My friends at CO Raleigh invited me to lead the music at their Fall Retreat in Wilmington NC.  It was great to hang out with everyone over the weekend.  I hadn’t seen most of them since the summer.  Rocky and Daniel helped me out with the music.  We sang some modern day hymns as well as some older ones.   I’ve played church music in a lot of different parts of the church.  I’m always blown away with CO kids because they actually get it and sing like the church is supposed to.  I love it!

Rocky, Daniel, and I toured around several pawnshops in Wilmington scouring for interesting musical and camera gear.  Daniel and I did manage to buy some virtually new Shure SM-57′s for $40 each.  Rocky managed to trade in a guitar he didn’t really want anymore for a guitar cab that he needed.  I also got to play several cool vintage guitars at Tony’s Guitar Shop.  Great weekend!

Some of the other CO staff and I have started going out to Oxford Manor a couple of Saturdays a month.  Oxford Manor is a project in North Durham where most white people don’t venture to explore.  Some people from our local church, the Summit, started this kid’s ministry that happens every Saturday.

A typical afternoon at Oxford Manor looks like this:

We arrive.  Set up in apartment’s park.

Knock on doors and start collecting kids.

We bring the kids to the park and play like crazy.

Stop playing to sing Jesus songs.

Then we have bible story time.

Finally, we feed them snacks (AKA pump them full of sugar before we take them back to their parents).

*We’re hoping that our students involved CO will start following our lead, and join us as we partner with the Summit’s ministries in the local community.

Here are some pics from the week.

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