SPRING TO SUMMER NEWSLETTER
Covering April to June, 2003


So, getting right down to business . . .


In the health department, I went for the six-month follow-up following the 12 months of treatment following the hepatitis C diagnosis and received the following result:


It didn't work. Thanks for playing. My lovely consolation prize is that in three years there might be a better treatment without so many side effects. Thanks for your prayers and concerns during my sojourn into the land of interferon. It's nice to be back among the not-so-sick crowd.


In happier news, we had nearly a whole month at home. (Though some of us chose to call home the country of Costa Rica, but we'll get to that later.) Also, in the happier news and publishing department, two books have been released that you might find interesting. The first is called "Graceland," which is a book of bible studies based on seven of our songs. The book comes with a cd of recordings that is not available anywhere else. You can find it in the Stuff To Buy section of our site. The other book of interest is called "Stories of Emergence," which was published by Youth Specialties. I wrote a chapter for this book, though I think my contribution pales in comparison to the other writers'. You can find that book at Amazon.com and possibly in your local bookstore. (Though you'd have to make your own cd to go with that book, since it doesn't come with one.)

Peter poeticizes

Back in April, as you might recall, there was Easter. Following that, we went to play our favorite festival called "Ichthus." (Interestingly, most spellchecker programs suggest you might mean "Itches" when you type that word.) While there, we debuted our new T-shirt design. The brief explanation is that we don't have any songs about hate and exclusion; we only have songs about the love of God. Therefore, well, you can read it on the shirt in the picture there. Those roses were made by one of the Ichthus participants, and they're made of duct tape. (Here again, you'd have to make your own duct-tape rose to go with that shirt, since it doesn't come with one.) And speaking of duct tape, many folks at Ichthus came decked out in their finest duct-tape clothing. Plus, there were a few celebrities in the crowd. Most interesting of all, perhaps, was the group from Portsmouth, Ohio. As you can see, they were hoping we might play "Slide Girl" at some point during the weekend. Following our lunchtime celebration each day, we got to hear my new favorite performer. His name is Peter Nevland, and he does what I guess you'd call "beat poetry." Really, really interesting. You can find his website at www.peternevland.com.

"Watch it, mister!"

After Ichthus, we drove on down to Nashville where we were reunited with our friends, the Otto family. Pastor Otto is the very man who confirmed us in our church all those many years ago. It was a real treat to see them and catch up on stuff. The concert was lots of fun, and we headed off into heading homeward. Next up, we went to Minneapolis and played for a group of young confirmands, sans Pastor Otto's guidance. That evening, we chatted away at yet another online chat. (You can find the transcript at this link Online Chat.) Those things get funnier and funnier. Of course, it also helps that we were really tired by that point. The next day, though, we drove on down to Calmar, Iowa. If you think your town is calm, nothing beats Calmar, Iowa. As a for instance, take a look at the sign hanging in the lobby at the high school. Really cracking down there, aren't they? Before the concert, we had dinner with some local youts, one of whom was an actual telemarketer. It didn't take long before we were appalled at the way folks treat her on the phone. I guess she was successful in telemarketing some sympathy out of us.

"This is the air I breathe." Ah, nature!

Then we went to Omaha for a gathering of Salvation Army folks. And even though they didn't give me a building to put in my garage, we had a whole lot of fun all the same. On Saturday night, the gathering group invited the public to a concert at a local church, and the fun was bumped up even higher. We left Omaha and drove to Colorado Springs, which is way up in the air to you and me. We had some difficulty getting into the venue, since the concert was held at the Air Force Academy. But once we got in, we were treated wonderfully as always, and Summer carried all the heavy equipment because, let's face it; she could take both of us in a fight. Also among the wonderful treatments was complimentary oxygen. Though we didn't partake (fearing we'd look REALLY wimpy) it was a nice gesture. Then Michael drove off into the night, and I drove off into the mountains to have a retreat with some friends. As you can see from this picture, we really got away from it all up there in the mountains of Breckinridge.

Notice the building

Then I flew back to Minneapolis so Michael and I could play for another group of young confirmands, sans Pastor Otto. Then we had some time off and I decided to build some stairs in our garage. And that was when I experienced an exciting moment of life. Get this: I actually used the Pythagorean Therom! That's right. A squared plus B squared equals C squared. I learned this formula approximately 24 years ago, and for the first time I got out a piece of paper and solved for B. Old Mister Cioffe always said that someday I'd need that little formula and a mere 24 years later, voila!

"How do you fly this thing?"

Following my epiphany, we had lots of rain in Ohio, and the river came over for a visit in our backyard. There were live carp swimming in that water and, personally, I found this rather creepy. Then we flew to Jackson, Tennessee. This was only a week or so after they had some awful tornadoes and things were quite a mess around downtown. A couple of churches were severely damaged, and some buildings were leveled to nothing. Apparently the Pringle factory was completely destroyed, so you'll want to be switching to Lays or something for a while. And at the fun event in Jackson, Michael took time out to work on his organ-playing skills.


After Jackson, we began what we'll call The Big Break. On Memorial Day, after the parade and memorial ceremonies, my family went to my in-laws' house out in the country and I took advantage of the situation by driving my daughters around on the combine, or whatever that machine is called. (Notice the safety footwear.) During The Big Break, Michael flew down to Costa Rica to immerse himself in a Spanish immersion course. I guess it must've worked, since he said "Hola" to me when he got back. There were other things that happened during this break like fixing up a bathroom and other things that wouldn't necessarily interest you, but since they wouldn't necessarily interest you, so you wouldn't necessarily be interested.

"Uh-oh!" "Take THAT!"

When The Big Break had ended, we traveled to Nashville to return to the Impact event that we'd played last year. As before, it was great fun. I did wonder at the set list Michael had created for us, though, until I realized that it was a set list for the emcees. The next morning, we got a flight before dawn and flew to Kansas, where we played some songs for a fine group of Kansans gathering at Bethany College, in Lindsborg, which, as you probably already know, is called "Little Sweden." (Well hello there Mr. Comma Sentence.) Boy oh boy, were there some interesting things on this campus. We wondered what was up with a contest called "Ultimate Swede Challenge?" Was it a challenge to become the Ultimate Swede, or to take him on in hand-to-hand combat? We soon had our answer however, as we encountered what we can only guess was the Ultimate Swede right there in the campus courtyard. Fortunately, Michael knows karate along with how to say "Gracias," and we lived to play another day.


From there we flew back to Nashville to play for a second group of folks at the Impact event. While there, a couple of interesting things happened. First off, Michael found Nemo, so you don't need to worry. Secondly, we uncovered a strange room on the campus of Lipscomb University. Based on what I know about Romans 5:3-4, since suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, then behind this door must lie some sort of torture chamber.

"Watch your back, Bon Jovi"

And then it was off to our absolute favorite event in the whole entire universe world: AFFIRM. If more youth gatherings were like AFFIRM, well, there'd be more gatherings like AFFIRM. As expected, we were once more awed to witness students and their leaders choose to spend an entire week in classes learning about and celebrating the love of God. We were honored to be interviewed by a few reporters from the Shepherds group, who even made their own T-shirts to celebrate the occasion. From there, we headed to South Carolina to participate in the 25th anniversary of the LCY Convention. (To these northern ears, it sounds as if we were celebrating the 25th birthday of Elsie Why, but I happen to know it's really an acronym having to do with Lutheran youth.) We had a most wonderful and celebratory time with bunches of old friends and new. That Saturday afternoon, we played a concert out on the gridiron, as it were. It was our first-ever stadium concert. Though as you'll see from the photo, we probably need to draw bigger crowds before going too far down the stadium-tour road. Of course, the fact that it was approximately one hundred billion degrees that day might have accounted for why some of the seats were empty.


And that brings you up to this very day, of June 21st. If you'd like to see some pictures of the folks we got to play for, you can click on the Photo Phrenzy. We hope you're having a good summer. And, if you're interested in learning other languages, perhaps you'll want to join Michael on his next language-immersion plunge.


Later,


george

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