by staying in one hotel room instead of two. This weekend was the beginning of the grand experiment. And to start off our grand experiment, Joey had managed to get upgraded to a Mercury Grand Marquis for our rental car. We couldn’t believe how much room was in the trunk! It was a very comfortable and roomy ride to Newport, TN. We left Collegedale at 5:30 and stopped in Athens for a bite to eat.

The week before our tour, Ryan had been playing softball and had fractured a bone in his foot. He had to wear a support boot the whole weekend and we were concerned that he'd be in a lot of pain during the concerts. He made it through the weekend like a trooper and did a great job.

Since our drive wasn't too far we arrived at the Hampton early enough for us to practice a bit. It was still early when we finished, so Tim and I decided we'd take advantage of the nice fitness room at the hotel. I had a bit of trouble getting the treadmill working but I finally managed a half hour workout while Tim used the elliptical machine. Then, while he worked out with weights I went for another half hour on the elliptical. I didn't think I'd make it, but it was great to have Tim there encouraging me.

When we got back to the room, Ryan and Joey were asleep, and since we didn't have a key, we woke up Ryan knocking on the door. He blearily opened the door, squinted at us and got back in bed. We each took a shower, trying not to wake up the guys, and then got into bed, which reminded us of the days when we stayed in people’s homes and had to share hide-a-beds and mattresses on the floor.

None of us slept very well that night. We all kept waking up for apparently no reason and I don’t think any of us got more than two or three hours of sleep at a time. It was hard to get up in the morning, but we managed to get down to breakfast and to the Newport church in time to set up. The pastor was there to open the doors and help us get everything we needed.

I kept trying to remember where I’d seen the pastor before and it took a few minutes to realize that he was Chris James and he’d been in the Die Meistersinger Male Chorus with me back in college. His dad Sam James was a teacher at Collegedale Academy in those days and I did part of my student teaching there in Sam’s German class. I walked up to the pastor and asked him if his name was Chris James (just to be sure) and as I talked with him he remembered me from college.

Chris is the pastor of both the Newport and Smoky Mountain churches, so Joey had arranged for us to sing at both churches this weekend. The Newport church is using the church of the Crossroad Tabernacle Baptist Church while they work on their new building. It’s a small church, but there was a good turnout. When the concert was over, Pastor Chris had us follow him to the Smoky Mountain church. It was quite a bit larger and the concert went very well. Since we had an evening concert at Athens, we left the church when we were packed and stopped on the way for lunch.

Around concert time I saw my old academy roommate Ben Brown and his family come into the sanctuary. I’d seen him back in August at the ASI convention in Phoenix, but I was very surprised to see him again. We chatted for a while and he said he’d heard we were in concert at Athens and he’d wanted to come hear an entire concert since we’d sung only one song at the convention. As we talked, I noticed another Laurelbrook member, Dena Marlow, come in. Ben and I went to say hi and reminisce about the good old days. I found Joey and we all talked for a while before the concert started. There were a few people from my home church of Bowman Hills at the concert too and it was nice to see some familiar faces while we sang. CD sales were good after the concert and I got the opportunity to take some pictures with my old friends. We made our way home after we were packed up and stopped for supper before we hit Collegedale.

We’d set aside the following Sunday for a recording session for Adventist World Radio. They’d asked Joey if we’d like to record some radio promotional spots for them to air on various stations and we thought it would be fun. I stayed with Joey in the Ooltewah Hampton Inn Saturday night and the guys met us there the next morning. We spent a few hours recording 10-15 spots each and laughed at our goofs and bloopers. It was a pleasure to be able to record the spots for AWR and we’re honored to be a part of their ministry and the end-time work they’re doing for the Lord.

Tim and his wife Becky met me at the University music building and we carpooled to the Chattanooga airport for our trip to Phoenix. We got there around noon and Ryan came a bit later with his family. We found out that we had to pay for our checked luggage, so we had to rearrange a few things to accommodate the boxes of CDs we had to bring with us. We're hoping that we'll accrue enough Skymiles with this trip to jump up to the next status level where we'll get two free checked bags. We'll see...

Our plane left a half hour late because there were so many planes coming into Atlanta. When we arrived in Atlanta Joey met us there and we got on our plane to Phoenix. He got upgraded, and since I was the only one who'd never flown Business Class, they all decided to let me take his seat without even drawing straws!

Business Class was very enjoyable with the wider seats and good food. It was a smooth flight and as we circled over Phoenix, I saw a huge dust cloud out in the desert, right outside the city's edge. It was basically a huge cloud of dust that, at first glance was just hanging there in one spot. But as we got closer I could tell that it was moving and undulating like a living thing. It was amazing that it wasn't moving toward the city, but seemed to be restricted to the desert right outside.

After we landed and got our luggage we got our rental car and headed toward the Phoenix Convention Center. As we drove, we noticed the electric trains that run through parts of the city. It was interesting that they had to stop at traffic lights just like the cars. We also noticed that most of the buildings weren't very tall but that the city was very widely spread out. Ryan surmised that it was easier to cool shorter buildings and that there was plenty of room out in the desert to expand outward as opposed to New York or Manhattan where building have nowhere to go but up.

We found the Convention Center and as we followed the crowds and signs to the ASI hall, we were amazed at how large the center was. The ASI auditorium was pretty large and it took us a while to find Jim Ayer, our friend from Adventist World Radio. We eventually found Jim and Ben Schoun at the AWR booth and were able to touch base with them. After checking out the layout of the building, we left to find our hotel so we could change for the Friday night meeting. Unfortunately we had to pay for parking at the convention center every time we left and came back.

When we came back for the meeting and were walking through the front doors of the main meeting hall, Joey saw a classmate of ours from Laurelbrook, Ben Brown, sitting by the doors. I had seen him only a few times since our graduation and it was very nice to be able to catch up on the news about him and his family. They operate a lifestyle center and spread the message of healthy living through diet and natural methods of healing sicknesses.

After listening to an inspiring message, we made our way over to the auditorium with all the booths. At the AWR booth Jim cajoled us into singing a couple of songs while standing at the front of the booth. We drew a small crowd as Jim told the people who we were and they listened to our songs.

Sabbath morning was hot and dry as one would expect, but many people told us that the expected high of 105 wasn’t as bad as the 112-114 degree temperatures of the week before. We didn’t notice the Arizona heat much until we walked from the parking lot to the inside of the convention center. Ryan said he could “feel the air sucking the moisture from his eyeballs.” But Joey, Tim and I agreed that being in our AWR jackets and ties in the desert air didn’t compare to wearing suits and ties in the Indonesian tropical weather!

We were scheduled to sing for the children’s Sabbath School divisions so we made the rounds from the Kindergarten class to the Earliteens. They all seemed to enjoy the music and especially liked the free AWR stickers and pencils we passed out along with our new Emmanuel Quartet magnets that Ryan and Joey had made. While we were in the Junior class, I saw Ben Brown’s son and he was very vocal in his appreciation of our music! He was pleased that I remembered who he was.

Since we were singing for the kids during the church service, we didn’t get to hear the sermon, but we found Jim in the auditorium and asked him what we should do for lunch. He procured four extra meal tickets for us and we joined him in line for the gourmet meal provided by the convention center. While waiting in line, Jim started singing some old King’s Heralds songs and we ended up singing some quartet songs for the people in line! The dining hall downstairs was even larger than the auditorium and the meal was very good. We were able to meet Jim’s wife and have a good conversation over lunch.

When lunch was over we headed back to the main auditorium for a sound check. We waited our turn and after the sound check we tried to find a quiet corner to rehearse the song we’d been asked to perform, “My Savior First of All.” The theme of the weekend was “By Knowing Him” so the song ASI picked turned out to be very appropriate. As the song says, when Jesus returns we’ll know Him by the prints of the nails in His hands.

The meeting started at 4:00 and the auditorium was almost full. We enjoyed listening to stories of God’s guidance and financial miracles in the lives of the ASI members and their organizations. As our time to sing drew closer, we prayed that the Lord would calm our nerves and help us to sing our best for His glory. Our prayers were answered as we sang our song and it turned out very well. In fact, it turned out to be one of the best performances of that song we’ve ever done!

After the meeting we knew we wouldn’t have any more meal tickets, so we searched around Phoenix to find something to eat. The GPS took us all over the city and we got to know it quite well by the time we found a Thai restaurant which turned out to have excellent food. We headed back to the convention center to set up our CDs. We must’ve been tired because when we parked outside the convention center (to save money) we all got out of the car and walked quite a few feet before we realized that none of us had gotten the CDs out of the car! So we walked back and got them only to realize that we didn’t have our envelope of money to make change for CD purchases. So while Ryan and I lugged the heavy boxes of CDs a couple of blocks to the convention center, Joey and Tim drove all the way back to the hotel to get the money.

The convention center staff weren’t allowing any of the exhibitors into the booths until 8:30, so while we waited, Ryan called his family and I chatted with some more academy friends I’d found. I even found a friend I’d made while at Southern Adventist University and I hadn’t seen him in many years. Tim and Joey weren’t back yet when they let us into the booths, but I went ahead and set up the CDs. I wandered around the huge room and saw even more people I knew from my school days. The Adventist world truly is a small one.

After the doors were opened to the public, Joey and Tim arrived and we were able to sell a few CDs. It was nice to take turns manning the booth and wandering around meeting people. A trio of young kids attached themselves to us and hung around our booth asking questions and making us laugh. At about 10:00 the announcement was made that the booths were closing. We packed up and said goodbye to Jim. We teased him by temporarily switching our AWR lapel pins for Hope Channel pins and when he noticed, he tried not to act surprised, but he took it all in good fun! Some of the staff of the Hope Channel had teased him earlier about “stealing” us from AWR and he told them he didn’t want to let us go! We all got a kick out of the good-natured teasing.

We had a good flight home the next day, and Tim took his turn in Business Class. As I passed by him on my way to Economy, I told him that “I don’t speak to First Class passengers!” Unfortunately I said that right after a man had asked me what was in the boxes we were carrying. I didn’t know he was talking to me and later Tim told me what had happened and I felt very bad and the guys teased me about it.

Even though this trip was an expense, we were all happy to go to such an important event for our church. It was a blessing to see how God is using these people to finish his work. It was also a privilege to get to meet Doug Batchelor who is the speaker/director for Amazing Facts Ministries. He’s a very friendly and personable fellow, and I’ve always been impressed by his clear presentation of Biblical principles. We knew God had provided the means for us to go to ASI and we’re happy to have gotten the chance.

Still suffering from jet lag from our trip back home from the Philippines, we met together on Friday afternoon to head to Knoxville. We’d all agreed to this weekend long before the Philippines, so there was no grumbling or complaining as we started the weekend. To save money, Ryan volunteered to take his car so we wouldn’t have to rent one. Tim, however, had to drive his own car since he would be picking up his son Zach and nephew Lucas in Knoxville. The boys had been staying with Tim’s parents and Lucas was going to be spending a few weeks with Tim, so he drove his car up so he’d have room to bring them back.

I rode with Tim on the way up so he wouldn’t be lonely and then I stayed with Joey at the hotel in Knoxville. As in the Philippines, we didn’t have our sound system so we didn’t have to set up when we arrived late that night or early in the morning. We all slept very well since we were still catching up on sleep from our transoceanic plane ride!

Ted Struntz, the youth pastor at the Knoxville church, is an old friend of mine and Joey’s and a fan of the quartet’s music. He always looks forward to us coming and it’s always nice to see him again. This time we got to meet his newborn daughter, Katherine and I noticed how fast his oldest daughter Elizabeth is growing. She posed for a photo just like a mature adult and she seems to really love her new baby sister. We got to introduce Ted to Ryan and hang out in one of the downstairs rooms (Ted’s office?) for a while and chat before the concert. We filled him in on the trip to the Philippines and told him about “A New Day” which he hadn’t been able to hear yet.

Right before the concert I got to see David Zackrison, a Knoxville church member and one of my mentors from Laurelbrook Academy. He was our agriculture teacher and the manager of the school’s dairy farm. I learned a lot of great lessons from him and I was always impressed with the compassionate way he dealt with us teenagers. It was great to see him again and to hear what his daughters are up to these days.

The concert went well and the sound was good. The church has natural acoustics that can operate to our advantage if the sound system is tweaked just right. Some of our songs were a little rough, but the congregation seemed to enjoy the concert. They especially enjoyed our slides and talks about our experience in the Philippines. After only a few minutes for honor sales, we had to hurry and pack up everything to make it to Deerlodge for our afternoon performance at the camp meeting.

The Camp Meeting was being held at the Meister Hills SDA Church where Joey and his parents were members for many years. When we arrived we had a few minutes to say hi to Joey’s mom, dad and sister. Our good friend Larry Blackwell was there as the emcee of the afternoon musical program. He was introducing the musicians and groups as they came on stage and he also sang a couple of numbers before we went on.

We were wearing our blue Filipino Barongs and we made mention of our Philippines trip during our short set of songs. The sound wasn’t set up the best for a quartet, but we managed to do fairly well for being hot and exhausted. The church had recently built a nice new outdoor auditorium for camp meetings and special events. Although it provided shade and a nice cross-breeze, it was still June in Tennessee, so the Barongs were a nice change from jackets and dress shirts.

After our mini-concert we headed over to Joey’s sister’s house. It had been a while since I’d seen Dee’s kids and they’re all growing up so fast. We sat in the living room and had a good time catching up on everything and embarrassing Dee’s kids with stories of when they were little. It was nice to relax and cool off after being so rushed all day. It was nice to see Joey’s mom and dad, too. They were instrumental in helping the quartet run smoothly years ago and we appreciate all the work they’ve done to promote our music to everyone they know.

We headed home that evening happy in the knowledge that we would have the whole month of July off to recuperate from our overseas trip.

Pastor Gerry woke us up the next day at 7:30 AM to go on a walking tour of the campus. The grounds are beautiful and are cared for meticulously and each time it rains the groundskeepers rake up all the leaves and debris that have fallen. There are lots of walking paths lined with different plants and flowers.

After our walk we went back to our rooms to eat breakfast. There were so many choices that it was hard to decide what to eat. We rested some more and then rehearsed some of our songs for the meeting. Elder Gulfan picked us up at 6:00 to take us to the meeting hall. It's being rented from a non-Adventist church group and Pastor Gerry said that they didn't know we were ''sheep stealing!''

The sound system at the hall isn't the best, but we worked with it and the audience seemed to enjoy the music.

All the people are friendly and are happy to see us. Everyone greets us and shakes our hands when we come in. Joey gave some CDs to a couple of girls named Rosie and Rose who were going to be in charge of selling them for us. Pastor Gerry gave away a couple of CDs to the person who'd traveled the farthest and to the person with the closest birthday.

After the health lecture we got up to sing three songs, then we sang “Room at the Cross” while Gerry had opening prayer. After the message we sang “If You Want Joy” as the appeal song.

I met Joey at the Chattanooga airport at 11:30 PM and he told me that he'd left the keys to the storage room in Maryland and Rick's Lock & Key wouldn't open it since Joey couldn't prove that it was his unit. And the owners of the units were no help because when Rick's Lock & Key called them, they heard the owners say unit 950 instead of 915! So we had to buy bolt cutters and a new lock at Wal-Mart and try to cut off the lock. We both worked on the lock for about five minutes and weren't making much progress, so I suggested that we cut the sliding hasp that was holding the lock. It only took a few seconds to cut through it and we were able to get out the product we needed and put on the new lock. It was about 12:30 before Joey and I made it to Emiko's house were we spent the night.

After only four hours of sleep, we got up to pack the product into our bags and it was doubtful for a while if we were going to get 600 CDs to fit, but when we got to Tim's and Ryan's bags there was plenty of room since they each had an extra empty bag each. While reorganizing my suitcase, Tim noticed a pair of my underwear that he thought had a camouflage pattern and poked fun by asking if we thought I could be seen from the air if I was wearing them.

At the Chattanooga airport Ryan and I drew ''straws'' (which were really strips of paper) to see who would get to sit in Joey's upgraded seat in First Class since he'd offered it to us and Tim didn't really care to use it. Ryan drew the long ''straw'' so he got the privilege. After we landed in Minneapolis, he gave me the free brownie they'd given him!

The flight to Tokyo was 100% full so there was no way any of us were getting upgraded. There were so many people to load on the 747 (about 480) that we were about 20 minutes late taking off.

We arrived in Tokyo on time and had to wait for a while at the gate while the local health officials went up and down the aisles checking people for signs of sickness.

Our layover wasn’t very long in Tokyo, but we did have enough time to get a few Japanese souvenirs at the airport gift shops. When we boarded the plane, we sat for a long time. Finally, the captain announced that there was a problem with one of the landing gear doors and that it would be another hour until it was repaired. I looked over at Joey across the aisle and his eyes were closed. I asked him if he’d heard the announcement and he nodded his head “Yes.” About an hour later he woke up and asked me why we hadn’t left yet! I told him about the landing gear and he smile and said, “You’re kidding, right?” I told him it was the truth and that he’d said he’d heard the announcement but he didn’t remember!

We finally took off and were three hours late getting to Manila. Then we had to wait another half hour for our luggage. Joey hadn’t been able to get online to check his e-mail for the instructions on where to meet our driver Willie. So we just went to the airport entrance and looked around. One of the security officers asked us if we needed help and we told him who we were looking for. He pointed across the street and pointed at a man and said that he might be who we were looking for. We looked over and Willie was there waving to us. We ran across the street with our luggage and Willie started loading everything into the SSD van. We told him we were glad to see him and he said that he’d been watching the boards for our flight and had seen that it was delayed, so he’d just waited there for us. We were very thankful!

There was about an hour drive from Manila to Silang and we arrived at the Southern Asia-Pacific Division Headquarters (SSD) at around 2:30 AM and got settled into our rooms. The suites are very nice and include a full kitchen, washer and dryer, couches and chairs, TV and fully stocked refrigerator. Tim and I shared suite number 141 and Joey and Ryan picked 144. Pastor Gerry was staying next to them in 145. We unpacked a little and talked a while, and then went to bed exhausted.

I'd been looking forward to this trip for some time since I knew I’d be seeing some old friends of mine. We hadn’t been to Florida in a while and Joey had set up a three-concert weekend for us. We had to leave Friday morning in order to make our first concert which was an evening concert at Lake City.

We had an uneventful trip down which gave us some time to practice a little. When we got there we were greeted by a couple of folks who’d heard the quartet way back when Joey and Tim were in academy. They’d also heard us at a couple of campmeetings along the way as well. They were interested to see if we’d improved at all over the past 15 years! After we got set up and did our sound check, they decided that the quartet sounded better than ever. We were glad to hear it!

The church is beautifully decorated with hardwood floors and contrasting pews and walls. The acoustics were a little too “live” since there was little carpet to absorb sound, and we had to compete with the natural room echo while we sang. But the concert went well and there was a good turnout for a Friday night meeting.

After we had our honor sales we packed up and headed to Gainesville where we would spend the night with my good friends and academy classmates Pastor Dan and Julie Graham. I graduated with them in 1991 from Laurelbrook Academy and Joey knew them from when he attended Laurelbrook also. Dan and I had also attended Southern Adventist University together back when it was called Southern College, and we’d both worked in the Landscape Services Department for several years as well.

Dan was waiting at the church when we arrived and helped us set up the sound system. We got to their house pretty late (I think it was around 11:00 PM) and after we were shown our rooms, Danny, Julie and I stayed up until about 1:00 AM catching up and talking about the good old days! They’d moved their two boys, Luke and Nathan, out of their room so we could sleep in there. I got a look at them while they were asleep and couldn’t believe how much they’ve grown since I saw them three years before!

The next morning Dan and Julie showed us where all the breakfast items were and left early for the church. The boys were very talkative before they left and were fascinated that we’d slept in their bunk-beds. After breakfast, we made our way to the church and got ready for the concert. The church members were friendly and receptive and the concert went very well. There was a fellowship meal planned for us so we made our way over to the gym. We sat with Dan, Julie, Luke and Nathan while we ate and listened to stories of what the boys had been doing over the past few months.

We went back to their house after packing up the equipment and they boys really didn’t want us to leave! They started showing me their toys and explaining what had happened to their dog Pumpkin; how she’d been lost for a long time and how they’d prayed and found her again. Luke also had a pet ''callerpitar'' which he was very proud of. They kept asking us if they could stay and we had to tell them that we had a concert in Ocala in a few hours and we had to leave. I drank a glass of lemonade with Dan and Julie before we left and I hugged everyone goodbye. I hope we can go back next year and visit again!

At Ocala I’d planned to meet my friend Adina Root. She and I had worked for several years at The Samaritan Center in Ooltewah. She’s been living in Florida for the past few years with her husband and daughter Syena. I’d never gotten to see Syena in person, so I was looking forward to seeing them both. Adina came just a few minutes after we got to the church and began setting up the equipment. Syena had grown so much since the last photo I’d seen and she was a little shy at first. While Adina and I talked, she slowly warmed up to me, and by the time they had to leave, she was calling me “man” and letting me pinch her cheeks.

The concert went well at Ocala, and as we drove home I was thankful that I’d been able to see some old friends and make some new friends with their kids!

The guys picked me up at OAKS since I was teaching there on Friday and we left around 2:00 PM. We stopped at Wal-Mart on the way to Greensboro, NC and picked up some cassettes for my camera and a tie for Ryan.

We arrived at the Greensboro church and set up the sound system before heading to the hotel for the night. The worship service went well at Greensboro and we headed to Raleigh for our afternoon concert.

The Raleigh Gethsemane SDA church has an interesting ''bowl'' shape which made it a bit of a challenge to set up the sound system. The house speakers had to be raised extremely high in order for the sound to reach the back pews. We also had a challenge setting up the projector because of the limited space on the platform. There was barely enough room for the mixer, stands and AWR banner, but we made it work. Joey was able to use the church's projector screen and a lectern for our projector. It was a tight fit, but we managed to squeeze everything in.

The concert went very well and the congregation seemed to love our faster song the most, although ''My Savior First of All'' received a hearty ''Amen!'' when we hit our last note. I think the people enjoyed Joey's AWR appeal almost as much as the music! While he was talking about how we sometimes take our religious freedom for granted, many of the people were encouraging him to ''Preach it, brother!'' It was inspiring to see so many people moved by the ministry of AWR. At the end of the concert I gave a testimony of how God is healing my ruptured eardrum. The congregation praised the Lord with me as I talked about His goodness.

After the concert we talked for a while with Pastor Lloyd Johnson about race relations among Adventist church members. It was an enlightening conversation and in the end we were all in agreement that only God’s grace and love can heal the wounds that Satan causes. It’s good to know that there are churches where you can feel accepted no matter what your skin color.