Here are the highlights of the Parent’s Meeting on 9/27/2009

1.    We’re using our website to help with communication between leadership, parents, and students.  If you haven’t already registered, please go to www.ignitestudentmusic.org and register.  Important dates will be listed as events (with details, locations, times, etc.)—it is important to not only register but to join the appropriate group (choir, parents, sponsors, etc.)
2.    We’ll use a variety of methods to insure that communication takes place—website, text, mail, email
3.    We’re participating in the October 18 CD Worship premiere with the Adult Choir and Orchestra.  The rehearsal retreat is this Sunday, October 4 (noon-2pm)—details for both events are listed on the site and it would be helpful for your student to RSVP
4.    Christmas—we will probably sing on Sunday evening, Dec 6, with the Children’s Choirs.  This will be followed by the dessert fellowship.
5.    Uniforms—shirts will be distributed as soon as they arrive (hopefully by October 25)
6.    Auditions for Vocal Team are 3:15pm this Sunday, October 4
7.    Fundraisers—Dessert Fellowship (December), Cell Phone collection (probably January but you can begin accumulating now), serve as wait staff at Joe Willy’s in Rockwall—tentative Monday, November 16
8.    Once we learn the CD music (for October 18) we will sing with the Adult Choir on Sunday morning on October 11, November 15, and November 22 (in addition to leading worship on our own on October 25)
9.    Choir Tour—location TBD—dates are 80% certain for June 19-June 27.  Cost has been $400/person the past 2 years

Summary of Upcoming Dates:

Sunday, October 4, 12:00 – 2:00 p.m.:  Rehearsal Retreat at MLBC for CD Premiere

Sunday, October 4, 3:15 p.m.: Vocal Team Auditions

Sunday, October 11: sing with Celebration Choir in the 9:30 service

Sunday, October 18, 5:30 p.m.: CD Premiere Concert

Sunday, November 15: sing with Celebration Choir in the 9:30 service

Sunday, November 22: sing with Celebration Choir in the 9:30 service

Sunday, December 6, evening: Possible concert with the Childrens’ Choirs & Dessert Fellowship

We hope you had a wonderful summer and are ready to get back to choir! We are going to start our choir year very soon with a pizza party! Here are the details. You won’t want to miss out!

Date: Sunday, August 16

Time: 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Cost: $2 for pizza

Entertainment: Pictures from the mission trip, yummy pizza, and writing cards to potential members

Hope to see you there! Please let us know if you will be able to come so we will have enough pizza. You can e-mail Randall or Gloria at rhall@mimosalane.org or gpendyala@mimosalane.org or respond on this blog.

We’re in our hotel rooms in Branson after stuffing ourselves at Lambert’s and seeing Noah the Musical. A special treat was meeting Rebecca Niven for the show and visiting with her–she’s doing mission work this summer in Branson! We even sang Wings of the Dawn outside the theatre with her since she won’t be in Mesquite for our homecoming. We’ve had a good day and the kids are holding up well. A little fatigue is setting in from a full week and a few are a little draggy but overall, we’re feeling good. We’re looking forward to Sunday being able to share and sing!

We’re in Caseyville, IL, tonight (a suburb of St. Louis) and we had our Senior Dinner tonight (although the entire group ended up at Hard Rock Cafe with us!) and we’re looking forward to sleeping a little late and then about a 4 hour drive to Lambert’s in Ozark and then on to Branson.  We’ve had a good day and all the students are feeling better.  We sang our final concert for the folks at Wayside Christian Mission and about 12-15 of the women from the Women’s Shelter (about a 7 minute walk away from the men’s shelter) came to hear us sing.  They were very enthusiastic and appreciative of our kids.  It’s been a significant week for several of our students and we’re all looking forward to getting back home and putting into action some of the things we’ve learned these past few days!

We’ve had a great day working at Wayside and singing at St. Vincent de Paul.  We even took in a little of the Southern Baptist Convention then serenaded the workers at Dairy Queen!  We’re making a slight change of plans for Thursday–we’re going to complete our mission assignment at Wayside early then leave for St. Louis enroute to Branson.  This will make our drive on Friday much easier since we have a schedule to maintain in Branson.  We’re hoping to post some more pictures but should have plenty to share on Sunday!

We’re back at Wayside Christian Mission today and serving lunch.  This is a short day at the mission because we’ll go back to the dorms, clean up, then go to sing during the evening meal at another homeless shelter, St. Vincent de Paul.  Following that concert, we’ll load up and head over the convention center to take in a little of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. 

We had a good day yesterday and a good share time last night.  We do have 3-4 girls that have been sick but the doctor hasn’t indicated that it’s anything more than some type of viral infection or maybe even some type of cold.  We’re watching them closely and keeping them away from food service and hopefully they’ll be fully recovered shortly.

Thanks for your continued prayers–we would especially ask that you pray for physical health so that none of the remaining choir members get to feeling puny.  We have concerts tonight, tomorrow evening and of course, Sunday morning at MLBC!

We’re at Wayside Christian Mission again today and after receiving a tour of the Women’s/Family Shelter, we came back over to the Men’s shelter where our group has been involved in office work, serving meals, unloading trucks, hanging ceiling tiles, and washing cars.  We’re quite spread out so it’s a good thing we have so many students and sponsors involved.  We’ll be here all afternoon and evening, serving the supper meal before heading back to the dorms for the night.  Just in case you’ve had problems accessing the Facebook page, we’ve had an interesting trip thus far.  On Sunday, shortly before the worship service, the power went out at First Baptist Church due to a transformer issue.  The deacons went next door and we ended up doing a combined worship with First Christian Church!  It was unusual but a real blessing to say the least.  The choir has sung at a Wal-Mart, truck stops, McDonald’s, the WMU National meeting, the Louisville airport, and even sang a couple of times for some of the residents as they ate.  We’ll do a full concert on Thursday evening at the men’s shelter during the evening meal.  I think I remember someone telling us that the men’s shelter serves around 1500 meals per day!

Thanks for continuing to pray for us–we’re trying to get some pictures posted on Facebook but if that doesn’t work, we’ll probably post here later this evening!

We wanted everyone to know that we will not have rehearsals on Sunday, May 31.

Here is the schedule for Sunday, June 7:

3:00 p.m.: Vocal Team

4:00 p.m.: Choir

4:45 p.m.: Parent Meeting (notary will be present for medical release forms)

Have a great week!

We will have a busy Sunday this week! Here are a few reminders of what to expect:

Ignite choir leads worship this Sunday a.m.

 Call times:

Vocal team/band—8am

Choir—9am

 Choir—4pm rehearsal in afternoon (no vocal team or dance)

 Money from dessert fundraiser ticket sales is due Sunday afternoon at rehearsal

 Also, Perla Santoyo’s senior recital is on Saturday, May 16 at 4:30pm at the Mesquite Arts Center — 1527 N Galloway Ave. Plan to go. It will be wonderful, and it is a big day for Perla!