International Chorus

Note:  From July 17th-26th this summer, I was a member of something called the Youthcue International Chorus.  Basically it's a program through the Youthcue organization (website: www.youthcue.org )where students, ages 15-20, from all over the US (and Canada) audition/apply and are selected to go on a ten-day trip together.  Most of the students have never met any of the others, unless they've been on previous trips.  The program also teaches leadership skills in hopes that the students will return home better prepared to emerge as leaders in their home churches and choirs. The tour this past year was to French Canada, specifically Quebec City and Montreal.  It was extremely meaningful to me, and when I got home my choir director asked me to write a report about it for a committee at my church.  It's not the best thing I've ever written by any means, but it's something that meant a lot to me and that I wanted to share, so here a few excerpts...

"During the weeks leading up to this thing called 'International Chorus', I found myself alternating between excitement and anxiety.  Committing ten whole days of my summer to thirty other students that I had never met before in my life was definitely outside of my comfort zone.  But as it turns out, taking that leap of faith resulted in ten days of making music and being swept up into God's presence with thirty students whom I will never forget.
It took me the entire first day of the trip to realize that I had come into this experience with the automatic assumption that it was going to be something like a youth choir trip on steroids.  It didn't take me nearly as long to figure out how wrong I was.  There's so much I want to say about my time with the Youthcue International Chorus (or INC), but it's hard to squash ten days of incredible fellowship and stories into a few hundred words.  I wish I could communicate how much fun it was to bond with each other while sitting in a boiling hotel lobby, watching one of the worst Asian action movies I have ever seen, on the French channel.  I wish I could put into words my love for the music we learned, or the warmth of the blend that the chorus had.  I wish I had a dozen pages to try and describe to you one of the grey stone cathedrals with centuries-old stained glass windows and a seven-second echo.  I really wish I could tell everyone about playing ninja on the metro, being let loose for hours at a time in cities that felt more European than North American, playing Barzilian Uno just outside the elevators, and nearly getting lost in Quebec City while trying to fine the Cirque du Soleil.  I wish I could explain the fun of jet-boating in the freezing rapids of the Saint Lawrence River, why Montreal bus mirrors could be dangerous, what to do if shot with a dart by your fellow singers, and how handing out food for four hours at the Family Distribution Center just might earn you a shirt with the name "Fonzie" still attached to it.  I wish I could tell you a lot more than I can in this one report...

...I remember the first night pretty clearly.  we had just finished up our first rehearsal together, and we were sitting down as a group for our introductory leadership session with our director, Randy Edwards.  One of the first things he said struck me deeply. 
'Look around this room," he said.  "This trip will be the last time that this specific group will ever sing together again on this earth."  The truth of that statement surprised me.  What he said was right- we had students from all over the continent, and while some of us might reunite once in awhile in small groups, it would be virtually impossible for this same chorus to ever sing together again.  To me, it made the trip seem much more precious, especially as it drew to a close.  I will never be able to express the deep gratitude I feel for having this opportunity to travel with the INC.  Every single singer in the chorus and every adult who was present ministered to me so much throughout the trip.  I want ot say thank you to Randy Edwards, Lois Gagne, and everyone else involved with the International Chorus for making it happen; and thank you to everyone who helped to get me there.  Maybe most of all, thank you to all the students I met there- I hope to see you all again.This trip was my first; God willing, it will not be my last..."    


So, yeah.  I really wish I could still be on that trip, with those people.  I miss them all a ton.  
Sorry for the sentimentality, I just felt like sharing this.