Friday, 30 September 2011
Book Report
Oh, and when I say I have a day off, what I really mean is that I'm spending the day reading like crazy to try to complete my book report by Monday. It's on the book Not For Sale by David Batstone, and it's a wonderful book, it's just very hard to find time on tour to read the book and write about it! So here it goes!
Lieutenant Governor's Northern Tour = The Best Week Yet!
My team and I spent this past week flying around northern Saskatchewan with the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan (pronounced Leftenant Governor) and his "entourage". Every year the Lieutenant Governor travels to different small northern native communities to reward students with academic awards. Last fall, he saw Absolute's work at one of their leadership conferences and immediately started planning to have us join him this year in his travels up north. There are a lot of concerns with the youth in these communities. In 2008, there were 9 teen suicides in one single community up north. There are a lot of problems as well with teen pregnancies, and alcohol and other substance use. His Honor wanted to give these students an exciting, motiviational presentation to remind them of their worth and the power that lives within them. He told us that he wanted to restore a new hope in the lives of these kids.
So we started off early Monday morning with half of our gear and an overnight bag at the very tiny airport in La Ronge. We weren't quite sure what to expect, and to be honest, I was not excited for this week at all. I was very discouraged thinking that it was not going to be very successful. I was quite worried about it actually. When we got to the airport, we were greeted by four very nice, fairly young pilots. They were very helpful in loading our gear onto the planes. We had two planes just for us and our gear. The Lieutenant Governor had his own plane with his enourage which meant that we got the other two planes all to ourselves. Luckily, Cameco and the RCMP sponsored our trip and paid for the cost of the two planes. The flight company provided two boxes of donuts for us on the first day, and coffee, granola bars, chocolate, and other treats for us the rest of the time. The first day we didn't touch the tray of treats because we thought they must be for someone else, we didn't think we were important enough to be given all this free food!
By the end of the week we had visited 6 schools, taken 7 flights, and performed for about 1,500 kids in 6 different communites.
All of my worrying had been for nothing, because the schools we went to were awesome. Obviously there were some schools who paid less attention than others, but we usually captured them with our stories. It was encouraging to see some of the kids ask us about Hero Holiday trips and how they can get involved. We're hoping that we will have had a big influence there since they have never seen a big presentation like that before with lights and music and the whole deal.
On Monday night, we spent the night in a community called Buffalo Narrows. I think that it was one of my favourite towns. When we got there Monday night, we started setting up immediately in the school gym and as our musicians began practising, a large group of highschool students began gathering outside of the gym doors listening. Some of our team members chatted with them for a while as they shared with us what it's like to live there and explained their lives to us. They followed us to the house we were staying at and then showed us around the neighbourhood. All of these kids were dressed the same way: long baggy sweatshirts and gangster hats and they all rode on BMX bikes around town. They were the small gang who ran the town. Except, we were surprised to see that they were not bad kids. None of them were doing bad things, they were just hanging out and looking for things to do. They took us to the corner store and we bought slushies and candy with them. It was really fun! You could tell that they looked up to us and wanted to show us where they were from. It was interesting to see the accents that they spoke with as well!
On our way back from the corner store, something eventful happened. And not eventful in a good way. As we were walking back from the corner store, one boy threw his bike to the ground and started chasing after one of the girls, who we found out later was his girlfriend. He had hit her. She ran off crying, trying to get away from him, but he persisted to chase after her, calling her babe, thinking that he could just apologize and everything would be better again. But life doesn't work like that. There was no way that we were going to stand for this. Our leader chased after the guy as I went after the girl. He told the guy that it wasn't cool what he had done and that it wasn't acceptable. We assume that the kid was brought up not knowing any better, but something needed to be done. The boy got very defensive and told Johnny he wanted to fight about it. We explained to him that violence doesn't solve anything and that he needed to walk away. In the meantime, I had caught up to the girl and was consoling her as she was crying. I told her that she is worth more than that and that she shouldn't have to put up with that kind of behavior. She was only 14 years old. Her boyfriend of one year was 17 years old. The abuse had been going on during their whole relationship. She told me about the bruises she had on her arms and that he forced her to do things that she didn't want to. It broke my heart to hear that a 14 year old girl had convinced herself that she was worth no more than that. I told her that she didn't have to settle for second best, but her friend told me that there was no one else... that she doesn't have a choice because there aren't any other guys in the town for her to date. I realized the only thing that I could really do in this situation was console her and pray for her. A few minutes later, her mom showed up. One of her friends had called her, and her mom got out of the car and yelled at the boy and told him to leave her daughter alone. I told the girl to come see me after the show the next day because I wanted to make sure that she was alright. While all this was going on, Johnny had called the cops. Within minutes, the RCMP was driving around the community in search for him. I talked to the girls' group of friends and explained to them that they shouldn't be standing up for this type of behavior either. That they have a huge amount of power to stand up to this guy and stop the abuse from occuring. The next day, the girl came to talk to me after the show and told me that her boyfriend had been taken into custody by the RCMP and that she had gotten a restraining order against him. That was the answer to all of my prayers. The girl was so thankful that we had helped her out.
I am so thankful for the opportunities we were given this week. The communities we were in surpassed all of my expectations and proved my assumptions wrong. Yes there are bad things that happen in the world, but we don't have to let them control our lives or define who we are. This week reinforced the idea that in my mind that our lives are powerful and that we can change the world. Of course it isn't going to happen in one day, but each day that we continue to work, we get one step closer to accomplishing our goals. Adolf Hitler was a terrible man with a great tactic. Change the heart of the youth, and you will change the world, and we are seeing that out in full.
Some other highlights of the week were seeing the northern lights explode in the sky above us. Not just like a blue or green line in the distance, but the whole sky exploded in colour above our heads. Blue, pink, green, purple swirls of colour filled the sky and we were so amazed. I've never seen anything so majestic and beautiful in my entire life. I was awestruck.
Another awesome thing was going for a speed boat ride over rapids. We got completely soaked, but had a blast! It was the last boat ride of the season for the company so he made it extra fun!
Right now, we're spending two nights at our founders' parents' house near Prince Albert. We got to sleep in for once and are so excited to have a long weekend off :)
Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but i'm hoping that this long update was long enough that I didn't forget anything!
Thanks for your prayers everyone!
So we started off early Monday morning with half of our gear and an overnight bag at the very tiny airport in La Ronge. We weren't quite sure what to expect, and to be honest, I was not excited for this week at all. I was very discouraged thinking that it was not going to be very successful. I was quite worried about it actually. When we got to the airport, we were greeted by four very nice, fairly young pilots. They were very helpful in loading our gear onto the planes. We had two planes just for us and our gear. The Lieutenant Governor had his own plane with his enourage which meant that we got the other two planes all to ourselves. Luckily, Cameco and the RCMP sponsored our trip and paid for the cost of the two planes. The flight company provided two boxes of donuts for us on the first day, and coffee, granola bars, chocolate, and other treats for us the rest of the time. The first day we didn't touch the tray of treats because we thought they must be for someone else, we didn't think we were important enough to be given all this free food!
By the end of the week we had visited 6 schools, taken 7 flights, and performed for about 1,500 kids in 6 different communites.
All of my worrying had been for nothing, because the schools we went to were awesome. Obviously there were some schools who paid less attention than others, but we usually captured them with our stories. It was encouraging to see some of the kids ask us about Hero Holiday trips and how they can get involved. We're hoping that we will have had a big influence there since they have never seen a big presentation like that before with lights and music and the whole deal.
On Monday night, we spent the night in a community called Buffalo Narrows. I think that it was one of my favourite towns. When we got there Monday night, we started setting up immediately in the school gym and as our musicians began practising, a large group of highschool students began gathering outside of the gym doors listening. Some of our team members chatted with them for a while as they shared with us what it's like to live there and explained their lives to us. They followed us to the house we were staying at and then showed us around the neighbourhood. All of these kids were dressed the same way: long baggy sweatshirts and gangster hats and they all rode on BMX bikes around town. They were the small gang who ran the town. Except, we were surprised to see that they were not bad kids. None of them were doing bad things, they were just hanging out and looking for things to do. They took us to the corner store and we bought slushies and candy with them. It was really fun! You could tell that they looked up to us and wanted to show us where they were from. It was interesting to see the accents that they spoke with as well!
On our way back from the corner store, something eventful happened. And not eventful in a good way. As we were walking back from the corner store, one boy threw his bike to the ground and started chasing after one of the girls, who we found out later was his girlfriend. He had hit her. She ran off crying, trying to get away from him, but he persisted to chase after her, calling her babe, thinking that he could just apologize and everything would be better again. But life doesn't work like that. There was no way that we were going to stand for this. Our leader chased after the guy as I went after the girl. He told the guy that it wasn't cool what he had done and that it wasn't acceptable. We assume that the kid was brought up not knowing any better, but something needed to be done. The boy got very defensive and told Johnny he wanted to fight about it. We explained to him that violence doesn't solve anything and that he needed to walk away. In the meantime, I had caught up to the girl and was consoling her as she was crying. I told her that she is worth more than that and that she shouldn't have to put up with that kind of behavior. She was only 14 years old. Her boyfriend of one year was 17 years old. The abuse had been going on during their whole relationship. She told me about the bruises she had on her arms and that he forced her to do things that she didn't want to. It broke my heart to hear that a 14 year old girl had convinced herself that she was worth no more than that. I told her that she didn't have to settle for second best, but her friend told me that there was no one else... that she doesn't have a choice because there aren't any other guys in the town for her to date. I realized the only thing that I could really do in this situation was console her and pray for her. A few minutes later, her mom showed up. One of her friends had called her, and her mom got out of the car and yelled at the boy and told him to leave her daughter alone. I told the girl to come see me after the show the next day because I wanted to make sure that she was alright. While all this was going on, Johnny had called the cops. Within minutes, the RCMP was driving around the community in search for him. I talked to the girls' group of friends and explained to them that they shouldn't be standing up for this type of behavior either. That they have a huge amount of power to stand up to this guy and stop the abuse from occuring. The next day, the girl came to talk to me after the show and told me that her boyfriend had been taken into custody by the RCMP and that she had gotten a restraining order against him. That was the answer to all of my prayers. The girl was so thankful that we had helped her out.
I am so thankful for the opportunities we were given this week. The communities we were in surpassed all of my expectations and proved my assumptions wrong. Yes there are bad things that happen in the world, but we don't have to let them control our lives or define who we are. This week reinforced the idea that in my mind that our lives are powerful and that we can change the world. Of course it isn't going to happen in one day, but each day that we continue to work, we get one step closer to accomplishing our goals. Adolf Hitler was a terrible man with a great tactic. Change the heart of the youth, and you will change the world, and we are seeing that out in full.
Some other highlights of the week were seeing the northern lights explode in the sky above us. Not just like a blue or green line in the distance, but the whole sky exploded in colour above our heads. Blue, pink, green, purple swirls of colour filled the sky and we were so amazed. I've never seen anything so majestic and beautiful in my entire life. I was awestruck.
Another awesome thing was going for a speed boat ride over rapids. We got completely soaked, but had a blast! It was the last boat ride of the season for the company so he made it extra fun!
Right now, we're spending two nights at our founders' parents' house near Prince Albert. We got to sleep in for once and are so excited to have a long weekend off :)
Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but i'm hoping that this long update was long enough that I didn't forget anything!
Thanks for your prayers everyone!
Sunday, 25 September 2011
One amazing billet after another!
Our team has been so blessed this entire week with amazing billets each night. We haven't once had pizza or chicken fingers for dinner, instead, we've been fed home-cooked gourmet meals every single night. We got to stay with two of the families of some of our fellow School of Leadership students who are spending this semester in Mexico. It was really cool and weird at the same time to meet someone's family and stay in their house while they aren't even there. And it's especially cool to see where my new friends were raised and see where they come from.
On Friday we went to a native reserve school near Fort Qu'Appelle which was very different from what we were used to. It was definitely a challenge, that's for sure! But I have a feeling it may have been a warning for what we're going to be experiencing this coming week as we'll be travelling to northern Saskatchewan to perform for the Lieutenant Governor's Leadership Awards ceremonies. Our home base for the week will be La Range, but we will be travelling via plane to remote villages each day to do shows. We're leaving Regina tomorrow to head to La Range, then on Monday we start our shows. We have two shows on Monday in two different villages and we have to fly to both, so it's going to be a very long stressful day!
Life on the road is still going well. Our team is still in that "honeymoon" period where everybody loves being around everybody. This weekend we got split up five people at one house and five people at another, and none of us wanted to split up! It was really funny! But we're convinced that we're never going to graduate from the honeymoon stage, we always want to stay close :)
Anyways, it's midnight here so I suppose I should get some sleep before the trip tomorrow!
Hope everyone is doing well back home :)
On Friday we went to a native reserve school near Fort Qu'Appelle which was very different from what we were used to. It was definitely a challenge, that's for sure! But I have a feeling it may have been a warning for what we're going to be experiencing this coming week as we'll be travelling to northern Saskatchewan to perform for the Lieutenant Governor's Leadership Awards ceremonies. Our home base for the week will be La Range, but we will be travelling via plane to remote villages each day to do shows. We're leaving Regina tomorrow to head to La Range, then on Monday we start our shows. We have two shows on Monday in two different villages and we have to fly to both, so it's going to be a very long stressful day!
Life on the road is still going well. Our team is still in that "honeymoon" period where everybody loves being around everybody. This weekend we got split up five people at one house and five people at another, and none of us wanted to split up! It was really funny! But we're convinced that we're never going to graduate from the honeymoon stage, we always want to stay close :)
Anyways, it's midnight here so I suppose I should get some sleep before the trip tomorrow!
Hope everyone is doing well back home :)
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Welcome to the land of the flat ...
The saying "Clear your mind like an open wheat field" has suddenly become clear to me ... Although I have been to Saskatchewan before, I have to admit I have never seen anything flatter in my entire life! I swear we kept driving in circles on the way here because the sight out my window every hour looked exactly the same as the hour before! I think we've past about 20 combines on the highway so far since we got here yesterday ... talk about farm land! It's a beautiful place, but being a ski lover, I would never survive living here!
So the bus trip here took about 32 hours straight driving from Hamilton through the states. Surprisingly, we all got along really well, even 30 hours into the trip! There was a lot of sleeping sprawled out on the floor of the bus that's for sure! It was funny to walk into a gas station and ask "Excuse me, what city are we in? And what state is that in??" hahah .
I'm finding that people in Saskatchewan are all very nice. I've learned that Southern Sask is very much an openly religious society. Today during our show at a public school, God was mentioned twice by the teachers who introduced us. Also, one of the teachers came up to our leader Johnny and said "Thank you for sharing your testimony!" even though Johnny never even mentions God in it, they were able to tell that it was his testimony. Lots of the kids explained to us that they have been on missions trips with their youth groups, and in fact the school invited two of the local youth pastors to come watch the show!
Tonight we're spending the night in one of the other School of Leadership girl's house which is really cool because she's on the team that's in Mexico right now, so we got to skype her with her family!
Our show tomorrow starts at 1:00, which means we get to sleep in a while! :)
Thanks for reading everyone!
God is being so gracious :)
So the bus trip here took about 32 hours straight driving from Hamilton through the states. Surprisingly, we all got along really well, even 30 hours into the trip! There was a lot of sleeping sprawled out on the floor of the bus that's for sure! It was funny to walk into a gas station and ask "Excuse me, what city are we in? And what state is that in??" hahah .
I'm finding that people in Saskatchewan are all very nice. I've learned that Southern Sask is very much an openly religious society. Today during our show at a public school, God was mentioned twice by the teachers who introduced us. Also, one of the teachers came up to our leader Johnny and said "Thank you for sharing your testimony!" even though Johnny never even mentions God in it, they were able to tell that it was his testimony. Lots of the kids explained to us that they have been on missions trips with their youth groups, and in fact the school invited two of the local youth pastors to come watch the show!
Tonight we're spending the night in one of the other School of Leadership girl's house which is really cool because she's on the team that's in Mexico right now, so we got to skype her with her family!
Our show tomorrow starts at 1:00, which means we get to sleep in a while! :)
Thanks for reading everyone!
God is being so gracious :)
Saturday, 17 September 2011
Adios Hamilton!
So we had an awesome week of shows this week! The schools were really good and it was a lot of fun!
After one of the shows we had a principal actually come up to us and ask us if we were a christian group! it was great!
Anyways, we're leaving for Saskatoon in two hours so I have to get all my packing done. I'll update when we get there!
Cheers for now!
After one of the shows we had a principal actually come up to us and ask us if we were a christian group! it was great!
Anyways, we're leaving for Saskatoon in two hours so I have to get all my packing done. I'll update when we get there!
Cheers for now!
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
So much to talk about, in such little time!
Hey everyone, I know it's been a while.. So I'll try to catch everyone up. So yesterday (Monday) we had our show for grades above grade nine. Let's just say it's a bit more challenging than grade 7 and 8's! The school we went to was in Stouffville and it was rather interesting. It's safe to say that it is probably the worst behaved school I have ever seen. First thing's first: kids walking around wearing hats! What has this world come to?!?!?!? LOL in my day, hats were banned the moment you stepped foot into the school! And you should have seen the clothes that some (most) of the girls were wearing. Talk about not having a dress code. I actually saw one girl wearing a completely see-through belly top with just a hot pink bra underneath ... now that's class .... haha. Now, please don't think that I'm judging a book by it's cover here. We did give the kids a chance. However, they proved themselves pretty quickly to be very disrespectful. For example, three girls in the front row gave my friend Brittany the middle finger during her entire speach. Talk about rude! It was overall a very frustrating day.
Today's show was quite a bit better. Still a little disrespect from the students, but they were really great to talk to afterwards! It was a smaller school, only 500 kids and it was awesome because while talking with some of the students afterward, they seemed so interested in what we were doing! Three girls actually hung out with us for a while after and asked us how they could start the movement in their school. We encouraged them to start a "Live Different" club in their school and plan a Hero Holiday trip to Mexico and they were all for it! They literally went straight to the office after talking with us and before we left the school today, they had started a club. I also got to share the School of Leadership with a few kids who told me they had no clue what to do with their lives next year. I really feel that these students will have a huge impact on their school. It was so encouraging!
Anyways, Kitchener tomorrow --- 2 shows back to back, 2 live global classroom sessions, a concert, then one more live global to top it all off!
Nighty night :)
Today's show was quite a bit better. Still a little disrespect from the students, but they were really great to talk to afterwards! It was a smaller school, only 500 kids and it was awesome because while talking with some of the students afterward, they seemed so interested in what we were doing! Three girls actually hung out with us for a while after and asked us how they could start the movement in their school. We encouraged them to start a "Live Different" club in their school and plan a Hero Holiday trip to Mexico and they were all for it! They literally went straight to the office after talking with us and before we left the school today, they had started a club. I also got to share the School of Leadership with a few kids who told me they had no clue what to do with their lives next year. I really feel that these students will have a huge impact on their school. It was so encouraging!
Anyways, Kitchener tomorrow --- 2 shows back to back, 2 live global classroom sessions, a concert, then one more live global to top it all off!
Nighty night :)
Friday, 9 September 2011
Most amazing two days yet!
Alright everyone... I'm going to try to make this brief ... But to be honest, I could go on for hours about the last two schools we've been in! But I will try my best to summarize :)
So yesterday (Thursday) we were in an elementary school in Hamilton called Cardinal Heights. There were a few complications with this school. For starters, there was no direct ramp going into the gym, so we had to carry all our gear up about 5 steps to get it all in! Then, once we got into the school and laid eyes on the gym, our jaws dropped. This was probably the smallest gymnasium I had ever seen in any elementary school anywhere, and we had to fit 300 students in it, as well as our whole stage. Needless to say, we were pretty rattled, bummed, frustrated, annoyed, etc! However, all our emotions changed very quickly after hearing what the principal had to say about the school. She told us that this particular school was very impoverished. The kids come from homes that sometimes don't have much money or don't have very supportive parents. She told us that most of the kids have lost hope, and a great number of them stopped coming to school altogether last year. She then went on to say how she wanted to see a change in the school this year, and she had faith that we could start the change right then and there. That was enough motivation for us right there to get everything set up and start the show in no time!!! And, as if we weren't excited enough already... The principal brought us in two large boxes of donuts and two big bags of cookies all from Timmies and also informed us that they would be providing pizza for us for lunch!! Wow :)
The show went soooooo well! The kids were so responsive to everything! Cutest thing of life: While I'm in the middle of my monologue, still pretending to be Anna, I say a line that goes "They sent me away because they didn't love me!" and one little boy yelled out: "I love you!" and the whole gym started laughing! Soooo funny! lol. The principal gave us time to walk around from class to class and mingle with the kids. They all wanted autographs and pictures with us. I never expected to be looked at so highly!! One little girl said to her friend as I was signing my autograph for her: "I'm going to go home and tell my mommy that i met famous people today!" ... I thought to myself... I'm famous?? what???? We've all decided that after each show, we're going to have to all hit each other to make sure we all bounce back into the real world where we're all just normal people again! hahaha .
Todays' school was very similar except it seemed to be in a higher class neighborhood. The principal at today's school let us hangout with the kids outside at lunch and actually extended their lunch hour for us because the kids were having so much fun! We got to talk with kids who opened up to us about our stories and began to share their own personal stories with us as well. There were 500 kids there today and i'm pretty sure at least 80% of them got all of our autographs... Needless to say, my handwriting got pretty messy near the end! We also got fed at this school as well and got free gifts of water bottles!
This trip is already proving to be so rewarding for me. I never thought that my life could touch so many people! We are all quickly learning that kids watch everything you do and you become their role model. It's amazing to realize how much of an impact you can have in a kid's life by simply living differently than everyone else, and caring about them. One of the easiest things to do is to ask a kid their name. And to them, it means the world. One of the most motivating things to hear from a kid is "I want to be just like you when I'm older". It's then that you realize that you're on the right track. You begin to understand the movement you're starting.
Now, I am not perfect, and I make that clear to the kids I speak with. But knowing that they look up to me and watch my every movement for the couple hours I'm with them, inspires me to continue to live different... with every step I take, and every word I speak, I am chosing to live different.
So yesterday (Thursday) we were in an elementary school in Hamilton called Cardinal Heights. There were a few complications with this school. For starters, there was no direct ramp going into the gym, so we had to carry all our gear up about 5 steps to get it all in! Then, once we got into the school and laid eyes on the gym, our jaws dropped. This was probably the smallest gymnasium I had ever seen in any elementary school anywhere, and we had to fit 300 students in it, as well as our whole stage. Needless to say, we were pretty rattled, bummed, frustrated, annoyed, etc! However, all our emotions changed very quickly after hearing what the principal had to say about the school. She told us that this particular school was very impoverished. The kids come from homes that sometimes don't have much money or don't have very supportive parents. She told us that most of the kids have lost hope, and a great number of them stopped coming to school altogether last year. She then went on to say how she wanted to see a change in the school this year, and she had faith that we could start the change right then and there. That was enough motivation for us right there to get everything set up and start the show in no time!!! And, as if we weren't excited enough already... The principal brought us in two large boxes of donuts and two big bags of cookies all from Timmies and also informed us that they would be providing pizza for us for lunch!! Wow :)
The show went soooooo well! The kids were so responsive to everything! Cutest thing of life: While I'm in the middle of my monologue, still pretending to be Anna, I say a line that goes "They sent me away because they didn't love me!" and one little boy yelled out: "I love you!" and the whole gym started laughing! Soooo funny! lol. The principal gave us time to walk around from class to class and mingle with the kids. They all wanted autographs and pictures with us. I never expected to be looked at so highly!! One little girl said to her friend as I was signing my autograph for her: "I'm going to go home and tell my mommy that i met famous people today!" ... I thought to myself... I'm famous?? what???? We've all decided that after each show, we're going to have to all hit each other to make sure we all bounce back into the real world where we're all just normal people again! hahaha .
Todays' school was very similar except it seemed to be in a higher class neighborhood. The principal at today's school let us hangout with the kids outside at lunch and actually extended their lunch hour for us because the kids were having so much fun! We got to talk with kids who opened up to us about our stories and began to share their own personal stories with us as well. There were 500 kids there today and i'm pretty sure at least 80% of them got all of our autographs... Needless to say, my handwriting got pretty messy near the end! We also got fed at this school as well and got free gifts of water bottles!
This trip is already proving to be so rewarding for me. I never thought that my life could touch so many people! We are all quickly learning that kids watch everything you do and you become their role model. It's amazing to realize how much of an impact you can have in a kid's life by simply living differently than everyone else, and caring about them. One of the easiest things to do is to ask a kid their name. And to them, it means the world. One of the most motivating things to hear from a kid is "I want to be just like you when I'm older". It's then that you realize that you're on the right track. You begin to understand the movement you're starting.
Now, I am not perfect, and I make that clear to the kids I speak with. But knowing that they look up to me and watch my every movement for the couple hours I'm with them, inspires me to continue to live different... with every step I take, and every word I speak, I am chosing to live different.
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Show Numero Dos!
Hey all!
So today's show was in Burlington Ontario (only like 25 minutes away ... got a lovely extra half our of sleep this morning ! haha). When we got there and started setting up, kids were poking their heads in the gym doors trying to watch and they were soooooo captivated by the band! I walked over to a few girls and started chatting with them and asked them their names and what grade they were in . They told me grade 6 and they were soooo disappointed when i told them the presentation was only for grade 7 and 8s! The kids were great though. They loved the show and we got to hangout and chat with them for a while afterwards which was great! I have officially signed my first autograph! Kids were running up to us all with pens and paper and getting everyone's autograph, especially the band!
It was a great second show! Watching the expressions on the kids faces and seeing them get so into our stories is an amazing feeling! Today after the show, their teacher asked the kids if anybody had any comments. This one little boy shot his hand up and said "Most motivational presentations don't really grasp my attention or interest me that much. I usually just tune them out and go on living my life. But you guys are different. I was hanging on every word and rather than just preaching at us telling us how to live our lives, you shared your own personal stories with us about things you've gone through and showed us how you've changed your lives and made a choice to live different. I was very moved by your show" ..... What an amazing kid! Things like that just make my heart melt and make me stop and go "Ok God... I see why you brought me here!" . I'm beginning to realize that no, we aren't going to make an impact on every kids life, but the kids we do reach, will have an impact on the ones we don't reach. And not everyone is going to react to it the same way. It's about starting a movement... Not just telling them how to live their lives, but showing them that they have a choice to live different.
" A changed heart can change the world!" It's our motto :)
So today's show was in Burlington Ontario (only like 25 minutes away ... got a lovely extra half our of sleep this morning ! haha). When we got there and started setting up, kids were poking their heads in the gym doors trying to watch and they were soooooo captivated by the band! I walked over to a few girls and started chatting with them and asked them their names and what grade they were in . They told me grade 6 and they were soooo disappointed when i told them the presentation was only for grade 7 and 8s! The kids were great though. They loved the show and we got to hangout and chat with them for a while afterwards which was great! I have officially signed my first autograph! Kids were running up to us all with pens and paper and getting everyone's autograph, especially the band!
It was a great second show! Watching the expressions on the kids faces and seeing them get so into our stories is an amazing feeling! Today after the show, their teacher asked the kids if anybody had any comments. This one little boy shot his hand up and said "Most motivational presentations don't really grasp my attention or interest me that much. I usually just tune them out and go on living my life. But you guys are different. I was hanging on every word and rather than just preaching at us telling us how to live our lives, you shared your own personal stories with us about things you've gone through and showed us how you've changed your lives and made a choice to live different. I was very moved by your show" ..... What an amazing kid! Things like that just make my heart melt and make me stop and go "Ok God... I see why you brought me here!" . I'm beginning to realize that no, we aren't going to make an impact on every kids life, but the kids we do reach, will have an impact on the ones we don't reach. And not everyone is going to react to it the same way. It's about starting a movement... Not just telling them how to live their lives, but showing them that they have a choice to live different.
" A changed heart can change the world!" It's our motto :)
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
First Show = Success!
Alright, I know I haven't posted in quite a while, but my excuse is that I've been so busy with rehearsal and training and what not. But as of today, I can completely understand why all of those many hours were 100% worth it! After a whole week of 8:30-5 training and rehearsal, we have finally mastered our show. Our timing for the video transitions, the lighting for the bands songs, the sound levels, everything is perfect. Everyone's speeches keep improving everytime they are said. The whole show just came together like magic! It's crazy to think that just last Monday we all had no idea how to set up a stage, and now we're perfoming live in front of hundreds of kids everyday!
All of us SOL's (School of Leadershippers) agree that we have learned more in the past two weeks being here than we did all throughout highschool. We never knew how much effort went into a show like this!!! Everyone has their job to do during set up, the actual show, and during tear down. It's wonderful how everyone works together too!
So we were up at 5:30am this morning and out the door by 6:15. We had about an hour drive from Hamilton to Brantford and by the time we loaded the bus and got on our way, then drove an hour, it was almost 7:30am. Then we had to unload the bus and start setting up. That was the longest part, because it was our first time setting up in a new venue, but it worked out fine.
The show today was at St. John's College in Brantford for their new grade nine students. 280 fresh minor niners wandering around with their school maps in their faces ... oh how I remember those days!
The show went amazingly well! The only few minor glitches that occured would never have been sensed by the audience. Anybody who wasn't part of the team would never have known that anything had gone wrong. And to be honest, the worst thing that really happened, was that one of the videos came in a little too quickly after another one. Besides that, the show was practically flawless!
Now I am not one to get nervous. I have been on stage enough times in my life to feel relatively comfortable being the focus of 560 eyeballs. However, when I was standing backstage behind the curtain waiting for my cue to walk on-stage, picturing Anna (the little girl from Jamaica who's story I was telling) and trying to imagine myself in her shoes at that moment, I started to get this weird feeling in my stomach that I hadn't felt in a long time. The butterflies! But they were just mini ones and I think I was mainly just psyching myself out .. because the second I walked on-stage in front of those 280 kids, all my feelings of nervousness just disappeared! I was comfortable enough to feel like i was standing in my own bedroom talking to my mirror. I had every line memorized beyond memorization that I was able to focus on the emotion of my story, rather than what my next line was!
It was an overall amazing day and I'm so glad that I'm getting to be a part of this for the next four months! :D
Thanks to everyone for following my blog, for praying for me, keeping in touch, and supporting me ... It's amazing.
Show #2 tomorrow morning in Burlington!
Cynthia :)
All of us SOL's (School of Leadershippers) agree that we have learned more in the past two weeks being here than we did all throughout highschool. We never knew how much effort went into a show like this!!! Everyone has their job to do during set up, the actual show, and during tear down. It's wonderful how everyone works together too!
So we were up at 5:30am this morning and out the door by 6:15. We had about an hour drive from Hamilton to Brantford and by the time we loaded the bus and got on our way, then drove an hour, it was almost 7:30am. Then we had to unload the bus and start setting up. That was the longest part, because it was our first time setting up in a new venue, but it worked out fine.
The show today was at St. John's College in Brantford for their new grade nine students. 280 fresh minor niners wandering around with their school maps in their faces ... oh how I remember those days!
The show went amazingly well! The only few minor glitches that occured would never have been sensed by the audience. Anybody who wasn't part of the team would never have known that anything had gone wrong. And to be honest, the worst thing that really happened, was that one of the videos came in a little too quickly after another one. Besides that, the show was practically flawless!
Now I am not one to get nervous. I have been on stage enough times in my life to feel relatively comfortable being the focus of 560 eyeballs. However, when I was standing backstage behind the curtain waiting for my cue to walk on-stage, picturing Anna (the little girl from Jamaica who's story I was telling) and trying to imagine myself in her shoes at that moment, I started to get this weird feeling in my stomach that I hadn't felt in a long time. The butterflies! But they were just mini ones and I think I was mainly just psyching myself out .. because the second I walked on-stage in front of those 280 kids, all my feelings of nervousness just disappeared! I was comfortable enough to feel like i was standing in my own bedroom talking to my mirror. I had every line memorized beyond memorization that I was able to focus on the emotion of my story, rather than what my next line was!
It was an overall amazing day and I'm so glad that I'm getting to be a part of this for the next four months! :D
Thanks to everyone for following my blog, for praying for me, keeping in touch, and supporting me ... It's amazing.
Show #2 tomorrow morning in Burlington!
Cynthia :)
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Another Day On The Job :)
Im sitting here at the soundboard right now as we're rehearsing the show ! there is still lot of work to be done and everybody is getting pretty high stressed. Our first show is on Tuesday!! Lots to do until thenn!!!
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