Marcus Fox Fills In

While Danny Petersheim is away at BMA Bible School for 6 weeks, Marcus Fox is back to fill the baritone position.  The Garment of Praise had a few warm-ups with him, but he fit right back in well with the group.  Those old hymns they do on the fly work out pretty good with Marcus there. 

We had quite a number of programs and banquets scheduled for over Danny’s absence, so Marcus will be filling in a total of 6 programs.

Marcus sings with his brothers and brother-in-law at Life Ministries Banquet.

Pleasantview Retirement Community–where the old folks enjoy the music, and others come in from the outside to hear the program also.  Afterwards a group of 4 brothers serenaded us, a couple with Brian playing piano, and a number without.

These brothers attended the Pleasantview program, and sang to us afterward.

It’s also nice to have the extra children along for Brian’s and Daryl’s to play with.

Chrissy (Daryl's) with Shaina (Marcus' youngest)Brooklyn (Jason's) with Sheri (Marcus')

Sweetheart Banquet at Yoder’s Banquet Facilities–all the ladies were privileged to go along.

Life Ministries Banquet at Shady Maple Banquet Facilities–Ryan came along with his dad, Marcus, on this one. 

Ryan had the treat of coming along with his dad to fill our table of eight.

Programs ahead with Marcus before Danny returns: Mohrsville Church of the Brethren on March 20, 2010 at 7:30 pm           

               Derry Mennonite Church in Danville, Pa on March 21, 2010 at 7:00 pm

               Camp Andrews Banquet at Yoder’s Banquet Facilities on March 23, 2010 at 6:15 pm (if interested in attending, reserve a spot) 

Also, coming up is the Fairview Christian School alumni concert, led by Brian Fox and held at Bethany Grace Fellowship, across from Terre Hill Mennonite High School, on March 28, 2010, at 7:00 pm.

Danny returns April 9, 2010, and will be singing with the quartet at the April 11th program at Blue Ball at 7:00 pm.

Alumni Concert

Brian Fox, as the choir director of Fairview Christian School chorus for the last 15 years, is calling for all alumni to join in a FCS reunion concert. They have been blessed over the years with many good times singing, as they prepared for Christmas programs, Spring programs, and Conventions.  Their goal is to get together as many alumni as they can to sing some of the old songs. 

Alumni: There will be three rehearsals:

March 14, Sunday afternoon 3:00-5:00 pm at Fairview Christian School

March 25, Thursday evening 7:00-9:00 pm at Fairview Christian School

March 28, Sunday afternoon 3:00-5:00 pm at Grace Bethany Fellowship

(finger foods will follow the practice, prior to the program the same evening)

              Please bring a 3-ring binder to put printed music into.  Music will be handed out at each practice.

Everyone: You are invited to come and enjoy as they share old video footage and also recreate those groups in the present.  The concert will be on Sunday, March 28, 2010, 7:00 pm, at Grace Bethany Fellowship, located across from Terre Hill Mennonite High School.

SC Prison Ministry

The guys rented a 15 passenger van and headed out towards South Carolina on Tuesday evening.  SNOW is the word that resonates in people’s mind on the East Coast when we think of Tuesday and Wednesday, February 9 and 10.  Well, snow characterized the Garment of Praise’s trip down to the prison ministry in SC.

They had to drive through the snow for the first few hours, until they crossed the Maryland line.  This added some time to their travels–it took a total of about 14 hours down to the church where they were headed.  They tried catching some sleep on the trip, ate some breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and arrived mid-morning.

The church where orientation and worship took place.

Gospel Express Ministries is in charge of this prison ministry, and does a tremendous job of planning and organizing the five days.  There are 28 prisons in SC, and this mult-prison crusade reaches 24 of them.  Each group of volunteers stays at the prison for day time interaction and meals for the entire crusade.  The singing groups and preachers minister in a different prison each night.

It was a new and interesting experience for the guys.  They met with all the other volunteers for orientation on the first morning.  There were about 500 people from all over the United States–a lot of them from Lancaster County.  They worshipped together, had workshops, and listened to one of the chaplains share about “Preparing our Vessels”.  When the orientation and supper was over, each group, as well as the volunteers headed out to the area where they would be ministering for the next 4 days. 

Thusday morning, Jason and Danny went into one of the prisons with a basketball team, to play with the inmates and interract with them.  That evening the group sang and ministered at Turbeville.  Bro. Jay Fox, Brian and Jason’s dad, preached.

The following morning, Daryl and Brian went along to another prison to watch the guys play basketball, but a stabbing within the prison caused “lock-down”.  All the volunteers had to get out immediately, and this “lock-down” cancelled the Garment of Praise’s program for Sunday morning.

That evening, snow began to fall in the south!  Most of the prisons closed because of the snow, and the volunteers could not go in.  The programs in the evenings also were cancelled.  This area in South Carolina had not seen snow since 2000, so it was disappointing to have snow hinder their ministry over this weekend! 

The cafe across the street from their motel

Their wonderful accomodations in SC

Friday night, because they couldn’t sing in the prisons, the groups assembled to worship together and have a program.  Several of the singing groups shared that night.  The next day, they found a gym to play in, get off some energy, and waste a little time.

It was a beautiful old building where the groups assembled for worship.

Saturday morning, because of not being able to get in, 2 bus-loads of volunteers headed home. A few prisons opened up for programs on Sunday morning, so Garment of Praise was allowed in to give a program where another group had left.

The Sunday morning program was finished at 9:00 am, and the men were on the road home by 10:00.  Because the roads were clear, the drive home was much quicker than the road down.

Pray for the inmates who made first-time decisions and recommitments to the Lord. Also, thank you for your prayers for safety on the roads to and from South Carolina.

Recording

The Petersheim family enjoyed trying their hand at recording in their own “studio”.  Daryl has a small recorder that he uses for some of his songs he’s written.  He sings the melody, then adds  additional parts with his own voice; this helps Garment of Praise in learning one of his new songs.

Daryl recording down in the basement of his house.

Daryl, Renita, and children decided to lay down a track of them singing their “family” songs that they’ve sung at a few programs.  When “God makes a yot of a yitto” (instead of a “lot of a little”), you’ve got to preserve that!

Whitney listening back to "Father to Me".

This singer, Jake, (3) is the one who sings the last line, "God makes a yot of a yittle".

Haiti Benefit Sing

A couple of gentlemen from our area organized a Best of Berks Bluegrass Haiti Benefit Sing which we participated in.  Christian Leinbach, our county commisioner, was in charge of it; Wendell Yoder, Daryl’s former boss, ran the sound system (his group will be singing on a subsequent night).  This was to be a two-day affair at the Schulkill Valley Bible Chapel with Pastor Steve hosting the event.  The second night was postponed till February 19th or 26th due to inclement weather. 

The Stony Mountain Gang

Berks County and WEEU listeners should be familiar with Eastside Dave Kline.

Christian Leinbach, county commisioner; along with his group

Garment of Praise--the only a cappella group

Schulkill Valley Bible Chapel has a mission down in Haiti, about 120 miles from Port-au-Prince.  There is a clinic there, as well as their sister church.  The city, especially the clinic, was swamped within days of the earthquake.  The Haiti Benefit Sing will send all their proceeds to this mission.  The concert charged $5 per person, and they also had donation baskets. 

It was wonderful to participate in something that was very new and different than usual.  Since it was in Northern Berks County, it was a new area for the Garment of Praise. They took a lot of requests for the old hymns, and also shared their usual numbers.  It was not specifically a “Christian” event, so it was also our privilege to present the gospel.

Oley Mennonite Program

Garment of Praise sang at Oley Valley Mennonite Church on January 31 Sunday morning. The Petersheim family debuted their new song with their children: “God makes a lot of a little”.

Oley Valley Mennonite Church on Sunday morning

This church holds some fond memories for the Petersheim brothers–their dad grew up here.  Their grandparents dropped in for the service, along with Dan and Daryl’s parents, Willis and Lydia.

Daryl and Danny's grandparents, Elmer and Ruth Petersheim

Also, Daryl and Renita’s neighbor, Rod Burkert and friend came over to Oley to attend the service.

Rod Burkert and Nancy--the Petersheim children's favorite neighbors

The Good Ole’ Bus

We had a program schedule for April 5, at Shalom Mennonite.  We decided to take the good old bus to the program that night, since the church was about 2 1/2 hours away.  Brian had been down with pneumonia, and he was making a comeback that night.  Taking the bus would allow him to rest on the bus, and not have to drive.

Unfortunately, the bus was not ready for occupation!  Prior to the trip, I went down to Daryl’s parents where we park it, armed with Windex, cleaners, vacuum sweeper.  Well, it took longer than anticipated, because a mouse (or mice) had really enjoyed our bus for the winter.  Also, the grafitti on the side, complements of parking it in Reading, would not be removed easily.  That project was put off until Saturday when Daryl bought some grafitti remover at Lowe’s, and I went at it again.

Anybody know how grafitti remover works? I’m not sure, but two sad things happened while using the grafitti remover; one, the grafitti had been on too long and didn’t want to come off; two, the black stripes on the bus did want to come off.  So, at first glance, the bus looks better.  At second glance, it looks like it needs more help!

Oh, well, here’s the beauty we took on the trip on Sunday!

The trip went well, with Jason driving part way, and Daryl the other.  Shalom is up above 80, so we spent a few extra minutes taking 322 rather than agonizing up rt.61.  The bus was a little emptier this trip, because of the seniors and juniors of Fairview being in Jamaica on a missions trip (this included Caitlin, Jason’s oldest,  and Carissa, Brian’s oldest.) Our 4 children went along, Jason and Denise took Brooklyn, and Brian’s took their youngest children, 3 boys.  Danny soloed.

Yeah, they stole the sound guy’s chair to bring in the sound system.  Worked pretty good.

Brian got through the program okay, resting a little more than usual, not quite full strength. It was wonderful to have him back up there, though.  They had been kind of limping along for the last 2 weeks with lots of fill-ins.  Marcus came back for a few times, Amy (Fox) Huber, the Fox’s sister, did the tenor part once or twice, and I actually filled in for 3 songs.   Thank God, we got through it, and it’s good to have the 4 of them back singing together again.

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