Days 8 & 9: Fun and Driving

The end of the trip has been so packed with things, mostly driving, that I have not been able to update the blog, but now that we are all back in New Mexico, I do want to put a few pictures up and fill in some of the details of what happened toward the end of the trip.

I believe I left off in Chicago, where the very next morning we woke up early to visit Elim School for students with special needs.  The choir not only had fun, but we also learned a lot about special needs and I think that most, if not all, of the choir took away experiences that significantly impacted their stay.  Here are a few photos of our students singing for, and with, the Elim students.

After this, the choir finally had some "free time".  We first boarded a cruise boat which took us around the Chicago harbor, beginning and ending at the Navy Pier.  Lunch was served on the cruise as well as music and an area for students to dance.  On the same boat happened to be a high school orchestra touring from Houston, so we were able to meet some other students "face to face" who were also on tour.  Here are some pictures from the cruise.

Students were then released on Navy Pier with instructions to "be back in two hours".  At the end of these two hours, we went downtown to watch the Blue Man Group, which I believe all of the students enjoyed thoroughly.  Here are some pictures of our students with the "Blue Men".

The next destination was Joplin, Missouri, but it was too far away to do the drive right away, so we stayed at a hotel in Springfield, Illinois.  Waking up the next morning, we drove to Joplin and witnessed the devastation of the tornadoes that blew through less than a year ago.  The pastor had some incredible stories and we were able to play for a group of local people who came to church that day.  Below are some photos of their sanctuary.  Another incredible thing that happened was that an Amish and Mennonite group was doing a mission trip to Joplin at that exact same time, so they got to hear our concert as well!  In the words of Bob Ippel, "only God could arrange a choir tour where we get to come face to face with Amish and Mennonite brothers and sisters in Christ."

The final leg of the journey involved an overnight drive and one final stop for breakfast in Albuquerque.  Thank you for reading the blog and I hope that all of the students and chaperons involved had a meaningful and fun time!