Tyler, Lowell, Daniel & Austin

Day 5- Rescued Tour 2010

Supplies are running low along with morale. We’ve gone three days without food. If you’re reading this, send help and/or money to Homewood Suites in Pensacola Fl. But, seriously, today was filled with enjoyment along with sorrow. We’ll deal with the sorrow first. After a long and emotionally touching week of providing service to the diverse community of Escambia County, we finally had to say goodbye to all of the wonderful people we had bonded with in our mission groups. I personally had to say farewell to the many previously homeless children who were, at the time, abiding at the Loaves and Fishes homeless shelter. After such a poignant experience, we came back to the hotel and had a decadent hamburger luncheon, which was almost immediately followed, in many cases, by a much-needed nap. That was nice. Later in the afternoon, we loaded the buses and devoured a paper sack filled to the brim with chilled, thinly sliced, delicatessen-style goodness. Following our fumbling through a freakishly fast sound check, we headed to the stage to open up for some big names such as Pocket Full of Rocks (or “Rocket Full of Pocks”), Among the Thirsty, Newfire (who shared with us their new catchy song), 33 Miles (or in Europe 53 kilometers (give or take)), and David Nasser. We rocked, though not as hard as Aaron Shust, who we sadly didn’t get to see. Regrettably, we missed this act to receive a plethora of pizza and a cornucopia of creamy, frozen ice of the Neapolitan persuasion. After these creamy delights, we gathered our retro attire, and subsequently, our boogie. We don’t typically roam the halls of our hotel in outdated clothing, but as we all know, a healthy combination of sleep deprivation, heat exhaustion, and Neapolitan ice cream automatically calls for a night-full of high-octane partyin’. As the aforementioned party commenced, a secret panel of judges decided the recipients of many awards, among them: King, Queen, Prince, Princess, and the highly prestigious “So You Think You Can Dance” award. After a throat-destroying sing-along of “Livin’ on a Prayer,” this group of handsome men was beguiled into cleverly composing this carefully-crafted conglomeration of cognescence.

Stay Classy, Birmingham!

We leave you with a joke of the day:

“What is the difference between a well-dressed man on a tricycle and a poorly-dressed man on a bicycle?

Attire

Goodnight from Daniel, Austin, Lowell, and Tyler.

Lowell, Elise, Lacey & Daniel

Day 4 - Chi Alpha Rescued Tour - 2010

This morning started off with waking up at the crack of dawn and leaving at 7 am to see the Blue Angels practice. The only word to describe the performance is incredible. It was incredibly frightening when they flew about 100 feet above our heads coming from behind and broke the sound barrier a millisecond later. I know, right? After nearly drowning in back-sweat, we made our way into the Naval Aviation museum. The history buffs enjoyed the exhibits while I enjoyed some freeze-dried chocolate chip ice cream. It was delicious. We ventured back to the hotel for lunch then split up for our mission sites. I am painting a slightly over-sized gym (which we scraped earlier in the week) at the Salvation Army. My crew doesn’t really get to interact with anyone, but when I do see residents and staff, I can tell that they appreciate our efforts. After a few hours of seeing and smelling blue paint, we loaded the bus to go to First Baptist Church Milton. Before the concert, we had the opportunity to go to a nearby legendary bakery. The donuts, cookies, cupcakes, etc. were delectable, and the extremely low prices were even better. After enjoying my chocolate donut with chocolate milk, I took the stage to warm up and check sound with the rest of the choir. The concert followed and, as usual, was a success. Milton’s congregation, along with another church’s youth group, worshipped with us. After the concert, I received my 504^th helping of homemade macaroni for the week (I cant get enough of it) alongside Sloppy Joes. A banana split bar was also provided. Heads up, the peach ice cream is NOT the same as vanilla. All in all, it was a most excellent meal. I laughed until I couldn’t breathe with sweet friends and then joined the choir to sing for the kitchen staff. Upon returning to the hotel, we received instructions for tomorrow. I then began freaking out about writing this blog. Fortunately, I have been rescued with comedy from Daniel, scholarly wisdom from Lowell, and encouragement from the presence of my best friend, Elise. And now I am done, and it’s 23 minutes past curfew.

To Him be the glory forever and ever and ever and ever.

Amen and goodnight.

Lacey

Karson

Day Three - Chi Alpha Rescued Tour - 2010

Today is Day three, and people went to their mission sites after eating breakfast at 6:30. We worked for three hours at our mission sites and at my mission site Children’s Home, I got to clear out some more brush from the pond and cut down a bunch of trees and branches. It was hard work but in the end it was really rewarding and we got a lot done. We’ll probably finish up our work by tomorrow. After that, we came back to the hotel, ate lunch, showered and went to the juvenile detention center in Escambia. We staggered our bus rides because it takes a long time to get everyone in and cleared. When we got in, many of us were feeling anxious about how they would react but after we started singing we didn’t even think about that. We simply worshipped God and rejoiced. When we were done, I could tell that many of the people were profoundly affected and we even got to pray with and minister to them. After that, the seniors went out for their night and as an underclassman, I got to go to the Cordova Mall. I ate at Red Robin and got to go into a ton of stores that we don’t have in Alabama and buy some stuff. All in all, it was a very fun night and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world but here.

Karson

When asked about their experience at their mission sites some of the students had this to say:

Bay Area Food Bank: “Today, I helped to bring joy into the lives of the employees of the Bay Area Food Bank by hanging two murals that were painted by children with cancer.” ~ Austin G.

Appetite for Life - Construction and Maintenance: “I was expecting God to use us in an amazing way, but he completely surpassed my expectations. We were able to accomplish around a weeks worth of work in about four hours.” ~ Hunter S.

Appetite for Life - On Site Prep Kitchen: “Wow! Today I realized how truly blessed I am. I take so much for granted and need to open my eyes to the needs around me. People are hungry. We need to feed them with food and Jesus!” ~ Kayla M.

Loaves and Fishes Day Care: “It was awesome to get to bake homemade bread with the kids!” ~ Ryan S.

Salvation Army - Boys and Girls Club: “It was exciting to meet all the kids we’ve been hearing about. Soccer camp was hot, but it will be a great week.” ~ Brittany T.

Habitat for Humanity - ReSTORE: “I helped stucco a wall for the Habitat for Humanity ReSTORE, and although we were outside and all hot and sweaty, I had so much fin doing something I’d never done before that will end up helping other people.” ~ Kelsey D.

Salvation Army - Maintenance: “We’re painting a gym at the Salvation Army. All of the people there were so welcoming and appreciative. It was a great first day.” ~Lacey Q.

Bay Area Food Bank: “While other teams are returning from their work soaked in sweat, some members of our team are “chillin’!” That would be literally…in a freezer that’s -2 degrees. We’re happy organizing and preparing grocery items for distribution to area organizations that help feed the needy. The size of this facility helps put into perspective the size of the need. It’s exciting to know that at least for this week, we’re helping to put food on someone’s table who might otherwise go without.” ~ Jan G.

Loaves and Fishes: “I was inspired by the strong faith of the woman I worked with. She has been through so much yet her faith remains strong.” ~Rachel B.

Waterfront Mission: “Talking with Ms. Millie and sharing testimonies was inspiring. It is interesting to hear how people are lead to come to Jesus.” ~ Shelby H.

Children’s Home Bible Study: “We went into our bible study not really knowing what to expect, and what we got blew us away. We did not know the level of each person’s biblical knowledge, but we found ourselves in the middle of a deep theological discussion. We are all so excited to see what the Lord has in store for everyone involved with this group.” ~ Sarah Grace W.

Covenant Hospice: “I had a great experience at covenant hospice helping out the community. It was so rewarding seeing how grateful everyone was to have us help them out.” ~ Sylvie S.

Salvation Army Office: “Helping people do things that they couldn’t otherwise is a true blessing from God.” ~Nick J.

Bethany

Day 2  - Chi Alpha Rescued Tour 2010

So today was the first day that we all went to our mission sites. I spent the morning working in the Loaves and Fishes thrift store, and I have to say, at first it didn’t seem like our little group was really needed. We were assigned some odd jobs that mostly involved organizing shelves and folding sheets! But soon I began to talk to a woman, Sheena, who just started working there today! It was interesting just to be able to talk and find out about her! I felt really awkward at first because I am not the best at striking up conversations with random people! Actually, she talked to me first! As we got to talking she mentioned a church she sometimes attends, but mostly she talked about her three children all under 6 years old, and she’s 22! I will be able to see her every day this week when I’m there, and I am praying that God will be working on her heart and my conversational skills! In the middle of the day we got an awesome lunch from the hotel! I’m just going to go ahead now and gush about the wonderful service we are receiving from our hosts! They have gone a hundred miles out of their way just to do nice things for us! Not only did they bring our dinner to us at our concert site tonight, when we returned to the hotel they had fresh baked cookies waiting for us!!! I feel so blessed to be here. I just hope that we all show respect and gratitude for all that they are doing. Anyway, I have to say my favorite part of today was the concert at the Salvation Army tonight. When we got there the room was small, we had to cut things from the program, and even only allow the first three rows to do choreography! But, Scott encouraged us to be flexible and keep in mind our purpose for being there. When we got into the chapel to start the program, the audience was barely there! But they proved to be an interactive and responsive group. It always encourages me to be able to see on other people’s faces that our message is making an impact, and I could barely hold it together tonight as I and everyone around me just worshipped! It was quite moving, and I even had the opportunity to speak with some ladies before we started about the area and things that have been going on around Pensacola. Afterwards, we all loaded the buses once again and headed to the beach! Tonight was the night of the Chi Alpha choir tradition. We gathered around and sang hymns, read scripture, and prayed together. It was beautiful! After all of the wonderful things that have happened today, I feel like I should at least mention the fact that we were just down the beach from the President Obama’s hotel! This of course pales in comparison with everything else, but it had to be recorded!

And now it is time for lights out…goodnight!

Bethany

Robert

Day One - Chi Alpha Rescued Tour - 2010

Hey this is Robert I am in 12^th grade and this is my last choir tour. I was asked to tell y’all about our first day on choir tour. This choir tour started off great, almost everyone arrived at Hunter Street on time. Our first stop on the tour was at East Memorial Baptist Church in Prattville. The people there could not have been nicer. We led worship for the congregation and sang a few of our songs. Leading worship for the church was incredibly humbling to be given such a great responsibility. The service went great. After the service, the church fed everyone involved on the trip and man was it good. They served us chicken fingers and homemade covered dishes, like macaroni, and other great foods. There was a ton of desserts and most of us ate more than we should have. After the great lunch we loaded up on the buses and headed to Pensacola. Once we arrived at our hotel the hotel staff gave us the greatest welcome we have every received. They even had a sign hanging outside the hotel for us. The hotel staff gave us leis and had a live steel band playing, they could not have been any nicer. Not only did the hotel have music but they had food for us as well for an early dinner snack. After all of us had gotten a little bite to eat we loaded up on the buses and headed to Immanuel Baptist Church to get ready for our first concert. I think everyone was very anxious this was going to be our first full concert leading people in worship. Once we arrived at the church we were all excited to see the stage set up and we were very ready to lead the congregation in worship. The concert started and it was an amazing worship time for us, and I think the congregation as well. Although there were a few minor slip-ups on lyrics, the overall concert was amazing. Everyone’s hearts were so into worship that the mistakes didn’t matter; all that mattered was that we were glorifying our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. After the concert Immanuel Baptist also fed us and it was the classic “Chi Alpha combo”, hotdogs and hamburgers. The food was great and the atmosphere was even better. Everyone in our youth group and the youth group at Immanuel Baptist were hanging out having a good time listening to some very contemporary Christian music while we ate. All in all today was a great way to start off this year’s choir tour. We all had fun fellowshipping with one another and more importantly we all worshiped and led worship for fellow believers. We joined with everyone praising, glorifying, and enjoying our rescuer, Jesus Christ, and that is what we are made to do.

In Christ,

Robert