On The Road With The Choir

One of our choir members, Brad, is from a little town in Arkansas. Every year, his church there has "Homecoming," and alllll the former members come "home" for a special day of fellowship. Brad is like a hero in his small town, and in his home church. He typically takes 6 or 7 of his friends from here, to sing with him as the special music...and everyone just loves it!

This year, the Homecoming just so happened to coincide with the day our college ministry was doing the music at OUR church. Brad said he saw his opportunity, and he asked our worship pastor if he could take a "choir," and our worship pastor said, "yes!" 

So, they sent around a sign-up sheet, and we probably had at least 20-25 people sign up to go. Even our worship pastor came!

We had to leave from the church this morning at 7:30. I'm not a big fan of Daylight Saving Time, but I was never so thankful for an extra hour of sleep!

Well, we had the very best time! We cracked up and laughed like teenagers the entire 1 hour and 15 minute drive. The church was verrrrry small and verrrry old, but the people were so kind and welcoming...and so appreciative to have us there. We sang about 3 songs with the congregation, and then our choir sang 6 songs...and then we sat down.  

THEN, these two singer-guys got up there with their "music-in-a-box" and their Branson-style Southern Gospel, and they sang several songs. It's not really my style, but everyone just LOVED them. And most of the people sang along. 

After all that, I was thinking, "SURELY we won't have a sermon."

WRONG.

We had a sermon...and THEN they had a little slide show at the end. They showed pictures of the church, when it first started. It showed pictures of charter members...all are dead now. It showed pictures of "members waiting for us in Heaven," and all you could hear in the church were people sniffing. So sad.

After the slide show, they ended the service. It started at 10 a.m., and it was nearly 1 p.m. by this time. You do the math.

The hungry lady math.

But the best part was that they excused our choir FIRST...to go get in the line. We walked back to their fellowship hall, and there...in all it's glory...was the potluck parade. I seriously ate some of the best food I've had in a WHILE.

On the way home, we passed a car on the side of the road. I said, "is that Mr. Freddy?" 

We only had about 10 people on the church bus. The rest took their own cars. Mr. Freddy drove his car, and he had another couple with him. The girl sitting across from me said, "I think it is Mr. Freddy." Our worship pastor called him, and he had run out of gas. 

Well, you have to know our group...and Mr. Freddy. Everyone was HOWLING at his predicament, because he is a huge joker! But this was NO JOKE! We told him that we would go up the road until we found a gas station, and bring gas back for them. Which we did. As we pulled back up to the car on the side of the road, one lady on our bus was just cackling. She was taking pictures with her phone, and then she posted them to Facebook with some witty comments. 

AS YOU DO.

Once they were safely on their way, and after we watched them stop at the gas station...we all had a good laugh over it. I'm sure it's something we will all never let him forget!

It was such a blessing to be at that church today. I was hesitant to sign up for this all day trip, but I'm so glad I did! I grew up all over the place, as an Air Force brat, so I don't have a "home" church to ever go back to for Homecoming. Today, there was such a sense of family, community, faith, and tradition. I loved every minute of it.

"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers..." Hebrews 13:2