OSLC Ministry Tour

Ever since I asked Lynn Panosh if the puppet team could join Eagles Wing on tour  3 years ago, I have felt so much closer to the kids at OSLC. I get to meet all the kids involved not just the wonderful puppeteers I work with and in doing so I get a glimpse on their personal walk with God, their climbs in life and obsticles. I try and help whoever needs help in their walk however, what I got and never expected was help, love and compassion I have recieved from these kids. You truely get back 100% more than what you give. What I wish for the rest of the congregation is to get involved, it may not be with young people but choose something and try it. I love walking into our church and getting hugs and smiles from kids and other mentors I work with now and in previous years. That is when I know God is smiling down on me, I feel it in every hug, smile and kind word. If you are feeling lonely, sad, scared or just at the end of your rope, don’t just go to church and sit there, thinking magical things will come to you, get involved in church and I promise you, you will never feel lonely again!

I especially enjoyed the privilege of getting to know the puppeteers fairly well, having spent most of my bus travel time with them.  They display traits of inclusiveness, caring, and uncommon maturity, from my point of view. Most of their expressions of humor were tasteful and appropriate, although they were a little tough on the poor, innocent Canadians—–hopefully in jest.

I also valued some in-depth interface with Nick Waite and Mike Stern.

I was whisked away from the youngsters at night in a valiant attempt to bag-breathe me into a state of sufficient restedness to be able to function through the travails of travel and music-making which challenged me each day anew.

The students are a dream, basically: so considerate and so kind.  Can they crank up and get loud?  You bet!  Do I love ‘em?  Without a doubt!

John B

Since there has been some confusion on the photo albums, I felt the need to clarify how I did it. I decided to post all my pictures on my facebook profile in a series of consecutive photo albums. I made these albums public which means that you DO NOT need a facebook profile to view them! If you are a parent or a grandparent or a friend or a relative or even the family dog that doesn’t have a facebook account… and still want to take a look at my pictures, all you have to do is follow the links that I’ve placed on random blog posts throughout the tour.

I also want to let you know a little bit about the history of the tour blog so you can understand what I’m about to tell you. In 2004 I had the opportunity to travel to Slovakia with Eagle’s Wings. I took my video camera and spent the remainder of that summer editing a two disc DVD set of video and pictures that I mass-produced and distributed one-per-family for everyone that went on that tour. I did that because I wanted to be able to share that wonderful memory and have something that our group could remember the tour by. However… it was a large pain in my patootie and I vowed never to take on something of that size again. When I started going on tours as a chaperone again in 2008, I started the tour blog. At that point it was on blogspot and quite rudimentary… but it was a start. For the last two years, the tour blog has been at this URL (www.oslcministrytour.com) where it will stay as long as I’m in charge of it, which will hopefully be for awhile.

I tell you that story to tell you this… I will not be giving out custom CD’s or DVD’s of pictures or video from any more tours. I understand that some people have elderly relatives that are not on facebook and that would want a DVD of this stuff. But I do not have the man-power to take on a project of that magnitude. It is a slippery slope and if I do it for one person… I’ve opened up a can of worms. So… all these posts, pictures and videos will be archived right here on this blog. There are “Categories” to the right. If you want to view posts from past tours… just click on the category from that tour. It’ll all be there! The pictures are going to stay on my facebook page, because that is the best way for the kids to comment and interact with each other about them. The videos will be posted to my YouTube page (which is available to view for free) and embedded in post(s) on this blog.

The blog is available to everyone… so when you visit elderly relatives or other family that might not be “up on this technology” you can show them the blog.

Thank you for understanding that I cannot make DVD’s of concerts and give you all individual CD’s of pictures. They’re all online… where they will stay!