Nashville - Saturday

Our first day off. It's mostly been a lazy day of sleep, pajamas, phone calls home, and food. Real nice and real needed. {This last sentence sounds best said with a big long drawl.}

Tonight, we practiced our trio. My partners are Debbie, from Florida, and Donna, from Kentucky. We're going to do "What God's Gonna Do", by The Martins. We went into a practice room and worked on the harmonies, and then went out to the performance hall to do it on the stage. There were a couple of guys also practicing, and they watched us do our song. We asked if they had any feedback, and it started several hours of singing and working and creating and just having a great time with music. I think we're going to do the song during Performance Opportunity one night and if we really feel confident, we'll try out for the closing night performance.

And now, the highlight of the day - Today, Ben Speer performed my song! That's right! Today we had the barbecue, which had to be moved indoors cause of the insane heat, and the bluegrass festival. Most of the performers were from the school, so people were welcome to get up and sing with the band. Donna and I jumped up and did an impromptu version of I'll Fly Away - the only bluegrass song I know. I thought of a song I thought might be good. I said "God, if this is the wrong move, trip me when I get up to walk." I stood up, and didn't trip, so I walked up and asked if I could sing a song. I pulled out the sheet music for I Call Out Your Name. The band was Ben on double bass, Bruce Northam on fiddle, and students on guitars, accordion, mandolin, drums, and vocal harmonies. And we all started to play my song. It was so truly amazing! I was floating on a cloud of music and joy. I've sung this song many times in many ways, but I will never forget today. All these people, joining in on my little tune. Playing and singing and praising God with my little song. I'm still high thinking of it. *sigh* After, several people told me how much they liked it, and one guy took a copy to bring to his church. I'm just so warm with the memory of it all.

I continue to find this place such a blessing. I'm so glad I came!