Day 11:: Tour 2025

We were delighted to find our beds soon after midnight Thursday evening after 6 days of riding on the bus and giving concerts every evening. The children were especially grateful.

We planned to meet at The Trust in Lancaster at 11:45 am to start recording. For some reason, Lancaster Co. decided to paint road lines today, and many of us got stuck in long lines of traffic as a result. By the time the last one gathered in our recording venue, it was nearly 12:45. We rushed into the venue and tried to catch our breathes before it was time to sing. Lyle and Katrina had everything set up and ready to go with music stands, straws, and recording schedules for everyone.

Lyle was very gracious about the delay, even though the pressure to get a few pieces recorded and on the record today was high. Lyle did a wonderful job of focusing our scattered thoughts on the work at hand. We chose to release these things to God, trusting he would work things out, and all would be well.

After a few minutes of warmup, Benjamin Good, our recording engineer, discovered a problem. The great big clock at the back of the room, which normally has not worked in the past, decided to work today and was ticking quite loudly. The next number of minutes were spent searching for a tall ladder, crawling into the attic , trying to find some way to stop the clock. Finally, the clock was silenced and we were ready.

The afternoon went reasonably well, even though many of us were tired and a bit nervous about the quality of our voices and how things sounded in this venue. However, Lyle did an excellent job of leading us through the recording process, practicing instant and unconditional forgiveness. (I added the unconditional part.) But, you get the point. Humans are people too, and we all chose to hold nothing towards anyone, even though sometimes we record multiple takes until a piece is done well.

Lyle does well at sensing the ensemble’s overall well-being. His humor and words of wisdom help us relax, focus, engage with maximum intensity, then relax again. The rhythm kept the afternoon doable.

Of course, Lyle’s humor never fails to keep the nerves at ease and our minds and hearts engaged. Before we would begin each peace, we would sing through a straw, lip trill, or do something to get the breath flowing and the energy engaged. We found it hard to sing through our straws when he asked us if we were sharing them.

We were finally ready to start recording after finishing our sound check. We began with “Tungamira,” followed by “Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord”, "Hymn of Heaven", and “How Can I Keep From Singing?.” We felt the time crunch. Our evening concert was rolling around faster than we wanted it to. After recording a few takes on Steal Away, we stopped and turned our attention to preparing for the evening concert.

By 4:00 pm, we started our vocal break and rest time. We did a silent dress rehearsal, after which Katrina’s parents kindly served us a delicious supper. Around 6:00 pm, a crowd began gathering outside, and at 6:30 pm the doors were opened.

We were delighted to see the many faces of friends and family who came to enjoy this beautiful music in this beautiful venue.

We all feel the need of sleep as we prepare for a big day of recording tomorrow. God has been good to us. It has been such a gift to make beautiful music with friends and to worship the One who is worthy of our praise. Our prayer for recording day is that God’s Spirit would use the sounds we make and the text we sing to speak to the many people around the world who will never get the chance to hear us live.

-Nathan Miller