"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