AHQ Tour '03 Update #6
4/18/03, 5/5/03
Written by Tom Troyer
Here we are, back at home. In keeping with the theme of the current
series of updates, this issue is way late and far behind the times!
We've been back now for several weeks, this final update will be somewhat of a
wrap-up of our 4-week tour. The pictures scattered throughout are a
sometimes schizophrenic collection of leftover images that I didn't get fit in
elsewhere. Probably for good reason, too.
At Hershey's with our friend Karen Keller.
We traveled 10,216 miles on our quartet tour, beginning in Utica, OH, and finishing in OR. Konrad had driven the quartetmobile from home to OH before Bible School started. He put on a grand total of 14,423 miles.
We passed this wreck in the Smoky Mountains. We are grateful to God for keeping us safe for thousands of miles on the road.
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Byran with our friend Joel Batson. |
Joel cooked us a fantastic chicken dinner! |
I just posted a new movie to the web site! It features David on too much chocolate. Byran took it right outside Hershey's Chocolate Town after we had visited there. The movie's on the "Listen" page of the website, and is called "David, Footloose and Frisky!"
So anyway, picking up from the last update, we sang Sunday morning and evening, then left for home on Monday. We stopped in Milford, NE, to sing for the family of my aunt, who was on her deathbed. It was a sad time, yet also encouraging to know we have a hope for the future. My aunt had stopped responding two or three days previous, yet they said that when we started singing she raised her eyebrows.
We drove on. Kon was our official driver, he put in the vast majority of time behind the wheel.
Some miscellaneous memories from tour:
One night after our program, a small girl was walking around kissing one of our tapes! Her embarrassed mother told one of us, "She really likes you guys!" Hmm, it took me and Konrad 8 years to find girls interested in us who were actually our age, good luck to David and Byran!
Konrad and his nephew Landon. We stopped and visited Konrad's sister Ronda's family in Meacham, OR, on the way home. We stopped in at the Scrapbook Station where she works, sang a song for them, and then we were treated to some fantastic smoothies from their espresso bar!
We had a wonderful time singing in Catlett, VA. Our first song was "Keep in the Middle of the Road," and it has a high, loud tag. Our friend Les had set up a sound system for us, and while it wasn't that loud, it wasn't quiet either. Right when we hit that last high note on the tag, a small boy (maybe 6-8 years old) in the front row put both hands over his ears! It was all I could do to keep my composure and finish the note! I was grinning like an idiot the whole time Konrad was talking after that song.
The view from the skylift on the way up the mountain in Gatlinburg, TN.
When we were in NE, I was talking to my uncle Royden after we finished singing. I told him I had a picture to show him, and that I had recently begun dating. Everyone immediately turned my way and started talking and exclaiming at the same time. "You what?!" "Say that again!" "What did he say?!" "Say that again!" "Who is she?!"
I had told Jewel this whole thing was a big deal. I figured most of my family had probably given up on me a long time ago!
David can remain so calm.
Byran has some things he'd like to share:
Our chief objective in this tour was to lift others up in Christ, as well as challenging them to live more strongly for God. But before most programs Tom particularly (Konrad as well, later) had a hard time focusing on this important point. Instead of pausing in quiet contemplation focusing on how God was going to minister through him, he'd pull out a picture of Jewel and show it to me. Now, I have no problem with pictures of girlfriends (otherwise I'd have to disown Konrad for sure), but in their time and place, that's all I'm saying!
Tom and Konrad believe that Boy Meets Girl by Joshua Harris should be mandatory reading before attending BMA BI. I tend to agree. The dating and marriage books were definitely flowing freely on this tour.
We had a great time hiking in VA with our BMA buds Michael, Brady, and Forrest.
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Kon may be small in size, but here he demonstrates his astounding strength. |
Here we are trying to push down a dead tree. We didn't get it done, but we could have if we'd have really wanted to. |
David has a memory he'd like to enlighten you all with:
Nearly the whole way home, if I wanted to look in the mirror on the passenger-side sun visor, I couldn't just pull the visor down and flip the lid open. I always would have to remove two pictures of a certain girl that our bass singer doth be courting with great vigor.
Thank you David, I hear what you're saying.
We are a connected quartet.
We sang in many different settings and circumstances on this tour. Here are a few that come to mind:
- We sang for the lunch crowd at the Good's Bakery in South Boston, VA. Got a great free lunch out of the deal too!
- We stayed at the Marvin Mast home in Catlett, and our last night there we gave an informal mini-concert for them and a few guests. We trotted out some of our more "uncommon" material, shall we say.
- Speaking of Catlett, before we left there Merry took us to Choice Books for a tour. Then we sang to all the employees in the lunchroom.
- One thing that's always fun to do on tour is sing with other people. We really enjoyed singing with the quartet from the Mountain Anthems church in Salisbury, PA.
Kon and Scotty. Don't ask me about the headgear, I have no idea.
- At the church we sang at in Harrisonburg, VA, the youth got together and played volleyball after our program. Before we left the gym, we sang a song or two, then we sang Lookin' Up with a quartet of brothers that were there. A few months previous they had emailed me asking for the sheet music to the song, so it was fun to meet and sing with them!
By and Scotty. Again, I have no idea.
- We sang in several school chapels on this tour. We like to sing for chapel services, but I don't like them always being so early in the morning! The last one we did though, was at Clinton Christian School in Goshen, IN, and it was in the afternoon. We were doing My Lord and I as the last song of our set when the fire alarm went off. The principal indicated for us to keep singing, as there were some technicians working on the building, but that alarm was very loud and in a very different key! Nonetheless, we valiantly pressed on and finished the song.
Konrad being. . . .Konrad.
- Probably one of the most unusual places we've ever sang was on this tour! We were in a city I forget, stopped at the Wal Mart, and ended up singing a song for one of the hairdressers in the hair salon! I still am not sure how that one worked out, it was Konrad's deal. I don't think any of us even got haircuts on that particular stop. You just never know what's going to happen!
The Friday following our arrival home, we had the privilege of singing at the Gospel Echoes NW banquet with the GE Harvest Team.
Ok, so this last update is ridiculously late. I apologize. But I've been very busy, and this doesn't pay very well! Since coming home, me and By are both back in college (where I'm struggling to barely keep my head above the overwhelming flood of homework), Konrad is back to work, and David is back to work too except for a quick trip to FL for a wedding (not his). We've also been staying busy as a quartet, we've had several programs and there are a few more scheduled in the next few weeks. We're also trying to learn a few new songs, as we are tentatively planning on recording another album this coming fall.
The next series of updates will be coming in June! AHQ has been invited to be a part of a chamber choir tour being put together by our friend Crystal Good from South Boston, VA (see Update #4). The name of our group is Tapestry, and there will be a website coming soon!
Just a few hours from home, at the Multnomah Falls.
Our future is unclear, there are many unknowns in the months ahead. But it is our desire to seek God's will, both for ourselves individually and also collectively for AHQ. We know that God's plan for us is far greater than anything we could come up with on our own, and we turn ourselves and AHQ completely over to Him.
Thank you to every one who has been an encouragement and blessing to us, there are many of you! We appreciate you all very much, and pray that God blesses you the same way you have blessed us.