Recent News & Notes

LATE BREAKING NEWS!

 THE EXCITEMENT IS STARTING TO MOUNT!
PLEASE JOIN US IN OUR EXCITEMENT!

It is that time of year again this year! It is National Quartet Convention time, September 8 -13 in Louisville, KY.  If you have never joined us in Louisville, this should be your year to come down and see what the excitement is all about.  Where else can you go to see ALL of your favorite Southern Gospel singers and musicians in one place?  Where else can you have the chance to sit down at a table next to your favorite group, soloist, or trio and eat your dinner meal? Gee, you might even get to sit with them.  If you ask Tim, he will tell you where can you get the greatest ice cream?  Karen would say it is the best place to buy jewelry!  Marcella would say this is my one chance to visit with old friends.  Mike gets the chance to talk to everyone and work his magic of doing a great job of PR.  Ron gets a week out of the truck! So, you see, there are plenty of reasons to join us at NQC.  You can also be a part of setting up a tradition for Terry.  He has been to convention, but not as a participant!

There are some pretty exciting dates we would like for you to think about!  First, on Friday, Sept. 12 from 1 - 4 p.m. we have been chosen to participate in the Regional Artist Showcase in the South Wing.  This showcase is free admission and we want you there with us.  We don't know the time that we sing; so you really need to be there for the entire showcase because we are only given time for one song!

Also, new for us this year is the opportunity to sing on the Star Cruise Line lunch cruises on Thursday, Sept 11.  They will beginning boarding the boat at 11 a.m. and cruise from noon - 2 p.m.  We will be singing for approximately 1 1/4 hours.  The rest of the time we will be mingling with the crowd on the boat.  If you are excited about joining us for this cruise, please call Star Cruise Lines at 812-218-1565.  This cruise will dock in time for you to be back to the convention center for the evening lineup of gospel music on the main stage.

The excitement of NQC grows for us each year!  Each year we learn more, experience more, make more friends, and have a lot more fun!  We just want you to be a part of that with us.  Something special we have added this year is a "live" feed from the main stage into our booth (Booth 459/461) for everyone's enjoyment.  So, if you don't have a ticket for someone that you think you really, really, really want to see stop by and watch them with us!  But, just remember, WHEN we get our chance to sing on the main stage you all have to buy a ticket! We want you in there with us!

So, here is the important stuff to remember!  September 8-13, Louisville, KY, Booth 459/461 from 4 p.m. - midnight each night.  Thursday, Sept. 11, Star Cruise Line Lunch cruise, board at 11 a.m. - cruise from noon - 2 p.m. and Friday, Sept. 12, Regional Artist Showcase, South Wing, from 1 - 4 p.m. Come join us for the excitement and fun!

We do know that not all of you will be able to join us for the week and any part of the week, for that we are very sorry.  We will be thinking of you, please know that.  Also, IF, and that is a big IF, we can get the internet to work we will be posting daily updates and pictures of the activities, friends that do visit, just stuff from NQC, to help you all feel like you are there with us.  We don't want any of you to feel left out.

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EXCITEMENT COMES IN ALL FORMS!

Excitement can come in all forms, like, dealing with high temperatures, major malfunctions of equipment, friends pitching in a helping you in a tough situation, meeting up with old friends, and have a great Spirit-filled service.  Our weekend was nothing less than overboard with excitement.                                                

It all started on Saturday with the Ken Deckard, Sr. Memorial Sing.  Englewood Baptist Church in Bedford, Ind. hosted the Memorial Sing this year.  There were six groups participating and here is the order in which they sang: Sonshiners Quartet, Blood Bought, Singing Sands, Right Spirit, Bunkum Valley Boys, and Glory Road.  Over half of these groups many of you have heard before, so, you know that the music and testimonies were awesome.

In spite of the heat the crowd had a great time and so did the groups that participated.  You ask how can they have a great time singing in temperatures in the mid – 90's?  Because they got to eat!  There was also a pig roast in conjunction with the Memorial Sing.  So, when there is food everyone including the singers have a great time!  Hot temperatures, hot singing, hot food, makes for a hot (awesome) evening.

Sunday morning came really quick after our late night Saturday.  We expected it to be a normal drive to Illinois and at least three-quarters of us would get some additional sleep!  Surprise! It was not going to happen that way.  Just northwest of Bloomington, about a mile outside of Ellettsville, Mike says “uh-oh!”  This is never a good thing to hear from the bus driver/mechanic.  The bus had gone into shutdown mode and there was no oil pressure.  We pulled the dipstick and there was no a bit of oil showing on the stick.  We looked back down the road and we had dumped all of our oil in the last quarter mile.  We started making calls to our friends and things were looking bleak for us to make it to Neoga, IL.  We made a call to our buddy, Darrell Little and asked him to bring us some Rotella T oil so that we could see where the leak was at.  He didn’t bring the oil, he brought us his motor home, handed us the keys, and said “get going!” We loaded up just the essentials (we thought we had all of the essentials) and we took off for Neoga, IL.  Mike might have driven a little fast, but please, don’t tell Sadie!

Did we mention that even in the wee hours of the morning it was still hot!  Bus troubles definitely don’t make things cooler.

We made it to Mount Zion Baptist Church, Neogo, IL, 35 minutes before service start time; we sat up in a hurry and had 10 minutes to change clothes.  Mount Zion Baptist Church is the church of long time friend, Randy Black.  We first met Randy at Martinsville Baptist Church, Martinsville, IL.  Randy started ministering at Mount Zion three years ago.  He started with seven people attending.  Now they average slightly over 50.  Sunday the pews were full with over 60 people.  The service was just great!  The Spirit was heavy that morning.  We were supposed to be there.  We made several new friends at Mount Zion.  Randy, you are doing a great job! 

Satan had done his best (but, it wasn’t good enough) to keep us from going, but the Lord, using Darrell made a way for us to be where we were needed.  God is good!

Sunday night we were traveling back to Morgantown, IN by way of the bus to pick up some more essential items, our ear monitors!  This was a culmination of a difficult weekend.  Surprisingly, everyone was in great voice!  The songs and the service flowed as well as it has in many weeks.  This Church is great on acoustics and that helps make for a great sound.  The church folks were very receptive of the word in song that we provided for them.

The moral of the story of this weekend is just to give up all circumstances to God.  He and He alone will work out the needs.  He will see that all details are covered and all needs are met.

Someday, we don’t know when, the most worrisome person of the quartet will get that thought through his head. (Huh, Tim?)

Did we mention that the temperatures were in the mid-90's on Saturday?  It was hot, hot, hot!

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SPECIAL NOTE: You all know that I can't make it to all of the dates that the Quartet has, but to keep all of you, our wonderful friends, informed on the happenings with the Quartet the guys have stepped up and have started sending me notes of the weekend events.  I want to take this space to publicly thank the guys for helping me keep all of you up-to-date!  Tim has been giving me great bullet points that I have to turn into something for all of you.  Thanks Tim, it is great stuff, most of the time!