Day 2 of the 2025 Children's Music Mission was something!

Saturday of the Children's Music Mission usually starts early. I had told my guys that they could wake up basically whenever they want as long as they are quiet over there and absolutely don't leave their room until 7am. The first noise I heard over there was sometime in the 5am hour. I heard more sustained (if somewhat subdued) rumbling between 6 and 7. At 7am the portals were flung wide, and my guys were ready to be about the day.

I should say there isn't consistency from one building to another. One building was apparently bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:30am. The other was still a bit bleary and bundled in blankets at 7am. Note to self: arrange for the hazard pay for the folks in the 5:30am room. They'll never know how much I appreciate them.

Once we had some chaperones outside, we allowed the kids to go out. They engaged in...a number of activities. One of my favorites, though, was this. They picked wild flowers and gave them to us.

Is this not the sweetest thing you've ever seen? And honestly pretty good flower arranging. It isn't easy to see in this picture, but it's a pretty good little arrangement based on what's around here. The fern is a particularly nice touch.

We sang our blessing and then ate breakfast. Biscuits and gravy this morning. I don't know if you know this about Camp Lookout, but here they have something they call chocolate gravy. Honestly it's not really my thing, but some people swear by the stuff. Here's what I know: the bananas were absolutely on point this morning.

When not eating, 4 square seems to be the game of choice. I usually play more than I did on this trip. I blame the ball. It has NOTHING to do with the fact that I stepped in and was immediately eliminated from competition.

We warmed up a little bit, went over our program, and then headed toward our first concert. For the second time, we encountered an unreasonable amount of traffic.

I'm starting to take it personally.

But good news! We still managed to reach our first concert destination with plenty of time. It doesn't hurt that we've been to the two venues for today for the last few years, so we know exactly where we're going, and we have a good idea of how long it's going to take to get there.

We're a good group! These kids sing well, and they look great. Here we are just before the concert started.

Stitch sang with us yesterday, so today he decided to just sit and enjoy the concert.

I challenged the kids to learn some stories today. I told them that each person they talk to has a full life of stories to share. I have them some strategies for getting the conversation started...and if I saw some of them hanging around the margins I encouraged them to go chat. They really did a good job. It can be very intimidating for a child to approach an adult like that. I was proud of them.

One resident of this facility came up to me and said, "You came here before, didn't you?" He remembered us. He wasn't the only one, actually. Several folks at this place remember us from last year. I found this very moving. One thing about Music Mission that has bothered me for a long time is that we may not actually change much for the folks we meet...I mean in the long term. We greet them, and we move on. That's why I started placing more emphasis on local music missions...to build longer term relationships. But this is an indication that we are establishing something of a presence...and potentially making a sustained difference.

Stitch in one hand, and a bowl of ice cream in the other. In the interest of full disclosure, I did not authorize the distribution of ice cream to the choir immediately before lunch. But it happened, and they loved it. So while it wouldn't have been my choice, I'm glad my singers got to enjoy some frozen yummy goodness. There's always room for ice cream, no?

As is common on Music Missions, we went to an area that had multiple options for lunch. I had Panda Express. We had some at Burger King, a little Mexican place, Firehouse Subs, and a crew at Chick Fil A, which apparently was a total madhouse.

We didn't have a lot of time, though. We had to get to our next concert. For some reason I didn't get a good shot of the group in their concert formation at this concert.

The residents at our second concert told me how much they enjoyed the music and how well-mannered our kids are. They absolutely delighted in their time together, which is heartwarming to see. I sat down at one of the tables with three folks and had a great conversation about where they were from and where they had been...and how much they enjoyed visiting with our wonderful kids!

Which I guess makes me sound like a broken record. We did a concert. We visited. They liked the music. They liked that we talked with them. I'm not sure the pictures really do it justice, though...how remarkable it really is.

After our concert we went to see what Rock City is all about.

Honestly it may be easier to deal with them this way...certainly easier to keep an eye on 'em!

Stitch peers through one of the little doors.

7 states in the background! What a wonderful group of kids and adults. Also, is it just me, or does the binocular thingy on the left look like a person in this picture?

This is fat man's squeeze. One of these delightful kids I've been bragging about so much this whole time looks back at me and says, "Mr. John, are you sure you can make it?" Bro.

I got a picture here of them out on the scary-ledge-that-looks-like-it-might-fall-any-time.

Stitch photobombed...

If you're curious what Stitch photobombing looks like from the other side of the camera, Greg was kind enough to document that for you...

Waterfall!

I really thought our shirts would pop under blacklight. Honestly a little underwhelmed based on what other shirts looked like, but it's still a good picture of our tour logo.

ET Phone Home...

Have you ever played Exploding Kittens? In that game there are there these cards. They are "Nope" cards, and you use them to negate a card that someone else plays. Once when we were playing that game, I commented that it would be nice to have some of those for real life. My family provide some for my next birthday (or was it Christmas?). I always forget I have them, but I was proud I remembered I had them today! Nope! You don't need to buy anything from the gift shop.

Nope! You don't need a wooden sword.

DOUBLE NOPE! You don't need pure sugar to dump down your gullet just before you go get on the bus!

We headed back down the mountain from Rock City to pick up some pizza and head to Coolidge Park. 

Let me stop here and say this. A good bus driver is everything. Mark is our driver. I've been riding with him for years now. He always gets us where we need to be. He keeps us safe. Driving down the mountain in a bus is something else. Sometimes we had to stop to let cars pass the other way because the switchbacks are so tight. And sometimes it looked like we might just drop off the side of the mountain! But we didn't. Because Mark is amazing.

At Coolidge Park we had pizza and mostly just chilled. It was pretty yummy!

Then we cleaned up and headed back to Camp Lookout, where we played some circle games (with more or less success) and then ate ice cream. Because once a day isn't enough for ice cream, apparently.

After Ice Cream, it was getting dark, and the kids started to get punchy. So we talked about their day (Many of them obviously took to heart what I said about listening...they had great stories to share about the people they visited. I sent them to bed. Earlier morning tomorrow as we get ready to go to church and sing.