Well it's been soooo ridiculously long since I posted anything I think I should put my thoughts into a collection or a suite of 3 parts. The first part would be to write about Band tour. The second part will be about the 2nd half of the term including graduation. The "Finale" shall be about our upcoming activities of this coming break from classes.
Band Tour Tweets
As you may recall our Band Tour's theme was Believing the Promises, Revealing the Lies. The tour theme really challenged several students to look at what they believed about God, the Bible, and the world around them. As we prepared for tour I asked for students to give testimonies. 7 students came forward and shared with me written examples of ways that they were learning to trust in God and ignore the lies of this world. These Students' testimonies gripped me as they talked about how they misunderstood their self worth or had a faulty perceptions of who they were. Through their digging into scripture they were able to find encouragement and offer real examples of hope to our audiences. Throughout the tour of 6 concerts, our students were constantly surrounded by students at the schools where we performed. Each student had the opportunity to speak about what God's promises meant to them. The reflection and devotion time on Friday and Saturday night were the highlight of the tour for me this year. The way that our students challenge each other to trust in God and to ignore Satan's lies were great to hear. The other highlight would be the complete absence of accidents this year. That would definitely be on the praise item list. Nate was incredible as a leader on the loading crew this year. 
We enjoyed a great audience at Precious Blood Girls Catholic school. Our students loved the interaction with them.
The sections presented an educational Demo. Here Nate and his buddies performed a brief portion of an arrangement of "Lassus Trombone"
Second Half Summary.
Well, after band tour, the term really flew by. We had lot's of students over for wonderful Wednesdays with Waffles. Our sophomore class moved towards choosing a theme to present our banquet next year. The theme is a secret but you'll be hearing more than you'd want to know about this event in the months to come. For now, let's just say, we have a lot of work to get done. Amanda is on the logistics committee and Steve will head up entertainment. A highlight for the year would certainly be the privilege of baptizing two of my students. These students have met with me regularly this year. One of them was meeting with me in a discipleship group. The girl took private lessons and played in most of the music groups here at RVA. It was great to see them take this step of declaring their faith publically.And as all school years, conclude, we concluded with graduation. However, the day before was a fun little surprise as I fulfilled a promise and took a Senior boy fly fishing at a nearby lake. We caught a few in the small river that feeds into the lake but nothing actually in the lake. There were 3 other guys that I got to take and one father who stayed the extra night before taking his son home. The highlight of that day was hearing one of these guys share how he has really gotten serious in his relationship with God. Graduation went well, at least as well as can be expected as we say good byes to our students and realize, "I may never see so many of them again". The father who spent the night with us said "this school is like no other place" because we had kids in our car who's parents were working in Mozambique, Rwanda, Kenya, from Canada, U.S.A, Japan and New Zealand. Our students truly go all over the world. It's our prayer for them to change it for God's glory.
Upcoming Events
Now that school is out, we are catching up on correspondence, filing papers for work, planning next term, and trying to get healthier. The health part is going to be the hard way for Amanda and I. Amanda has had a real hassles with the return of plantar fasciitis. She is limping around with a boot on her foot trying to let PT do the work. Slowly it is seeming to get better but still rather uncomfortable. On Tuesday the 30th, I'll be having surgery on my shoulder to repair my AC joint as well as have my carpel tunnel opened up in my wrist. Thus the need to get this note sent off since I won't be typing for a while. Hopefully I'll be back to taking on the world two handedly in about 2 weeks. We'll see. Meanwhile the floor in our house is being tiled, the kitchen will get painted and we are getting other houses ready for new and returning staff. Please pray especially for the Nielsen family, they have been trying to return but due to support shortages, they have been delayed almost 6 months. We really need them back on staff as well as other families. Drop us a note. We'd love to hear from you. With eternity in mind... Steve for the tribe.
