wow... it's been too long!

Director and Assistant director.. relaxin in a hot tub on the lake!
Ahh... bus life..
During our bus engine cool down stop in the Rockies.. "Rocky" needed a rest from the hills..
A really fast get ready time.. they weren't exactly thrilled that we took a pic this day.. :) cuz they only had 10 minutes to get ready.. we told them that's continental life.. !! :)
On our long day in Olathe(Delta, CO) where we got to spend the day at the pastor's house who let the teens ride on his go karts.. of course his slow go karts.. :)

Well I was extremely good with this until I hit about a week of no internet access! Well there was internet access a few times at a hotel but of course I had to pay money to use it.. and I'm sorry folks but I'm poor! :) So now I finally get to update and Lord help me if I can even remember the past two days...

Okay so we got our bus that day and headed to osbourne KS and we went through kansas and through colorado and to wyoming for a night(Home church of our leader Mira) and back through colorado to (Olathe)Delta, Co (home church of our young con Mariah) where we had a bit of bus trouble but luckily we had gotten to our concert location the day before and didn't have anywhere to drive.. they got the bus fixed while I spoke with the hosts for some help getting the teens to the actual church for the concert and for a couple of trucks to help us get our equipment there too. (THANKS DONATHANS and PASTOR MIKE AND FAMILY!!) :) It all worked out and our bus was all ready to go the next day! And we headed somewhere.. I think .. oh yea! To Kanab UT where we performed in a old theater which was awesome and they housed the guys at the pastor's house and the girls in a motel there that a friend owned.. and of course to stay with funny memories.. the leaders were walkin down the street getting some exercise during our leader meeting and as we're walking down this small town's road.. ALL the power goes out in town and here we are pulling out our cellphones to use as flashlights to get back to the motel where we can just imagine the girls all screaming! And the stars looked so bright for those few moments it was really awesome! Right when we get to the motel all the lights go back on and the girls come screaming towards us with them all giving us their side of the story.. which we find hilarious! Well since they were all hungry and they'd been good we took them to mcdonalds since it was the only thing open that night..

Well after Utah we headed for Sparks(neighbor of Reno) Nevada (Home church of our Young Con Eric) where we stayed for two nights with hosts. Mira and I were housed in Sands hotel in Reno NV which had an awesome view and a very cute diner.. with MY NAME! But I've been told it's a popular california diner.. Mel's Diner.. Mira and I had a milkshake there just so we could say we ate at my diner.. :) Then it was onto sacramento area.. I honestly don't remember the town where we performed at a low income apartment complex outside. Where are Mrs. Baker lost her voice so we just had her lip the words and do all the movements while my Assistant Mira was in the back with a headset speaking all the words.. I meant to get it on video and didn't get too!!! It was soo funny!! It was great!! Really interesting day because it was hot.. enough said. :) Then it was onto Tehachapi, CA (home church of our young con Rachel) and today we headed out to Redlands, CA (home church of our young con Kristine) where we had an awesome concert. It's so much fun during home churches because they seem so into it and go all out! The audiences and the teens! And tomorrow we are heading to Hemet, CA which is the home church of our young con Jillian.. yes it is the week of home churches!!

Well the tour has been doing really well but like every tour when it comes to the end the teens tend to start getting really tired and exhausted.. we had a really early call time earlier this week which didn't help but we had to really gear the teens up not to lose their momentum and as we do every week remind them why theyre here and remind them who their doing it for. We've been giving them scripture reading everyday that will encourage them not only to keep it up for the last week but also when they go home and it's not the same.. we've been having really awesome group times and everyone is opening up and it's such an awesome thing in my position to see where these guys were a couple of weeks ago and then see the change and how different they are.. more confident.. more sure of themselves.. and a little something extra. We only have one more concert until the 40th celebration.. and then only two full concerts after that.. I can't believe our final night is in 4 days.. that's insane..

Prayer requests:

For our bus that it continues without any problems!!

For our teens, that they stay strong and focused even though there's only a few days left to keep it up so that every concert is their best! And that they keep striving to be their best! And that their health keeps up.. they've been tired and we all know what comes with that and being on the road.. lost voices.. coughs.. runny noses.. all the good stuff!! Pray for health.. so we don't have any more replacements!! :)

For our leaders!! That God will give us the wisdom and strength to keep the teens going in these final days that are definitely going to get emotional!!

For our message, that it stays as strong as it was the first few times so that the audience will see God in every movement just as much in our last concert as it was in the first!

And a special thank you to all of those who have been praying for us and keeping strong this far! Thanks for all your support and dedication! :) We love it and we feel it!!

Well until next time.. hopefully it's before the last night.. I'll try my best!! Keep us in your prayers!!

Over and Out!

Mel (who should be sleeping right now...)

Mira(who is sleeping right now..)

Josh (who is probably sleeping right now... :) )

Just a few pics to fill your visions... :) Outdoor concert in Phoenix!!
Day off in La Porte, TX (Kim's house) POOL PARTY!!!!
What can I say (above mentioned pool party)... when the teens play.. the leaders will lay... and Mira falls asleep!!

WE HAVE OUR BUS!!! "A brighter day"

YAY!!! We finally have our continental bus and no longer need the charter!! What a great gift to come after our best concert to date!! Just a quick update.. sorry guys I'm tired!!

So last night the kids prayed for all the tours out on the road and then prayed for our concert.. one of the prayers specifically asking for people to enjoy it so much they'd stand up and have fun! Another was for our offering so we could keep our bus going just in case anything else should happen!!

It was a beautiful church and had these long windows on both sides of the stage looking out at the arkansas trees surrounding us and right before the invitation it started storming and I knew some of our girls were scared of it so I prayed silently that they would feel God's presence in the lighting and thunder.. the rest of the show went beautifully and during our offering song PEOPLE JUMPED UP AND STARTING CLAPPING AND DANCING! And handing me checks already! I couldn't help but say in my send off that God was having so much fun he just had to add some of his own joyful noise! :) We had our best concert and our best offering so far!! It was amazing!!! The kids could feel it and then were even more excited when I told them we didn't use any track vocals except for the last song that the rest was all them!! :) :) :) You could just feel the energy sparking all around us and off us!! IT WAS AWESOME!!

And then this morning was a very early call time to unload our charter bus and get ready to load our continental bus.. because Pastor Jim (our continental driver) got in around 430am I let him get some more rest and we did some choreo and vocal clean up until he got there and were on our way.. loaded the bus and were off on our 7 hr drive to kansas. We performed 3 songs in a retirement home and had a blast.. and now we're gearing up for a later call time.. 10am.. a lot better than the 730 call time from this morning.. and we'll be on to Osbourne KS tomorrow!


Prayer requests:

THAT WE STAY THIS STRONG IT FEELS AWESOME!!

Offering keeps coming the way it has.. that God continues to bless us!

For our bus.. continued prayer that it will be fine and all the replaced parts will have been exactly what it needed and we will get through without any other mishaps!! :) :)

For our driver Pastor Jim: The teens loves him already and we are so excited he's finally with us, continue to pray for his strength and health!! We need him!! :)

Thanks guys for all your prayer!! WE NEED YOU TOO!!! :) :) :) AND THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK WE FEEL IT!!

Over and out!


Mel
Mira
Josh

"Ummm... so what state are we in?"

*disclaimer* sooo.. long couple of days.. sorry if this seems jumbled..


Wow so where did we leave off? This is craziness!! I need a secretary! Anyone? Do I hear anyone who wants to be my secretary? You would need to be able to work weird hours.. sometimes long shifts.. be able to live out of a suitcase and spend long hours in a bus.. that's you?! AWESOME come on the road with me!!!

Well... After odessa we were supposed to drive down to san antonio to the riverwalk and perform at the theatre on the riverwalk but for those of you that keep up with the news.. remember that day the hurricane hit that area? Yea... that was the day we were supposed to be there.. so after talking with the host the night before we decided it wasn't going to work out so instead we drove right to austin where we were being housed for the night... and since abilene was on the way we did a lunch stop at a park in abilene and my husband and my dogs met us there and all the teens got to meet them!! It was awesome! We played games and everyone played on the big jungle gym there and then we had to be off to continue on towards austin!

So we stayed with three wonderful hosts in austin.. with two of them kinda spliting the girls I was in the house with 10 ladies and Mira was in the house with 3. :) what can I say I love big sleepovers! haha The next day in austin I wanted to take the teens to this huge park where there's a natural huge lake that they've put diving boards on the sides and ladders to get in and out of the water.. but unfortanely it rained really badly the day we got there so they said the lake would be closed because it gets nasty after big rains.. and so we went to Austin's big mall instead. We were only supposed to be there for about an hour and a half and ended up getting stuck there for close to 4 hours because of some bus company issues.
Then we finally got on our way to La Porte, TX where our tour member Kimberly Anderson goes to church so her mother (THANKS LINDA!!) took some ladies in and so other continental alumni took us in for Friday and Saturday night.. which was kinda interesting because when the host I was staying with got there I recognized her face from somewhere and asked when she toured and she was at the same rehearsal camp as me two summers ago.. of course I was AD for Young Con tour 5 and she was on the frontline tour... craziness... but so funny! And the booking department got us a concert at a retirement home but we didn't have a bus because we were waiting for our continental bus to get there so my host gave me their suburban for the day and Kim's Mom Linda drove her van type car.. (haha I don't remember what it was called..) and we were able to fit all the kids safely in and get to the retirement home concert and back where the teens had a big pool party at Kim's house and then later went to the church to play some volleyball and hang out.

Then Sunday morning we had a performance at a salvation army church for their lunch and were invited to their service. Our Continental bus broke down.. and couldn't make it there on time so I talked with Mrs. Anderson and some folks from the La Porte church we were performing at that night and a lady (THANKS MARIE!!) came forward and said she drives buses and would love to take us and the church's sister church has a school bus she drove for vbs and then we were on our way!!! The service was awesome and we had fun at the lunch and then headed back to La Porte to set up for our concert!

Before the concert I had a heart to heart with the teens because I had starting noticing bad habits creeping up and wanted to try to squash them before they took over.. and I told them about our bus that was being repaired. So we all had an awesome prayer session and went into set up.. That night we had an awesome concert and the teens felt great about it and that night Mira came up to me and told me our offering was amazing... and then she showed me the slip... 1400 dollars!!!! It was awesome!!!! So Monday came and I let the Young Cons know our offering and everyone was so excited and pumped up! And in devotions I had the teens read 1st peter 1:3- 1st peter 2: 3. And then had them tell their bus buddy their favorite verse out of the group and then tell them one thing they feel is holding them back or an evil desire from their old way of life (such as gossiping, envy, etc) and they wanted to get rid of it. Then after I had them share their favorite verse and the thing their bus buddy wanted to get rid of... it was such an awesome group/devotion time and the teens were really open and honest about everything.. it was awesome!
We had a great concert that night as well and the church owned a camp where we stayed the night which was tons of fun.. of course until we had to wake up at 5:30 to make it to breakfast and then get on the bus for our earliest call time yet.. I think.. of 6am.. (or maybe we had that once before... ) then it was off on our 7 and a half hour bus ride to Hot Springs Village, AR... very umm... green drive I must say.. :) We performed in a gated community tonight and the audience was so into it and the teens just fed off that energy and were AWESOME!!!! Tonight we're staying in host homes after a night in a camp and honestly it feels great... I know Mira and I got to go in our host's hot tub and it felt amazing!! A nice reenergizer!! And then we'll be off tomorrow where we will hopefully meet up with our bus. When I talked to Pastor Jim tonight our driver he said they had fixed it and when they tested it.. it did start but only manually not by the actual button so they have to troubleshoot tomorrow and should have him on the road pretty early in the afternoon... PRAY FOR OUR POOR BUS!!! We're so excited to finally meet Pastor Jim!! Well... until next time...

PRAYER REQUESTS:
OUR BUS: Pray for our bus that it can finally get all the kinks out and make its way to us! And Pray for our Driver Pastor Jim who has been patiently waiting with it until it finally all healed and ready to go!! He's really excited to meet with us too and get on the road! PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR BUS!!!!

CONCERTS: That we will continue on this streak of concerts! This is our first full week of concerts and we are loving it!!! The teens even set up in an hour and 20 mins!! Their best time yet!! Keep those cocnerts filling up!!

OPEN HEARTS: Not only for the teens but also for our audience to take in the message and grow!!!

OUR TEAM: Keep praying that we stay strong and keep the unity up! So our message can have strength and passion!!!

Our leadership team: we are feeling a bit tired and drained here and there.. :) Keep us in your prayers for the strength and wisdom to keep leading the teens down God's path!

Over and Out dear friends..

Mel
Mira
Josh

"Oh the places we'll go..."

Captain's log:

Okay, so where are we now? Where did we leave off.... *how much sleep did I get last night?..* okay I think.. this is where we left off.. So we performed in a very nice out door mall in phoenix because it was so hot we had to do a few songs then water break and two songs and water break.. etc for an hour. And since they worked hard in the heat we thought a nice air conditioned room for about an hour and a half would be good so we all went to see Wall e in the theater right next to where we performed. After the movie we drove to Sierra Vista where we blew up some air beds and got ready for our night in the church gym. The church supplied a bunch of air beds and bedding. The best part.. although I'm not sure how many of the girls agreed with me at the time.. a thunderstorm blew in and was extremely loud and then knocked out the power.. imagine 13 girls screaming and running like moths towards the only generator lights in the lobby where we three leaders were standing.. Hilarious right?!? I'm not gonna lie I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.. we calmed them down and the power went back on in a little while as the storms continued through the night. Beautiful music. :) Memories to last a lifetime. The next morning was their first early call time of 6am because we had a drive to Tucson for our Sunday morning concert where we performed two songs in two services and the young cons got to go to sunday school and during the second service we got to sit in on the sermon. We had our second full concert that night and had a couple technical difficulties... our laptop which has all of our concert music on there was not sending out the music to the speakers so with some prayer and some tech brainstorming we got with the church techs and got the music from our laptop to their computer and got to do our show!! We had some technical difficulties during the show but the teens did great and followed my direction and we got through looking professional and everyone complimented the teens' energy and attention to their director which was so great to hear!

On Monday we drove to El Paso, TX for housing in a mission house which was fun to have everyone together and since we were running low on petty cash Mira (Assistant Director) and I went to the grocery store and got mac and cheese and ramen for dinner along with cereal for breakfast and pb and j for lunch... all for 63 dollars! Josh kept the teens entertained (for a little while I heard.. :) ) Mira and I cooked dinner for everyone back at the house and then we had group time/devotions and then for those who wanted to stay up they shared scary stories and ended up screaming their lungs out because the lights flickered out.. and one of the boys walked through the back room casting a shadow into the room where the girls were... the girls laughed and talked for a while after.. good times.. :)

And onto this morning... we woke up all in one house which is always interesting.. :) and off to Odessa, TX but of course not without a stop at the CARLSBAD CAVERNS! It was tons of fun and of course after two days of driving without a concert the kids really needed some exercise! And the best part kids 15 and under were free .. :) Our favorite! Tons of pictures even though after a while they all started looking the same to me but the teens had lots of fun! And that's all that counts! After that we finished our drive through boring west texas.. (sorry texans..) and got to Odessa into our motel which THANKS to Belmont Baptist we have rooms reserved and don't have to worry about spending too much of our small petty cash amount. Tomorrow is our next full concert and yay we finally get to perform again!!!


Prayer requests:

OFFERING!!!! Because we haven't had a lot of concerts we've been penny pinching everyday and haven't been able to buy gas and definitely need to buy some on thursday for our drive down to San Antonio for our show on the riverwalk!

Our Audiences: For our numbers to go up so more people can hear this important message... we will perform for any number but its really encouraging to the teens when they see how many their message is getting too.

More concerts: We still have open dates so keep praying and keep trying to fill them if you know anyone in the open date areas!!

Our team: That we will continue to be strong and continue to give a strong message.

Over and out

Mel
Mira
Josh

First couple of days... "What day is it?"

In rehearsal camp we found that we all had a pretty similiar story that got us here and Jer. 29:11 became our tour theme verse... Rehearsal camp was crazy but the time had finally come for us to be on the road to our first stop. We drove from Ventura, CA to Montebello, CA where we had a very long set up but we kept our spirits up, laughed, and had a lot of fun. Our dress rehearsal went well and the church we were at was booked only two days before we got there and so there wasn't much hope for a big crowd for our first concert but we had 120 people come! The first concert was high energy and extremely fun!! From montebello we drove to Norwalk, Ca for the Alive In LA conference where we performed a half hour set and then drove to one our of tour member's (Katelyn Fox) home where her darling mother (THANKS RHONDA!!) set up housing for us. From Chino Hills, CA we got up for our first early call time of 8am and had our 5 hr drive to Phoenix, AZ where we performed an hour set at a soup kitchen in town. And we went for some ice cream after... they were good so we wanted to let them have a little something... they're a bit spoiled right now.. I know.. :) Mark Lyons (father of our tour member Sarah Lyons) set up the soup kitchen concert and housing for us so we wanted to THANK him for his hard work on this end! We're gearing up for a fun weekend, tomorrow we will be performing in an outdoor mall (THANKS MARK!) and then driving to housing later that day in Sierra Vista... and from there? Only God will tell.. and then He'll have a continental staff member put it on the website! :)

Pray requests:
OPEN DATES!!! (If you see on the website that we'll be in your area and you know a church.. Call them and call us.. We will go wherever God leads us! )

Health!!!! I've been hearing from the other tour that everyone is getting sick! We've been pretty good.. only one got a cold at rehearsal camp that we cut out fast and so far on the road we've only had one other get a fever but we seem to be back in top shape. Keep us in prayer for health we need everyone strong to keep our tour going as strong as it is!!

Attitudes: I've been blessed with such a great group of young adults and I haven't had any problems yet!! YAY!! So keep us in prayer because we know satan will be after us because we're so strong and pray that we stay united and high spirited with God's hand always on us keeping us going forward!

Safety: We'll have a few more long drives this week so keep us in your prayers that we will always arrive safely and securely with no lost young continentals ;) [just kidding on the lost young con part.. I like to joke, no really don't worry we have them count off everytime.. :)]

Thanks guys and check back soon for updates.. We'll try to keep up with it!! :)

Mel
Mira
Josh

TOUR 5 HAS BEGUN!!!

Check in here for regular updates from Tour 5! :)