Day 5: Concerts and Monkeys and Fun, Oh My!

We started the day with a concert at a nursing home. It’s an interesting shift to go from a big church to a more intimate setting. Many of the residents had different health issues and weren’t able to communicate easily but — you should’ve seen them when we passed out our shakers. Despite all of their health concerns and limitations, they were still excited to play along and joined us to make music. One man instantly found the beat of our 12-8 piece, and just nailed it. He was fantastic! Their toes were tapping and you could tell that the music had a positive impact on them.

We had lunch and headed to the Howler Monkey reserve! I think the kids are really enjoying these animals. We will be sad to leave our hotel tomorrow and say goodbye to the monkeys who play in the trees outside our rooms.

Then, it was onto San Jose Catholic Church. This community has more Spanish speakers than we have seen so far and I used a translator during the concert. VIP did a great job and when we were finished, the children of San Jose offered some music for us. Their songs came out of a VBS Curriculum that many of our kids knew. VIPs jumped into the aisles and sang and danced along. Some of the leaders marveled at just how much energy VIP has. You would think they would be absolutely wiped out but no, they were literally having a dance party with the kids and singing along.

When it was time to go, one of the church leaders stopped me and through a translator, she said, “Your choir steals hearts!” I laughed and said thank you. And then she said, “When they sing, I can feel the presence of the Lord in their music.” There is no higher compliment.

We took the long bus ride back to the hotel, where Jeff led Devo.

How can we have just two days left of concerts? Why does Tour always take on a different sense of time? It happens on every tour...

Tomorrow, we have a doozy of a day: three concerts and we are changing hotels. If you are reading this, please say a prayer for stamina for all of us. The kids are starting to grow vocally weary and as they battle the heat, they could use all the prayer support you can offer.