Ecstatic and half-asleep, we piled onto the bus and shuttle at 5:00am. Finally, Fall music tour had arrived. With our destination 12 hours away, we settled into our seats for a long ride. With the old students fast asleep, and the new students singing and telling riddles, the drive passed by quickly. This was the first trip on which our shuttle and/or bus didn’t break down! Watching the wind turbines and counting the Joshua trees became our pastime. We stopped by a park to eat sandwiches and take a break about halfway through, then started up again on our journey. As we approached our destination, some of the students in the back of the bus started singing hymns. Soon everyone was joyfully singing. At last, we pulled into the parking lot of the Loma Linda Chinese Church. After a quick practice session and an amazing ramen dinner, we rolled our our sleeping bags and rested for the following day.
After a much needed night’s sleep, we began to prepare for our first concert of the trip. Despite the sickness beginning to spread throughout the students, we trusted that God would send His angels to sing with us. The youth Sabbath school room was filled to the brim with academy students, and the encouraging message from the speaker gave us hope. We then restlessly and prayerfully waited in the back of the church for Miss Abby to call us onto the risers. Typically, our first concert is shaky, as we are still working out the bugs, but by God’s grace our performance went without much error. Both the congregation and the performers were blessed.
With our spirits high, we traveled to our next stop: Calimesa SDA church. We spent some time praying over the concert before assembling ourselves on the risers. During his concert, however, we lost our sense of dependence on Christ, and we felt that the performance was only half as good as the first one. Thankfully, many were still blessed, but we were taught how desperately we need the angels to sing with us.
-Senior of Weimar Academy