OSLC Ministry Tour

Ministry Tour 2009 was a great tour! I feel the need to share with all of you parents and with all of you kids who might make your way to this blog what it meant to me.

As most of you know… I’ve grown up in Our Saviour’s. I went through both the confirmation program as well as the senior high program. Many of my closest friend’s in life have all been connected to Our Saviour’s in one way or another. I absolutely love our youth and I go on these trips because I want to help them find the same connection to God and to each other that I found when I was their age. I’ve both experienced and witnessed life transformation on these tours and I am so grateful to Lynn Panosh and all of you parents and youth that I’m still allowed to travel with this group. I may have said this before but I want to say it again… ministry tour is my favorite part about summer! I’ve been an adult chaperone on the last two tours and I am so happy that I’m given this opportunity year after year. If you haven’t figured this out by now… I love blogging and I love being able to bring all of you parents and other interested parties a little tast of our days, each day during the tour.

I need to say a little something here about this year’s senior class. I know they are Brad’s “babies” but I feel they are mine as well. I’ve been a junior high confirmation mentor for 9 years and have always been involved in one way or another with the senior high and am now a senior high mentor too. I had Alex Mayszak, Jeff Leets, Mike Miller and David Pector in my junior high confirmation group and I have thouroughly enjoyed watching them grow up in the church. I again feel honored that God has called me to be a part of their faith lives… and that goes for all of the seniors this year. This year’s seniors will always hold a special place in my heart and I’m so proud of each and every one of them for the Jesus loving young adults they have become. The future is bright for them and I can’t wait to see what God has in mind for them next!

On the subject of the puppets and the choir integrating… I really feel like we made great strides with this on this tour! As you know, this is only the second year Hearts In Puppetry has joined Eagle’s Wings on tour and they are already integrating and becoming a part of the group. Some of the choir kids expressed interest in singing one of the songs for the puppets next year instead of playing it off of my iPod! I think that’s a fantastic idea and I hope we can work on that for next year! The puppets add such an awesome dynamic to the group and to our concerts! The people we perform for love seeing the puppets and the choir and I like the variety they add to our shows.

To everyone that went on tour this year:

You… are all very special young men and women and I’m so happy that I got to spend a week with you cooped up in a bus and driving around North Carolina! When we came to a small retirement community and needed to setup our risers and puppet stage in a less than desireable position, you never complained and you found a way to make it work. The way we worked together to load/unload the bus each time was nothing short of poetic. I think you have all formed some lasting bonds with each other on this trip. I love watching you help each other through situations and just giving each other random hugs when needed. We had fun… I’ll never forget this tour and I know you won’t either. Thank you again for letting me be a part of it!

Some business:

• Now we have some business to take care of… as you know… we now have tour pets but someone needs to take care of them throughout the rest of the year! Click Here for more information on that!
• Keep checking this blog or subscribe to it because there will be important updates happening on it throughout the year!

On our last couple days we got to perform our concert one last time on the road at the Samaritan Center in Jeffersontown, KY! A couple of the residents there really interacted with the songs and puppets during the performance which was unexpected but really cool at the same time. It was a great final road concert for our group and for the residents.

We slept on the floor of the gym at Christ Lutheran Church in Jeffersontown, KY on Monday night which was really neat because we got to have our senior vespers where the Juniors talk about each Senior and give stories about how they’ve touched their lives. It’s pretty much a big 3 hour cry-fest! It’s really cool though because the underclassmen get to see how big of a deal this is for the older kids and some of the younger kids even cry. It’s a pretty emotional night and many kleenex boxes had to be sacrificed .

The drive home on Tuesday was a quick one and we were ahead of schedule. The mentors debated rolling into Our Saviour’s early and letting the kids go home to shower but decided against it. Instead we spent an hour and a half at a mall in Indianapolis at the suggestion of Ray, our bus driver. It was an excellent time!

When finally got back to Our Saviour’s we were greeted with a dinner that the parents had prepared! We had some family time together which was awesome and then performed our concert one last time in the sanctuary. At the end of the concert we sang our song “He Never Failed Me Yet” but with different lyrics talking about Brad. Since he is getting married on June 27th this was his last ministry tour with us and so all the EW alumni that were in attendance got up and sang to Brad. He was completely caught off guard which was excellent!

After the concert we presented Brad with a gift from the congregation… a 40′ Flat Panel TV! He had no idea that was happening and was completely speechless!

Here’s some pictures from day 8 and 9

Stay tuned to this blog throughout the summer for more updates!

[Image by: OSLCmedia]

I’m really tired so I’m going to try and make this as short and informative as possible.

This morning Eagle’s Wings sang at 2 of the 3 morning worship services at Matthews United Methodist Church
and Hearts In Puppetry performed ‘God Shack’ at all 3 services! Our timing was really neat because MUMC’s youth group was heading out on a mission trip to Tennessee this morning as we were coming in to help lead worship. So we got to show our stuff off a little for their 350+ youth group which was pretty cool!

Peter Leo, pictured here with his wife Laura and daughters Erin & Madeline recently moved to Matthews, NC to be the Director of Music and Arts Worship at MUMC. He previously worked for Good Shepherd in Naperville, IL! You may remember him from a joint choral concert back in April of 2008 that he and Lynn Panosh collaborated on. He was an excellent host and we thank Pete and the rest of the good people at MUMC for being such wonderful host homes for our group and for just being super hospitable in general! They rock!

After MUMC we drove to Pigeon Forge, TN where we are currently chillin’ in a hotel for the night. We watched The Sandlot on the bus and all had a good laugh. That movie is seriously a must see if you haven’t already! Little boys and their neighborhood baseball shenannigans! What could be better?!?!?! Once we made it to Pigeon Forge we We saw the Black Bear jamboree Show and Dinner. It was a super fun show and they even called kid’s up on stage at the beginning! There are pictures of this event in the below slideshow. We ate food and watched a show which consisted of showtunes from the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s. They also sang some country songs, some Chris Tomlin and some patriotic songs!

That’s really all I have for today… I’m falling asleep as I’m writing this so I need to stop now. We still have two more days!

[Images by: OSLCmedia]