August 24-26th, Garment of Praise and families headed to Maryland for our biennial event– Country Fest. Actually, Country Fest is an annual event. Garment of Praise only sings at it every other year! It is a very fun, family-friendly day to attend, and our families anticipate the time spent in different activities, watching demonstrations, and indulging in the delicious chicken BBQ and other treats!
The children waiting for the auction to start, in the new, bigger facility.Garment of Praise always has a half-hour singing before the auction starts.Sorry, our boys cleaned up the pedal tractor pulling contest! (OK, not quite "cleaned up", but had fun pedalling and winning a few.)The much-anticipated barrel rides.Singing during the chicken BBQ lunch.Pony-cart rides --Chrissy Petersheim and Brooklyn FoxBrian-- looking very disappointed! They just announced that they would let the younger children collect candy first, before letting the older ones cross the tape. His loss=little kids' gain.Here comes the candy from the copter!Yum! Danny's chicken BBQ lunch, well-deserved! and very delicious!
Sunday morning, we participated in a service at Bittinger Mennonite Church and enjoyed a delish potluck lunch! Thank you for the warm fellowship and encouragement we received. The new acquaintances we make and warm friendships we renew, make this singing ministry a joy!
Daryl, Renita, and family entered Altar of Praise studio and recorded a song for the first time! We hope it will make it onto a new CD coming out in the future.
Guy-- age 9
Daryl penned “When He Works that Way”. God doesn’t always work in miraculous ways, or always how we’d like, but isn’t it fun when He does?!
We had a refreshing trip to Ohio; being with old friends and singing again after a break in the schedule. It only turned exhausting on the road home, arriving back to the church around 4:00 am on Monday morning. We’re grateful again for another safe trip.
We enjoyed visiting with JR and Rhonda Schlabach on our trip. We stayed at their home, and Rhonda’s brother’s home right next door, for the duration of our stay in OH. (JR and Rhonda had done a year of VS in Reading, then stayed for a couple more years.) It was a sweet time of fellowship and renewing friendships with them, as well as many of you all that came out to listen and encourage us!
Almost ready to leave Friday morning, July 13, from the church parking lot. Hope to get the bus looking better by the next trip. Paint job is scheduled to be done SOON!Excited for the first trip of the summer.Sweet friendships on the bus: Chrissy Petersheim and Brooklyn Fox.Higher Ground Quartet shared Friday evening with us in Wooster Square.
The two quartets and Davie Richards: organizer of the event.This event is growing and well-attended. We hope it is a blessing in the community.L to R: Marshall and Blake Fox, Jacob Petersheim-- ready for the program.Staying with JR and Rhonda Schlabach: fun with Rhonda driving.Fun times relaxing with JR and Rhonda during the weekend.
Friday evening, the guys sang in Wooster Square; an event planned by Davie Richards. Saturday evening, they sang at Chester Mennonite Church, then Sunday morning at Messiah.
Hmmm... the discussion with new friends. How strong IS the bus? and Can't you understand what we're saying in Dutch?JR and Rhonda Schlabach were great hosts!
Sunday after the fellowship meal for lunch, we headed east 3 hours to Cochranton, PA to Pleasantview Mennonite Church. After church, Jason and Daryl decided to tackle the job of stopping the leaking air-conditioner before the trip home. Thank you to the help from the men at church, and to God, for an easy fix!
Air-conditioning unit was raining down on us the whole trip, so Jason and Daryl did some repair work on it before the return trip home.The men who so graciously outfitted the "repairmen" with tools, now have one less sawblade.
We arrived back in Reading at 4:00 am on Monday morning. Thank you everyone for your encouraging words and hospitality during our travels. Thanks to God for the safe trip!
We’ve changed a little since some of our pictures on the website… so pardon our exhaustion, grime, and appearances (we were experiencing a fun, hot sight-seeing trip prior to our program in NY). Here we are!
From l to r: Danny Petersheim, baritone; Daryl Petersheim, lead; Jason Fox, bass; Brian Fox, tenor
From l to r: Dallas, Jason, Denise and Brooklyn (missing on this trip, Caitlin and Molly)
Back row l to r: Darien, Renita, and Daryl and front row l to r: Chrissy, Guy, Jacob, and WhitneyDanny and his familyBrian's abbreviated family (his three girls, Carissa, Andrea, and Tamara were absent on this trip); Brian, Sheryl, and boys l to r: Marshall, Bryce, and Blake
The guys enjoyed singing to the arrows campers on Thursday night, June 28 at Promised Land Camp in Conestoga, PA. As close as we could figure, this is the eighth year we’ve done this– and loved it every time! Danny was absent for this program; he was on a family trip to Colorado. Instead, Marcus rejoined the quartet for the evening, revisiting old songs, and jumping right into some of the quartet’s new songs.
Ages 9-14 boys; plus counselors and camp staffCamp Directors (doing a phenomenal job), Arthur and Lorinda Dexter
Favorite songs in this crowd: a rousing rendition of "Is that Footsteps that I hear", and the big quartet mix-up, "Just a little talk with Jesus" An extra pull for the Garment of Praise this year: Brian's son, Bryce, was one of the arrows campers.Bryce and friends
The guys finished out the night with visiting with the campers and enjoying root beer floats. Thank you to the cooks, counselors, directors, and all who make the camp possible. We were blessed to be there, as I’m sure the boys are, as well.
