Praising Jesus from the back of a mechanical bull...

For any of you that have been following our blog for InVision 2009 you may be wondering why Amanda is the only one to have posted anything. Well, basically, the fact is that I have just been really slack...sorry. However, now I have finally gotten my act together and decided to post on the blog! (Yay!!!) Anyway, this summer has been amazing. We have do so many things and had so many incredible experiences! We have given performances that range from 3 minutes to a hour and a half. We have done Vacation Bible Schools, we have done Bible studies, and we have even done a block party. We have been in charge of teenagers and one week I personally was in charge of 20 first and second graders! (They were definitely a handful) This summer has just been awesome so far and I can not wait to see what the rest of the summer will bring.

For the past week we have been in my hometown, Lincolnton, NC. This is lovely little town that is nestled between Hickory and Charlotte. It was nice to be able to reconnect with my family and friends and it was pretty awesome to be able to show the people of Lincolnton and, more specifically, the people of my home church, Freedom Church, what our team has been doing this summer. We had our longest worship service to date last Sunday night at Freedom. The service, which was an hour and a half long, contained 20 of our 22 different pieces. It was awesome to be able to do so much all at once. We were all a little nervous, but in the end we could definitely feel the Spirit of God moving in that place. It was an awesome experience.

Over the course of the week we had worship services at three different nursing homes. Nursing homes are cool because the people there are always so happy just to have young people there. It is always fun to do programs at nursing homes because you have to learn not to be distracted by your surroundings. You are pretty much guaranteed to have that elderly lady who is in the back yelling to her neighbor, "I can't here a thing, can you hear!"

As I said earlier it was nice to reconnect with friends. Well, on Wednesday night InVison lead the youth bible study. Wow! It was an awesome and yet weird experience. I was sitting up there helping to teach teenagers that I had been sitting and learning with not to long ago. I think the Bible study went well and it was a lot of fun.

What I would consider one of the most interesting things we have done so far occurred on Thursday night. Thursday night we were part of a block party. Have you ever tried to do sketches (dramas) for people who are just walking by and not really paying attention? Well, if you haven't, let me tell you, it is an odd experience. So, we spent most of the night doing music and interpretive movements. These two things seemed to get more response from he crowd. The interpretive movements were especially good at catching peoples eye. As the block party was ending the team got chance to go check out some of the other attractions. Some members of the team were able to ride a mechanical bull...Amanda riding the bull was especially humorous. If you just glanced at her her hand motions would make you swear that she was praising Jesus from the back of that bull! ( Don't worry pictures will be up on facebook sometime in the near future.)

Well, today we traveled to Sylva, NC. This is Britney's hometown and it is right beside Western Carolina University. Her home is up on top of the mountain and is about 30 minutes from anywhere. It is absolutely gorgeous up here and the view form her porch is phenomenal! The team as a whole is glad to be back in the cool of the mountains and is looking forward to celebrating the fourth of July with Britney's family.

As a team we thank everyone for their prayers and ask the you continue to pray for our team as we move about North Carolina and eventually to Canada. We ask that you pray for each worship service we lead and that we can continue to help others worship God with us. We ask that you pray for the people we have and will encounter this summer and that God will use our team in a mighty way. Thank you for all your support.

-Andrew