Day 6

Hello! 

Today was another amazing day of tour. I have said that for just about every other day, but it’s the truth. 

If you have been keeping up with the blog, then you will know that the day did not start in an ideal way. After most of us went to bed around 2 that morning due to a late night concert the night before, we all got up at 6 preparing to get on the bus by 7. However, some prayers were literally answered when we got a call at 6:45ish informing us that the bus had broken down. We would not be driving to San Diego this morning after all. From what I gathered from the rest of the choir, most of us went back to sleep for two more glorious hours. At nine then we got another call: be on the bus in five minutes. So we scrambled aboard a new bus and started our trek to San Diego to sing at a chapel service at St. Margret’s Episcopal School. 

The chapel service was filled to the brim with energy. The school was absolutely beautiful and we had a sense of awe as we entered the grounds. During chapel some of the students started warming up to the music and by the time we were singing No More Burdens at the end, they were cheering and praising and dancing along with us. Honestly, I cannot even describe how much fun it was to sing for them. After the service was over we spent another 20 minutes with a couple of the students having a Jesus party with the band. It was incredibly uplifting, especially considering the less than ideal morning we had.

After we finished singing the Director of Performing Arts gave us a tour of their brand-spanking new Performing Arts center on campus. It was absolutely gorgeous and we were very warmly welcomed by everyone we encountered. In the end, it was a wonderful morning and we all left especially grateful for the chance to worship with these students and see this beautiful campus.

Our next stop: lunch. We drove through some winding neighborhoods until we arrived at the Campbell’s beautiful house. Greg Campbell is an alumni of Wheaton College and Gospel Choir. He and his wife were gracious enough to open their home to us and feed us some delicious food. It was a very relaxing lunch. We lounged out by the pool and garden and talked with Greg and Antje about Wheaton and got a tour of her art studio, among other things. After singing for them and thanking them, we were back on the road.

This time, we were headed to Moreno Valley College to do a choir exchange. A choir exchange is basically when we got together with another choir—a gospel choir in this case—and sing for each other. When we arrived, they were so incredibly welcoming and friendly and chatty that we felt right at home. They were also an amazingly talented group of students. We really enjoyed listening to them, and from what we heard, they enjoyed listening to us to. Afterword was dinner, an exchange of special ‘thank yous’ and piling back on the bus to drive to La Jolla where we would be sleeping that night.

In the end, it was amazing to see how God turned the day around—from a crummy morning to an amazing day as a whole. God is so good!

Laura