Last night the group went to perform a few songs at a Black History Celebration at the Lewis-Clark St. Louis County Library. Michael had told us that we would have 15-20 minutes to ourselves, so we had planned on doing 3, maybe 4 songs. Well, I show up and realize that I will be the only male singer there besides Michael. So this means that on songs where Michael has the lead or a solo, that I would be the only male singing our harmony part. We ended up having 3 females, myself and Michael - which is about half our normal size group. Well, the room was pretty big, and we don't have microphones for the background vocals, so I knew I would have to sing a bit louder than normal to be heard. Then the lady leading the celebration tells the crowd that we will be performing for the last 45 minutes. Michael tells us we are all doing our solos as well as 4 or 5 other songs. As we began to sing more people came in - somewhere around 125 people in the room. So Michael turned up the volume a bit on the music, which meant we had to sing even louder.



My solo went really well, and was really well received by the people in the audience. I spent the last several songs gasping for breath at points, but that was to be expected. I think it sounded quite good - all things considered. The people were very cordial and appreciative, and said we sounded simply amazing.



It's cool how God allowed us to sing in a public place to proclaim His name to the people.



Afterwards, Michael informed me that I would indeed be trying out for Deke Arlon, and that Robert simply loved my voice and attitude towards our whole purpose as a group. It is an amazing group to be a part of, and I am blessed beyond imagination!

This morning our group went to Wellspring of Life Church in North St. Louis to perform 2 of our new songs. The service is held in a skating rink, with around 60 people in attendance. After the church choir lead us in song, we stood up front to sing. The songs went pretty well, considering we have just learned them, and the audience seemed to really enjoy them. We sang "Listen to the Rain" and "Revelator".

Michael was back from Nashville in high spirits, and we quickly realized why. In the 3 working days he spent in the studio, he was able to write and record 3 brand new songs! One of the songs is a solo by John, with the choir joining on the chorus in a quasi round fashion. The second song has a very upbeat tempo, and might be the most vocally challenging songs in the entire music to date. It requires a broad range, and demands that the vocalist jump from one octave to another in a single beat. Very tough, but very entertaining! The third song was also fairly quick, and adds even more depth to the song list of the performance.



When we had just finished rehearsing the new songs, Michael called up Robert on the phone to let him hear what we had already accomplished with the new material. Robert was very impressed and was very excited about what he heard. Then he dropped a bomb on Michael... Robert told us that Deke Arlon (of Sanctuary Productions) had just told him that he wanted to meet the cast, and was thinking of flying into St. Louis to meet us. Naturally, we were all very thrilled to hear that, and are hoping that this indeed does become a reality. It would be so awesome to be able to present this to Deke for the first time in the place where it all began. We await details with eager anticipation, all the while rehearsing for that moment. Whether it happens in Michael's basement here in St. Louis or in a theatre in Nashville, we are planning on blowing everyone away with the Message in the music. God is so Giving and Wonderful!