March 17, 2007

Day 3, Services 3 & 4 of a 4-day, 6-service event

YOUTH EXPLOSION!! The event today is geared toward youth. The church brought in some very dynamic singing/rapping groups and they asked that we TURN IT UP!!! (Not a difficult request when working with Rob!!) The show was scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. so we showed up at 1:00 to turn everything on and get a sound check. This is the R & B duo, Taco and Jac, warming up and checking their CD tracks:

The show moved pretty quickly with a variety of groups performing. The pros were mixed in with the amatuers, but everybody did an amazing job. Very fun to watch. This is an all-girl group, Witherspoon. They could give Point of Grace a run for their money.

This is a dance team made up of girls in the church:

The mime group performed again and added a little comedy in this time:

This all-boy dance group was great. They had a military-style of dancing mixed in with hip-hop moves:

Taco and Jac put on a great show:

GB5 is a Latino group with great harmonies. They flew in from back east to perform at the Saturday and Sunday services:

Gloria and Megan boogied to the beat:

The final performer of the afternoon had a tough time getting here. His flight was cancelled due to bad weather so he arrived at the show straight from the airport after getting a later flight. It didn't slow him down at all! Rapper, Nova for Jehovah:

THE GOSPEL SHOWCASE

The evening service kicked off with a flag ceremony. Gloria was invited to take part in it and took it very seriously:

These are the flags that were carried in for display:

The mimes put on another moving performance:

Taco and Jac performed again:

Witherspoon:

GB5 performed as the final number and finished off the day beautifully:

At the end of the day we went to my in-laws where I am taking care of their little pomeranian, Cera.

March 16, 2007

Day 2, Service 2 of a 4-day, 6-service event.

The nice thing about having a multiple day event is that once it is set, there is very little preparation each day. The equipment has to be turned on, the wireless mics need to be checked for battery levels, and we have a quick sound check.


It looks like Dale is getting ready to sing with the worship team, but he is actually talking to them about their mics/monitors (I assume!):

Gloria and Megan were invited to wave some flags with the interpretive dance lady:

Gloria is in the center of this picture in pink and black, waving the purple flag:

Rob continues to have fun:

The amazing worship band:

The fabulous worship team:

The congregation sits and stands as they feel "moved" to throughout the service no matter what activity is going on on stage.

This is a mime ministry. It consists of a very talented group of young people who mime actions to CD tracks. It's very moving. Tonight they acted out a song about the cross:

The minister tonight was Joyce Rodgers. She preached out of Leviticus and talked about this being the "seventh year" and the begining of 3 years of blessings. Her message really struck a chord with me and gave me much food for thought. "Weeping lasts for a night, but JOY comes in the morning." (Psalm 30:5)

On a different note, Zach got his hair cut today!! He was in desperate need of it! I've had the same gal cut my hair since Gloria was a baby and she always does a great job. She called Zach's cut "the Scott Baio".


I think he looks handsome! (ok, I had posters of Scott Baio on my walls when I was in 6th grade!)


Gloria loves her brother even if she won't often admit it:

March 15, 2007

Day two of the set-up didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. Since Rob bought new "toys", they had to be wired into the racks which is a longer, more involved project than we expected it to be.

We needed one more speaker to fill in the middle area that the outside speakers wouldn't reach, so Dale "flew" a speaker from the ceiling from this board:
Even though Dale "pinkie-promised" me that it would be safe, I worried all evening that the speaker would fall and crush the minister who was standing underneath it. . .

Rob's dad was in the area and stopped by to see how we were doing. It's funny how you're never to old to want to impress your dad.

Meanwhile all of these speakon cables still need to go. . .

. . . into all of the speakers and into the amps, etc., etc., etc.

In addition to hooking up the main speakers and the monitors, all of the instruments had to be mic'ed and run into the main snake as well as setting up all the vocal mics. Gloria was very helpful all day and had fun checking things out.

The musicians started to trickle in around 6:15 which didn't leave a lot of time for a sound check. Things were mostly ready on our end by 5:45-ish and, fortunately, we had time to check all the vocal mics and the wireless mic as well as set all of the front monitors. The musicians were pretty easy going, so I guess it went as well as can be expected.

Rob is very picky when it comes to sound check, which in the long run, is a good thing.

Rob only had about 10 minutes total to eat his first meal of the day very quickly (donuts in the a.m. don't really count as a meal!) and change into his "professional" clothes.

7:02: Showtime!

Gloria had a great time!

This woman did an interpretive dance to pre-recorded music. She asked me afterwards if my daughter could be a part of her presentation on Saturday night. All she needs to do to prepare is to "dress for the Lord". Hmmmm, I'm not sure what that looks like!

The musicians were great!

These are the ushers preparing to take the offering:

Rob in his happy-place:

I think Gloria believes these events are all about her!!

The guest speaker flew in from Virginia (I think) and was awe-inspiring:

He really got the crowd riled up for God. My favorite line that he used was to call us all "The Saints and the 'Aints". I'm not sure which is which, but it sure sounded good! He involved the congregation throughout his message and often told us to "Hit the person next to you and tell them 'Satan aint gonna get in my way!'" or "Give the person next to you a high-five and tell 'em 'I'm goin' somewhere!'". The praise band accompianed his sermon in all the right places with keyboard, drums, and organ.

When all was said and done, we were tired but satisfied with a good day's work. We were also starving so we went to JB's at 10:50 for a late-night snack.

March 14, 2007

Today is the first set-up day for our big four day event that starts Thursday at 7 p.m. We are running sound and lights for a church for their anniversary celebration. There will be guest speakers and some very talented musicians that will rock the church during 6 services Thursday through Sunday.

Every event is different and often calls for creative thinking/engineering. The building this church meets in has low ceilings and limited space up front where the musicians will be, so in order for us to provide lighting for the event, Rob came up with a way to put the lights right into the ceiling. He bought a piece of dry-erase board and cut it into fourths. Standard ceiling tiles are 2 x 4 so the board was exactly the right size to make four new ceiling tiles that would hold 3-4 par cans each. He drilled a small hole where each can would be attached and a slightly larger hole so the power cord could be hidden up inside the ceiling. I think he's pretty ingenious.

After the lights were ready, we loaded the truck:

The first thing we did at the church was to figure out exactly where the lights should go and remove the existing ceiling tiles. The custom-designed panels slipped right in and fit nice and snug.

The one Rob is focusing in this picture is called an elipsoidal and is used as a spotlight:

The lights look so nice that the church is considering purchasing them and keeping the tiles as permanant fixtures.

After the lights were in place we unloaded the audio stuff out of the truck:

While we were doing all of this, Gloria was off on another adventure making new friends:

Zach missed all the fun (and work) but was able to get most of his school stuff done.

I had to leave after the load-in to go to church, but it sounds like we are making pretty good time. Tomorrow we'll get all the speakers hooked up and pray that everything works like it's supposed to!!