Wow! What a trip! We're finally home and after a good night sleep in our own beds, the awesome experience is finally settling in. Everyone had a great time and are busy unpacking and doing laundry! Pictures will be posted as soon as they're all converted and uploaded to the server, so they should be available in the gallery somtime this week. We just thought we'd let everyone know that we made it home safe and sound. Thanks again for all your prayers, love and support while we've been gone. We couldn't have done it without you!

 

Today will be a short one, since most of it was spent traveling. We did manage to see a bit more snow on the Rocky Mountains on our drive back to Denver because of all the rain, so the return trip was a bit more spectacular. The flight was similarly uneventful and nothing happened that the average airline traveler wouldn't experience (except for the cats), so all in all it was a quiet day of traveling.

The morning, however, was filled with the frenzy of packing and cleaning up and was followed by our musical leadership of the service at Glenwood Springs Presbyterian Church. We learned a new anthem the day before and performed it and the rest of our choral selections for the service. The congregation was greatful for our music and called it "a shot in the arm" for their church experience. They do not have a standing choir and it is rare when they have musical leadership such as ours, so they were energized by our singing. They even provided us with lunch afterward before sending us on our way. Thank you Glenwood Springs Presbyterian Church!

 

The Colorado river was much more enjoyable today as we went biking through the Glenwood Canyon and cycled past the same stretch we rafted down yesterday. Without the rain, it was a far more pleasant (and much drier) trip and cycling keeps you a bit warmer than just sitting in the boat. We cycled a total of 17 miles and had a great time doing so.

This afternoon, we split into a number of different groups and explored Glenwood Springs in a variety of ways. Some of us enjoyed poking through some of the shops downtown, some found the bowling alley, some just relaxed at the hotel, and some of us went back to the caves and took the Adventure Tour.

Those of us on the tour spent 90 minutes crawling on our hands and knees and squeezing through places like the birth canal and the rabbit hole to see parts of the cave (like Angel Point, for example) that the commercial tour didn't cover. We have to thank Erin, our guide, for giving us such a great experience and for having an awesome sense of humor. The "Rocket Science of Elbow Pads" started us off on the right foot and we had an absolute blast the rest of the time! If she were one of the participants of the trip, that would have definitely been the quote of the day.

Tomorrow we have one more performance at Glenwood Springs Presbyterian Church and will be on our way home after that. Thanks again for following along!

 

That water was cold! We had a great time going down the Colorado river, but it was a bit cold. The first half of the ride was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the Glenwood canyon and a bit of friendly water wars between the boats. Unfortunately, it decided to rain on us quite a bit during the second leg of the trip and the wind was blowing, so we were ready for some hot chocolate (thanks Terri and Peggy!) and a trip to the hot springs that afternoon.

Speaking of the springs, the 104-degree water in the hot pool was a great way to relax and get warm and even though the air temperature was a bit cool, the larger pool was still warm (92-degrees) and we enjoyed it. A number of us even braved the large water slides at the facility and had a great time. After that, we settled in for some pizza and some good fellowship before turning in for the night.

We have one more day of fun out here and a performance the next morning and then we'll be on our way home!

 

We appreciate all of you who have been faithfully checking this website and tracking our progress on our tour. You have followed us as we work, now you get to follow us as we play!

We got off to an early start this morning and left Denver and drove three hours (with stops) to Glenwood Springs, Colorado! After checking in to our hotel and finding some lunch, our next stop was Glenwood Caverns and the Adventure Park there. After riding up a really long way on a pulse tram, we toured the caverns and saw some amazing cave features such as the castle, the sleeping dwarf, the lion's paw, and the dragon's eye. Other structures such as stalagmites, stalactites, flow stone and some of the longest soda straws in Colorado were fascinating to see as well.

After the tour, we explored the adventure park and rode some great rides. The Alpine Swing swung us out over a steep cliff, the Zip Line raced us across part of the park and the Alpine Coaster gave us the ultimate control over our roller coaster experience (it has brakes on the cars!). We were the first group to visit the park since the rides just opened over Memorial Day weekend.

We had a great time and enjoyed the afternoon tremendously. There's a lot of great stories to share from our experience here, but just reading the stories online won't do them justice, so you'll just have to wait to hear about them when we get home! Just be sure to ask about the swing...

 

Another busy day for our mission tour! The paint crew put the finishing touches on Fellowship Hall and we even painted and covered a few bulletin boards to spruce them up a bit. Another crew went to Forrest Manor apartments (which is an affordable housing complex that's part of the Colorado Coalition for the homeless) to pick up trash and pull a few weeds. Once again, we were finished ahead of schedule and were off to prepare for our next event...

...which was a performance at the Senior Resource Center on 32^nd street. The SRC is an adult day care center and there were about 30 or so people were waiting for our arrival. We performed our usual set of anthems and instrumental pieces and as usual they were well received. It is always a blessing to see smiles on the faces of our audience and hear their thanks and praise.

That evening, we returned to Montview Blvd Presbyterian Church and participated in their Taizé service. Carrie, Daniel, Jane, Joseph and Meg all performed solos during the service and everyone sang the refrains and psalms during the meditative service. A time of peace and reflection, the TaizÉ was a great opportunity for for us to worship the Lord.

Heading out to dinner, we stopped at Goodfriends restaurant and enjoyed some good food and good fellowship. We thought our mission work was over for the day, but one final performance awaited us. It turns out that one of our friendly waitresses was a voice major and is graduating this week and one of the other waitresses asked us if we could sing something. In addition, we figured that since we had an impromptu birthday at our table, we might want to give something back. We sang our arrangement of Psalm 139 ("Lord, you have searched me and known me...") and we drew a crowd. People came from the other areas of the restaurant to listen to us sing and we were met with a smile on every face. The young woman who was graduating was very pleased and she said it "made my night." It just proves that you really can do mission work anywhere and sometimes it's just doing something small to put a smile on someone else's face.

Assuming we don't have any more spontaneous mission work to do here in Denver, we're off to Glenwood Springs tomorrow for the remainder of our vacation. The people we have met, upon hearing our destination tomorrow, have all told us how much of a good time we're going to have and how jealous that they are that we're heading out there, so it sounds like it's going to be a blast. Also assuming we're not out having too much fun, we'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Oh, be sure to check out the tour participants page as we have photos for just about everyone and a new group photo that was posted today. You can get there by clicking on the "List of Participants" link to the left or by clicking here. There's plenty more to come and a ton of photos that we'd love to share, so keep checking back with us for the latest in our adventures.

 

What an exhausting and rewarding day! John B. and his breakfast crew started us off with a great breakfast this morning. (Yes, they actually cooked...pancakes, sausage, etc.) Some of the gang stayed at the church this morning and spent the day painting their fellowship hall. A few gallons of paint later and the place looks a bit brighter and has a touch of color added to it.

The rest of us went to Mt. Saint Vincent Home for Children and spent the day working on a couple of landscaping projects they needed done. About 85% of their landscape work (and a significant portion of their other duties) are all done by volunteers from the community and people like us who are there for mission. After a quick introduction and a brief tour, we got to work.

Our main goal for the day was to distribute gravel around a playground for preschool-aged children. The gravel had been delivered in three major piles on the playground and needed to be spread out. The fifteen of us that were there were given shovels, rakes, gloves, bottled water, sunscreen and a wheelbarrow and we went to work moving the 21 cubic yards of gravel. For those of you who are interested, that equates to about 20 tons of rock. We were done before lunch, which was fantastic, and since we finished so quickly, they let us pull weeds on the grounds for the remainder of our time there that afternoon.

In the evening, we had the wonderful opportunity to serve a meal at the New Genesis Shelter which is a transitional community for homeless men. Expecting a crowd of about 90 people from the shelter, we prepared seven trays of lasagna and served it with bread, some carrots (and ranch dressing), and ice-cold lemonade. Everyone there was very appreciative of our efforts and those that served were really moved by the experience.

With all that work today, we felt we earned a few hours at the Wheat Ridge Recreational Facility and the hot tub and pool never felt better. (Just having a shower would have been reward enough, but nobody was complaining.) After all of that and the evening devotional, we wearily turned in for some much-needed rest in preparation for another day of mission work tomorrow.

As always, we appreciate your continued prayers and support!

 

Happy Memorial Day everyone! Our hosts here at Highland Park Pres. were kind enough to fix us a french toast breakfast this morning and we were thankful for a great meal. As part of our mission efforts, we then spent much of the morning cleaning up their fellowship hall and giving their windows some much needed attention.

Later that morning, we were priveledged to have Lucille Reilly come and share some of her music with us. For those of you who don't know, Lucille is one of the foremost Dulcimer experts in the country and it was obvious after listening to her play for us. We were blessed to be able to share some of our music with her as well and she even played along with us during our time together making for a fantastic experience.

After a quick deli sandwich lunch, we headed off to Montview Manor - a 13-story retirement community in the heart of Denver. There, we performed a collection of six anthems and four instrumental pieces for a good-sized crowd of very appreciative senior citizens. They sang along with some of our Psalms and we were all moved by the Holy Spirit during the performance.

We finished the afternoon with another performance of our music at the Highland Park Presbyterian Church which was preceeded by an ice cream social and a small art demonstration. A lazagna dinner followed eventually and the day slowly came to a close. Stay tuned for more tomorrow as we work at the Mt. Saint Vincent Home for Children and the New Genesis Project!

 

What a busy day! We started off early this morning with breakfast at the most technologically advanced McDonalds I have ever seen! They had kiosks where you could order your food, an ATM and a DVD rental machine right there in the store! We all ate a good breakfast (except Meg G., who preferred a pair of cookies over a sausage biscuit) and it turns out we needed it.

Our next stop, and first major performance was at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church where an absolutely gorgeous sanctuary waited for us and we filled it with some of the finest sounds we could collectively muster. Our choir sang four anthems and a couple of hymns to great effect and our instramentalists performed with equal enthusiasm and quality. The people of Montview Blvd were very appreciative and it was a blessing for everyone involved to have the opportunity to provide musical leadership for their congregation.

After lunch (another adventure for another time), we headed for some much needed R&R at the Wheat Ridge Recreation Center. Fully equipped with two indoor, heated pools, a water slide, a sauna, a pair of racketball courts and a full gym (to name a few things), this facility provided us with an excellent chance to relax and enjoy the fellowship with each other. Just about everyone went on the water slide (even Tom!) and everyone had a great time.

We ended the day with a spaghetti dinner cooked here at the Highland Park Presbyterian Church and closed the evening with a devotional centered around the experience of the disciples on the Emmaus road.

 

We're looking forward to a wonderful 2005 Youth Music Mission Tour to Colorado! We're combining worship/music, mission/outreach, spiritual growth and fun/fellowship. We invite you to join us on this mission tour through this web page.

For the music we'll be participating in several worship services (large and small churches, as well as a meditative Taizé service), and we will present musical programs for several senior-adult groups; additionally, we’ll have a session with an outstanding dulcimer player from Denver. Not only will the Celebration Singers be singing, we’ll also include instrumental music with the nine instrumentalists involved.

Our mission/outreach includes preparing meals for a men's homeless shelter, grounds work for a transitional housing development for the homeless, playground improvements for a home dealing with children who have emotional or developmental problems, and repairs and painting for a redevelopment church.

Fellowship is a natural outgrowth of all we’ll do during the week, but special emphasis on fun will be our time in Glenwood Springs: rafting, bicycling, rides, caverns, and the world's largest hot springs pool.

Throughout the entire trip, we focus on spiritual growth – recognizing the presence of God in our lives. One strand of scripture studies will focus on the passage from Matthew when the righteous ask the Lord when did they see the Lord in need and respond. The other series of studies focuses on the Emmaus Road experience of the disciples on Easter: so often, we don't recognize God in our lives and in our presence.

We invite you to keep this Mission Tour in your thoughts and prayers during the week May 28 through June 5 – praying for the safety, spiritual growth, musical and non-musical accomplishments and fun for the youth and adult leaders.

Tom Granum
Director of Music & Organist
First Presbyterian Church
Athens, Georgia