Psalm 149:1

This is late as well... I'm seeing a bit of a pattern here...

On July 20-23, I had the wonderful opportunity to minister to the cities of Kansas City and St. Louis with my Girls Choir. It was the first "Girls Choir St. Louis Tour", and I have to say that our prayers were answered and we were blessed beyond measure with the ability to minister.

Thursday the 20th: Momma, Izzy, Elle, and I all had to be to church around 6:30. Momma went as a sponsor, and because she usually drives our beast, she was nominated to drive one of the vans. Due to a problem with one of the batteries, we got a late start. We stopped at a park to eat lunch and to change into our not-so attractive blue Girls Choir t-shirts. Then we went to Legends mall and did a little shopping. My friend Lauren and I were in Forever 21, and we stumbled upon the bikini section. I laughed and said, "Yea, though I walk through the section of the yucky bikinis, I will fear no evil, for I know that I am not supposed to expose my body in such ways." She thought that was funny. (Bible humor... anyway.) Our whole choir gathered around the fountain in the middle of the mall, and I started a Girls Choir Flash mob. It was quite entertaining. We sang one of our African American Gospel type songs. After that we loaded the vans and headed to St. Louis. After driving through a mass of all traffic craziness, we found our hotel. Everyone was cranky and honestly needed to go straight to bed. When we got into the hotel, we found out that we had 8 rooms reserved, and that they were spread out all over the building, which annoyed my director. Originally there was supposed to be one adult sponsor, and about 5 girls in each room, but my room got messed up. Somehow we got two smaller rooms instead of one big room, so they split us up. Jayne (our pianist... the adult) was in a room with Lauren and Cassie, and Kara, LeeAnn, and I got a room all to ourselves. That night, all three of us went to go work out, it was amazing! The thing I love about working out is that it sucks while you are doing it, but after it's over, you feel amazing. We didn't get to bed until at least 1:00 in the morning.

Friday the 21st: Purple "Girls Choir Tour" T-Shirt day! It was also Victoria's Birthday. We sang to her after breakfast and devotions. It was sketch at best. Our director gave us a strange starting pitch, so half of the choir started on the note that she gave us, and the other half sang it with the usual starting pitch. We were only half way through the first line when our director yelled, "Girls! Don't ever sing Happy Birthday in a parallel fifth again! Bach just rolled over in his grave!" And with that we left to go sing at a nursing home. After that, we went to the City Museum. That place is creepy. It's like a childish playground for adults. It is so strange. Don't get me wrong, it was quite amazing, but it was so cluttered and crazy. Just as we were about to leave, Teresa (our director) told us to line up in our performance rows, and we sang about half of our entire concert in the lobby. There were so many people asking about us and asking who we represent. There were so many people in that lobby who heard the gospel in that short amount of time. It was amazing. After that we went to sing at another nursing home. Our poor pianist, Jayne, had to use a squatty 4 octave piano. It was funny to watch her because she kept tapping her foot and searching for the pedal, but there wasn't one, and she kept reaching for the lower octaves, but they weren't there either. After we were done singing, we went around and greeted the residents. They were all very kind and talkative. I shook one lady's hand and introduced myself. She smiled and kindly replied, "I am deaf, but I can read your lips." I asked her all kinds of questions, and I found out that she was born deaf, and her parents sent her to a school for deaf children. She learned how to talk and read lips here. She doesn't use sign language very often. She continued to tell me that her husband lost his hearing at the tender age of six, and that they were married for over 60 years when he died. She wears his ashes around her neck in a gold heart necklace. As she was telling her story, I felt tears swelling, but the last statement was what made my tears burst, "Keep making beautiful music to the Lord. He is being praised through the talent that he gave each one of you." I thanked her and told her goodbye. As I was walking out of the nursing home, Jeff (Lauren's Dad) put his arm around me and he was crying. He said, "Annastazia, your solo was beautiful. It made me cry, and not many things make me cry." This of course made me cry harder. When we got back to the hotel, we had a grill-out type supper, and then we went swimming. It is a Girls Choir tradition to play a fierce game of "Chicken" while in the pool. I paired up with Kara's little sister, Jessie. She got up on my shoulders, and we were the champions! We knocked everyone down! This picture was taken at the perfect moment. This is right after we had won, and Jessie's face is absolutely hilarious. Later that night, we watched movies, and then went to bed.

Saturday the 22nd: We were allowed to sleep in for a little while, and then after breakfast and devotions, we went to sing at another nursing home. Although, it didn't look like a nursing home... it looked like a rich people resort. It was amazing. The inside was just wonderfully decorated. (We later found out that residents had to pay about $225 per day to stay there.) After we were done singing, we had lunch and then headed to the arch. It took us a while to get there because of traffic and my mother's inability to read directions. Soon after we arrived at the arch and parked the vans, it started raining. Which scared the little girls who were already afraid of going up in the arch. We congregated in the lobby and formed groups of five: one adult, two high school girls, and two younger girls per group. LeeAnn and I were in a group with a sixth grader and a fifth grader. The sixth grader was full of energy; I swear that girl was bouncing off of the walls. The fifth grader was extremely sassy, not rude sassy, just sarcastic. She was so adorable. As we were standing in line with our little number things, I suggested that we start a flash mob. It seemed like the perfect time because a lot of people were getting irritated with waiting. So I started the song like I did the other times, and a few girl had just started to join in when a sophomore bratty girl says, "Are you kidding me? No! We are not five." This really upset me. The only purpose of all of our flash mobs was to bring glory to God, and this girl thought that she was too cool to sing with us. Of course, all of the girls stopped singing after she said this. I continued, hoping that they would join back in, but they didn't. Soon after, they called this girl's group to go down the steps, so I started singing again and this time everyone joined in. It was wonderful. There were a ton of people who walked up to our sponsors and asked about us, which gave the sponsors a chance to share the gospel. Soon after we finished singing, they called our number to go down to the little egg looking elevators that took us too the top. It was creepy. I hated how the little egg looking thing tilted back and forth. It scared me. The two little girls were freaking out. I thought I was going to throw up. I was very relieved when we got to the top. It was cool to look out the windows during the storm because the lightning was just beautiful. The ride back down the elevator was much more pleasant than the ride up. Back at the hotel, we had supper, and then retreated to our rooms after a quite vicious game of spoons. Lauren, Cassie, and LeeAnn pulled a prank on Kara and I by messing up our stuff and steeling our pillows and such. So we took Lauren and LeeAnn's phones hostage, and put Frito's in LeeAnn's bed. We also did something quite unmentionable with LeeAnn's toothbrush holder.

Sunday the 23rd: We had to be out of our rooms with everything pack and breakfast eaten by 7:30. It was insane. We loaded the trailer and vans, but as we were about to leave, our director was frantically running around to the vans saying that she had lost her music. She asked if any of us had ours. I was the only one out of the entire choir who had my music with me. I had brought my All-State music to look at along the way, and I keep all of my choir music in one big folder (I really need to clean it out. I still have last years All-State music and scales in there...). I finally found all of our songs, and then Jim yelled from his car, "I found it!". I sighed deeply. All that work of sorting through the mass of all music folders for nothing. After our little crisis was averted, we headed out for Hope Bible Church. Upon arrival we lined up in our rows and got ready for sound/microphone checks. Soon it was time for my solo mic check. I walked out of the choir loft down to where I was supposed to stand. I grabbed the mic. Besides the choir, there were only about 20 people in the room. The first line of my solo went great, but then I completely blanked and forgot the second line. I was ready to come back in for the third line, but Gail and my mother where laughing so hard that I messed up again, and it was a complete loss. I got yelled at hard core. Teresa was ticked. I got the "You are a leader in this choir. The least I ask of you is that you remember the words to the solo you have been practicing and performing all year long." speech. After mic checks we had twenty minutes to go to the bathroom (and recite solo words) before church started. Our performance was great! I remembered all of the words! The sermon was amazing. It was about the purpose of music in worship. I have heard everything he said before, but the way he delivered it was excellent. After the sermon we had lunch at the church, and then made a surprise stop at Starbucks! As we were ordering, and elderly lady asked about us, and when she was informed that we were a girls choir, she wanted us to sing, so we sang for her. Then she asked if we would all sing as we were walking out the door, so we sang the chorus of Make My Life a Song, which is kind of our "theme song" this year. We reloaded the vans, and then headed home. I didn't get home until well after ten. I was so happy to be home.

"Sing to the Lord a new song!" Psalm 149:1