DAY FOUR...Music City USA!

After an evening of fun and swimming, we woke up and headed to the historic RCA Studio B. It is the same studio that Elvis, ROy ORbison, Eddie Arnold and DOlly PArton....among others....recorded over 25,000 songs. The piano is the same one that HArry Connick, Jr and ELvis Presley played to record songs. We recorded a CD of two songs which were really great!

We then headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame for a tour and concert in front of the building. IT was really hot, but fun. I have gotten an entourage that helps set up and tear down the drum set. WE have done it NINE times already! It is done in less than 5 minutes each time....

After the Museum we headed to the Wild HOrse saloon for a BBQ lunch, a chance to listen to our CD played in the entire place and line dancing lessons. The day wrapped with a concert at an inner city youth center/day care and play time with the kids. A great italian dinner was had at Spaghetti Factory, then back to the hotel for fun and swimming.

More tomorrow. Keep us in your prayers!

Day Three Busy, Busy and HOT outside!

Day 3 was a busy day of work projects and singing! The day started with helping Habitat for Humanity and the local Housing Authority. Different groups painted, did landscaping and helped kids with learining how to play musical instruments. The evening was spent doing a benefit concert for the local Habitat to raise some money. Chris Caffee spent much of the day taking several choir members to the doctor for various ailments. By the next day they were all doing fine!

I also included a wonderful picture of the group with a little boy who has undergone 6 heart operations since he was born. He was sooo exciting with the singing and was clapping his hands and bouncing all around. The good news he will be going home in a few months finally! Another great example of the NHYC mission outreach to others with singing and praise.

STay tuned for the DAY FOUR recap!

Day 2, A Busy day!

It was hot when we headed out for Graceland this morning. We were still revelling in the excitement of the previous day and the morning at Graceland was really fun. We spent some time on Beale Street in the historic part of downtown. Then off to the Children's Hospital for a concert for the children who were staying there. IT was another great performance by the choir. HOT HOT HOT here for sure. DInner at Cracker Barrel then a relaxing night at the hotel. It is also raining very hard tonight.

Oh, and Chris Caffee finally found some decent glasses to read the music.....

Tomrorrow we are off for Habitat for Humanity projects. Look for another post tomorrow night.

Keep us in yoru prayers.

Hard Rock Cafe TONIGHT!

After an encredibly moving day of mission feeding bodies and souls, we enjoyed an evening at Hard Rock Cafe. Great fun and fellowship with everyone. It was followed up with a group discussion on the increibkle days events led by Chris Caffee and John Cravens. More discussion accompanied tears of happiness and the kids recall their feelings from the day. This was a day that we would all remember for a LONG LONG time!.

It is 11:45pm, so off to bed! More posts tomorrow night when I get more internet access at our next hotel! Keep us in your prayers that we may continue to deliver incredible mission like we did today! I will share your comments with the kids if you choose to leave any.

Mission Work and a VERY Spiritual preformance!

We started the day by heading to a Methodist retirement home to pereform for about 50 residents. They had a great time singing along to our songs and the kids had a great time visiting with them afterwards.

It was then off to the Memphis Union Mission Center, which is run by the Methodist Church AND REFUSES ANY FEDERAL OR STATE MONIES. (pictured above). The kids served dinner as shown to about 200 men.

After dinner we presented a 30 minute concert and Chris Caffee led the group in prayer. There was an incredible spiritual experience during the concert. The group sang like they never, ever have before. It was like the holy spirit was singing and not the actual persons in the choir. Men who are experiences the hardships of life had many brought to tears during the singing. We received several incredible standing ovations. Evan Billings and Sarah Stenger were angelic in their singing. You could literally feel the holy spirit move across the room. Amber Corjay and Karin Feight explained that they had NEVER felt an experience like that before. John Cravens explained to the kids later in the evening that he was drawn closer to his deceased father as a result of the incredible experience. Words cannot describe what happened tonight in that concert.


On to the Hard Rock Cafe...next post

We Have Arrived!

After a relatively uneventful bus ride we arrived in Memphis around 6pm last night. We stayed the night on the gym floor at Bartlett UMC. They had a huge youth building with work-out room, indoor trash and raquetball court. We had a few flashbacks to New York last year while sleeping on the floor of the gym. Only for one night this year thank goodness! While everyone slept a group of boys and I jogged about a mile to the local McDonald's for breakfast and back. Certainly a workout in 90% humidity and 80 degress in the morning. The choir sang at the early service this morning and then enjoyed a great lunch served at the church by the youth group.

Off to Mission work...next post

The bus snack bar is set up! and daily money info

We have prepared the snack bar for the bus going and coming on the trip.

$1.00
cans of Coca Cola, Diet Coke, Sprite, Dr. Pepper and Orange Crush
Also, bags of Chex Mix, Frito Lay chips, candy bars.

50 cents
peanut butter crackers, airheads, honey buns, bags of Cheez-Its, Quaker Chewy Granola Bars and Rice Krispy Treats.

profits from the snack bar go towards a special treat on the ride back home on Friday.

It will be appreciated if the kids come with some small denomination of money as we will not have a lot of change in the beginning.

DAILY MONEY clarification...

If you want an adult to monitor the spending of your child please divide their spending money into indivudl envelopes for each day. PLease refer to the schedule to determine which days they need to buy meals. The meals will be fast food type meals and well under $10 each.

YOu can email me or Chris Caffee if you have any additional information!

Thanks

Rick Neudorff

2009 Tour Information June 9th

This was sent in an email today. Please email me if you need these forms neudorff@verizon.net

Dear NHYC Choir Parents & Singers

Church Medical Release Form: The forms must be filled out once each year and our current forms are ready to expire. These forms are used by both John Cravens and myself and you only need to fill out ONE form as we share the forms. If you have already filled out a new form for the 2009 Mission Trip, you do not need to fill out another form. If not, please see that you fill out a form as soon as possible. These forms MUST BE NOTARIZED by a Notary Public. Peggy Finkel in our church office is a notary and would be most pleased to notarize your form for you. If you have a question, please let me know.

2. Nashville Area Habitat Release Form: THESE FORMS ARE FOR STUDENTS 14 AND ABOVE ONLY!! This form is a Habitat for Humanity Release Form for our older students. Those youth who are 13 and below DO NOT NEED the Habitat form. The forms are needed for our older group to do the work projects for Habitat.

The “What To Bring” List is to help you decide how to pack. Should you have any questions about the “What to Bring” List please let me know as I will be glad to help you anyway that I can. We have ordered our new NHYC Shirts for the tour and we will distribute the shirts just as soon as they arrive.

Hope this answers your questions!! Otherwise, please call me or e-mail ccaffee@firstmethodistplano.org.

Thanks,
Chris

Dear NHYC Choir Parents & Singers,
I hope this finds you having a beginning to a great summer! This is the first of two e-mails that you will receive from me. This e-mail includes an attached PDF file with the final itinerary for our 2009 NHYC Youth Choir Music City USA Tour that includes when, where, how, and even occasionally why. The second e-mail will include PDF files of our forms that need to be filled out and returned to us as well as a packing list, etc. If you are not able to open PDF files, please don’t hesitate to call me and I will get the information to you in another form. I have requested a READ RECEIPT so that I may know that you received this information.

I hope you find the itinerary helpful. You will find a list of concerts, work projects, churches, hotels, attractions, etc. that are included in our week. Most all of those entries have an address, phone number, pictures, and a contact name should you need to reach us in an emergency. You will also find that when your youth is expected to pay for a meal, you will see KIDS PAY! next to that particular meal. You will also note that I have changed our time to arrive at First, Plano and depart for Memphis. This is best for our Saturday schedule and gives everyone a little more to time to sleep on Saturday morning.

MONEY AND MEDICINE: If you feel more comfortable with an adult helping your youth with money or medication, our adult team is glad to help with this issue. Place money for each in envelopes marked with the name of the youth, the day it is to be distributed, and how much money is inside the envelope. The envelopes are handed out at the beginning of each day. The same routine goes for medicine – except the medication can stay in it’s usual prescription bottles. Just make sure to include any special instructions or special medical problems on the church’s Medical Release Form.

We received an invitation to sing for the Veterans Administration Hospital Complex in Memphis on Friday, June 26 before departing for Texas. We will be in their theater area for the event, but our performance will be broadcast by Closed Circuit Television into every area of the hospital complex. This evidently switches all the TVs in the building that channel so that everyone will see our Youth Choir. I am told there will also be a video recording of the event.

I hope you find this information helpful and that you and your student musician will find some excitement for the ministry that we are about to begin in the great state of Tennessee. Should you have questions or any problems, please do not hesitate to call me. My cell phone is (214)477-4561 and my e-mail address is ccaffee@firstmethodistplano.org. Please be looking for a second e-mail from me with forms and “what to bring” list. I am so looking forward to having your youth with me for another great NHYC Tour.

Yours in Christ,
Chris

Chris Caffee, Minister of Music

Coming soon! New Posts in Preparation for 2009 trip!

Stay tuned as we begin uploading information and items for this years trip!

We are headed home!

Well, your blogger is sitting on the floor of the NEwark Airport to file the final report of our trip. SOrry about missing last night but lights out was 2:00 am and simply too exhausted.

Wednesday was the busiest day of the trip. We sang at an inner city UNited Methodist Church that feeds the homeless and povery stricken daily. It was so great to see them clapping and dancing with smiles on their faces. The BIshop even joined in to play the bongos. It was like 95 degrees in the room but our singers always had smiles on their faces. We then went to a children's hospital to sing for children who were having a little party with their parents to take their minds off their illnesses.

The last evening was the Mets ball game at Shea Stadium,. This historic venue will be torn down at the end of this season and moved to a new one next door. Even though the seats were in the nose bleed section we enjoyed the game. After the game we barely made it to the subway before it started to pour like a monsoon.

Lots of fun and talking until lights out at 2:00am.

THursday we journeyed back downtown to St. Patricks Cathedral for a grou picture. Pope John Paul II held mass twice at the church while visiting the US. Chris Caffee had an on the street encounter with Ted Danson while we were down there ask him about it...too funny.

It is 6:51 PM AND THE KIDS ARE ON THE WAY BACK HOME. Solomon and Cindy Boatfield, along with me are waiting for our later flight.

We will have a website for you to download pictures from the trip. WE will email everyone early next week.

This blogger plans to rest for the next two weeks.

See you in Church

Rick

Days 2 and 3 Singing Joys of Praise!

Day 2:

A busy day. We did the tour of NBC studios at Rockefeller Center which was awesome and the kids loved it. We also sang at St. Johns Cathedral. It was a glorious building. We also learned that we were the last group to sing there for at least 2 years as they are dismantling and repairs the pipe organ. We ended the evening with hilarious fun at the Comedy Club.

Day 3: We visited ground zero area and sang a program at the church where all the firefighters stayed while rescuing people and clearing the site. It was pretty incredible. We also did an impromtu concert at Memorial Park for 9/11 in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.

Followed by dinner at Hard Rock Cafe and then off the Wicked! It was unbelieveable and the sets breathtaking. The kids were flabbergasted by the show!

Sorry for the delay. Days that end at 11:00pm make this blooder tired!

Until later today!

Here are some pictures from day 1. One picture is the banner behind the altar. Another is part of our group at Artie's Deli YUM! Ask about the tongue sandwich special.....no kidding! Notice the picture of the entire group int he air conditioned room is the entire group in our one air conditioned room. A close family! The last picture is another part of the glorious old Sanctuary...we sang here this morning. The first pictures are from the singing this morning!

Today we started with DUnkin DOnuts and singing 3 selections for the 11:00 pm service. The folks in the pews were ricking and claping to our songs. It was awesome. They treated us to Rays Original Pizza, It is THE pizza in New York City. WHile most of the group went to the WIlliam S. Paley Museum, some of us moved 5 vanloads of luggage across town to our home for the rest of the week. The church we are staying in is 5 stories with a gym and shower on the top floor. Incredible! Chris played the 1927 vintage pipe organ tonight. As with the last church, this once grand church has fallen into disrepair. It is another fading majestic church. We are on the edge of HArlem. An incredible neigborhood with a rich history. We are in the basement and it is nice and coll tonight so we should all sleep good. We ended the day with Chris leading us in a wonderful devotional about sacrifice. Signing out until tomorrow.