Story Retreat

Hey supporters and friends!

Wow, the last couple days have been an absolute whirl-wind. We've been doing so much work and I've been exhausted, but it's been incredible.

On Friday afternoon I found out that my band directors had chosen me to give my testimony from the stage. Just a thumbnail sketch about what this means: Our bands are using secular music, but then one or two band members are asked to share their testimony and the gospel from the stage during the course of the concert. It's really incredible how it fits in with the music that we're doing.

So on Friday I was asked to attend to share my story and attend the Story Retreat. To be honest with you, I was shocked. I didn't think anybody would want to hear what I had to say, because I had heard the testimonies of the other girls in my band, and I thought they were really powerful. I was completely blown away at the idea that God wanted to use me in this way.

On Saturday we went back up to Camp Otto for a 24 hour "Story Retreat". Everyone that attended spent 24 hours figuring out how to write their testimonies in a style that could be presented from stage. I was pretty stoked about it at first, but as the weekend progressed I started to feel really discouraged. I couldn't figure how to write out my story in a way that really conveyed the emotional turmoil I was going through last year. I left the retreat with very little written and heavy heart.

However, on Tuesday morning I got the chance to talk to one of my Comm coaches, Dana Russo, about my story. She opened up my eyes to an angle that I never seen before. It was incredible, and my story began to take form. I was so amazed at how God still wanted to use me even in my complete weakness. :)

In other news, last Friday we had our first coffee house. What this means is one of the Keynote staff bands, Blue Sky Nine, did their concert for us and then they opened it for open mic. The concert was INCREDIBLE. They actually played a few of the song that Stop on Green is doing. I was super excited to hear them. Here's some pictures of the concert.

Then they opened it for us to perform. A couple of the kids from Impact did raps and sang songs. It was SO awesome. And then two of the girls from Stop on Green last year, who were in town visiting, did "Sign, Sealed, Delivered" with my Uncle. It was hilariously awesome. :) Here's a picture.

This week our coffee house is featuring David Pendleton. He's a ventriloquist on staff with Keynote. I've seen his DVD and he's HILARIOUS. I'll make sure to take pictures of him and his crazy puppets. :)

We got to go this frozen yogurt place last night, which was SUPER exciting for us three Californians. :) We miss frozen yogurt. This place wasn't nearly as good as Yogurtland, but it satisfied a craving. Here's a picture of all of us there and a picture of Brian and his epic yogurt. He's a frozen yogurt professional. 

This is Allie, Lindsay, Tess, Chelsie, Lauren and me eating our yogurt.

Let's see...anything else you all should know? Our rehearsals have been going great. We've gone through almost all of songs, and our band is really gelling well. I love it. I can't wait to get some sort of video up here, but right now the Internet can't really handle it.

Until next time, friends!

This Update Is Long Overdue

Hey everyone! I know it's been a while since I've talked to you guys. Honestly, we've all been so busy there has barely been time to breathe. However, God has really been moving in the last week that I've been here, I'm so excited to let you guys know some of the highlights of the last few days.

Some of the cool things we've gotten the opportunity to do are a Day of Faith outreach, band Bible study, band hang-out time, classes, rehearsals, and the men and women's retreats. All of them have been an incredible time of learning and growing in our relationships with one another. Everyone here feels like even though we've only been here for a few days we've already made life-long friendships. It's incredible what united passions and a love of God can do for the outcome of relationships. :)

Last weekend all the girls went up to this camp called "Camp Otto" for a women's retreat. The camp was muggy and buggy (Ha!) but really beautiful. Here's a picture of the lake. I thought it was absolutely breathtaking.

The retreat was really great for me, because it allowed me some time to really get my mind focused on God. Arriving here and seeing everyone for the first time was so much fun, but it was also a little overwhelming. On the women's retreat we really focused on who we are as followers of Jesus. God spoke a lot of encouraging truths into my heart and used my friends to show me His unfailing love. It was refreshing to my heart. We also got to dress up on our last evening there and participate in a fun event. Here's a picture of us girls all dressed up. 

From left to right: Jessica, Natasha, Lauren, Danielle, Lindsay, Me.

Also last week we got to start to rehearsals. They have been AWESOME. We are having such a blast playing together, and I feel like the band is really meshing musically. We found out the songs we get to lead today. I'm leading "Consider Me Gone", "Blue Sky", "Rain", "Way I Feel" and "Many The Miles". I'm SUPER excited about all of them :) I wanted to post a video, but it's really not working yet. 

On Tuesday this past week we got to go to Vision night at the Bongards' house. Basically, it was an opportunity for the staff to tell us more about Keynote's mission statement. It was awesome to hear more about what they do as a ministry. Keynote isn't just focused on music, but also media and the arts. We got to watch some student made videos from some previous projects, and they were INSANELY awesome. 

There were also awesome snacks. I know that doesn't sound like much of anything, but it was so funny, BECAUSE I had really been stressed out that day. When I walked in there was a CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN. Delicious. Here's a picture of what the boys did with the chocolate fountain. 

This is Mike, Trevor, and Gray all with their chocolate mustaches. Nice...

Anyway, that's just a bit of an update about what we've been doing. On Monday we had band hang-out time. We went to Paradise Bakery for dinner (I bought extra cookies. SO GOOD) and then we went over to Mel's house to watch the old-school Batman movie. "Holy Stop On Green Bonding Time, Batman!" Seriously, that movie was hilarious. We've already been saying "Holy such and such, Batman!" the whole week. Tour is going to be awesome.

Oh! Speaking of tour, Stop On Green will be spending most of its tour in Indiana, with a few concerts in Ohio, Michigan, and I think Virginia. I'm really excited, because our band is going to be playing at a lot of prisons and detention facilities. I know that sounds weird, but I'm really stoked.

There's an update for you all. Thanks for all your prayers and support. They've been such a blessing to me. Until next time!

Hannah

Stop on Green Goes Bowling

Hello from Indiana, everyone! Today was awesome. Wow, it just keeps getting better here, honestly. I'm so in love with this place. :)

So we had to be over at the Keynote Office at 10:25 this morning, which was excellent. Jessica Russo, the staff kid and my awesome roommate, was in our car, so we couldn't get lost. BUT we did anyway. It was quite the adventure. I'm pretty sure she, Alesha and I now know 3 different ways to get to the Keynote Offices now. Haha.

When we got there one of the guys on staff with Impact Ministries, the African-American Campus Crusade ministry, was giving a talk entitled "Am I A Loser?" It was all about how we have complete support and love through Jesus Christ, and how because of that we don't have to worry about comparing ourselves to others. It was really encouraging, since this summer is a performance ministry and it's really easy to get caught up in the "Am I better than them?" mentality. I loved it.

After some quiet time with God, we had Summer Project orientation. Here they informed us that we are not allowed to jump off any balconies, high cliffs, or run in front of speeding trains. Oh man, I love Keynote staff. Apparently, someone jumped off a three story balcony into a pool once, so they had to enforce this rule. Holy mrak.

Lunchtime took us to Panera Bread. Here's a picture of everyone. :)

After lunch we headed back over to the Offices where an epic game of Ninja commenced. I, however, am terrible at this game so I mostly got out on the first move and took some pictures. It was super fun to watch, though.

Our second class of the day was called "The Art of Biblical Communication". It was all about how people have different languages (not just literally). Meaning, they have different ways of understanding the gospel. We talked about how for us that means playing a concert at a prison has a completely different interpretation than playing a concert at a military base, for example. I can't wait to see how God is going to use us this summer, and this talk was just so exciting.

After the talk we went back Meijer to buy some more essentails. Excellent trip was had by all.

Then our bands split up to have "Team Dinner and Hangout Time". Let me introduce the band to you guys:

On Vocals we've got me, Chelsie and Natasha. Chelsie is a Speech Pathology major from Wisconsin, but she goes to school in Minnesota. Her accent is pretty slight, but it definitely comes out on her "oh"s. I love it. :)

Natasha used to be a Vocal Performance major, but God changed her direction and now she's a Religious Studies major from University of Central Missouri. She spent last summer on a Summer Project in Cameroon.

Corey is our bass player. I am blanking on his major now...ooops, but he's super awesome and he's the only other "going to be a Junior" in our band. Woot!

Trevor is our drummer, and he's a Music Technology major from Ball State in Indiana. He really loves recording and has a pretty sweet Station Wagon.

(Trevor's the one in the turquoise. Tim is in the khaki-colored shirt. And Shawna is the gorgeous girl. :D )

Tim is our sound tech. He's also from the University of Central Missouri and I'm failing at remembering his major as well. He's also a red-head! Woot!

Our staff members that are playing in our band are Ethan (also one of our Team Directors) and Shawna. Ethan has been on staff with CCC for 10 years, and Keynote for 3. He'll be playing guitar. Shawna has been on staff with Keynote since September and she'll be playing Keys. 

We've also got Lindsay (our other Team Director and one of our Communication Drills coach). She's got "sweet hair" as Andrew says, and plays the drums like a rockstar. Dan is our Music Director, and while he's got many incredible qualities, he's also hilarious and looks like Robin Williams. (Sorry, Dan. It's insanity!)

(This is Dan, doesn't he look like Robin Williams?)

And Dana Russo is our main Communication Drills coach. She's been on staff with Keynote forever, and her daughter is my roommate. :)

As for our Hangout time, for us, this meant Stop on Green, plus our staff directors went to an awesome Mexican restraunt and then BOWLING. 

Now, let me just explain to you guys how awesome I am at bowling. Pretty much I'm lucky if I hit some pins...yeah, that's about it. We played two games and in the FINAL frame I FINALLY managed to pull off a spare. It was RIDICULOUS. I was jumping for joy I was so excited. Haha!

Anyway, that's Day 2 for you guys. Thanks for reading. I know this are kind of boring right now, I'm sure they will get much more involved. I'm absolutely loving everyone. The girls in my band are super awesome (as is everyone else) and I'm already really enjoying spending time with them. :) Until tomorrow!

Day 1 of Keynote Summer Project

Wow, this has been an awesome day. Last night Andrew brought over his friend, Jay, (a Summer Project returnee) over for one purpose and one purpose only: making bacon. 

Yeah, it was beautiful thing. We fried up the bacon and then ate. I convinced them that eating a bite of bacon with a bite of chocolate chips would be a good idea. Yeah, it was delicious. :)

At around 2:00 Tina took me to the hotel we're staying at, and I was instantly greeted by loads of friends. Some I already know, like my friend Brian from the San Diego Winter Conference worship band, and some I have been getting to know via Facebook. It was so encouraging to see everyone, and to be welcomed with open arms. God totally calmed my fears. 

I'm rooming with 4 other awesome girls named Alesha, Jessica, Lizzie and Tess. Jessica and I are roommates, which is super sweet. I'm stoked.

Chelsie, Natasha, (they're in Stop on Green with me, so you'll see their names a lot), Derrick and I then loaded up into Brian's car and almost died attempting to play Chinese Firedrill. Well, correction, I almost had a heart attack watching Chelsie and Derrick attempt a Chinese Firedrill. But here's pictures of us before the maddness ensued. :)

We got to the Keynote Office and talked with a lot of people. It's so cool to meet everyone, and hear all about how they decided to come here. I got to see Seth, our staff guitarist from San Diego, which was super fun. Here's some picture of the people at the Keynote building. 

Dinner was catered from Big Hoffa's so I was super excited about that. Big Hoffa's two days in a row? I think so. :)

Keynote put together a staff band for us of all of the team directors, so after dinner they led us in worship. It was so awesome. I wish I had pictures, but I don't. 

After that we all headed back to the hotel and chilled for a little while and then decided to go on a Wal-Mart run, which really turned into a "Meijer" run. This store is seriously just like Wal-Mart...only...Meijer... Anyway I took pictures of it, because I'm trying to document everything. Here's Chelsie jammed into a child's car stroller thing.

Now I'm back in my room, and I'm super excited about tomorrow. In the morning we're having official orientation and getting all of our music charts and stuff. Super stoked. :)

I've Arrived in Indiana!

Hey everyone! Well, this marks the first blog entry in my Keynote Summer Project blog. I'm really excited to be able to share my summer with all of you who are or have supported me financially, through prayer and love. It's going to be an incredible summer, and I can't wait to see what God is going to do. Thanks for following along!

So I arrived in Indiana last night just before midnight. The flights were good, except for the extra one hour delay in Dallas-Fortworth airport. Apparently, something was wrong with the airplane, so we after waiting for 45 minutes to board, we hear, "Flight 1996 to Indianapolis. We're going to moving you to a different plane. So please make your way down to Gate A38" over the loud speaker. We were at Gate A9, so that was fun. :) But all in all, it was good that we didn't have to fly in a plane that might crash.

My aunt, uncle and cousins Christina and Andrew picked me up from the airport. I got to see Christina in December at the San Diego Winter Conference, however I haven't seen Andrew in close to four years, so it was super exciting to see them. We all headed back to the house, and Christina and I spent a ridiculous amount of time catching up.

Church this morning was really great. Andrew was playing in the worship band, as was Jessica Russo, (another Summer Project kid. She'll be in the band "Young Isaac" this summer). The message was all about living in a way that passes on your faith. It was encouraging to hear right before we begin this incredible summer sharing our faith with others.

After church we went to an awesome Mid-West BBQ place called "Big Hoffa's". It was delicious. I could get used to eating like this all summer. Pulled pork sandwich? I think so. :)

Here are some pictures of the Fackler's backyard, and some pictures of Indiana skies. I hope it gives you all a feel for how beautiful it is here. 

We then went to Indianapolis proper to go visit JD, my other cousin, and his wife Joy. I'd never met Joy and they just had a precious baby boy. His name is Caleb Fackler. :) He's absolutely adorable. The top picture is Joy Fackler holding him, and the bottom one is me.

 

That's pretty much the gist of today. Currently, I'm watching Sherlock Holmes with my family and eating pizza. Mmmm...

Tomorrow the actual project starts, so there will be much more to talk about. I'm so glad to be here, and I can't wait to share this incredible journey with all you. Thanks for reading! :)

--Hannah