Monday, Monday

Today was a great day! Our schedule changed a little bit and gave us some time to relax this morning. The concert that was scheduled for this morning was combined with the afternoon concert since they were at the same location. After a relaxing morning, we headed to Igreja Batosta Parque Anchieta for our concert. This was a combined school and church concert so there were many young people in attendance. Today we had some instrument demonstrations to help the younger ones understand what an orchestra is made up of. After we played Larry preached and did a great job. The audience was very enthusiastic towards our music. We also have a couple of celebrities traveling with our group. Ellen Vanderslice, who plays trumpet and is 89 years old, has been receiving a lot of new fans due to her age. Also Tom Cruise is traveling with us and played the drums today...oh wait, they were talking about Tim Smith. Apparently they think he looks like Tom Cruise (I don't see the resemblance).

After our afternoon concert, we traveled quite a ways away from the hotel over one of the longest bridges in the world. The bridge spans the bay connection Rio de Janeiro to Niteroi. We were able to take some great pictures of the city of Rio from this bridge.

Our concert tonight was at Primeria Ingreja Batista de Niteroi. This was another old church that looked like a former government building. the orchestra played for about 1800 people at this church tonight. After the music portion, Larry preached another great message. Many of those in attendance tonight were visitors to the church. During the invitation about 10-15 people came down front to receive Christ as their Savior. The orchestra played a couple encore pieces including a second hearing of "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho." Apparently, they really like that song down here. After the concert, we had a fabulous dinner - chicken lasagna. Before we loaded the bus to head back to the hotel, the guys cleared the tables by taking all of the plates, silverware, and cups to the kitchen.

Tomorrow I will have the pictures updated. I am leaving the computer all night so the pictures will upload. The internet is not as fast here as it is at home, so it takes longer for them to load. I promise they are coming.

Pray for us tomorrow. We have three concerts, two at the same location but different people attending. Pray that we will have the energy to present a pleasing sound unto the Lord.