Updates

Saturday, July 30, Stuarts Draft Tapestry Practice

Saturday, July 30, a week before Tapestry 2005, most of the Virginia/West Virginia members of Tapestry met together in Stuarts Draft to have a practice. We met at Pilgrim Christian School to rehearse, appointed Benjamin as our practice leader, and proceeded to wade through all of our songs. Singing with imperfect each other instead of the "perfect" practice CD was extra challenging, but extra rewarding too. About 6:30 we headed over to Eric's place where his family had a fantastic pizza supper set out for us. It was a lot of fun relaxing outdoors with good food while chattering expectantly about our upcoming tour. Bring it on!

-Crystal Good

Sunday, August 7th

Everyone arrived safely, for which we thank God. It has been so good to renew old acquaintances and meet the new Tapestry members. The group dynamics are very positive and encouraging, but that doesn't keep us from periodically missing the original Tap members who were not able to make it this time.

So, for the record, missing originals, "We Miss You!"

The evening was kicked off with a wonderful pizza dinner by our cooks: Delilah Yoder, her mother Barb Schrock, and our tour mom Mildred Good. It was tempting to eat too much pizza, but we knew rehearsal wasn't far away.

There was a toss-up about where to practice. Lamar decided he liked the "live" acoustics in the basement better than the upstairs auditorium. In no time flat tables were cleared away and chairs were set up in a semi-circle.

Lamar got us through a warm-up routine and then began to assess where we were with the music. We pleasantly surprised him. We knew our music much better than he had hoped and the group sound was better than Tapestry 2003.

We were hoping we would do so well with the pieces that Lamar wouldn't have to make us count the rhythms. That hope went down the drain when we tried "Hosanna to the Song of David." There was no question that Lamar would make us count it. Oh help!

After a very enjoyable practice we broke off for banana splits and pretzels. I am sure a psychologist would have had an interesting time analyzing people by studying the various forms of the "do-it-yourself" dessert creations. It was DELICIOUS!

Then it was "Goodnight to all!" and everyone retired to the homes of their various local hosts, hopefully for a good, refreshing night's sleep.

-Merry Yoder

Monday Morning, August 8th

The first full day together and what a workout! Such starting and stopping and doo-ing and dee-ing and tuning and counting out rhythms and speaking the text. Oh, it's been jolly fun.* It is a great learning experience, and I find that very enjoyable. There's something about sharing a piece of music that you thought you knew, only to have Lamar open up new vistas of expression and experience.

Lamar has been doing a great job of taking us where we need to go. He puts up with a lot. There are excited choir members who forget to listen to him because they are figuring something out. He is saying "Shhhh..." far oftener than he should need to, but he does find a way to make us listen to and apply what he is teaching us. I think he's had his doubts about singing the Warum" piece is German. But since he's worked with us on our pronunciation, I think he's decided we can do it. So get ready for some German folks.

There have also been some surprises. I am a creature of habit (to a fault). It was challenging to change what I was accustomed to singing to try something else for the good of the choir (it's a good exercise in flexibility). Over all, I think everyone has done well with adjusting to new responsibilities.

*Well, I'm not sure that many people find counting rhythms fun. I believe a debate of sorts began over which is worse: doo-ing and dee-ing or counting the rhythms.

-Merry Yoder

Monday Evening

Practicing went well, in large part because of the much practice done before-hand. We halted practice at 4:00 to play some volleyball at a local gym, while some used the time for resting or practicing of specific parts. Those of us who played had great fun, dividing into three teams which were fairly evenly matched. After returning to the church at 6:00 for a delicious supper of soup and sandwiches, we practiced until 9:00, trying to sing through the songs from beginning to end. We made it halfway through without too much trouble. Tired and happy, we trailed off to bed.

-Conrad Gingerich

Monday, 9:45 PM

If you can't Dodge it, Ram it!!

No, this is not an advertisement. Rather, those were Titus' words intended to bring some comic relief after a low-speed collision on Monday night. Nobody was hurt, so don't hold your breath.

We were on our way to Marvin Mast's after a long day of rehearsal; Ben, Titus and I in Titus' Dodge Ram. We were almost "home" when we encountered an emergency vehicle; not your typical encounter mind you. This one was up close and personal.

The tanker had just pulled out of the station and was approaching the intersection with the road we were travelling on. Just before he entered the intersection he flipped on his lights and siren, and proceeded to enter the roadway without stopping. After a moment of shock and disbelief Titus jammed the brakes, pulling slightly to the right, hoping that the moving truck would pass through our lane, letting us slip behind it. Oh, did I mention that it was raining? Well, the tanker driver realized that, emergency vehicle or not, we were too close to avoid a collision; he applied his brakes and skidded to a stop halfway into our lane. The wet pavement helping us none, we continued to slide until "encountering" the front left corner of the tanker. We had slowed to approximately 10 mph, but the impact was surprisingly jarring.

A few seconds passed before Titus backed the truck away from the tanker. Those few seconds were filled with exclamations from all three of us: "No way!!" "Unreal!!" Aah MAN!!" I couldn't believe that we had just smacked into an emergency vehicle, one on call of all things! The fire crew rushed out to check on us, as well as a whole bunch of guys from the station which was just down the road; either they heard the crash or the "incident" was radioed. After assuring them that nobody was hurt, the damages to both vehicles were surveyed, and we all made our way to the station to "work things out".

A quick check on Titus' truck revealed a bent bumper (duh), a cracked fender panel, and a damaged/leaking radiator. After a few phone calls, Titus took his truck to the Golden Rule Travel parking lot, which is actually at the corner of the intersection, and left it there until a local mechanic could be contacted. He's hoping to get it fixed while we're on tour and be ready to head back to Georgia after we get back.

We were all thankful that the accident wasn't worse, as it easily could have been. The Lord meant it for something, as Titus said. We continue to trust the Lord for safety during the remainder of this week, and would appreciate your prayers as well.

-Dave Friesen

Tuesday Morning, August 9th

We had breakfast at 8:00 a.m., then practice again at 9:00. We finished going through the last half of the songs, then tried different standing arrangements for different songs. In the process, many cups of water were kicked over. We took a break at 11:30 for lunch and resumed our practice again at 1:30. We gathered upstairs this time and Lamar arranged us into our standing arrangements after which we did wrap-up practicing on some of the harder pieces, trying to iron out the last wrinkles. We grouped ourselves into cars at 3:30 and headed down the road to Aroda, VA for our first program.

-Conrad Gingerich

Tuesday Night

Our first performance! It feels so good to finally present the music that has become so much a part of us to an expectant audience. The pieces bring a variety of feelings and it was great to hear a few people in the audience respond. I love when people can connect with the feelings that I am feeling and be free to show it!

-Heidi Ulrich

Wednesday, August 10

This was obviously our first day on the bus, so things were more on the quiet side. Some were resting, others reading, some into rook, and still others who were trying desperately hard to figure out Ginger's minute mystery. One particular conversation today was on food. Did you ever hear of someone who likes fried pickles and loves 'um?!! Or worse yet, beef gravy on your ice cream?! No Thanks!

-Heidi Ulrich

Wednesday, August 10, Program #2

One choir member asked in wonderment the next day how the audience could sit there and listen with such limited response. Oh, there was an "Amen!" here and there...oh, yes, and there was at least one somewhat subdued whistle after one song. That was good. On the other hand, our esteemed director wondered how some of his choir members could sing such glorious music with such unglorious facial expressions. That's life, I guess--bringing the various aspects of our lives into congruence.

-Barb Smucker

Thursday, August 11, The Front of the Bus

The mysterious box whose contents satisfied the seven men who looked into it--what was in it? You probably don't want to know. But if you do, ask. Then there were Dr. Carver and Dr. Raquelle. Their patient survived many shots and was soothed with many bandages and her heart appeared to be beating appropriately as determined with the headphone stethoscope.

Dunno what happened at the back of the bus.

At the Cracker Barrel many of us rocked contentedly on the rockers while Conrad and Naomi duked it out at the checker board. Both made some bad moves to the delight and glee of the other, and at the end, one of them won. It was the one who made the most mistakes.

-Barb Smucker

Thursday evening, August 11 through Friday, August 12

On Thursday evening our program was at the Maple Grove Mennonite church in Hartville, Ohio. We were hosted by Hartville Conservative Mennonite church but were unable to use their building due to the ongoing church construction project. (Next year in Hartville!) Fortunately Maple Grove was air-conditioned. This meant we were able to sing our Latin song, Sicut Cervus, an ancient version of As the Deer, which talks about springs of water, without feeling accompanying springs of water down our backs. Very nice indeed! The program went well with no major mishaps, and perhaps even more passion since there was no heat to fight or perhaps less passion since we had less to fight. Afterwards we stayed in various homes around the area and in the morning met back at Hartville Christian school. Before boarding the bus we had a sneak preview of Hartville's new church building and then headed for our next destination in Central PA, Shalom Mennonite church.

On the way over to Shalom various things happened on the bus. Some people worked on their blessing cards for the other choir members, and utilized young Carver - Norvan and Jewel's son - as a mailman. He needed occassional direction in finding people, but overall proved to be a reliable carrier, and since he couldn't read, a confidential one as well. Other people got involved in a passionate discussion at the back of the bus amidst flying bits of verbiage. Others sat and listened to the discussion, for fear or interest I'm not sure. On a quieter note Benji moved through the bus playing clips from the previous nights program for whoever was interested. So far he's recorded each program. At lunchtime we boarded the Flying J truckstop, which promptly flew a little lower for having its food stores drawn on so heavily. Well fed and watered we returned to the road and arrived at Shalom about 3pm.

-Mark Deiter

Friday Afternoon, August 12 through Saturday, August 13

We arrived at Shalom Mennonite Church on Friday afternoon. We got off the bus to find that a heat wave had hit central Pennsylvania with force. Our hearts sank as we entered the church and realized that the air conditioner had yet to be installed in the new building. After a time of warm relaxation and airplane flight experimentation, we went to the slightly cooler basement for warm-up and supper.Hopes were that the heat would pass by the time of the program. It didn't happen. Our program went well despite the stifling heat and the sweat running down our persons.

We left for Lancaster on Saturday morning. The drive was only two or three hours long. The writer is quite unaware of what happened in that time, for she was sleeping soundly. Our first stop was at a restaurant cleverly dubbed "Udder Choice." We departed after a delicious lunch of soup, sandwiches, ice cream, and such. From there we went to a store called "Ken's Educational Joys." Not being teachers or particularly interested in scrapboking, several of us scanned the wares rather quickly. We sat in the heat of the day or the cool of the bus patiently waiting for the others while discussing such things as the possible reasons for naming a store "Educational Joys." After the purchases and browsing were complete, we drove a short distance to a mini golf course/ go-cart track/ etc. Various of our members took on the challenge of go-cart racing, discovered the driving range didn't rent out golf clubs, competed in mini golf, or took the time to rest on the quiet bus. When our time there concluded, we headed for Hammer Creek Mennonite Church where our program for the evening was scheduled.

-Bessie Weaver

Saturday Night, August 13

Nervous and excited. That's how I was feeling Saturday night before Tapestry's concert in Lancaster. I mean, after all, this was Lancaster! We knew there would be tons of people there. But I was excited because I was going to get to see some of my Oasis Chorale friends! The church was packed out and the concert went really well, I thought. That night the "Hang Out" was at a local family's place. Actually, it was supposed to be a FaithBuilders Europe Tour Reunion, but alot of other people ended up being there too. Ginger and I stayed at our wonderful friend Susan's house for the night. We had an absolutely splendid time there! She was a wonderful hostess! I won't say what time we finally hit the bed Sunday morning. =/

-Suzanne Good

Sunday, August 14

Sunday morning we were supposed to meet at LIFE Ministries at 10 for our concert there. We had a time of singing on the bus before we made our "grand entrance". We heard that it was going to be packed out, but I was not expecting what I saw when I walked in. It was just like one BIG living room packed with lots and lots of people. We had to stand in our 4-row mixed-up arrangement for the whole concert because we didn't have room to move all around. I was a little scared about "Hosanna To The Son Of David" since us 1st sopranos were not together. It went ok though. The whole concert went fine other than the interesting touch to "Souls Been Anchored"! =) Poor Benjamin, but way to go Eric! We were fed a wonderful lunch before we hit the road for Catlett for THE LAST CONCERT. When we got there we had supper and then quickly got ready. The church was just "bursting at its seams" with people! The concert was very successful. The people really seemed to enjoy it. After we were done visiting with our friends we all headed over to Marvin Mast's to hang out together for the last time. Marvin's really did a wonderful job of making us feel at home and serving us wonderful food! You guys are the BOMB! After we were done eating, Josh made a great suggestion of all going upstairs and singing around the second floor balcony. We sang about all our songs and had a great time! We didn't even have our director. But we did miss you, Lamar! =) After that some people started leaving. At the time of this writing, others are still here at Marvin's hanging loose. So, that ends our wonderful week of touring and singing together. It has been so much fun singing with these wonderful people!

-Suzanne Good

Thanks

Special thanks to Hans Mast for all the time and energy he has donated to taking care of this website for us! We really appreciate it, Hans, and definitely would have been in a tight fix without you! Thanks for doing such a wonderful job.

-Tapestry