On Being Electric...

Hi Everyone,

Last Monday, we enjoyed a wonderful day off in the Historic District of Savannah, GA. We saw many beautiful parks, Juliet Gordon Low's (the founder of Girl Scouts) first house, and the Riverwalk. We also enjoyed a wonderful meal.

Tuesday, we had the morning to do team stuff. That evening, we help with Trunk or Treat at a school. It was a really fun Halloween time where kids would come to the trunks of cars and say trick or treat. Our booth was a fishing pond, where the kids through the line over a blanket to "fish" for some candy or a stuffed animal. Often times, we could not get the stuffed animals to stay on the clothespins, so we decided to gently toss the "fish" over the blanket. Everyone was greatly entertained by this. It was a very fun, but slightly cold, evening.

Wednesday, we left Pooler for Dacula, GA; a suburb of Atlanta. At Bebron Baptist, we did a family night program. Cross Fire is an acoustic team, but recently we haven't been!!! Starting at Bebron Baptist, we have been electric. That means guitars were plugged in, mics were used, and big lights were shining on us. For the first time, I felt sort of like a rock star, even though I didn't sound like one. It was a very interesting experience. Most of us struggle with it a lot because it took forever to set-up, we had to worry about whether or not we could change positions because of mics, and we weren't used to being so loud. Before the program, we were very stressed. However, the program went pretty well and was very well we received. The program was mostly for high-schoolers, and after the program many of them came up to us saying they were really touched by the program or that they would like to join a YE team in the future.

After Dacula, we traveled to Charlotte, NC to St. Andrew's United Methodist Church. While were were there, we got to stay in the church instead of with host homes. Thursday night, we went out to eat and talked about programming. Friday afternoon, we had our first (and hopefully only) public school program. We had to take all religious language out of our program. Non-religious songs aren't in our repertoire!! Oh well, we successfully got through a program, with a silent skit, a puppet show, and a few cross-cultural songs. Friday night, we played two electric sets of music during a Halloween celebration. Between and after the sets, the kids went trick or treating around the church. Prosper and I were also invited to go trick or treating! There is a kids inside of all of us. It was fun to see the kids all dressed up.

Saturday, we drove back to Christ the King Lutheran Church in Cary, NC. That evening, we just set-up. After that, I went with my host home to the Cary Marching Band Competition. It was really fun, even though we didn't see many bands. Sunday, we led the majority of two worship services. Sunday was International Youth Encounter Day!! We also went around with some high-school musicians to all of the Sunday school rooms to help lead a song or two. It was interesting for us because we let the class pick which song (from the high-schoolers list) that we would play. So, after learning the key, I figured out how to play many songs without music, just lyrics. Sunday evening, we had a family night program. Once again, we were electric, but this time we only had about a half an hour to set-up and warm-up; we are supposed to be greeting a half an hour before, not setting up. It was stressful, but we got through it. On the last song, the sound system decided to join in with muffled sound, making an interesting ending to the program.

Monday, we finally enjoyed our much needed day off! For the part, I relaxed, slept, watched TV, and watched a movie. I was very tired after a week of being electric. I just stayed at my host home.

Tuesday (election day!!), we head to Salisbury, NC


Peace,

Tiffany