Final thoughts

Well, we made it back. 16,364 miles flown in under a week, what a trip we had! I'm sure by now you've had story's told, pictures shown and clothes washed.

For me this was more than a performance orientated tour, it was a time when relationships grew, new friends made, and a deeper love for Jesus blossomed.

We were given a mandate by the TC before we left, how did we measure up to that? I believe that we did our best to raise up a blessing to the Lord. He used our offering and blessed those that listen to us, what a privilege that God used us in that way! I received more than I probably gave, we went to minister, but we were also ministered to by the folks that we met, the speakers that we listened to. We also did a great job of being good examples of Christian living, what a challenge that is, I'm sure that we all failed at some point but on the whole we did great.

What memories we take from this trip, I'm sure we'll be talking about it for years to come!

Psalm 100:1-5 (word on the street)

Let it rip! Let it out! Shout!
Let the planet pulse with songs that elevate, celebrate him:
Party songs, get up-and-dance songs
'Bout the one who rights those wrongs!

Let it rip! Let it out! Shout,
"We know God makes us grow!"
Let there be no doubt, God is God; so elevate celebrate him.
We belong, belong to him, sing along;
With him we'll sing those strong songs.

So, come on in, party it up, give it on out;
Let the celebration in your soul shout out!
Let him know, let it show, throw your thanks about;
Spread his name around, bang the drum:
Make a solid sound with what you've found!

For God is top, large, in charge and pouring our
A barrage of good things! His love rings true,
Bringing in love when the new's not new;
Bringing in love from the future right through.
Bringing down love on everything you do.
So, everybody sing, Strong and true:
"He's top, till you drop - but he still don't stop" (x2)

Saturday Jan 26th

This morning was great, didn’t have to leave until 10AM, whoo, hoo! Before we left Travis and Erick made the entire boy’s breakfast, some great bacon and eggs. Not sure what the girls did before the bus left as I am a boy and the girls were sleeping in a different building which I wasn’t in.

We all boarded the bus and were excited to get going, our destination Healesville Wildlife Park, here we would be able to see most of the wildlife that can been seen around Australia. We really enjoyed our time there, we got to see Koala’s, Kangaroo’s, Wombat’s, etc. really close up. We all had a chance to feed the Kangaroo’s and give them a stroke, Dusty was enjoying this moment until the Roo got to the end of the food and decided to see what the Captain’s finger tasted like, fortunately no blood was drawn, he just gave a nasty nip. Now off to Waverley Temple Corps for the concert.

Sound check was quick and we probably could have done with a bit more time but that wasn’t an option, so we got changed and got ready to greet the audience as they arrived. The audience was a different demographic from the last concert we did. We had a real mix of folks of all ages from 6 months to 90. The leaders of the Melbourne Staff Band and Songsters attended, plus our newest fan General Burrows. The crowd wasn’t as enthusiastic as the crowd in NZ but we knew from their faces that we touched their souls and encouraged their spirits. As people were leaving they thanked us for coming and our ministry to them. Back to the conference center, we’ve got a long day of travel in front of us; we’ll see how much sleep we get.

Friday Jan 25th

3AM My alarm went off, I hit snooze
3:05AM My alarm went off, I hit snooze again
3:10AM I get up I did not want to get out of bed and I had inkling that I wouldn’t be the only one.

3:25AM I’m knocking on doors
3:45AM My knuckles are sore.
4AM Departure time arrived; we weren’t waiting around for anybody, THANK YOU TYC!

The bus that they sent for us to go back to the airport was bigger than the one we arrived in, so packing it was a little easier. The mood on the coach was low key as folks tried to get in that precious extra sleep time. Check in went well and we all made the plane on time.

On arriving in Melbourne we were greeted by our host from THQ, Captain Mark Bearcroft. We loaded up the bus and waiting for a couple to make it through customs. James Allen got searched “randomly”, and the air line didn’t get Meredith’s case loaded at Auckland. Meredith is looking forward to buying some new stuff at the airlines expense, James is still wondering; “Why me?”

We unloaded our stuff at the 614 corps in Melbourne and then we had free time to explore the city with our various groups, the weather could not have been better and the atmosphere around this beautiful city is great with today being the semi -finals at the Australian open (which is held in the Ron Laver stadium in Melbourne) and Australia Day being tomorrow (Saturday). Many people came back to 614 with souvenirs and some with slightly pink faces.

Dinner was great a real feast, they cooked us a great roast dinner and we were joined by members of the corps and General Eva Burrows (retired). During diner Susie handed our card for each of the TYC members from Martin Hunt, thanks Martin, we really appreciated your kind words. We finished dinner and we got changed into our new Salvo (that’s what they call the SA out here) t-shirts, and we looked “the bomb”.

When we were all ready we went back into the hall and sang ‘My Life is in Your hands’ for the General. She loved it and was really thankful we did it, as she shared some encouraging words with us all. Then it was off to our concert venue for the evening, Southbank on the Yarrow River in Melbourne.

We arrived at the Southbank for our ‘Open Air’ concert; this was to be quite a different experience for the Youth Chorus. This is quite a popular venue for people to come and hang out after a day at the office and for the many people getting ready to celebrate Australia Day. We ministered to approximately 800 people that night. The singing was of a high quality but what I was pleased with the most is how we interacted with Joe Public after we finished singing. Many of the group went and spoke to people hanging around, some prayed with a man who needed prayer, one little girl wanted to join the group.

That night, it was great to see the Youth Chorus not just sing about God’s love, but show and share it with those who were listening to us.

Thursday night concert report

Inspirational. Dazzling. Electric. Spirit filled. Those were just a few of the words I heard describing the TAB Youth Chorus concert at the ‘Make Change’ Conference on Thursday night. An overflowing crowd of 350 at the Performing Arts Theater attended the concert and there were many others watching outside on a large TV screen. From my perspective in the third row, the TAB Youth Chorus was at its best. The crowd of young people and their leaders were full of energy and enthusiasm and the TAB Youth Chorus seem to thrive in that environment. Every song, testimony, and movement was met with thunderous applause and ovation. Certain songs resonated in a special way-“Reign,” “He made a difference” (featuring our own dream girls Thandiwe, Shalini, and Sarai), “Who can satisfy” (Sarai) and “In the Sanctuary” were among the most appreciated- but every song seemed to add the last in raising the level of excitement and worship. I was full of godly pride in the group last night. In fact, I would have to say the TAB Youth Chorus never sounded better. It was a personal highlight in my service as an officer to be affiliated with the group (although my musical contribution was limited to a few attempts at clapping in rhythm with the group).

After a final ovation to end the concert, the members of the Youth Chorus were treated like celebrities by the young people from New Zealand, Australia, Tonga, and Fiji. We had 100 CDs for sale and they were all sold within about 20 minutes of the end of the concert. After the program the kids were ushered back to their rooms to pack and prepare for a 3:00 AM wakeup call and 4:00 AM ride to the airport for departure to Melbourne. I’ve had a lot of “high points” in my officership and particularly as the Corps Officer at the TAB, but the experience last night at this concert was right among the top. Rarely is experienced the raw joy and enthusiasm that was in the sanctuary of that concert hall last night. Worship took place.

We are doing well. The kids are on good behavior and doing fine physically. We’ve had some free time at the conference and had the opportunity to play some of the local New Zealanders in Rugby. I thought he would get creamed by we actually won the game. For some reason, the Kiwis seemed a little reluctant to try to tackle Vimbayi and Isaac when they ran the ball up the middle…

Keep praying for us as we are praying for you.

Edward “Dusty” Hill, Captain

Thursday Jan 24th

Our last day at the ‘Make Change’ conference was at hand. What was for the day only God new that. The day start as Wednesday had with us participating in the bible study and workshops. Today was to be the day of our main concert, which we were all looking forward to. Free time cam around and some of the Lads went and played rugby with the kiwi’s and they won! Vimbie turned out to be the ‘man of the match’ for our team. Jordan, Hratch, and Jordan teamed up with some delegates from Fiji to form a battle zone team (basically capture the flag military style), they dodged the missiles and obstacles with ease and ended up as the hot favorite in the semi-final. Unfortunately they had to retire from the game early as they had to join the rest of us for the sound check. It’s a hard life boy's!

The sound check was a little unnerving, the acoustics are fabulous for a chamber group, but for a gospel choir with bass, drums, brass, keyboards and piano it wasn’t quite right. After a lot of fiddling from the very helpful sound men we got a sound that was good. Things were looking good for the evening concert.

We went to the evening meeting which was a great experience for us all. We all got a little sweaty as the room was very hot and also from the infectious sounds of the Praise and Worship. Fifteen minutes after this meeting finished it was our Concert in the Performing Arts venue.

As we arrived we had to fight through people to make it into the concert hall, eventually the doors opened and a flood of people came through, they started chanting Pasadena, Pasadena, Pasadena. This was going to be a special night; you could feel the electricity in the air. From the first song to the last, the audience new that we were all about praising out Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (for a more in-depth concert report see Capt. Dusty’s report).

After the concert we were all on a high, so many delegate’s came up to us and thanked us for our ministry. God truly poured out a blessing on our ministry in that concert, it was evident to us and the audience.

Eventually everyone was heading for the dorms, three hours later we would be waking up to get ready to leave for Melbourne.

Wednesday Jan 23rd

Everyone made it in time for breakfast, how many days that will last I’m not so sure. We then went to the Bible study which was great to have and really exciting to see the youth chorus members study the word together and discuss how it can be applied to our lives and church. The workshops that were scheduled after Bible study covered a multitude of subjects. After this we had lunch then free time in which the rugby seven’s tournament was held. Fortunately, after seeing some of the would be competitors, the boys decided not to enter a team of their own but some did play on other teams, even Jessica and Julia got in on the action!

One of the hits here at the university is the local Chinese (Pa or Wai – ‘Pay or what?’) come fish and chip take away. The youth chorus members buy a meal between them and share it with each other; also they have found the deep fried chocolate bars, a heart attack in a candy, maybe, but tasty, yes!

The Praise and Worship team asked if we could help them with a song for the evening celebration so, after a little bit of scrambling around for notes we got it to sound good. Back to the dining room for another great meal, and then a sound check.

The Youth chorus provided the prelude music before the celebration which the crowd enjoyed and then in the meeting we came up and sang with the P and W team which went very well and then we sang two songs, “My life is in Your Hands” and “Start it Up”. They loved it! Vimbayi got himself into an arranged engagement with a Kiwi girl in the meeting, all he had to do was win a fierce battle of foaming mouth (method: two alka-seltzer in the mouth followed by coke, then mouth taped up) he won and we’ll see what happens. This could be the start of something beautiful!

Michael Collins was the speaker for tonight. What a gift this man has been given! I think all the YC really enjoyed what Michael had to say. For some, this really challenged them a lot to really strive to make a difference in the communities which they are a part of.

Parachute Band was the headliner for the afterhours concert (a highly regarded worship band from New Zealand). They made mention to some of the YC that they really enjoyed our contribution to worship that evening as did many of the conference delegates. Glory to God.

Whilst having a nice sit down with Barbara, Steve, and Dusty, eating some local chips, a mammoth creature from outer space flew into the room it was only through the bravery of the one who is writing, that this alien creature was slain. Really, I killed the blighter but did some strange girly dance after, which after the heroic act did nothing for my street cred

Tuesday Jan 22nd

Dusty and the Dog

We arrived in Auckland about an hour late all feeling quite exhausted from the night’s epic travels. Everything went smoothly through the immigration but when we were collecting our bags a Police sniffer dog took a liking to Dusty’s hand luggage, fortunately he wasn’t smuggling any illegal substances it was just the smell from the fruit that had been in the bag that the dog sensed, and that the dog wanted some of the M & M’s in it.

The next hurdle was now before us, loading the bus, which wasn’t the largest of sizes with only two compartments for storage. This could have been a real problem but in the capable hands of our two stowage masters, Erick and Issac, this was taken care of quickly and efficiently, not one bag was left behind.

Worms a glow glow

We were now on our way to the first adventure for the day (by the way, it’s now Tuesday), the caves in Matoma. This turned out to be a little bit further than expected, but after two and a bit hours we got to these magnificent caves. We had a guided tour around and when we got to the Cathedral cave the tour guide asked if anyone would like to sing as it has excellent acoustics, so we all did, (not individually, that would have taken far too long!) we sang “Where You Belong” which was applauded as we finished, and I’m sure gave quite a few ‘goose bumps’. When we were leaving the Cathedral cave we were asked to sing again and we obliged with ‘Who Can Satisfy?’. The two moments were a great experience for us all, and a reminder why we are here, to lift up the name of Jesus Christ. The next part of the tour was the boat trip so we could see the glow worms which were spectacular.

Late lunch

Not too far from the caves was our venue for lunch, The Big Apple café. The food was good but quite a few had to wait a while for their meal to be served. This laid back approach could be a sign of things to come from the New Zealanders, we’ll see. Eventually all the meals came and we could eventually make our way to Waikato University which would be our home for the next few days.

Thou dost smelleth, which way to the bath house?

The university campus is bigger than most of us imagined, and excitement was in the air. One thing needed to be taken care of more than anything else, SHOWERS! After spending 15 hours on a plane then 4 hours on a non-air conditioned bus in 80% humidity, we were fragrant to put it nicely. We got registered and then got our keys and we ran for our showers, thankfully there were no fisty cuffs over who got in the shower first!

After we all ‘cleaned up our act’ we headed for the main venue in the University gym for a quick sound and staging check. With a little bit of jiggery pokery we managed to fit on the stage. With the stage being used for the Praise and Worship team we had to work around the drums which are center stage, so we look a little bit like “James Allen” supported by the TYC but it works and sounds great!

A great meal was enjoyed before the first meeting that we were to be involved in; Excitement filled the air as the venue filled up with 700 excited youths ready and eager to praise Jesus Christ. After Dusty and Barbara had an interview ‘on the couch’ we sang two numbers, ‘Reign’ and ‘He Made the Difference’ which really tied in nicely to the youth congress’ theme of ‘Make Change’. I don’t think the crowd really knew what to expect but you could see in their eyes that they were enjoying our offering of worship to the Lord. The second song brought the house down well done ‘Dreamgirls’!

Today has been an exciting day and I praise God for his goodness to us and his loving care for us all.

Sunday Jan 20th

Leaving la la Land

Well we all made it on the plane, just. One of the YC members had a last minute passport problem which ended up getting solved 40mins before the plane was due to leave. They made it through customs with about 5 minutes to spare, phew!

After a short bus ride we were at our destination, our plane. We all settled into our seats impressed with just how much entertainment was available (Captain Dusty later remarked to me that he could remember flying when a movie would be projected on to a pull down screen for the whole cabin to watch, I mentioned that he should keep this quiet to not give away his age).

For some reason some people have a real keen interest in taking picture of people while they sleep, I have no real idea why, but they seem to find great hilarity in it. Keep your eyes peeled if you want to see some these slumber shots.

First things first (whatever that means)...

Welcome to the Pasadena Tab Youth Chorus blog. This has been created so that we can share with the world (well, mainly our friends and family's) all the exciting things we will get up to while we are on our trip to New Zealand and Australia.

We leave on Sunday January 20th and arrive back in LA on Sunday January 27th, a lot of miles in a short amount of time!

Philip Swyers, leader for The Salvation Army, Western Territory, came to the start of our final rehearsal last Sunday (Jan 13), he said that we need to remember three things for this trip:

1. Be Ministers
2. Be Ministered to
3. You are representing Jesus Christ!

What great things to remember, yes we go to minister, but there will be times that we will be ministered too, we need to go with a open heart ready to receive.

We also have a great responsibility to be aware that as a performing group people will be watching us all the time, how we act, what we say, how we interact with our own group and also all the different people we will meet. What a challenge we have before us.

Please pray for the Pasadena Tab Youth Chorus.

• Pray that the Holy Spirit will fill our hearts.
• Pray that we will be used in a mighty way to communicate the soul saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Pray that we are safe (especially if some of the YC decide to try Rugby!)

An old chorus has come to mind while I've been writing this, perhaps it could be a prayer for us as a group and as individuals.

Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Melt me, mold me , fill me, use me!
Spirit of the living God,
Fall afresh on me.

Matt Woods