Sunday. The Road Home.

All things come to an end. Except for taxes. And this trip is beginning to wind down. We're on our way and expect to arrive in about an hour and a half or so, and since I'll be headed right into Youth Bells, Youth Choir, and Adult Bells, I figured I'd go ahead and bring this Music Mission Blog to an end. Gracefully. As gracefully as Mark drives. I haven't mentioned Mark yet. He's our driver, and I've been riding with him for years. He's the best.

It's almost like the kids were worn out yesterday? They went to bed easily, and this morning they did not rise at 6am. It's not that they were hard to get out of bed; they did great. It's just they gave us an extra hour of peace, and I'm grateful for that.

We loaded the bus before we ate breakfast. I was telling Sharon about the story Regan told me yesterday on the bus, but I couldn't remember the story. She popped up over the front seat...

"Since you can't remember the story, I'll tell you again."

Kate found my crown. I told her it was mine, and this is her reaction...

We headed to First Baptist, where we were planning to sing with their children's choir in church. If you've read my blogs before, you probably read the last sentence and thought, "We were planning...so what happened and how did they adjust?" Nothing. We sang with them in church.

Photos or it didn't happen? Happy to oblige.

That's Jeff, the Minister of Music at FBC. He was a fantastic host, and we really appreciate him! We rehearsed together before the other choir went to Sunday School. Then we rehearsed on our own for a while. The space is majestic, and the choir sounded really good in there!

We needed a little bit of a break, so I let them go to the bathroom, grab some water, and stretch out. This is their interpretation of that. Actual footage...

Then we sang in church. We did it all from memory for the first time, and it went well! I should have taken away their binders two days ago.

Our friends from First Baptist also provided a Taco Bar for us for lunch. This was a HUGE hit with the choir. I appreciated it even more than they did, mostly because it meant I didn't have to find lunch for us. And it meant we will likely get back to the church on time.

We used the bathroom before we left, of course, and fortunately I had sunglasses, so I could use this restroom.

To the bus, and away we go. I was thinking just now about Spaceballs...the part of the movie where they're watching the video to figure out where Lonestar has gone. They come to the part of the movie where they are watching the part of the movie they are in. 

"You're looking at now. What's happens now is happening now." 

"What happened to then?"

"We passed then."

"When?"

"Just now."

"When will then be now?"

"Soon."

I say all this because that's where we are. I have blogged up to this moment. If I were to type the next thing that happened, I would say something like, "And next, I typed the sentence, 'and next, I typed the sentence.'" I don't even know how to punctuate that.

I learn something from every trip I take, and this was no exception. I learned that Ben and Jerry's will negotiate with you if you want to split doubles into singles so you can buy a little less ice cream for kids who, let's be honest, didn't need any to start with (thanks to Lamar for leading the charge on that one and saving us like $100 bucks!).

I learned a little bit more about logistics with kids. This trip went better than the last one because of lessons I learned last year...and the next one will be better than this one for the same reason.

In church this morning, the sermon challenged us to look for Christ in places we don't expect to see Him, and I have indeed seen his face many times this weekend. In each of the kids who came to sing. In each of the chaperones who made the trip possible. In each face in our audiences (including at least one we didn't actually get to see!). If this trip has done nothing more than raise our awareness of Christ's presence in and through us, then it was worth the miles and the somewhat less than comfortable mattresses.

Thanks for coming along with us...for caring about our little adventure! Hope to see you on the next one at the end of May when the youth choir heads for Washington DC.