HOPE'08 - Trip Report

The newspapers said, "South Texas invaded by large orange wave from Fort Worth..." Well, that's how it felt everywhere we traveled in and around the cities of South Texas. Lytle, Texas is a town of around 2300 residents. We upped that number by around 120 during our choir mission trip last week. We arrived at First Baptist Lytle on Sunday afternoon, July 6. Within an hour we had unloaded, began cooking a meal, set up our air mattress and overflowed the 2 upstairs toilets. Yea... I don't think that old building was quite ready for us. I won't dwell on the bathroom situation, but just want to say it did make for a memorable week and I'm sure the stories are still flying around with Shirley saying..."Three people must go BEFORE you flush!"

After inhaling a delicious meal prepared by Miss Cindy and Miss Debbie we raced to our first concert location -- a park in Pleasanton, about 45 minutes away. We had many technical difficulties (always) and ended up starting the concert about an hour late. With only a few people in attendance, we counted that as an extra dress rehearsal and moved on.



Pics above: my sweet roomies, Katherine and Abi working outside, our lovely shower trailer

Monday morning arrived with jobs to do around the church: painting the fellowship hall, organizing supply closets, installing concrete parking lot stops and general maintenance. After cleanup from those duties, we drove 2 hours to the Alto Frio Baptist Encampment. The crowd that night was considerably larger, around 600 teenagers. The kids were very well received and the show was much smoother. It rained the entire time we were setting up and I protected the keyboard fiercely from drops of water coming through the roof of the metal building with open sides. Long drive home...late night.

Tuesday: Our Fun Day...Uh, yea....that was fun...floating down the Frio River in a giant yellow tube, totally at the mercy of the elements -- needles of freezing rain, flowing waters trying to drag you every way you did not want to go....sorry I don't have any pictures of this day. NOT!
I was just thankful that Jeff was not there because he would have been laughing his head off at me. That little adventure was sooooo not me.

Wednesday saw us loading up the buses and vans to drive to the town of Lemming, home of the Hosanna Baptist Tabernacle, a primarily Hispanic church. We had two work crews, one who helped build walls at the site of their new building and a second who turned their old sanctuary into an updated, colorful youth room. I was on the paint crew for the second. Katherine painted the beautiful cross on the wall. We changed our plans to return to Lytle and clean up and instead worked the rest of the day. There was just so much that needed to be done. Our concert that night was the best of the week, I think. We were hot, sweaty, covered in paint, but the kids were awesome, willing to work so hard all day to get the job done.

Stomp team practicing before the concert at Hosanna Tabernacle

Katherine was part of the jazz band this year.
It was fun to share the bench with her during concerts.

Funny story: After the concert, the pastor of Hosanna wanted to recognize the girl who had painted the cross on the wall. When he said "thank you" everyone tried to point out Katherine. She had gone to the bathroom and walked back in just as everyone was looking for her. "There she is," everyone screamed and started clapping. If you know Katherine, you will understand this did not make her comfortable. I loved that she was able to use her gifts to bless this church in this way.

Thursday was another work day at FBC Lytle, basically finishing the jobs we had left on Monday. I don't have many pictures of us working because, well, we were too busy working. The kids were great and, other than a few bits of craziness here and there, were focused and hard-working. We added tree trimming and cutting on this day and that was good for everyone except Kevin, who had a branch fall on his foot and break it. Seems like one trip to the emergency room is a requirement on any trip like this. Thursday night we sang/acted/stomped/played at the high school in Lytle. The pastor spoke to us after the concert and you could see how much our presence there had encouraged him.

Where we lived all week ~
the newly painted fellowship hall

Four of my favorite girls pictured after the concert at Lytle High School

Friday morning was early rise and shine in preparation to head for home. We arrived home without incident (a big deal for a trip of this nature) at 3:00 p.m. Vans were cleaned, luggage unloaded, and we agreed to return on Sunday evening to do it all again for our Home Concert.
I've always loved the Youth Choir Home Concert. There's just some special feeling about singing for people who love and support you. Being involved this year made it even more fun for me.

Patricia, Rebecca, Courtney J., Courtney G.
after the home concert

my new music buddy, Sharon, the choir director

the boys (and girl) who made the music
"I'm with the band!"

Some of the greatest guys I've ever had the privilege
to work with: Robert on bass guitar, Mike on electric guitar,
John on acoustic guitar, and Mr. Anthony on the drums.

This was an incredible week of hard work, crazy teenagers, lots of driving, wonderful fellowship, playing till your fingers hurt, and the amazing message of HOPE that we have in Christ. I pray that many people were touched and blessed by our presence.

Jesus Christ is our only hope!