DAY 15-18

EDIT: Day 14 in Churchville, VA was NOT the day of our downpour, it was actually a fun day where Keeley's family came and gave us to die for chocolate covered strawberries for her upcoming birthday.

So, diving right back in.........

DAY 15: Winchester, VA would be the correct location for this section of post:

"The show went well, with a great audience response and requests for photos and autographs afterwards. Some people even helped us load out...during a torrential downpour. We got the truck about halfway packed before the buckets of rain came. I felt like I was trying to save the Titanic as Brad was shouting, "More quilts!!", "Get the lights covered!", and "It's too much, get them inside!!". Now, Noah has an intimidating appearance in general, but I don't think I've felt more fear in my heart than when a soaking wet Noah with a back brace and gloves came thundering after me to help move a box truss. You don't mess with that! Nevertheless, everything got moved back inside and we designated a crew to come load up in the morning. Ahhhhhhh, 6:30AM never felt so good."

DAY 16, JUNE 23, 2006: After the night of torrential rain, a few of us woke up bright and early to load the rest of the truck so we could head off to Florida! We had some fun bus shenanigans...

Kristen on the ceiling?? Our bus slowly accumulated fun signs with everyone's names, coloring book pictures, and name tags from our travels.





And it was all fun and games. Until our air conditioning broke. The bus became immediately stifling, creating the crabbiest crew anyone has ever seen! I began praying fervently for a miraculous fixing of the air conditioning, however, God decided to send rain instead. Which not only saved us from ourselves, but eased our boredom as well.




DAY 17, JUNE 24: We arrived at the Salvation Army Church in Jacksonville, FL and had a relatively uneventful load in. A very near and dear friend of mine, Luke, was our contact and I was able to catch up with him a little bit while we coordinated our set up for the night. The troupe happily watched Beauty and the Beast in the dressing rooms after set up, and we prepared for the Salvation Army to bus over members of the homeless shelter and rehabilitation programs. Although probably the least "churched" group we have encountered so far, they were certainly the most alive audience, and they sent our energy sky high. After our performance the girls headed over to the Stasi's house to catch some z's, and the boys bunked up in a house that the Stasi's are renovating. We made tea and ate what seemed like all the doughnuts in the world before bed. As a sidenote, Luke sent me this message in one of the days to follow:

"6/27/2006 11:19 AM

Hey I just wanted to let you know that a former drug addict/alcoholic/30 year prison convict got saved after seeing Godspell, so thats amazing. Let the cast know that they are changing lives for eternity and to keep it up!"

It doesn't get much better than that!

DAY 18, JUNE 25: Beach time on the day off for some...the rest toured Jacksonville on the bus and hit up an amazing barbecue restaurant.



We left feeling pretty wave-ravaged, and the sunburn slowly started to kick in... After quick showers and a filling meal, our group hit up "Night Church" with the Stasi family.

We finished up our night watching a movie on a projector screen at the boys' house with Luke and his sisters. And the sunburns raged.