The Emmanuel Quartet: Phillip's Journal

This was another tour that almost didn’t happen. Tim and I were both sick the week before and we weren’t sure if we’d be able to sing. Some kind of virus hit us both and made it very hard to breathe, and we were both coughing and sneezing. Since we weren’t running a fever and weren’t bedridden, we decided to go ahead with the tour. Joey came down on Friday and stayed at the new Ooltewah Hampton Inn for the first time. At Avis they didn’t have any minivans, so they gave Joey a nice large Ford Expedition. He was worried at first that there wouldn’t be enough room for everything, but there turned out to be more than enough. The only problem was that the Expedition was so much higher off the ground than the vans that we had to lift the heavy equipment up twice as high!

Sabbath morning I met Joe at the hotel and left my car there. Then we met the other guys over at the music building. Tim brought his son Zachary with us and Ryan’s family followed us in their car. We didn’t have a long drive to Rossville and when we got there we set up the sound system. Since Tim and I weren’t feeling well, it was nice to have two strong teenage boys to help us carry in the equipment. The concert was a little rough since Tim and I were congested, but the angels must’ve been singing with us because the congregation seemed to enjoy it. After the sign-up sales were over we packed up everything to head to Maryville.

After we stopped for lunch, I started to feel congested again so we stopped so I could take some medicine. I also popped in a “Fisherman’s Friend” cough drop. I mentioned to Joey about how strong they were and Zach became curious about them. I told him that it was what the fishermen up in New England use during the harsh winters out on the sea to keep them from coughing. He wanted to try one. After a few minutes he started making comments like, “Whew!” and “That’s strong!” Finally he said, “How do they fish with these things in their mouths?!?”

Ryan and his son Tyler had gone home after our Rossville concert so they could pack up their fishing gear. They were going to go to the Smoky Mountains for a fishing trip after our concert at Maryville. So Tim, Joey, Zach and I went on ahead to the church to set up. We’ve sung at the Maryville church several times, but I always enjoy going there. It’s a small, wooden chapel with beautiful landscaping and it has great acoustics because of the wooden floors and ceiling. After setting up the system, Joey, Tim and I warmed up with “Draw Me, Lord” which is a song we’d been working on. It went so well that Tim wanted to sing it at the end of the concert. When Ryan and Tyler arrived we went over it with Ryan and we all decided to give it a try.

The church was full by the time the concert started and the pastor introduced us to the congregation. My decongestant was working so I didn’t have too much trouble singing, but I did feel a little weak and shaky several times, so I just sat down when I had the chance. Tim and I didn’t collapse and the concert actually went pretty well. When it came time to sing “Draw Me, Lord” I was a little nervous, but it came out well. It was a good way to end the concert. Afterward, we tried to cram into the small foyer with our product table while the pastor’s wife interviewed Joey and Ryan for their church newsletter. We took down the equipment and hauled everything back out into the rain. It wasn’t raining too hard, but it had been raining all weekend, making it hard to stay dry while taking the equipment in and out.

We were all getting pretty hungry so we tried to find a CiCi’s Pizza. The GPS that we call “Janice” had been acting strange all day. When we followed her directions to what she called “ChiChi’s Pizza” there wasn’t one there. Joey punched in “Firehouse Subs” and when we followed her directions, she led us to McDonald’s! After teasing Joey about Janice, he decided to turn her off. He found the Firehouse Subs and we all enjoyed trying out their sandwiches. Ryan and Tyler were ready to get underway for their fishing trip, so we said goodbye as they argued over whether or not they were going to get up at the “crack of dawn” the next day.

The rest of us drove back to Chattanooga and got home pretty late. We dropped off Tim and Zach, and then Joey and I took the equipment to the storage room. And, of course since we were tired and it was late, something inconvenient had to happen. Joey put the door lock on the bumper and as he closed the door of the Expedition, he forgot to move the lock and it broke the key off inside. So we had to go all the way to Wal-Mart and buy a new lock and go back over and put it on. By the time we got to the hotel it was almost midnight and we sacked out. Joey had a 6:00 AM flight the next day, but I stayed until check-out time and was able to try the hot tub/whirlpool. It was a nice way to end the weekend!

I was teaching at the OAKS school on Friday so after I left for the day, I went to meet Joey at Four Corners in Collegedale. He’d already packed up the sound equipment in the van, so I went with him to Rite-Aid to get our standard tour accessories: bottled water, microphone batteries and Ricola throat drops. We stood in the parking lot afterwards and talked for a while before going to the music building to meet Tim and Ryan. It was so great to be back together again after not seeing each other for over a month. We had a two-hour drive to Marietta and as we drove we rehearsed and got caught up on what each other had been doing since our December concert in Maryland.

We got to the Marietta church and were able to set up our sound system. Pastor Asaftei was there waiting for us and we got everything squared away before going to the hotel for the night. We couldn’t get the projector to work, but the deacon said that he’d get one from the school for us to use the next day. The next morning at the church we did another brief sound check and then Joey went to rewrite the church concert order since we’d decided to change things around a bit. We gave a concert for each service and between services we met the pastor’s wife Sarah and talked to her for a while. She told us we would be having lunch at their house that afternoon.

The second service concert went much better than the first (as it usually does) and the congregation seemed to really enjoy the music. Ryan hit some amazingly low notes during the concert and we congratulated him afterward! When the concert was over we spent some time at the product table helping people sign up for their CDs and DVDs. It took a while since there were about 300 people at the second service. One man had come at the suggestion of his friends, and even though he was a Catholic, he told us that he thoroughly enjoyed the concert and he ended up getting three CDs. It makes me proud of our church to see people from other faiths feeling welcome enough to visit. He told me a joke from one single person to another: “My mother always told me that I could marry anyone I please, but the problem is that I never pleased anybody!” We had a great time meeting and talking to the church members. By the time we were all packed up, we were all pretty hungry and were ready for lunch.

Pastor Marius and Sarah didn’t live far from the church and when we arrived at their house the four of us jockeyed for a seat in their big comfortable chair! The aromas of wonderful dishes were in the air as we talked, and when we sat down at the table there were several unique dishes that we’d never seen before. Sarah named them for us and explained that they were Romanian dishes she’d learned to make over the years. Pastor Marius is from Romania originally and they both told us of their travels and of how they met. The meal was terrific and was filled with new flavors that we all enjoyed.

We talked for so long that we completely lost track of time. Joey realized that we were going to be late for our concert at Calhoun, so we quickly went outside to take a photo with the Asafteis and then we took off. The traffic was horrible as we tried to get on the Interstate. We don’t know why there were so many cars on the road in that particular area, but it took a long time just to get on the road we needed. We were running about a half hour late and Joey didn’t have the phone number of the lady who was opening the church for us, so we were hoping that she’d still be there when we arrived.

When we got there it was almost 4:40 and the church was open. The lady was there and she said that she was just starting to get concerned and had just thought about calling us! On top of being late, we found that there was absolutely no way to connect our laptop to the church’s projectors. Joey and the sound man from the church worked for at least half an hour to figure out a solution, but the connections that were available just would not work. So we had to make the decision to give our AWR presentations without the projector and slides. It also meant that we had to sing a lot more songs. We ended up singing 16 songs along with our AWR presentations and the offering appeal. We were very tired at the end, but it was a great concert and the people seemed to warm up as we sang. Joey’s brother Woody was there and he brought his four kids with him. It was good to see them all and I was amazed to see Jacob, Woody’s oldest son who is now almost 13, and then to think about when he was born and how old it made me feel!

This was a great tour, even though Satan tried to keep us from getting where we needed to be and he gave us technical difficulties with the equipment. I’ve learned over the years that if you’re doing God’s work, He’ll make sure you have everything you need. To paraphrase an AWR worker from Vietnam, “If this is the Lord’s work, in His way, we will never lack His providence for everything. He will supply every need. He called us, He equipped us. He will provide everything for this work.”

This was our long-awaited Christmas concert weekend up in Maryland and Tim, Ryan and I were up early on Sunday morning to catch our plane. Our flight from Chattanooga left around 6:00 AM. It was a very quick flight to Atlanta where we had a short layover. We got to the BWI airport in Maryland around 10:00. Joey was there to pick us up in his new Explorer and we were immediately off to buy four new red ties to wear with our black outfits.

We hit one store that didn’t have four matching ties, and then tried another store which had the normal holiday crowd and only one or two people running registers. We found the matching ties pretty quickly, but waited in line for about half an hour. While we were waiting, Tim went to find an iron for our travel-wrinkled clothes since we wouldn’t have time to run to the hotel. When we finally got out of the store we were starving and had just enough time to eat lunch at Chipotle (which we Tennessee boys love because we don’t have one down here) and then head to the GC for a sound check at 1:00.

At the General Conference headquarters Joey had a lot to do since he’s the Director of Audio/Visual. So while he worked on getting the stage lighting and sound ready, the three of us explored the building. We found a partitioned alcove on the second floor where Joey told us we could put our clothes and change later. When we went back down to the auditorium we got to meet violinist Jaime Jorge. He knew Ryan from academy since they both attended “rival” schools around the same time. When Joey was ready, Jaime got up on stage for his sound check. Joey outfitted him with his mic and while Jaime rehearsed, they set the volume levels. He did a practice run of “Carol of the Bells” which I really enjoyed. I was looking forward to hearing the whole song that night.

Not long after, we got up for our sound check. It was great to hear our new Christmas songs being sung into a sound system and it was also nice to get some practice in! While we were finishing up, a man came up to the stage and said he was supposed to play his drums for a Christmas concert that night. No one knew about any drums being played with any of the artists, and the man could give no details as to whom he was playing for or even if he was in the right location! We finally convinced him to go make a phone call and then he discovered he was playing for Lauri and Regina, a duet of ladies performing that night.

Throughout the afternoon, changes kept being made to the order of music and microphone changes were sprung on Joey, but he and his team managed to pull off everything quickly and efficiently. We rehearsed “O Holy Night” with all the artists several times before the director was comfortable with the way it went. We met Clayton Nunez who had been asked to fill in for the director, and he was also doing a great job of adjusting to the changes as they came.

Tim, Ryan and I had wanted to go to the hotel and iron our clothes and take showers, but there just wasn’t enough time to get there and back, so Ryan took a shower in the basement gym in the building. Tim and I skipped our showers in order to iron our clothes in the small alcove on the second floor. We freshened up and changed in the restroom and made ourselves presentable. When Joey had everything squared away, he came up to the alcove to tie his new red tie that we’d ironed for him.

When the concert started there were about 450-500 people there and we were all happy to see that many in attendance. Things got started off with the CJW Brazilian Youth Choir which is comprised of about 50 young people from Brazilian churches in the Washington area. I enjoyed their harmony and eclectic styles. They were followed by a duet of young ladies, “Lauri and Regina” who sang a beautiful version of “Sweet Little Jesus Boy.” Then, it was time for the quartet’s moment of truth. We got up and sang “This World,” “Light of the Stable,” and finally “Immanuel.” The songs went very well. We only had a couple of minor slip-ups: I sang harmony on a part that was supposed to be unison, and then on “Light of the Stable” Tim, Joey and I completely forgot to start with the intro of the song and went right into the first verse! But I don’t think anyone in the audience noticed and by the time we finished our last note on “Immanuel” everyone was applauding and cheering.

After our performance I went out into the audience to listen to Jaime and Javier. I got to hear Jaime’s complete version of “Carol of the Bells” and it was fantastic. After a few songs he gave a testimony of how God opened the doors of an airplane that was ready to take off. It was an amazing story of God’s power and how much we need to just trust Him.

Clayton had dressed up as “Bobo the Clown” and between sets he was trying to play something for the audience, but the stage mistress (who was also painted like a mime) wouldn’t let him play anything. He started with a tuba, she took it away and he pulled out a trombone. She kept taking away his instruments until he was down to a little finger-sized flute playing “Deck the Halls” very off-key! At the very end of the concert, he was allowed to play the piano, which he does very well.

When Javier finished his set, the choir and all the other musicians came back onstage and we all performed “O Holy Night” together. It went very well, even after all the changes that had been made. Then the directorial staff had a prayer and we all sang “Silent Night” with the congregation. It was a great evening and a wonderful concert. I’m glad to have been a part of it.

We went to our product table and sold a few CDs as the people filed out. We got to see Gerry Karst afterward and Ryan got to meet him for the first time. Gerry asked us if we’d like to go to the Philippines with him this year and we said we’d definitely try to make it happen. We were hungry after the long day so we went to IHOP and got pancakes for supper. Then Joey took us to the hotel and we went to bed since we had an early concert the next morning at the GC for the worship service.

We got there at 7:30 to get a sound check and when worship started at 8:00, Gerry Karst got up to introduce us and pray. He talked about our trip with him to Indonesia and also my current state of bachelorhood. He invited all the single young ladies to talk with me afterward! We sang for about half an hour and got to do “Do You Hear What I Hear?” which we hadn’t been able to do the night before. It went well and everyone seemed to like it. Joey talked a little about our affiliation with AWR and how glad we are to be ministry partners with them. Then we sang “This World” for those who weren’t there the night before and then we finished off with “The Ballad of Elisha’s Bones.” When Gerry had closing prayer, we headed back to the product table. There were about 130 people there and we did very well with CD sales. Joey and I got to see Mrs. Sabot, who is the mother of a friend of ours, Luc Sabot. Luc is the President of the Senegal/Mauritania Conference and a fellow graduate from Laurelbrook Academy. Of course, since it was announced that I’m single, Gerry’s wife brought a single young lady to our table and introduced her to me! Then, his brother’s wife took me on a tour of the building for the sole purpose of showing me the other single ladies who work there!

Our afternoon consisted of a metro ride to D.C. to visit the National Museum of American History and then lunch at BD’s, one of my new favorite restaurants. Joey took his daughter Sarah with us and she had fun with the guys eating at BD’s and going to the museum. We saw some amazing pieces of Americana there, even though the exhibits we had intended to see were under renovation. I think my favorite exhibits were The Star-Spangled Banner and the hand-written copy of the Gettysburg Address. I honestly didn't know that the original flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write what became our National Anthem still existed. It's been remarkably preserved over the years and is now in a state-of-the-art enclosure behind tinted glass.

We had a long train ride back to Joey’s car and Sarah fell asleep on the way back. We made it to the airport and said goodbye to Joey, happy with the way the weekend had gone. Joey gave Tim a big box of barely-used batteries to take back with us, and when Tim went through security, they made him open up the heavy box and show them what was inside. We still managed to make it to our gate and leave BWI, but our plane left very late and we were worried that we wouldn’t make our next flight in Atlanta.

Sure enough, we arrived in Atlanta late and then sat in the plane for another 15 minutes. When we finally got off, we had to rush to the transport train, go to the other end of the airport and then run some more to our gate. We got to the gate out of breath at exactly 9:30, the time our plane was to have left. Then we were informed that the plane had left 15 minutes early! There was no other flight to Chattanooga that day, so they gave us hotel and food vouchers and new tickets for the earliest flight the next day. But since Tim and Ryan had to be to work the next day, we really needed to get home. After talking with Delta for a while, they told us that there was a shuttle van leaving for Chattanooga in a few minutes. They took back our vouchers and gave us tickets for the shuttle service, and then we ran full speed again with all our luggage to try to catch the shuttle. I don’t know how Tim managed to run so fast with 20 pounds of batteries, but I think his tae-kwon-do classes are paying off! Of course when we got there, the van was full and there wasn’t another scheduled to leave. But we talked to one of the drivers who talked to Delta and finally a van was found that was leaving in another hour. So we sat outside at the shuttle station talking to a man who was traveling from Denver back to Chattanooga. We hadn’t had anything to eat since lunch, so when Ryan came back from the restroom, he brought candy bars and water. That sustained us for the two-hour ride back home.

We were so tired that we dozed all the way there. We got back around 1:00 and then Tim’s wife Becky picked us up from the shuttle service. To top off our horrendous trip home, Becky had to make the comment “I hope we don’t get stopped by the cops for our tail light.” And, naturally, within two minutes of her saying that, we were stopped. The officer was nice, but it was the last thing we wanted since we were so exhausted and just wanted to go to bed! After I got dropped off at my car, I drove on home and didn’t get to bed until about 3:00 AM, but I was just happy that the weekend had been a success and that we all got home safely.

This weekend started off on a sour note…literally. I was supposed to meet Joey in Collegedale for lunch around noon but he called me from the Atlanta airport and told me that he was very sick. He sounded very sick. He told me he’d been up all night and had only gotten about an hour of sleep. He said he was going to try to rest a little before we left Collegedale. I met him and the guys later in the afternoon and he was still so sick that he didn’t feel like driving. I can only remember that happening twice before in the history of the group. So Tim drove down to Montgomery, Alabama while Joey rested in the passenger seat. Of course, it started raining halfway through the trip and we told Tim that every time he drives it seems to rain cats and dogs!

Joey told us that he’d eaten something at a fast food restaurant the day before and had gotten sick during the night. From what he told us, we all believe he’d gotten a case of food poisoning. The sickness stayed with him all weekend and it was only by a lot of prayer and rest that he was able to make it through three concerts.

We arrived at the Montgomery church pretty late on Friday night and went ahead and set up the sound system and product. Pastor Mahorney was there to greet us and let us in. We made Joey take it easy and rest since he’d loaded the van by himself earlier that day. We found the hotel after setting up and Joey was able to get a good night’s rest, although he still couldn’t eat much the next day. We said a prayer and headed for the church Sabbath morning.

The concert at Montgomery went pretty well despite Joey’s illness. They had a potluck afterwards and Joey carefully took part. We were able to see a few people we knew, like the Hobbs family. Joey knew Norm from childhood and I believe I’d met April from back when I was attending Laurelbrook Academy and she was going to Little Creek. We didn’t have much time to enjoy the meal because we had an evening concert at Lagrange. Ryan drove the two-hour trip so Joey could rest.

When we arrived at the church we saw a wild turkey browsing in the church’s front yard. We didn’t see any others, but usually they travel in flocks, so there were probably others hiding in the woods. Pastor Murdoch was there to greet us and open the church. We had enough time to set up and get a sound check. Joey was still feeling sick, so we had a special prayer right before the concert. The Lord blessed us with a respectable turnout for a Saturday night concert and Joey held up throughout the concert. From the comments afterward and the CD sales, the congregation must’ve enjoyed our presentation. It was our first time ever singing there, and the pastor and church members were gracious and friendly. They wanted to get us back soon for a church service concert.

After we packed up we headed back toward Chattanooga. We got in pretty late, but Joey had booked a hotel for me and him while the other guys went home. The next morning we met at the Ooltewah United Methodist Church at 8:30 for prayer with the church leaders. Earlier that week, Tim and I had met at the church with Sam Marks who is the music leader and who knew our music very well. They wanted us to not only sing a few songs for their traditional worship service, but they also wanted us to participate in their contemporary service by singing along with their worship music. Tim and I met Sam on Thursday to go over the songs and familiarize ourselves with the music and while we were traveling on the way back from Lagrange we listened to the songs and tried to find our parts. On Sunday morning we all got to meet Sam and go over the service order. After prayer we set up our product table and waited for the traditional service to begin. We thought we had plenty of time since we weren’t supposed to sing until after the offering, so Joey told us he was going to the restroom. Not long after he stepped away, Sam got up and introduced the quartet and we were on! Not being able to go get Joey, we just walked up and tried to stall while he came back from the restroom. Ryan said, “I assume all of you know how to count and you know that there are not three people in a quartet.” Everyone laughed as we told them that our lead singer was in the restroom and that we would just talk until he arrived. We didn’t have to talk long because Joey came walking up the aisle after a few minutes. He apologized to everyone and told them he’d been sick for a couple of days but that the Lord had been helping him through the weekend. We sang three songs and they seemed to enjoy it even when Joey forgot some words and Tim sang the same verse of “Peaceful Side of Jordan” twice!

After the sermon we sold a few CDs and then went over to the contemporary service. The church has a full band and it was strange to sing with drums, bass, keyboards and guitars. But we were very blessed by participating in the service and I personally felt uplifted and inspired during the song service. Sam did invite us to sing one song by ourselves and we chose “The Ballad of Elisha’s Bones.” It went over well and they even had a CD giveaway to a lady who had to guess which one of us was the oldest. She guessed Ryan “since he spoke first,” and since she was correct, we gave her a copy of “A New Day.”

Worshiping with these fellow Christians was a great experience for us. We were blessed to be there and to make new friends. I hope we can go back soon and perform a full concert for the congregation.

After the service, we went our separate ways, but not before meeting Tim’s friend Dennis and his son Josh who’d been camping with the Boy Scouts. They were out in the parking lot with Tim’s other friend Will Council and they were telling us about camping in the 20° weather and waking up with a dusting of snow on their tents!

Joey had an early flight the next morning so we let him go back to the hotel to get some more rest. We thanked God that Joe had made it through the weekend intact and that we had such a great tour even though the devil was trying to hinder our efforts. God is good and now we’re looking forward to our Christmas performances at the General Conference in December.

It was a short weekend for us this tour since we only had two concerts down in Georgia. The first was in Gainesville on Sabbath morning and it went well. We had the normal “morning” voices and were a little shaky since we hadn’t been together in over a month. But the concert went well and we made it to the Athens church for our afternoon appointment.

The pastor of the Athens church, Jose Nieves, is the former associate pastor of the Ooltewah SDA Church where Ryan attends and where Joey attended when he lived in the area. The pastor and his wife were happy to see us when we arrived. Joey, Ryan, Pastor Jose and Debbie caught up on old times while we unloaded the van and set up the equipment.

Joey had intended to surprise Pastor Jose during the concert by singing a song that he had co-written with Pastor Jose several years ago. Tim almost ruined the surprise by asking Pastor Jose, “Didn’t you write a song with Joey a few years ago?” Fortunately, he didn’t suspect what Joey was up to, even after Joey asked to borrow his guitar. During the concert Joey told the congregation that their pastor was a songwriter and related the story of how “Let the Spirit Lead” was written.

The rest of the concert went well and we sold a few copies of the new album afterward. Pastor Jose helped us pack up and told us about the best places to eat in town. After supper we headed home and got in pretty late. Even though it was a short weekend, the Lord blessed and took care of us.

We had more drama trying to leave Chattanooga this weekend. Last time it was unbalanced tires. This time it was Vice President Cheney. We’d planned on leaving as early as possible since we had a long drive ahead to get to Columbus. The Chattanooga airport hadn’t received one of Joey’s bags and they weren’t expected to receive it until after 3:00. I was in Hixson when Joey arrived from Atlanta, so I volunteered to pick up his bag on the way in to Ooltewah.

Unbeknownst to me, Vice President Cheney had just arrived at the Chattanooga airport and the police were just beginning to block the roads when I left Hixson. Joey called to let me know that the VP had arrived and that there may be traffic, and no sooner did I hang up than the traffic slowed to a crawl. I eventually made it to the airport after about half an hour and the Delta attendant was waiting for me. I got Joey’s bag (which had a projector we needed for Saturday night) and hurried to Ooltewah. We left around 5:00 and made great time to the church in Columbus. Pastor Johns was waiting for us and we set up the sound system and product table. After a sound check, we made our way to the hotel and checked in. Tim’s son Zachary came with us this time and I think he was excited to be staying in a hotel, although, being a pre-teen, he’d never admit it!

The concert the next day was good (for a morning concert) and the church was full. We didn’t have time to stay for a fellowship dinner since we had to make it back to Ooltewah for an evening concert. We hurried back and made it in time to swing by my car and let me go pick up some extra speakers from the storage room. As we were unloading everything at the church, Joey told us that we’d rented the exact same van before because he found a Rite-Aid receipt under the seat for Ricolas, two cases of water, and 9-volt batteries. Who else would buy all of those items in one weekend?

While we were setting up, I noticed an older man looking at the poster on the door to the Fellowship Hall. I encouraged him and his wife to come to the concert and he said they were planning on it. I saw them later after the concert and found out that they’d recently moved from South Africa and were just getting to know the area. They thanked me for inviting them and said they enjoyed the music. Then I saw them again as they were leaving and noticed that they’d bought two CDs!

We’d looked forward to the Ooltewah concert for several months, promoting and planning and trying to make sure people from all over the area would come. The turnout was great (almost 270) and the concert was fun. We had connected the church’s house speakers to our system to give us more volume, but apparently they were too much for our amp and we had to disconnect them when we noticed that all four weren’t working. Fortunately it happened before we started singing and Joey was able to just disconnect them and everything worked fine after that. The concert was fun and it was nice to see familiar faces and talk to old friends afterward.

The next day we got the opportunity to make new friends at the Alpine Baptist Church in Hixson. Martha Jeffery had heard us sing at the MorningPointe retirement center back in July and she booked us at Alpine that very day. Martha greeted us at the church and was very gracious to us as we set up our equipment. She introduced us to Pastor Jimmy and his wife Amy and we felt very welcome. It was a homecoming Sunday so there were a lot of people filling the pews as the service started. The pastor’s wife, Amy, read an original poem that she’d written about the fellowship of the church and how much they meant to her. By the end, everyone was in tears and we commented that we’d have a hard time following her! We sang for about 50 minutes and threw in “This Ol’ House” since it’s a good Southern Gospel song, and everyone enjoyed the old favorites along with our new music. When we finished, Pastor Jimmy came up and spoke for a few minutes. He started by saying that he was impressed with us because “most groups would’ve stopped singing when their sound equipment didn’t work right!” I guess acappella music is even less common than we thought! When he was finished, the church presented Pastor Jimmy and Amy with a framed Kinkade painting to celebrate five years of service to Alpine Baptist.

We started making our way to the dining room to eat lunch. It was nice to fellowship with the church members and to eat home cooking. We had our sales table set up by the door and we were beginning to think that no one was interested. Then, as lunch was winding down, we realized that everyone just wanted to eat first because that’s when people started coming to the table! Alpine Baptist is a wonderful, friendly congregation and we hope we can sing for them again very soon.

We’d planned on singing for the inmates at Silverdale Prison later that day, but when we arrived the chaplain told us that they were in lockdown and no visitors were being allowed. It was unfortunate, but we knew there was a reason the Lord didn’t want us to be there that day. So we called it a weekend and counted our blessings. I was glad to have Zachary along because he took some great photos and helped run my video camera so I could get some video of our Ooltewah concert. He also helped carry and set up our equipment all weekend. He’s our new “roadie” in training!

We left Chattanooga on Friday for a 6 hour trip to North Carolina. We left about an hour later than we’d wanted to because the tires on the rental van were extremely unbalanced. Joey had to take it to the Exxon and have them balance and rotate the tires. But we finally made it out of Chattanooga and on the way we practiced our new songs and got in some catch-up time since we hadn’t seen each other for almost a month and a half. We made the trip in good time and got to the hotel around 10:30 PM.

After only about 5 hours of sleep, we headed over to the Charlotte Sharon SDA Church. My good friend David Graham is the associate pastor there and it was great to see him again and visit with his wife Balinda and their kids, Davey, Sarah and Alyssa, all of whom have grown many inches since I saw them last. The quartet had been invited to sing for both church services, so after setting up our sound system, we gave a concert for the 9:00 service. After the concert I was able to chat for a while with Balinda and catch up on what’s been happening with their family. When I was attending Southern Adventist University with David’s brother Danny, we all used to congregate at Dave and Balinda’s house each day for lunch and have nice long talks about life, the universe and everything. It was nice to be able to see them again after so many years and have a chance to catch up.

During the preliminaries of the second service, the congregation surprised Pastor Dave and Balinda by having them come up front and then presenting them with a gift celebrating their one-year anniversary of coming to Charlotte Sharon. Senior Pastor Minner Labrador thanked them personally for their ministry and David thanked the church family for making them feel so welcome over the past year. Later, for the children’s story, Ryan had volunteered to tell his squirrel/bear story and it went over with its usual success. It’s always fun to see the adults' reactions as well as the kids’ when Ryan gets to the climax of that story.

The concert went much better for the second service since we’d adjusted the sound system a bit and had gotten our voices warmed up. Afterward, we had our product available and people seemed to like being able to get their CDs on Sabbath and have us call them later about payment. Our new album “A New Day” is selling well and the songs are sounding better in concert as we’ve gotten more comfortable singing them. Everyone seems to enjoy “The Ballad of Elisha’s Bones” and “Peaceful Side of Jordan” but we still have requests for our older songs. In fact, Dave and Balinda’s son, Davey told us that he was a little disappointed after the concert because we didn’t sing “Dig A Little Deeper!”

The Grahams had wanted us to come to their house for lunch, but we weren’t able to take them up on their offer since we had a concert at Hickory that evening. So Balinda was gracious enough to make a home-cooked meal and bring it to the church for a fellowship meal that just included us and the Grahams! The food was delicious and we were able to spend some more time catching up on old times. I reminded them of the last time we came to sing at their church when they were pastoring in Florida. We had Danny Anderson with us at the time and when we went to their house they'd had a fish tank with a Plecostomus algae eater. Danny couldn’t pronounce “plecostomus” and kept saying “plecoctopus” which made the kids think he was the funniest guy they’d ever seen. That led to a discussion with Davey about the wild minnows he’s been catching for their fish tank, one of which they’d brought with them all the way from Florida. We’d told Davey that we might sing “Dig A Little Deeper” for him after lunch, but Tim had started to feel under the weather and we decided it’d be best to save his voice. After the meal, we said our good-byes and headed to Hickory which was only a couple of hours away.

The concert at Hickory had been arranged at the last minute by Joey and Pastor Marc Swearingen. The quartet had been to the church several years ago, before Pastor Marc had been there, so it was a blessing that he’d let us come on short notice, never having heard our music before. He was very helpful in getting us set up and offered to help us with anything we needed. At concert time there were a good number of people there for a Saturday night program, and everyone seemed to enjoy our music and the message about Adventist World Radio. Product sales were very good after the concert and Pastor Marc was already thinking ahead to having us for a church service in January. Hickory is a very friendly and warm congregation and we’re excited to have the possibility of going back there soon.

Tim had become very congested during the afternoon and he was a real trooper to get through the concert feeling as bad as he did. We medicated him and he tried to get some sleep Saturday night. On the way back home on Sunday, Tim felt a little better, so we played the “Name That TV Theme Song” game with the “TV Tunes” CDs. It was fun to reminisce about all the old TV shows we used to watch growing up. Joey had an afternoon flight and we made it back to Collegedale in plenty of time. The Lord really blessed the weekend financially for AWR and by allowing us to reconnect with old friends and to meet a lot of new friends.

And, incidentally, the van drove very smoothly the whole weekend…

Learning a new song is fun. Learning 11 new songs is even more fun. But performing them all together for the first time (in front of an audience) is a bit intimidating and nerve-wracking! That’s what happened this weekend for the quartet since it was the first tour with our new album “A New Day.” The album officially released on July 15 and we’d been already receiving online orders for it, but we had four concerts this weekend and finally had the CDs in hand to take with us.

Our first concert was at the Morning Pointe assisted living center in Collegedale. We had been there about a year ago and were well-received by the residents. This time there was an even warmer welcome as we sang our new songs. There were several people from the community in the audience along with family of some of the residents. After the concert I was able to chat with a couple of ladies whom I’d known over the years: Mrs. Traxler and Mrs. Rubeye Nabors. They were happy to see me and to know the quartet is still touring. Joey had flown down with his son Sam, and he sat with his grandpa and “Auntie Em” during the concert. Sam toured with us all weekend and sat through four concerts on the front row. He behaved very well for an energetic six year-old boy! We were all proud of him.

After Morning Pointe we went by the storage room to pick up some AWR items and then we were on our way to McMinnville. It was a tight fit in the Grand Caravan since Sammy and his car seat were there, but one of Joey’s many talents is packing, so we had room for everything we needed. We stayed at a hotel overnight and the next morning we went to the McMinnville SDA church where Joey’s brother Rob was waiting for us.

The concert went well and we even sold a few CDs before the concert even started. Afterward we went to Rob’s house where he and his wife Sonya had haystacks for lunch. Some of us almost fell asleep right before lunch, but I was kept awake by watching Sammy play with Sonya’s newest cat, Happy. She was a cute and very playful kitten which kept Sammy (and us) entertained for about half an hour. Ryan and Rob discussed their shared affection for the sport of cycling. After a delicious lunch Rob opened up his copy of “A New Day” and we all listened to some of the songs for a while. Then, since we had another concert in Dayton, we packed everyone back into the van for the ride to the Ogden Road Church.

There had been a mix-up about the concert time, so we arrived a little earlier than we should have, but it gave us plenty of time to set up and get a good sound-check. The concert went very well and there were lots of people there whom Joey and I knew, including his mom, who works at Laurelbrook School which is only about a mile from the church. After the concert we spent some time signing CDs and chatting with everyone. By the time we arrived at our hotel in Cookeville, Sammy was exhausted and it didn’t take any of us long to sack out!

The next day we had quite a while before our evening concert at the Caney Fork Baptist Church, so we slept in and ate a leisurely breakfast. We had been hoping that the Gerhart Memorial SDA Church in Cookeville would let us in to practice new Christmas music, and we were fortunate that they were decorating for their upcoming VBS. We had the sanctuary to ourselves and were able to decide on our Christmas songs and spend a few hours learning them. Ryan even met a woman with whom he’d attended Broadview Academy years ago and they chatted for a while. Everyone at the church was so kind and accommodating to us. We were very thankful for their hospitality.

A couple of hours before concert time, we arrived at the Baptist church to set up. David, the music minister who had invited us before, was there to greet us and open the church. Later, Pastor Steve Thornton came in and welcomed us. David’s young daughter gave us a tour of the whole building and we were surprised at how large the basement and fellowship rooms were. Later, during the concert, we joked that we shouldn’t eat at Golden Corral right before a concert, and that we should always know to save room for the fellowship meal that follows the Sunday night meetings at Caney Fork. The concert went very well, and sure enough, there was a fellowship meal with all kinds of good food afterward. It was hard to sign CDs, talk to people and eat at the same time, but we took turns at the product table. Everyone seemed to be very happy with the new songs and the new album, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more welcoming and friendly group of Christians than at Caney Fork Baptist.

It was a long drive back to Collegedale, but we were happy with the new concert and with the sales of the new album. We had plenty of time to talk about the weekend and to reflect on the future. God is doing great things with the quartet, and I’m glad I’m a part of such a ministry. It’s a new day!

This was a weekend that we’d been looking forward to for a long time since it was our first trip to Utah as a group. We’d been asked to be the musicians for the Nevada/Utah camp meeting in June so Tim, Ryan and I left from Chattanooga and flew to Atlanta Friday morning. We met Joey at the Atlanta airport since he’d flown directly from Maryland.

We ate lunch at the airport and boarded our flight to Salt Lake City. I sat by a small boy who looked to be about eight or nine and a lady whom I assumed was his mother. Halfway into the flight I noticed that the lady never spoke to him and he never spoke to her. I helped him with his headphones when the movie started, and I discovered that he was flying alone. He was flying from Birmingham to Salt Lake City, then on to Seattle. I felt for him because he was getting tired of being cramped on planes, but the flight attendants were taking good care of him. He and I had some good conversations during the five-hour flight.

After arriving in Salt Lake City, we had to find the campground located in Springville. It was a nice sight-seeing trip for us Tennessee boys who like our Smoky Mountains, to be able to see some “real” mountains capped with snow even in June. While we drove, we listened to the first unofficial copy of our new album “A New Day.” Joey had brought a final edited version for us to hear and we thoroughly enjoyed being able to listen to the entire album. It was a nice trip, but we started to get a little concerned as the time for our first performance drew closer and we still hadn’t found the campground. After our GPS failed us several times because it was set on “best route” instead of “fastest time,” we decided to just trust Joey’s sense of direction to get us there.

We pulled into the campground with 20 minutes left before time to sing. We met Debbie Delaney who had helped arrange our trip, and she helped us find a room to change and prepare. We were able to get changed and warm up in time to meet with Lonnie Melashenko and the platform team and walk out into the auditorium. After the program, we talked briefly with Lonnie and his wife, but we started to feel the jet lag from moving into Mountain Time from Eastern Time. So we squared everything away for the next day and made our way to the hotel where we were staying.

Although we were tired, we woke up feeling pretty good the next morning since we “gained” an extra two hours of sleep from the time change. It was a beautiful day, and although we were in suits and ties, there was a lot less humidity than in Tennessee, which made the weather more comfortable. We met briefly with the new Conference President, who, in the confusion of learning new names, heard Tim’s name pronounced as “Jim Breedlove” instead of Tim Reutebuch, and for a while Tim seemed to be stuck with that!

The campground was an idyllic place for a camp meeting. It was a valley surrounded by part of the Central Rockies mountain range on three sides, some of which were snowcapped. After lunch, several intrepid groups of teens and young people ventured up the closest peak and back down in what seemed a very short time. We were able to see a pair of nesting swallows building their home on the side of the auditorium, one mouthful of mud at a time. There were also what we thought were cottonwood trees producing lots of floating white particles of what looked like fine cotton strands. It was a beautiful setting, and the messages from Lonnie Melashenko were inspiring.

During the church service, Lonnie spoke about the wonderful things that God is doing through the ministry of The Voice of Prophecy. He shared how God’s love is being shared with Native Americans or “First People” as they are called in Canada. There are also programs being rolled out to engage young people and small children in learning more about God’s love. Mrs. Melashenko then shared letters from people who had been disillusioned by Islam and were seeking VOP Bible studies even though it could mean death from their own relatives if they were discovered. Then we sang a couple of songs, including “Lift Up the Trumpet” with Lonnie narrating his lines from the VOP broadcast. Then he gave a powerful message about the way God gave humanity a preview of the plan of salvation by asking Abraham to sacrifice his son on Mount Moriah. While we sang “Softly and Tenderly” Lonnie gave an appeal and many came forward to rededicate their lives to Christ.

After the service, we ate haystacks at the back of the auditorium with the Melashenkos and the Conference President and his wife. Then we went to prepare for our afternoon concert. Those who were in charge of the sound system let us make a few changes and Joey adjusted it for our voices. The concert went very well, and we saw several people singing along with many of the songs. We performed several new songs for the first time this weekend, including “Children’s Medley” and “If We Miss Heaven.” We made sure that the people knew our new album would be ready soon and that these songs were a sample from it.

Later, as the sun was setting beautifully behind the mountains, we had the opportunity to go to the youth tent and sing some songs since many of them hadn’t been able to hear the concert. Surprisingly, they loved the music and started clapping in rhythm. Then we went back over to the auditorium to sell our product. We tried to get a video of us singing “Lift Up the Trumpet” with Lonnie, but we had technical difficulties with the camera and it didn’t work out. But we were able to get some photos with him and talk a little more about the weekend.

As we headed home the next day, we were grateful to have been a part of an inspiring camp meeting in the awe-inspiring backdrop of God’s natural world.

We left Chattanooga around 6:00 and stopped for supper in Calhoun. We arrived at the Lakeview Church in Powder Springs, GA around 8:30. We had intended to be there at 8:00, but Joey was using a rental GPS unit and it was set for “fastest travel time” instead of “fastest route.” Because of that we had to make a few U-turns to find the church. Also, Joey had sung at Lakeview as a soloist a few years ago and the church had been at a different location then. The associate pastor of the church is Kenwyn Sealy who had, at one time, been a student pastor at the Ooltewah SDA church. Joey and Ryan were both members at Ooltewah when Kenwyn was there, so they both knew him very well. He had the church open when we arrived and we set up our equipment and got a sound check. We couldn’t quite get the monitors to sound the way we wanted them, but we figured we could adjust them the next day.

The only hotel available was a Hilton which Joey had booked ahead of time, and when we arrived we were impressed with the size of the place. The lobby was huge and ornate, and the staff seemed very eager to please. We felt a little underdressed until we noticed other guests wearing shorts and T-shirts. On the way up to our rooms, I dropped a lot of the stuff I was carrying, including my breakfast ticket which sailed through the air and slipped effortlessly through the crack between the elevator and the floor and went down the shaft. We had to call the front desk and tell them about it, and they gave Joey another one for me.

The next morning we had a very good breakfast and got to the church around 9:30. The church was full by 11:00 when the service started and before we got up to sing I was able to chat with Sherry Spencer with whom I’d attended Laurelbrook Academy. Her husband, Todd had been my roommate there and I was able to catch up with him after the concert and see his three children who have all grown considerably since I saw them last. The congregation seemed to enjoy our music, even though we only had time to sing 7 songs. Everyone laughed at the photos of my dogs, and when said I was single, a young lady from the front row shouted, “Marry me!”

At 1:00 we packed up and headed to the Atlanta Metro Church for a 3:00 concert. Despite traffic and the GPS giving us the wrong directions again, we made it to the church by 2:15 and were able to be ready by 3:00. After singing only 8 songs we packed up and made our way to the Grandview SDA Church for a 7:15 concert.

We arrived at Grandview in plenty of time to set up and speak with the pastor, Leon Smith. When we got there, he was having a meeting with several of the church members whom we found out later had stayed all morning and afternoon, then stayed for the concert. We had a good conversation with Pastor Smith right before the concert. He drew the parallel between the Holy Spirit and the dove that Noah sent out after the Flood. Just like Noah’s dove, the Holy Spirit can’t find a place to rest in our lives because our hearts are filled with the dead things and debris of the world. It was an inspiring conversation.

We were able to sing our entire concert since it was our last one of the day, and the congregation seemed to enjoy every song. By the time the day was over, we’d sold all of the DVDs we’d brought and almost all of the CDs. On our way back home we were starving because we’d skipped lunch, so we stopped at Fuddrucker’s and had a very good meal. Since it was close to 10:00 we weren’t sure they’d let us in, but they did, and as they were cleaning up, one of the staff asked what we were doing in town. Joey told him we were a quartet and he asked us to sing something. We were all so full and our voices were tired, but we always like opportunities like this, so we belted out “Swing Down” for him. As we finished, there was a round of applause from the corner of the restaurant, and we were surprised to see a family clapping for us. They were just finishing their meal too, and they came over to ask about the quartet. We gave them a business card and they told us they enjoyed the serenade!

On Sunday we had the privilege of accompanying Ryan to Silverdale Prison to sing for a group of inmates there. Ryan has been going to the prison for several years, leading song service and preaching. We felt blessed to have the chance to join him, and the inmates enjoyed the music so much that they gave us a standing ovation! Ryan spoke about Elisha’s request for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, and led into the story that was the inspiration for “The Ballad of Elisha’s Bones.” Then we sung the song to end the meeting and we knew the Holy Spirit was there. Praise God for allowing us to witness and to be witnessed to by these men. I know that we were as blessed as they were.

We left Chattanooga around 2:00 on our first tour with Ryan as our new bass. We were headed to Montgomery, Alabama for an evening concert at 7:00. Since we were moving into Central time we were able to get to the church in plenty of time to set up our sound system and introduce ourselves to Pastor Barry Mahorney who was there to open the church for us. We started the concert around 7:15 and had about 20 people in attendance. Ryan did very well for his first concert in about 5 years! He said that the old songs came back to him and it was “like putting on an old hat!”

We packed up everything and left around 9:15 and headed for Mobile. After we stopped to eat a bite, we ran into some very bad weather. Joe had just turned over the wheel to Tim because he’d gotten tired and then the rain started pouring down. There was lots of lightning and thunder, and when the sky lit up you could see the ominous clouds circling overhead. At several places Tim had to slow down to about 30 MPH, and the wipers were barely keeping the rain off the windshield. The Lord kept us safe and we made it to the hotel at about 1:00 AM.

Sabbath morning we got to the Cody Road SDA church around 8:30 to set up and do a sound check. The church members were very friendly and we got to meet the pastor and elders before the service. Right before the children’s story, Pastor Tracy grabbed Joey’s pitch pipe which was up on the platform, and blew a couple of notes into the microphone! Everyone laughed when he said, “I’ve always wanted to do that!” As we were listening to the story, the pastor’s wife came up to the front row, handed me a sanitizing wipe and whispered, “I’m the pastor’s wife, and here’s a wipe for that instrument he blew!”

When we got up front, Joey told the congregation what the pastor’s wife had done and then he used the wipe on the pitch pipe while everyone laughed! The concert went very well and the response from the congregation was excellent. After a first-rate fellowship meal, we took down our equipment and went back to the hotel to rest up for the evening concert.

The church at St. Elmo was putting on a benefit concert as a fund-raiser for a mission trip, and we had been invited to be a part of the music for the evening. Also performing were local musicians including N2Deep, MercySent and a soloist called Monique. Pastor Vaughn had the opening prayer and introduced our quartet members as “Larry, Curly and Moe!” Ryan piped up from the front row and said, “I’m Curly!”

Jerry Pugh, a member of a local Baptist church, started off the evening by leading a rousing song service. Then the group MercySent opened the concert by singing some good barbershop numbers. The group consists of Jonathan Stewart, his wife Jennifer, her brother Gary Hilton and Scott Roberts.

After MercySent, Monique performed a few songs. Before the concert, some of the church members had been telling us about her and everyone said she was a terrific musician. When she sang her first song we were so amazed by the passion and feeling that she showed while she sang. She truly has a fantastic voice and it was a pleasure to hear her sing and share her testimony.

After Monique, another quartet called N2Deep sang more terrific barbershop arrangements of some familiar tunes. N2Deep is Jonathan Stewart, Gary Hilton, Scott Roberts and Jimmy Ely. I particularly enjoyed their rendition of “Sweet Hour of Prayer.”

When N2Deep finished, The Emmanuel Quartet got up to sing. During our part of the concert, Pastor Vaughn came up to explain that the benefit concert was for a group of volunteers who were going to Panama to conduct evangelistic meetings and VBS programs. Tim made an appeal to the congregation and over $700 was raised. We were privileged to have participated in this benefit concert with such talented musicians.

After the concert, Shedel Hilton invited us to a local Thai restaurant and since none of us had really tried Thai food before, it was a real treat. The guys from N2Deep sang a few songs while we waited for our food, the most memorable of which was their extended version of “Side By Side.” We had a great time trying the delicious Thai food and singing “Can He Could He Would He” for a little girl named Cayden who had requested the song at the concert. It’s always great to share food and fellowship with our friends from Mobile.

During dinner, Jerry Pugh asked if we’d be able to sing for his church the next morning on our way home. So after we checked out of the hotel Sunday morning, we made our way to the Creola First Baptist church. We sang about six songs during the service and the people seemed to enjoy our music. After the service, Jerry said that they’d like to have us back for a full concert the next time we were in the area.

We got back home late Sunday evening a little tired, but happy to have had such a good weekend. Ryan seemed happy to be back with the quartet and we’re glad to be able to sing with him again. He did a great job re-learning old songs and memorizing the new hymns in such a short time. God is so good, and we’re looking forward to recording our new album with Ryan.

We had intended to leave Chattanooga around 4:00 but Joey’s flights from D.C. were delayed so we didn’t get to leave until 7:00. We arrived in the Jonesboro, GA area around 9:30 and some of the church members had waited there for us so we could set up our sound system. We got to our hotel around 11:00 and had a good night’s sleep.

After breakfast Sabbath morning, we went to the Atlanta Southside church in Jonesboro to sing for their church service. Pastor Montrose welcomed us and prayed with us in his office. There were about 180 people in the small church and not only was the sanctuary full, but there were about 30 people in the overflow room. Since the quartet had never been to the church before, there were a lot of people who’d never heard our music and we were very well received. After the concert we had a hard time getting away from the product table to take down the equipment because of the amount of people in the foyer. When we pulled away from the church it was about an hour later than we’d planned, so we ran through the Taco Bell drive-through for lunch and made our way back to Collegedale for our concert at McDonald Road church.

We arrived earlier than we thought we would, but all of the doors were locked and no one seemed to be around. I went around checking the doors, and one of the side doors was unlocked so I opened it, setting of the church’s alarm! Fortunately one of the deacons was up at the gym and came running to deactivate the alarm. He let us in and we started setting up.

Since we all have lived in the Collegedale area, we knew a lot of the people who started to come in around 5:00. My former pastor, Jim Erwin, and his wife Andi were there, along with Mrs. Epps, the former secretary at Southern’s religion department. She had been at Southern when I was there. Of course, Danny’s wife, Pilar, was there and Joey’s wife’s family came, along with lots of people that Danny knows from the area. Tim met some people he knew from years ago, and there were lots of people who had seen us at different concerts over the years.

As we finished the concert and I led the way to the foyer, I saw some sermon CDs on the shelf and one of them said “Can Dead Bones Heal?” I showed it to Tim and said, “I wonder if this is about 'The Ballad of Elisha’s Bones'?” Later, as we were taking down the equipment, Pastor Carlson came to tell us that he had preached a sermon that morning about the short story in II Kings 13 that the song is based on. We were amazed at how “coincidental” it was that we sang that song and he preached a sermon about it just a few hours before!

Despite the fact that we’ve sung in this area many times, there were about 150 people at the concert and lots of people bought our new Hymns By The Book album. It’s amazing how much of an impact these simple hymns have made when we sing them in concert. We as a church have a rich heritage of hymns that needs to be rediscovered, and we’re thrilled to be reintroducing some of these wonderful songs to our listeners.

This weekend The Emmanuel Quartet traveled to Mobile, Alabama and the Pensacola, Florida areas to sing at the churches of our good friend, Pastor Will Labrenz. Pastor Will sang with the quartet for seven years and is now pastoring three churches in the Pensacola area. Joey had some surprises for us this weekend. He brought copies of the new DVD from our recording session at The Hope Channel back in March of last year. It turned out very well and we hope people will start buying them along with our CDs on the table. Joey had also gotten us some very nice new microphone stands and some product cases to transport our CDs and DVDs. They are much nicer than using cardboard boxes and they also double as nice display stands for our product on the table.

We arrived in the Mobile area late Friday evening, and after supper we met Will at one of his churches, New Horizon Fellowship. We set up our sound system and had a little jam session with Will, going over some of the old songs we used to sing with him.

Next morning we had a good concert, singing a few songs with Will, and he did a couple with me and Tim from the old Word In The Wind trio. A lady in his congregation likes the Wedgewood Trio, so we had to sing “Sinner Man” for her. I think Danny was glad to have a nice long break in the middle of the concert! After the concert we had to quickly take down the equipment to make room for the tables for the fellowship dinner. It was one of the best potlucks we’ve had in a long time.

Around 2:00 we packed up and followed Will to his second church in Milton, Florida. We went through the Mobile Bay area and saw the USS Alabama in the harbor. Joey wants to go back to the area again soon and work in a trip to tour the battleship.

At the Milton concert we were happy to see some friends from Mobile with whom we've sung before, Jonathan Stewart and his wife Jennifer and Gary and Shedel Hilton. They came to our concert Saturday night, and afterward we all went to eat at La Hacienda Mexican restaurant. We sang gospel and barbershop songs around the table until closing time. It was a lot of fun. We had a couple of people come up to our table and tell us the music sounded pretty good. This tour was a good way to start 2008!

When we met Joey on Friday, he had left his cell phone on the plane and had had to stop and buy a new phone. He was busy trying to put all his contact info into the new phone. He wasn’t too upset though. He said his other phone was getting old and it was time to replace it anyway! There hadn’t been any rental vans available with our favorite feature, “Stow-n-Go” seating, so we had to leave some of our sound equipment behind.

We traveled from Chattanooga to Martinsville, Virginia on Friday and it was a pretty long trip. Joey always rents a GPS unit with the vans he rents, but we noticed after a few miles that the battery was low. We made sure it was plugged in and it still wouldn’t show that it was charging. I noticed that only one green light was on the charger and Joey said he thought the fuse might be blown. We took it apart and noticed that the metal contact wasn’t touching the fuse, so we were able to fix it. Joey said he was glad to have “Janice” back. Unfortunately, later in the weekend the fuse actually DID blow and we had to stop by Wal-Mart and get another one.

We had planned on getting to Martinsville in enough time to set up our system in the church Friday evening, but the GPS hadn’t been set for the right time zone and threw off our arrival time by an hour. So Joe called the pastor and told him we would set up early the next morning. We got to the hotel and sacked out.

The next morning we set up our sound system and met with a pastor whom I’d met while teaching at Laurelbrook Academy, Pastor Whalley. He’d arranged for us to come because he’d heard us way back when we sang at the academy. He sang in quartets in his youth and always enjoyed our acappella harmony. There were about 75 people there for church service and the concert went well. Afterward, we had a fellowship dinner and I caught up with Pastor Whalley and his wife about their sons whom I’d known from Laurelbrook and Joey knew from Southern.

Our evening concert was at Kernersville, North Carolina which was a couple of hours drive from Martinsville, so we had a leisurely afternoon drive. Our van was equipped with a rear seat DVD player, and I had brought a new video of our trip to Jakarta. Tim and Danny watched it while Joe and I tried to stay awake in the front.

When we got to Kernersville and started setting up, there was an elderly woman sitting in the front and we told her it would be over two hours until the concert and we would be doing a sound check. She said, “I’ll just keep sitting here if it sounds good!”

We had a good concert that evening with about 83 people there. Afterward, while we were taking down the equipment, a little four year-old boy came up to me and asked if he could help us carry our stuff to our car. He was so small that it was hard to find something he could carry, so I had him help me take the batteries out of the microphones. He was so smart and talkative. He knew a lot about electronics and expounded on the differences between speaker cables and extension cords. He had a huge vocabulary for a four year-old and I complimented his mom and dad who were watching us and smiling the whole time. After a while, the other guys started hearing him talk and were as impressed as I was. At one point I asked him about his friends and family and he said, “My friend Joey is pretty dumb!” Of course our Joey had to tease him about it, saying “I’m not dumb!” The boy said, “No, my nine year-old friend Joey!”

When we were packing the van, he had to carry out several heavy pieces of equipment and we told him how strong he was. He just grinned and said, “I know.” We stood around talking to his parents for a while and asked him more questions. Finally, he looked exasperated and said, “I can’t handle all this!”

On the way back home, we stopped in Asheville and stayed at a hotel so we wouldn’t have to drive all the way back home that night. It was a great weekend and the folks donated generously to AWR. God is good!

After the baptism on Sabbath afternoon we went back to the hotel to pack for our long flight home. It was a bittersweet time since we were anxious to get back home, but sad to leave all the new friends we had made.

We decided to try to stay awake all night so we would sleep on the plane. There was a dinner at the hotel and afterwards, Danny and I went out on the town with Muriel, her husband Tony, and Janet Lalenoh, a young lady that I was introduced to earlier in the week. Janet’s Aunt Christine had been bringing delicious meals for us during the week, and she and her two young children also came with us. They took us to a place called Ancol Beach where we spent time walking along the water and talking. It was a beautiful place with the lights reflecting off the water. Janet’s brother, Jover, also came and I was surprised at how much English he could speak. The two young children also spoke English well, and they helped translate for me and Janet.

After a while we started to hear music and drifted toward the sound. It was a band playing in a small amphitheater and they seemed to be having a good time. We all sat down to listen and ordered some juice. After a while, the band members coerced Danny into coming up on stage and singing with them, and we all got a kick out of Danny hitting those high notes with the lead singer!

When the music was over we just drove around Jakarta and looked at the night life. We had a fun time singing old songs from the ‘70s which were as familiar to Tony and Muriel as they were to me and Danny. Around 3:00 or 4:00 AM we headed back to the hotel so we could finish getting ready to leave. Our plane left early so Muriel and Tony volunteered to take us all to the airport. It was a sad goodbye, but we were happy to have gotten to know such wonderful people.

Needless to say, we slept most of the way to Hong Kong, and then a good part of the way back to Seattle. When we arrived in Houston, we stayed in a hotel overnight. The next day it was a real treat to get up to gravy and biscuits after two weeks of unfamiliar food! But if we ever get a chance to go back to Jakarta, I’m sure I speak for us all when I say that we wouldn’t hesitate to take the opportunity to go back. It was one of the highlights of the quartet’s ministry and we were very blessed to have been able to go. We will be in prayer for the evangelism that’s still going on in that city of 9,000,000.

Today is the final day of the meetings in Jakarta. All of the other meetings led to the baptisms that will be happening today after the service. Over 2,000 people have filled out the baptism commitment cards and a community member has opened the large swimming pool at his hotel across the street so everyone can be baptized in one afternoon.

We traveled early this morning to the “Arena Kemayoran” and when we got there we thought the place looked like a huge aircraft hangar. They had about 12,000 seats set up and one entire half of the arena had its own screen since there was no way everyone could see the stage. It was amazing to see the people start coming in, and within a couple of hours, almost all the seats were filled.

Pastor Sam started the service by leading song service. There were special cushioned seats set up in front of the stage for all of the speakers and special guests. The entire program was televised and there was a camera crew recording everything. Mike Ryan and Pastor Sam were interviewed by a TV reporter whom we found out later is a Christian. She’s a popular news anchor on the local Jakarta news.

Several church leaders and speakers opened the program with stories of people being changed by the meetings. There were lots of special songs sung by choirs and groups singing in both Bahasa Indonesia and English. There was even a group that played three xylophones as backup while a quartet sang.

When the church service started, Mike Ryan gave an opening talk about the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist church. He gave some brief statistics about the growth of our church around the globe and noted that over 16,000,000 Adventists worship all around the world each Sabbath. He reminded us of the great commission that Jesus gave His disciples and that our church has a mission and a message to tell the world. He ended by encouraging us to be involved in anyway we can with spreading the gospel and to hold onto the promise that Jesus is coming very soon.

Before Gerry Karst gave the sermon, he invited the quartet up to sing. He introduced each of us individually and thanked us for singing at his meetings each night. Then he introduced the song “This Ole House” and invited us to sing. Next Pastor Gerry introduced the song “Immanuel” and asked us to sing.

Pastor Gerry’s sermon focused on heaven and how it should be the goal of every believer.
During the sermon he invited several people up to the platform who had gone to the meetings during the week and who had decided to be baptized that afternoon. He asked them to tell the audience how they felt about being baptized and what Jesus means to them. He also asked many of them what would be the first thing they wanted to see when they got to heaven. One young man answered that the first thing he wanted to see was that his mother was there. Many others answered that they wanted to see Jesus.

Pastor Gerry went on to describe the beauty and peace that await us in heaven and finished by comparing heaven to being homesick for our earthly homes when we travel. He said that heaven is our true home and then invited the quartet to sing “Homesick for Heaven.” Then he asked us to accept God’s invitation to be with Him for eternity in heaven. The quartet finished by singing “If You Want Joy.”

After the benediction, all of the baptismal candidates went across the street to the hotel to be baptized. At the auditorium the baptism was shown on two large screens and was televised on local stations. During the afternoon many groups, soloists, bands and musicians sang and played instruments. It was inspiring to watch 2,000 people being baptized while listening to live music. After the baptisms the quartet was invited to the platform and we sang for about a half hour. It was an experience we’ll never forget.

Today we visited the workplace of two of the people who had been coming to the meetings. Muriel Siahaan and Lukas work at the Jakarta Stock Exchange building and they organize a group of Christians who meet in a special room and have worship several times a week. It’s a cross-denominational group of about 50-75 believers called the “Jakarta Stock Exchange Building Fellowship” and it was a privilege to meet with them.

After some of the members led a song service, the quartet sang about four songs. Then we heard a message from one of the members while Lukas translated for us. At the nightly meetings, Lukas played a “comb and plastic bag” which sounded very much like a saxophone. He also led several of the song services with lots of enthusiasm. He and Muriel had arranged for us to come to their workplace and a lot of the members of the group bought CDs and had us sign them.

As I mentioned before, the publishing house had been able to print several thousand Ellen White books to give away at the meetings for people who brought more guests. We took a couple hundred to our site and they seemed to go pretty quickly. Tonight was the last night of the meetings and for the first time I saw Pastor Sam playing the keyboard for the song service. We didn’t realize he was so multi-talented!

It’s been a privilege to sing for these meetings and to pray with these people in small groups. Even though there is a language barrier, they can tell we care about their problems and so does God. I’ve enjoyed getting to know many of the regulars and all of the children. I think Indonesian children are some of the most beautiful kids I’ve ever seen. Since it was the last night, everybody wanted to take many pictures with us and Pastor Gerry.

Today Pastor Sam took us to “Museum Indonesia.” It’s an outdoor museum which has full-size buildings made in the style of the various islands which make up Indonesia. We didn’t have much time to look around, but we were there long enough to see a “dragon dance” performed by two men in a dragon costume. A band played the traditional Balinese music while the men moved around and danced in the costume, clacking the dragon’s teeth and making its head move around. We were also able to get some very good souvenirs there for some very low prices.

After lunch we went over to the Jakarta Conference office with all of the church leaders and Vice Presidents from the GC. They took us on a tour of the building and we found out that Rick McEdward had been giving his meetings in the main auditorium for about 800 people each night. After the tour, Mike Ryan gave an inspiring talk and several musicians sang beautiful music. All the speakers (including the quartet) were presented with garlands to wear around our necks. At the close of the program Pastor Gerry said a few words and invited us up to sing, “If You Want Joy.”

We had been running pretty low on CDs and after Wednesday night we had none left. Since Joey’s missing bag had some product in it, we had been praying that it would arrive. Joey had called the airport each day for five days and could get no results. The bag had no ID tags on it and had been missing since the Seattle airport. By Wednesday night we had run out completely and had nothing to give away or sell that night. This afternoon we were contacted by the hotel staff saying that a bag had been delivered to the desk by the airport staff that morning and they’d been told it belonged to our room number.

When we checked, it was Joey’s bag which had airport tags from 6 different countries from around the world! Nothing was missing from the bag and it arrived only two hours before we had to leave for the meeting and we had plenty of CDs to take with us. God had worked another miracle. He was teaching us patience and to trust Him in the big and small problems.

This morning after breakfast we had our meeting in the “Tube” bar on the ground floor of the hotel. Elder Cooper joked that we should get a picture of so many church leaders in a bar at the same time! After the meeting, we went shopping with Sam again but Danny didn’t go with us. He sent money with Gerry to get him another set of pens that matched Gerry’s.

The rest of us found some very good gifts both at the wholesale mall and at another mall which Sam said was designed just for tourists. We drove around the city a lot and saw a small parade for the two men running for Governor and vice governor next month. There are posters all over town of at least four men running for office. We got a kick out of the name of the main candidate, Fauzi Bowo. We found out later that he won the election.

On the way back to the hotel, Gerry told us many stories of things that have happened to him during his travels. He also told a joke that went something like this:

A minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon. Four worms were placed into four separate jars.

The first worm was put into a container of alcohol.
The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke.
The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup.
The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil.

At the conclusion of the sermon, the Minister reported the following results:
The first worm in alcohol – Dead.
The second worm in cigarette smoke – Dead.
Third worm in chocolate syrup – Dead.
Fourth worm in good clean soil – Alive.
So the Minister asked the congregation - What can you learn from this demonstration?

Jane was sitting in the back, quickly raised her hand and said, "As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won't have worms!"

Today after breakfast and the meeting, Sam took us to a wholesale market which was crammed on every floor with all kinds of stuff. The aisles were very small and it was very crowded, but it was just like the street traffic, everyone was polite and nice when you bumped into them. Danny was on a mission to find Pilar a watch just like the one he had bought. We looked for over an hour and he finally found one. Sam bought us some sugar cane juice which was very different, but Tim and I liked the taste.

The rest of us bought some things for our families and Mr. Simmons went with us. Mr. Simmons is the husband of Ella Simmons who was a GC Vice President who came to help with the meetings.

Joey bought a little Indonesian shirt for his son Sammy and some little dresses for his daughter Sarah. Tim and Joe bought shirts for their wives and I got a couple of rugs and some fans. It was amazing to see so much stuff crammed into a single building.

When we were shopping, we couldn’t find any shirts big enough to fit me or Joe. Sam tried very hard at each shop and then he sounded exasperated and said, “They are giants!” Later we started joking about us being big because of eating too many burgers, so he started calling all of us Burger Giants or Burger King Giants!

The meeting tonight was fun. We gave away some more CDs and Gerry told the people that if they brought more guests on Thursday the guests would get a free book. The publishing house here is printing thousands of E.G. White books in Bahasa to give away at all the sites. We even gave Pastor Wendell and another site some quartet CDs to sell at their sites. We sold about 20 more CDs tonight and everyone wanted them autographed. We took a lot more pictures too, even from people who had gotten pictures with us the night before. They all squeezed in and had their families snap the shot.

The attendance seems to have increased from last night and everyone seems to be more enthusiastic and happy. The song service at the beginning was led by an enthusiastic man named Lukas who is going to be baptized on Friday. He works with Muriel at the stock exchange office and we’re going to see them on Friday. His English is very good and he even translated a lot of the meetings for us.

During the meeting, Gerry told a story about his kids wanting gifts when he would travel. He said that they liked those new Swatches. Then he looked right at Danny and said, “Watches are very important to some people!” We had told Gerry how long we had looked for Pilar’s watch! He also said that “the quartet will be out back signing CDs and they have some nice new pens to sign them with!” He had sent Danny to get him a Mont Blanc pen today and Danny had to buy one too!

We had another good breakfast today and afterward all the leaders of the meetings met in a conference room for a briefing of how the first meetings had gone. Some of the meetings had more than 800 people in attendance and the projections for baptism on Sabbath were at 2,000. A lot of the local church leaders had done months of preparation for the meetings which included small group Bible studies, promotions and planning meetings.

Tonight at the meeting, Pastor Gerry took Tim’s place in one of the songs since he sings baritone. He just walked on stage and grabbed Tim’s mic and started singing Tim’s part! We all like Gerry’s sense of humor.

This was our first meeting in the regular meeting hall. It’s a large mall and our room is pretty close to the food court on that level. When Pastor Sam and I were going to the restroom, he would stop people who were shopping and invite them to the meetings! One couple looked a little embarrassed but he was so convincing that they decided to come.

The new room fits more people and we hope more will start coming and bring guests and relatives. Before the sermon starts, the quartet members helped the pastors lead small groups in prayer. Even though most of them didn’t understand English, they still wanted us to pray. Sometimes a pastor would ask everyone in the group if they had any prayer requests and we would pray for them in our groups.

The sermon went more smoothly with less technical glitches. Many of the local groups and choirs sang before the message, and the quartet finished with the theme song that Pastor Gerry had asked us to learn, “If You Want Joy.” The room wasn’t full, but there were a lot of people there and they all seemed happy to hear the good news of the gospel.

Today Samuel took us to an Indonesian version of Wal-Mart called Carrefour. Since Joey’s missing bag had his toiletries in it, he took the opportunity to buy some replacements at Carrefour. Tim had been looking for some Oolong Tea and was able to find it there. Carrefour wasn’t really a good place for souvenir hunting, but it was certainly interesting to see an Indonesian “superstore.” In a lot of ways it was just like a Wal-Mart except for some of the exotic fruits in the produce section. When we went to check out we saw the biggest similarity between Carrefour and Wal-Mart; the long checkout lines.

Tonight we had our first meeting. I wasn’t sure how the turnout would be because there were a lot of empty seats at first. By the time the meeting started, though, the hall was completely full. I would say there were between 200-250 people at our first meeting. To begin, a local choir sang “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us” in English.

Pastor Gerry gave away quartet CDs to those who had brought the most visitors with them. It was a big hit and I think it will make more people come this week. Our permanent meeting hall is in a large mall called Mega Glodok Kemayoran. Right now it’s occupied by a bridal convention, but we’ll be there tomorrow night.

We had a few technical glitches with the projector and the laptop, but it was to be expected. Things should go more smoothly the rest of the week. Pastor Gerry handled everything in stride and I could tell he’s been doing evangelism for years. He uses humor and stories to bring home the points of his messages. Pastor Sam seems to do a good job translating as well.

The theme of the meetings is “Sukacita Pengharapan” which translates as “The Blessed Hope.” The language the people use is called Bahasa Indonesia. It’s all spelled in Roman characters, just like English, and has some similarities to Spanish. It doesn’t seem like too difficult a language to learn. I enjoyed hearing Pastor Sam translate.

We took the long drive back to the hotel tonight looking forward to getting to our permanent location and having some more good meetings.

Today we went to the oldest Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jakarta. Pastor Sam said it had been there for at least 60 years. There were four congregations gathered in the one church and it was very full. After Sabbath School we sang a couple of songs for the church service. Everyone was fascinated with the fact that I’m not married and kept announcing it up front! Danny sang two hymns without his cheat sheets and we were very proud of him 

It was pretty hot with our jackets on, so during lunch we took them off. Gerry gave a good message and Pastor Sam translated. There was a lot of interest in the meetings and the message Gerry gave made people even more excited about evangelism.

Lunch was interesting. Everything was good, but a couple of the desserts were a little hard to eat because of the texture. Some of the church members teased Danny because he really tried, but he just couldn’t eat the desserts! I think the quartet will be well-received at the meetings because the church really liked our music and kept asking us to sing more songs.

On the way back to the hotel we kept laughing at Danny because he kept falling asleep while we were rehearsing!

Tonight the conference leaders put on an “official” welcome for those of us who came from the States. Several General Conference Vice Presidents and leaders had come to help with the meetings. The hotel had prepared a lot of food and there was a trio of musicians who played for about 20 minutes during the meal. They sang pop songs in English and were very good. There was a female lead singer and two male guitarists and they did a great job.

We kept smelling a strange odor and we found out that it was coming from a fruit called durian. I had heard of it before and knew that it had a strange smell, but wasn’t prepared for the pungency. I tried a bite and had chewed up some of the seed along with it, so when Joey tried a bite I was sure to tell him not to chew the seeds. I have to admit that durian didn’t taste as bad as it smelled, but the smell made it pretty hard to put it in your mouth! I got some funny video of Pastor Sam helping Joey try to eat some durian.

He told us a story that in some parts of Thailand they wait until elephants have eaten the durian seeds and let them ripen in their stomachs. Then, when the elephant eliminates the seeds, the Thai people crack open the seeds and eat the durian inside and they say it’s the best durian you ever ate. He told us this right before Joey took a bite. But since everyone told us that durian was an aphrodisiac, Joey decided to try some. He said it made him want to vomit. I guess it’s an acquired taste!

We stayed at the Harris hotel, located in the Central Business District of Jakarta. It’s a nice hotel with a pool, gym and lots of conference rooms for the briefing meetings we had. Another nice feature of the hotel was a big breakfast. There was a mix of American and Indonesian food in a buffet, along with a cook who would make eggs any way you wanted. It was a nice change from airplane food.

After breakfast we met Pastor Samuel Simorangkir who will be Gerry’s translator for the entire week. Sam is the Communications Director for the Jakarta Conference. He took us to a local mall and on the way we went by two of the meeting sites to get an idea of what they would be like. The first site was only going to be used for one night since our permanent hall was still being used during our first meeting.

At the mall Danny bought a watch which was a replica of an expensive brand (he called it a “spin-off”). He kept showing it off and Gerry kept kidding him by asking Danny what time it was!

After looking around the mall, Pastor Sam took us to lunch. We got pretty sleepy after lunch and when we got back to our rooms we all slept the rest of the afternoon. We tried to wake up and practice a little, but we all decided to go back to sleep!

At 7:00 we had a meeting with some of the people in charge of the meetings. We sang a couple of songs and they discussed some of the issues of the meetings. Afterward we hung out in our room a little but we got sleepy again. We slept very well that night!

We finally arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia at 4:30 PM local time. It was a very long trip. The flight across the Pacific was the longest at 13 hours. Tim, Danny and I left from Chattanooga and met with Joey in Houston, Texas. It was a five hour flight from Chattanooga to Houston, and then we all got on the same plane to fly to Seattle, Washington which was another five hour flight. After flying across the ocean, we landed in Taipei, Taiwan. We had a short layover there and flew another five hours to Jakarta. The entire trip was about 30 hours.

The flight across the Pacific would’ve been much better if we’d been in first class, but it wasn’t too bad. From Seattle to Taipei we flew with China Airlines. We had plenty of movies to watch on our seat TVs and we could even play games to pass the time. The food was pretty good, but our biggest complaint was that the portions were too small. Danny had a tough time with some of the worst turbulence, but I think he’s getting used to it. By the time we get back to the States, he’ll be an old pro at flying!

On the plane to Taipei we met an American missionary named Joshua Caleb who was traveling to the Philippines to meet his girlfriend. Then on the plane to Jakarta we met another American who was going to Indonesia just for the surfing. I think he said he was going to Bali which was the island that had the best surfing. He gave us some advice and told us a little about the city.

When we arrived in the airport, one of Joey’s bags was missing. We looked through the lost and found, but never saw it. It had his razor, t-shirts and quite a few of our CDs. We took a while looking for his bag and since we never found it we decided to go ahead through customs. We thought we might have some trouble with the amount of CDs we had brought with us, but the customs officers didn’t even look through our bags. We just ran them through the X-ray and let us go.

Outside there were several local church members who had agreed to wait for us and pick us up when we arrived. They had begun to get worried when we didn’t show up on time, but we explained to them about the missing bag. They helped us with our bags into a bus/taxi and then we were off to the hotel.

The first thing we noticed about Jakarta was the bumper to bumper traffic. And it was literally bumper to bumper. Cars, trucks and motorcycles were always within inches of each other, but everyone was courteous and there seemed to be little road rage. The motorcycles seemed to outnumber the cars by quite a bit. We saw entire families riding the small bikes with Dad driving, Mom behind dad, and a child between. Sometimes there was a second, older child riding behind mom. Once we even saw a family of five riding a motorcycle through traffic, weaving and squeezing between the cars and big trucks.

When we got to the hotel and checked in, we met with Gerry Karst who had invited us back in March to come to Jakarta. We also met with Rick who was coordinating the meetings. He seems to really enjoy the quartet and our music. After meeting with Gerry and Rick, we all hit the sack to try to recover from jet lag. Jakarta is 11 hours ahead of Eastern Time, and since we crossed the International Date Line over the Pacific, we were a day ahead of the U.S. We kept trying to do the math to figure out what time it was at home, but we were too tired and gave up! -- Check back again next week for another update on this trip. --