This morning we awoke to some rain. So we did not get a chance to do our service project cleaning up the beach front. Instead we performed a shortened version of our performance for a retirement home next-door to Grace Congregational Church. One of our host homes was a little bit of a trek from the church and Katie Ashcraft was in that group. They didn’t make it in time to start the concert so Jack Clayton stepped up and became an honorary puppeteer for the first two puppet numbers. Katie arrived just in the nick of time for God Shack (the most involved puppet song).

After our concert we headed back to Manitowoc to check out the Wisconsin Maritime Museum. We got a tour of a submarine which was super amazing!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE FACEBOOK PHOTO ALBUM WITH SUBMARINE PICTURES

I’m sorry I can’t update you more right now. We just arrived at Grand Valley State and I’m trying to post a carferry post too before we leave the bus WiFi!

Our visit to Grace Congregational was amazing! We made so many new friends with the congregation. They had dinner waiting for us when we arrived and their sanctuary was one of the coolest venues for our concert. I didn’t have to setup our portable sound system because their sound guys were so helpful and let me plug in to their system. They even recorded the audio of the performance and I videotaped… I will try and post some video on here in in the next day or so.

We stayed in host homes last night which was super cool. As I may have said somewhere before… I always enjoy getting to know the families that take us into their homes. I stayed with Dan Beirne, Garrett Panno and Ben Meyer with a family just around the corner from the church. They were very nice and made us an amazing pancake breakfast complete with cinnamon rolls!

If you have been following this blog and have not seen many pictures yet… that’s because I’m uploading them to my facebook account this year.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PICTURES

One of little traditions I really enjoy about ministry tour each year is what we do right before we get on the bus and head out. We all get in a circle, parents – chaperones – students and pray. We do this because it is important to start the trip off right. Since ministry tour is all about sharing God’s word through our performance and the way we interact with the people we meet, it is important for us to first ask God to work in our hearts and get us focused on our mission, to Know Jesus and Make Jesus Known.

Below is the view from near the front of the bus. As I’m writing we are just passing Sheboygan, WI. We can see Lake Michigan off to our left and Dan is leading the bus in practicing our African song Be Like Him. I will just say that it’s really cool to hear the kids and the puppets singing together on the bus.