Day 5- IT’S GOOD TO BE ALIVE!

June 25, 2016

We are driving to Detroit. Ahead of us in the distance are tall skyscrapers, buildings and various businesses amidst traffic congestion, when we suddenly see it. There in the middle of the busy, crowded city stands a 14th century English style cathedral, a symbol of the spiritual world from a time gone by. It is majestic and magnificent. It is even more awe inspiring on the inside. I gaze around the sanctuary in amazement noting  hints of medieval construction – pointed arches, stained glass windows, massive pillars, painted ceilings, intricate wooden carvings, marble basins and symbols everywhere of the splendor of churches from long ago. The Cathedral Church of St. Paul was constructed in 1907, although their parish has been in existence since 1824. It is listed on the U.S. National Registry of Historic Places. In fact, Henry Ford’s funeral was held here in 1947, a significance for me considering we recently visited the Henry Ford museum. Steve Kalnoske was the contact for us at this church. He and Charles Miller, the current music director, worked together for 3 years at the National

City Christian Church in D.C. In fact, Charles Miller subbed for Steve at DUMC one time when he was away. 

Our youth arrived early so they could rehearse processing into the sanctuary, sitting in the choir loft and doing the proper things during this formal Episcopal service. To me, the formality of the traditional service combined with the breath-taking surroundings gave an atmosphere of reverence that is sometimes missing in the more casual modern churches. I truly felt like I was walking on holy ground, taken back in time to the foundations of faith in this city. Our youth were singing a beautiful hymn about faith as that thought came to me. “Faith is the end from the start and beginnings in endings.” I hope they sing that hymn for you at the Welcome Home concert. It is so moving and beautiful. 

As usual, Steve outdid himself playing their beautiful organ (although he admitted to me that our Skinner organ is better :). We had a funny little incident at the beginning of the service after Steve played the voluntary. When his song ended, a high pitched fire engine-type siren sound continued coming out the organ. It went on for 5 minutes. (Maybe all of our joking on the bus about Harry Potter magic followed Steve into the church and manifested itself inside the organ?) Even the priest
quipped that everyone was so excited having a choir from Damascus visit us, even the organ. Steve explained to me that what actually happened is that the upper valve got stuck and the air inside was trapped and was shooting through the pipe, creating the squeal. The music director had to climb up and pull the pipe out to make it stop. Mischief Managed.

After the service, we were given bag lunches and headed to Belle Isle Park, a 985 acre island park, surrounded on all sides by the Detroit River. The designer of Belle Isle Park is the same person who designed Central Park in New York City. Across the water in the distance, one can see the International Bridge crossing into Canada. The park has many attractions, including a Conservatory with 13 acres of different varieties of plants (the oldest in the nation), a small aquarium (also the oldest in the U.S.), playgrounds, a giant slide, basketball and soccer fields. Everyone broke up into

groups and headed out to explore for a few hours. Many youth found their “Jimmie Cone away from home” ice cream truck and stood in long lines to get some cold, delicious refreshment. Our athletic hardy boys took over the soccer field with another fast action frisbee  game, even though it was crazy hot outside (you will notice in my photos that most of them took off their shirts.) 

Back in the bus, we headed to our next venue, Westside UMC in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Our Greeters for the day were Jessie Marshall and Dee Robertson in the morning and Sydney Fennington and Calista Kibak in the afternoon. Sydney  Fennington was finally awarded her fork award for her Harry Potter memorial room story that she told a few days ago. I have included a few photos of that room in our photo album today that she took when she was there. Our host church had provided a lovely pot luck dinner for our group. There was plenty of food to choose from. Angela Nardone gave a beautiful prayer to bless our food and Jessie Marshall stood and thanked the ladies for their hospitality. Polly presented the choir director with another lovely piece of artwork with the border drawn by our own Kitty McNaughton Ayers. He promptly hung it in his choir room for all to see.Our big surprise of the evening was seeing Kelly Bratburd walking through the door! She will be joining us for the rest of the tour. Phil Hulcher also had family members arrive to watch the concert. The crowd was enthusiastic and appreciative. They sang along with a few songs and were clapping loudly as Julia Bratburd belted out “He Never Failed Me Yet.” As usual, the youth wowed the audience with their singing skills and beautiful music. Tonight we are staying in host homes. Maybe we will have some new fork stories tomorrow! 

Who will our next winner be? Check in and see! 

This is your Michigan blogger Sue, signing out.

Click Here for Photos from Day 5

Day 4: ARE WE READY FOR MORE?

Saturday, June 25, 2016 

Today has been a very subdued one. The college had a nice breakfast of eggs, bacon, fruit and baked goods but the kids still did not seem awake as they loaded the bus. Many of them immediately fell asleep as soon as they hit the seat. Even the tired staff members were silly and punch happy as Tom chose names from the “Bag of Fire” to be morning Greeters. The chosen ones were Maddie Marshall and Jonathan Works, who probably had to shake some of their fellow tour members awake as they greeted them.

Our activity of the day was to visit the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes and National  Lakeshore in Glen
Harbor, Michigan. The area includes 35 miles of sand, 26 fresh water inlet lakes, 2 islands, and even some shipwrecks in the vicinity. It is located on the northwest coast of the lower peninsula of Michigan. It was named after a Chippewa legend that tells the story of a sleeping mother bear under the sand dunes. Today however, blowing sand and erosion have eroded the bump that used to look like a sleeping bear. It is still beautiful and breathtaking though. We drove around a 3-mile loop scenic drive, stopping at strategic points to admire the views. The culminating activity was at an overlook 450 feet  above Lake Michigan and  a massive sand dune.






The more adventurous members of our group decided to climb down to the bottom, which took about 6 minutes.  They forgot that what goes down must also come back  up. It took most of them an hour to get back up to the top! Phil Hulcher discovered that the “orangutan walk” worked the best while trying to get back to the top, using a hand and foot combination to push yourself forward while sinking into the sand.   Most had forgotten to take water with them and a few were struggling to get back to the top. Good natured Ben Con made it to the top, retrieved bottles of water for those who were struggling and went back down again to help them out. We can always depend on Ben to lend a helping hand.

  After the strenuous climb, everyone was ready for a picnic lunch in a nearby rest area. Turkey and ham sandwiches with fixings, chips and fruit perked everyone up a bit. However, there was a lot of sleeping going on during the 3-hour bus ride to Midland UMC. The afternoon Greeters were Celia Hembrough and Christian Murray. Nick Works tried to teach the kids another German word for the day: Heilsgeschichte. He learned it in graduate school and it means an interpretation of history emphasizing Gods saving acts. Impressive, but don’t ask him to pronounce it!  Beth Taylor became very excited when we passed the turnoff road for Interlochen. She attended this world-wide renowned music camp for 3 years when she was in 9th, 10th and 11th grade. We almost had to stop her from jumping out of the window, that’s how badly she wanted to stop by and visit it. Another one of our church members have also attended Interlochen recently – our own Robert Williams, Marin’s big brother. Ask both of them about their experiences there the next time you see them.

The town of Midland is a lovely place. As we drove down the road, both sides of the street were lined with thousands of marigolds. On the other side of town, the streets were lined with day lilies. Store fronts had large pots of beautiful flowers. Everywhere you looked, there was color. We arrived at Midland UMC just in time for a short rehearsal before dinner was served. This church is massive and beautiful. There is a beautiful reflection pool in their courtyard surrounded with pots of flowers. Glass windows with unique hand-made tiny sculptures adorn all of the windows. The high ceilings were beautiful (but not the best for acoustics.) The youth rooms downstairs had a foosball table, a ping pong tables and a pool table. A great gathering place. We had a nice surprise when Cathy Dobrzanski and her cousin showed up for the concert! Cathy will be shadowing us for the next couple of days. It will be great to have our old tour buddy joining us again.

I think that I can end today’s blog by saying that today was our Hump Day. We are halfway through the tour and the weariness is beginning to show. This is very typical. Tour is a learning experience where kids push the limits of how much sleep they are getting or what type of foods they eat. They pay for it later when poor choices have been made. As they mature they begin to realize that they will not have enough energy if they only eat chips, candy or snacks. They begin to realize that if they stay up all night talking, they will be exhausted the next day and don’t understand why they suddenly break into tears or are grumpy. They begin to realize that if they yell and scream while having fun during free time, their voices will be strained and they will have difficulty singing in the evening. If you combine all three things together, it’s a recipe for an upset stomach and feeling sick. It’s kind of like on-the-job training. It’s how they learn what their limits are. My experience of attending 12 years of choir tours assures me that they will pull themselves together before the end of the week and they will pull through.   

It’s very appropriate that we are MIDway through the tour and we are singing in the town of MIDland.

 Polly reminded the kids of their trip to the sand dunes today. Their goal was to run down the hill and be near the cool waters of Lake Michigan. But after they reached the bottom, they realized that they had a much harder task in front of them. The upward climb was strenuous and difficult. Some of them almost didn’t make it. But it took the support of their friends, cheering them on, clapping for them, bringing them water and encouraging them to make it to the top that helped. This tour is like that. We need to support one another and lift each other up when we are losing our strength. During  rehearsal when the kids were singing “Come, Come Unto Me,” Polly urged them to take strength from the words that were coming out of their mouths: 

“Come, come unto Me, all you who are weary

All who are weak, tired and lonely.

Come, come unto Me,     

Strong arms will enfold and lift you up.”

She reminded them that God will help them push through their discomfort and that they needed to rise above their weariness to be witnesses to the people who have come to listen to their singing. And they did. They stood up there and sang their hearts out. You will be so proud of them when you see them at the Welcome Home concert. We already are.

This is your friendly neighborhood blogger Sue, signing out. See you in a few days!

P.S. We added more beach pictures to yesterday's blog on Day 3. Be sure to check them out.     

Click Here to see photos from Day 4 

Day 3: AS HAPPY AS CAN BE!

Friday, June 24

It is another beautiful day with perfect weather. Tour members are brought back to the church by their host families to load up the bus and get ready to leave. The Pastor and his wife are talking to Wendy Hembrough, telling her they want to hire Steve Kalnoske on the spot  as their new organist and keep him there. They are raving about how he made sounds come out of their organ that they had never heard before and how talented he is! We just smile knowingly. He is ours and we are not giving him up without major resistance. His commute would be too long and we love him!

Once the bus was on the road again, Tom went through his daily Lost and Found box. It’s amazing how much stuff he finds lying around everyday, from jeans to socks, underwear, shirts, swim trunks and key chains. Not all of it is claimed either! The Greeters this morning were Troy Moskowitz and Charlie Bratburd, who both did a great job. Since the kids stayed in host homes last night, there were several “Fork Stories.” This tradition started years ago when the kids would tell stories about things that happened in their host homes the night before. The kid that told the best story was awarded a fork (because at the time that was all that was available on the bus.) Ever since  then, we decorate forks to pass out to the winner. This morning, stories were told by Amy Nisonger, Jonathan Works, Cole Taylor, Charlie Bratburd and Sydney Fennington (the winner!) Her story was about an insanely decorated room in her host home dedicated entirely to Harry Potter. It sounded amazing. Afterward, Tom had Tobias Schuett come up and tell us how to say “Orange Juice” and “I drank orange juice for breakfast” in German. Then he asked the whole bus if they could come up and say the same sentence in other languages. A free for all of languages broke out, including Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Sign Language and Pig Latin. It was a fun time with a lot of laughter.

Today we are traveling to Holland, Michigan. Holland was settled in 1847 by a small band of people

sailing from the Netherlands in search of  religious freedom and better economic conditions. Today, Holland is a thriving industrial community known for its furniture manufacturers, agriculture and tourism. Visitors can see signs of Holland’s Dutch heritage everywhere you go, especially the plentiful windmill and decorative wooden shoe decorations. Our first stop was at Windmill Island Gardens, a symbol of the city’s Dutch heritage with its canal and floral gardens. On the grounds is DeZwaan Windmill, the only authentic working Dutch windmill in the United States  and it is operated by the only Dutch certified female professional miller in the nation. We were fortunate to meet her during our tour. The windmill actively grinds west Michigan winter wheat berries into flour the old-fashioned way, between two massive millstones which are powered by the wind. Standing below the windmill and looking upward to the top of the 80 foot long blades was awe inspiring. We were allowed to climb up the four levels of stairs to where the blades were attached and look out over the acres of gardens. In the spring they are filled with thousands of tulips! The tour guides, dressed in Dutch costumes complete with wooden shoes performed a dance for us. We also were entertained by an antique Amsterdam street organ. It  played music that took us back to a simpler time era.  Lunch was spent in downtown Holland. The kids broke up into groups and spread out to choose their own restaurants, with a little bit of time leftover for shopping. While waiting for the bus to pick us up, a nearby gardener asked Wendy about our group. She told them we were a touring church group on a mission trip and that we would be singing in Midland tomorrow. Coincidentally, he knew all about our concert because his Aunt lives there and attends that very church! He asked for a sampling and Polly had the kids break into “Freedom” on the spot. He promised to call everyone he knew in Midland and spread the word about our visit. Another God moment!

Our concert today was an early afternoon performance at Resthaven Care Center, an assisted Iiving facility in Holland. It was our most packed concert to date and definitely the most powerful. Most of the viewers were in wheel chairs or using walkers, but their response to us was youthful, exuberant and moving. When our youth started singing, there was a spiritual presence that could be felt. Residents began clapping or tapping along, yelling out words of encouragement or were breaking down weeping from being overwhelmed. Residents who had been in their rooms started coming down the halls until there was a backup of wheelchairs filling the hallway, with joyous faces straining to see. One of the songs the youth sang, “Faith is the Yes of the Heart” was first commissioned in a reformation church in Holland, Michigan. Coincidentally, we drove past it today on our way to Resthaven. Another serendipitous moment! As our concert ended, the director of the  facility stood up to address us. With tears running down her face and a shaky voice, the director thanked our group, telling the kids that they will never know how much of an effect their performance had on the residents. I was so proud of our kids when the concert ended. They went out into the crowd to greet the residents, shaking their hands, giving them hugs and talking with them. What a display of Christian love they showed today! It was a memorable moment.

With full hearts, we loaded onto the bus again and took off for the 3 hour drive to Traverse City. We are spending the night at Northwestern Michigan College, in dorm rooms! For the high school students who will thinking about attending college soon, this should give them a small taste of dorm life. For the adults, it will probably be a walk down memory lane remembering a much younger time in our lives. Since there is no air conditioning, it will emote other feelings too!

The youth quickly changed into their bathing suits and then we were all back on the bus heading for Clinch Park, a lovely area on Lake Michigan. A yummy picnic dinner of hamburgers with all of the fixings, potato salad, grilled corn on the cob and watermelon was waiting for us when we arrived. William and Matthew Baldridge turned 13 today, so two large birthday cakes were served for dessert and the group sang “Happy Birthday” to the boys. Afterwards the kids could choose whatever activity they were interested in: kayaking, paddle boarding, swimming, frisbee or playing on the playground. Everyone had something to do. We stayed almost until 10:00 p.m., which is how late the daylight hours lasted! When the  tired kids came back to the dorm rooms, some  went right to bed, others played cards and others just sat around talking. Curfew was at 11:30 with room checks by the adults. Another  busy but fulfilling day has come to an end. I will be smiling in my sleep tonight.

Click here for photos of Day Three