It was truly a blessing to watch these kids, some shy, and quiet, some loud and boisterous, develope bonds with one another as well as friendships that well may last a lifetime. Watching the kids as they approached the elderly in the convalesce homes, at first hesitantly, not knowing what to expect – then by the end of the Tour,  jumping out eagerly after each performance to talk and hold hands with them and delight in the fact that they brought smiles and tears of joy to many of the residents.

I think this tour caused many of the kids to think about a lot of things in a different way from what they were used to. Some learned for the first time what a college dorm looks like. Some learned how hard and busy it is behind the scenes of a puppet show. For some, they learned sympathy and love for the elderly.  Many of the kids learned for the first time how exciting it is to swim in the Atlantic ocean, while others discovered a new love of white water rafting on the Pigeon Forge river. And some just learned how important it was to use deodorant on a pact bus loaded with teenagers!

But, for me, the one thing I’ll never forget about this tour was after the homecoming performance and talking with one of the mother’s as she waited patiently for her freshman daughter to finish saying her good-bye’s to each and every kid that went on tour, that – the girl on stage talking nonstop to everybody, was not the same shy quiet girl she dropped off 10 days ago’. For me, that’s what makes it worth all the sleepless nights pulling hallway duty.

The following is a post from Lynn Panosh

What a joy it is to spend a week with 47 high school students!!!  REALLY!

What makes our annual Eagle’s Wings/Hearts in Puppetry Ministry Tour so special?

Commitment

The students who participate in Eagle’s Wings and Hearts in Puppetry make the commitment to their ministry for the year…that means showing up for weekly rehearsals and sharing their music and puppet drama throughout the program year in worship and the church school.    The adult leaders that support these ministries also commit to these midweek and Sunday times.   We are united in our goal of music or puppet drama.  We work together, we pray together, we have fellowship together.  Relationships grow.  We model our ministry after the early believers as found in Acts 2:44…

“they met together constantly, shared everything they had, worshipped together, participated in the Lord’s Supper together, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of the people.”

Goals

We have a goal when we leave on our ministry tour… to share the Gospel with all we meet through music and puppet dramas. To model Christian love amongst our group and with those we meet. It’s not a cushy trip… we have long days, crammed in a bus. We load and unload every day… sleeping in a different place, sometimes dorm rooms, sometimes host homes, some hotels (nice!) and some church floors. We give up our time and some of our SELF for the good of the group. In a world of instant gratification and personal choices, we go counter cultural for a week, working together with patience and flexibility. And in doing so, we grow!

Blessings

We are incredibly blessed by everyone we meet. Older adults in retirement homes… the forgotten generation, whose smiles and warmth fill our hearts. We must face a reality that is hidden away and reach out of our comfort zone and in doing so, are blessed. Our simple act of sharing song and laughter brings joy and hope. We are blessed by those who welcome us into their congregations and homes. It is a big commitment to rally a congregation to provide a meal, host homes and come out for a concert. They do so with love and we are humbled and WE learn. We are the servants going out to share our ministries but THEY are the communities which open their hearts and time to allow the ministry to happen. From Mark 6:10…we are the disciples going out with little and they are the villages who welcome us.  Can we do the same?

Memories

We have returned with many wonderful memories of the beauty of a different part of the US… three college campuses, whitewater rafting, an afternoon at the beach and more. My heart is full of the growth of both groups as I saw high school students working together to make things happen and reaching out of their comfort zone to make new friends. We had no major drama… because all cooperated and gave of themselves. For sixteen graduated seniors it was their last trip and on our closing night, they shared and they grieved the end of a chapter in their lives. They, we, have been changed.

Parents

I am grateful for the parents who support their child’s involvement in these ministries… who encourage (or insist sometimes) that their child honor their commitment, who see the value of a Christian community, who work their family’s busy schedule around our schedule. I am grateful for the support of the Our Saviour’s community in our fund raising and recognizing and encouraging these ministries. I am thankful for the work of the youth leaders, Pastors and other musicians who work as a team… a village to help our children grow and learn. I am grateful to the seven adult leaders who give of their time and are passionate about their faith and these young people. I am grateful to God, who blesses our efforts and gives us all that we need.

Eagle’s Wings and Hearts in Puppetry take a “break” for the summer, but begin again with the annual “Fall Into” retreat at Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center in Oregon, IL in August. ALL students are invited to this retreat or to become a part of either ministry. More information on that to come!

If you or your child went on the trip, we would appreciate it if you would donate $2 towards the cost of these rafting pictures. They were taken by the staff at Nantahala Outdoor Center and cost us some money in order to have them send us the CD. You can give the money to me (Graham) or Lynn Panosh. Thank you!

Here are some instructions for downloading images off of any of our Flickr photo sets:

Step 1:

Click on “All Sizes”

Step 2:

Click on “Download the Large size” or whatever size you wish to download.

There you have it! you’ve got your own copy of the photo!

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!

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]

Today was a pretty lowkey day. We traveled from Morehead, NC which is right by Atlantic Beach in what I think is the outer banks… all the way to Charlotte, NC. We spent a lot of hours in the bus and ate at Chic-Fil-A!

We had dinner at Cracker Barrel and Alissa and Meredith Fahrenz got to see some family friends. It was Kyle Hay’s birthday! Happy Birthday to him!!! Michelle Sander got to see some of her family too and they came to the concert! Kim Baleskie also got to see some family! It was pretty cool!

We got to sing at Carrington Place and it was seriously a really sweet concert! For starters the space we were in was really hot and we had to have a huge fan on the entire time. Nobody broke rule number 3 so that’s good! One of the elderly residents had her son there with her and they were rockin out and playin the air drums the entire time! It was really cool.

Most of the group is in host homes tonight and there are a few of us guys sleeping on the floor of Matthews United Methodist Church. We’re singing in worship there tomorrow!

Here’s some pictures from the day.

[Image by: OSLCmedia]

On Friday we drove to Morehead & Atlantic Beach, NC! The plan was to arrive at Shepherd of the Sea Church in Atlantic Beach around noon and then go play at the beach until about 3:00pm or so. That happened… but when we rolled up in the church parking lot we found out that they weren’t expecting us until Saturday! There was a mix-up in our communications… the really cool thing is that they started calling everyone in their church and telling them to come at 7:30pm on Friday instead of Saturday and we had a pretty good turnout! The congregation made us an excellent BBQ meal of burgers and dogs and we ate until we were full… and then some!

Here’s a video of that and some of our concert!

The beach was a rockin’ good time! We played in the waves and swallowed a bunch of salt water. We had the chance to walk around the town of Atlantic Beach as well… there was a nice little diner that I got to eat at! Then we went to Wings and The Blue Reef… they’re both beach-side tourist stores that have a lot of organized junk in them. J Awesome!

Alex, Brad and I decided that we needed to have some tour pets to bring us closer together as a group. The below video explains the lowdown on that!

As the day came to a close we were fortunate enough to get to stay at a Hampton Inn in Morehead, NC. A clean bed and a warm shower were much appreciated after a couple nights on gymnasium floors! We’re on the bus again on our way to Charlotte, NC as I write this and we’re all clean and well rested!

Here’s pictures from today.

More later!

Thursday was a really cool day! We got to give our concert at Hillcrest Convalescent Home in Durham, NC. We had a chance to talk with some of the residents there and they were really happy to have us! One lady exclaimed, “You keep singing!”

Then we made our way to Chapel Hill, NC and walked up and down Franklin street by UNC. There was a lot of light blue going on around there… you’d think they won a championship back in April or something?!?! The campus was very nice looking and very large. If you ever get the chance… go to the UNC campus and visit Franklin Street. There are a ton of cool little shops there and we were able to spend a few hours walking around. Us mentors found a Mexican restaurant in an ally that was very similar to Potter’s Place in downtown Naperville. I had an excellent taco. The picture to the right is of the library (I think) on the UNC campus. There are more pictures of UNC in the slideshow below.

After UNC we made our way across town to Duke. Yeah… we hit up both rival schools in the same day! We didn’t have a lot of time at Duke before we had to leave. But we did get to see the Duke chapel! We walked around the chapel for a little while and found out that we get to do an impromptu choir concert!!! There happened to be another choir group touring the chapel too… they were from Orange Park United Methodist Church from Orange Park, FL which is near Jacksonville, FL and Lynn Panosh has been friends with their choir director Mark for over 20 years!!! Crazy coincidence!!!

It was just so cool to run into another youth choir and to see the kids get so excited to sing for their peers. Not only did they get to experience the acoustics and the incredible singing venue of a chapel but they got to sing for peers that they had never met and then appreciate what each other were doing. And the coolest thing was that they found they had songs in common that they could sing together!

-Lynn Panosh

Here’s some pictures from the day!

I’ve typed up some fun facts about the Duke University Chapel after the jump. (after the jump means after you click the below link… if you’re looking at this specific post and not just the blog home page you can disreguard this message)

Duke University Chapel Fun Facts

Construction Facts

• Years built: In the early 1930’s, dedicated in 1935
• Cost: $2,287,742.54
• Style: English Gothic
• Exterior: Duke bluestone from NC quarry and Indiana limestone
• Interior: Lined with Guastavino tile

Dimensions

• Bell Tower: 210 ft. high
• Interior: 291 ft. long and 63 ft. wide
• Nave: 73 ft. high and 39 ft. wide
• Transept: 121 ft. long

Exterior Figures

• On the facade: Methodists who spread methodism in the Colonies in the 18th century, Thomas Coke, Fancis Asbury, and George Whitfield
• Left of Doors: Girolamo Savonarola, Martin Luther and John Wycliffe
• Right of Doors: Sidney Lanier, Robert E. Lee, and Thomas Jefferson
• Over the Front Doors: John Wesley

Other 411

• Seating: 1500 main Chapel, 50 Memorial Chapel, 150 Choir
• The Crypt: Mrs. James B. Duke and University presidents and their wives are buried here. It is used for small religious group meetings
• Worship: Sunday mornings at 11:00am, Morning prayer daily at 8:00am, Academic year services include Tuesday Prayer and Holy Communion at 5:15pm and Thursday Choral Vespers at 5:15pm
• Downstairs: Parlor, staff and Religious Life Offices, lounge,a nd kitchen
• Website: www.chapel.duke.edu

[Image by: OSLCmedia]

Thanks for your patience…

These first two videos were recorded in the bus as we were on our way to our white water rafting adventure.

Hi Parents – Part 1

Hi Parents – Part 2

The following video was taken on Wednesday as we sang our first concert… this video accompanies this blog post.

Behind The Scenes – Day 3