Hey everyone!
It‛s good to be back with all of you. I can‛t believe how fast time is passing by!
As most of you know, my family and I went on a trip up to Canada, to attend the Jaime Jorge Strings Master Class, at the Fountainview Academy campus, May 20-26. So I thought for this month‛s update, I‛d tell you all about our exciting trip!
Juanita with one of Craig Cleveland's puppies..."Dad.....?"
We left our house at around 6:30 a.m and planned on arriving at the FA (Fountainview Academy) campus at around 5 o‛clock p.m, so that we could arrive in time for the campus tour.
When we got to Seattle, we didn‛t expect so much traffic! Later, talking to someone who lived in Seattle, we were informed that you could always expect heavy traffic. I certainly wouldn‛t want to live there!
At the Canadian border there were only a few cars in front of us, so we were able to get through fairly quickly with no problems. Once we crossed, speed signs were different, the spelling of some words were changed, and instead of miles-per-hour, the speed signs are in kilometers. I had been to Canada once before, so I knew what to expect.
The Fountainview campus is roughly 4 hours away from the border, so we still had a long drive once we crossed the border. For me it went by much faster though because there was so many interesting things t
o see.... at least while we were in the urban areas.
As we got closer to Fountainview, it got dryer and dryer. Not pretty and green, like Oregon! At least Canada still had trees and big hillsides, that looked almost like mountains.
Finally!!!! We have arrived at the campus! We were among the first people there, other then some of the FA students, who were staying for the Master‛s Class. The people that were there made us feel so welcome and at home. It was like meeting friends that you hadn‛t seen in a long time, except many of them we didn‛t even know personally.
We stayed at the house of a very nice family. They made us all feel very welcome, and after we did some talking, we discovered that we had met before, at a family camp up in Washington!
Wednesday. The day we began our intense classes. Each individual instrument, except for the Violas, and 3rd Violins, gathered in different rooms for sectional rehearsals at 8:30-10:30 a.m. After the sectional rehearsals, we all headed down to the auditorium, where everyone gathered together for the full rehearsal which was 10:30-12 noon. At 12 noon, we took a break for lunch which lasted until 1:30 p.m. Then, 1:30-2:45 p.m we gathered again for sectional rehearsals.
At 2:45-3:45 p.m there was planned some outdoor activities. I choose to go on the hike to the Fraser River. It wasn‛t a really intense hike. It was more fun coming back from the river, because going to the river it was all a downhill trek, but coming up it was all uphill!
Supper lasted until 6:45 p.m. After supper, everyone got together in the auditorium because Jaime Jorge was going to be sharing some music, and his testimony. Jaime Jorge finished at around 7:30 p.m, and immediately afterward we all headed to our separate classes for another sectional rehearsal which lasted until 8:30 p.m.
On Friday, we had a performance at the Oliver SDA Church. Clarissa rode on the Fountainview bus, Alissa and I rode on a bus that was rented for that occasion, and our parents drove our vehicle. We were supposed to arrive at the Oliver church at around 4 p.m so that we could have supper at 5 p.m and be on stage at 6 o‛clock p.m.
Unfortunately, we didn‛t expect so many delays! Satan was hard at work to keep us from sharing Jesus through our music.
Our first obstacle was a train. A looooooooonnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg train! It slowly made it‛s way over the tracks, and when it was almost over, so that we could cross, it stopped! So the train sat there for a while, and then it started to move, but in the wrong direction!!!! The train was moving backward! Later we learned that some of the tracks were damaged.
After finally getting across the tracks, we were riding a long and then we came to a stop! Cars were backed up for miles, and everyone was just sitting. We saw ambulances, police, and fire trucks, go around us down the highway, so we assumed that there must have been a bad accident. Of course we were hoping that it wasn‛t anyone from Fountainview! After about a ½ hour wait, maybe more, traffic started to move. We knew when we had arrived at the accident seine, because everything was still there. There was only one car involved. Somehow it had rolled over, and the whole top was smashed in. But the thing I‛ll remember most was the blood. I‛ve never seen so much blood, it was all over the road, like an inch thick. It was horrible to see the man that was still in the flipped car.... dead.
Needless to say, that was the talk of the bus, until the next obstacle. It made everyone realize how short life can be. We never know when something could happen that could change our lives forever. But the big question is, if I died today, would I be ready to meet Jesus at the resurrection? We also contemplated our first obstacle, the train. If we had not had to stop for the train, we could have very well likely, been involved in the accident! Praise God for His hedge of protection!
The third obstacle was a hit deer. There was a deer that someone had hit only minutes before we arrived. There was only a slight hold-up, while some people moved the deer off of the road. But again, though at first it seemed that Satan was "warring" against us, God‛s hand was truly in control, and I‛ll tell you why. As we continued to drive down the high-way we came to another abrupt stop after a girl on the bus let out a short gasp. We all quickly looked up, and let out an "oh, no. What now!"
Before, I tell you what the deal was, let me explain to you a little bit about the country roads we were traveling on. Huge cliff like mountains towered at the side of the highway on one side, and a steep drop-off, into the river, welcomed anyone on the other side. The road was mostly narrow, and sometimes pretty windy. Signs were everywhere warning of rockslide‛s.
So anyway, we all look up to see what the problem is this time, and three cars in front of us a rockslide had occurred. One of the girls on our bus saw it happen, and that‛s why she let out a gasp. We again Praised God for His hedge of protection!
After that, there were no more obstacles placed in our path. But we were worried that we wouldn‛t get to the church in time of the performance! We already knew there would not be any supper!
The concert at Oliver went really well. I could definitely feel the Holy Spirit resting upon us as we played.
After the concert we headed to our hotel and bedded down at around 11:30 p.m. It was good to lie down and rest!
Sabbath morning we loaded for the Okanagan Mini Camp-meeting. We were to play a few songs for the service. It was another long, rewarding day, and by 11 p.m, we were settled into our hotels, and bedded down for the night.
Sunday. It came way to fast! Today was the day we would have to say goodbye to all the friends we‛d made. There wasn‛t much time to think about that though, because we had another performance to do. It was a rather interesting experience, and I wouldn‛t have missed it for anything! After the performance we all packed up, and prepared to head for the Kettle Valley Railroad. We got to ride on a steam train!!!! That was very fun. The only downside was that after the train ride, we would all head our different way‛s back home.
We left for home at around 3:45 p.m. It was sooooo sad leaving everyone. It was a rewarding experience though, and I look forward to going again!
Time is pressing me now, so I must close. May God bless all of you!
In Him,
Juanita
We left our house at around 6:30 a.m and planned on arriving at the FA (Fountainview Academy) campus at around 5 o‛clock p.m, so that we could arrive in time for the campus tour.
When we got to Seattle, we didn‛t expect so much traffic! Later, talking to someone who lived in Seattle, we were informed that you could always expect heavy traffic. I certainly wouldn‛t want to live there!
At the Canadian border there were only a few cars in front of us, so we were able to get through fairly quickly with no problems. Once we crossed, speed signs were different, the spelling of some words were changed, and instead of miles-per-hour, the speed signs are in kilometers. I had been to Canada once before, so I knew what to expect.
The Fountainview campus is roughly 4 hours away from the border, so we still had a long drive once we crossed the border. For me it went by much faster though because there was so many interesting things t
o see.... at least while we were in the urban areas.As we got closer to Fountainview, it got dryer and dryer. Not pretty and green, like Oregon! At least Canada still had trees and big hillsides, that looked almost like mountains.
Finally!!!! We have arrived at the campus! We were among the first people there, other then some of the FA students, who were staying for the Master‛s Class. The people that were there made us feel so welcome and at home. It was like meeting friends that you hadn‛t seen in a long time, except many of them we didn‛t even know personally.
We stayed at the house of a very nice family. They made us all feel very welcome, and after we did some talking, we discovered that we had met before, at a family camp up in Washington!
Wednesday. The day we began our intense classes. Each individual instrument, except for the Violas, and 3rd Violins, gathered in different rooms for sectional rehearsals at 8:30-10:30 a.m. After the sectional rehearsals, we all headed down to the auditorium, where everyone gathered together for the full rehearsal which was 10:30-12 noon. At 12 noon, we took a break for lunch which lasted until 1:30 p.m. Then, 1:30-2:45 p.m we gathered again for sectional rehearsals.
At 2:45-3:45 p.m there was planned some outdoor activities. I choose to go on the hike to the Fraser River. It wasn‛t a really intense hike. It was more fun coming back from the river, because going to the river it was all a downhill trek, but coming up it was all uphill!
Juanita and other 2nd violin students in their sectional class
After the hike, we again gathered together in the auditorium for full rehearsal which lasted until 6 p.m. By then everyone was getting pretty hungry, so we were all relieved to see that supper was right after the full rehearsal.
Supper lasted until 6:45 p.m. After supper, everyone got together in the auditorium because Jaime Jorge was going to be sharing some music, and his testimony. Jaime Jorge finished at around 7:30 p.m, and immediately afterward we all headed to our separate classes for another sectional rehearsal which lasted until 8:30 p.m.
On Friday, we had a performance at the Oliver SDA Church. Clarissa rode on the Fountainview bus, Alissa and I rode on a bus that was rented for that occasion, and our parents drove our vehicle. We were supposed to arrive at the Oliver church at around 4 p.m so that we could have supper at 5 p.m and be on stage at 6 o‛clock p.m.
Unfortunately, we didn‛t expect so many delays! Satan was hard at work to keep us from sharing Jesus through our music.
Our first obstacle was a train. A looooooooonnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg train! It slowly made it‛s way over the tracks, and when it was almost over, so that we could cross, it stopped! So the train sat there for a while, and then it started to move, but in the wrong direction!!!! The train was moving backward! Later we learned that some of the tracks were damaged.
After finally getting across the tracks, we were riding a long and then we came to a stop! Cars were backed up for miles, and everyone was just sitting. We saw ambulances, police, and fire trucks, go around us down the highway, so we assumed that there must have been a bad accident. Of course we were hoping that it wasn‛t anyone from Fountainview! After about a ½ hour wait, maybe more, traffic started to move. We knew when we had arrived at the accident seine, because everything was still there. There was only one car involved. Somehow it had rolled over, and the whole top was smashed in. But the thing I‛ll remember most was the blood. I‛ve never seen so much blood, it was all over the road, like an inch thick. It was horrible to see the man that was still in the flipped car.... dead.
Needless to say, that was the talk of the bus, until the next obstacle. It made everyone realize how short life can be. We never know when something could happen that could change our lives forever. But the big question is, if I died today, would I be ready to meet Jesus at the resurrection? We also contemplated our first obstacle, the train. If we had not had to stop for the train, we could have very well likely, been involved in the accident! Praise God for His hedge of protection!
The third obstacle was a hit deer. There was a deer that someone had hit only minutes before we arrived. There was only a slight hold-up, while some people moved the deer off of the road. But again, though at first it seemed that Satan was "warring" against us, God‛s hand was truly in control, and I‛ll tell you why. As we continued to drive down the high-way we came to another abrupt stop after a girl on the bus let out a short gasp. We all quickly looked up, and let out an "oh, no. What now!"
Before, I tell you what the deal was, let me explain to you a little bit about the country roads we were traveling on. Huge cliff like mountains towered at the side of the highway on one side, and a steep drop-off, into the river, welcomed anyone on the other side. The road was mostly narrow, and sometimes pretty windy. Signs were everywhere warning of rockslide‛s.
So anyway, we all look up to see what the problem is this time, and three cars in front of us a rockslide had occurred. One of the girls on our bus saw it happen, and that‛s why she let out a gasp. We again Praised God for His hedge of protection!
After that, there were no more obstacles placed in our path. But we were worried that we wouldn‛t get to the church in time of the performance! We already knew there would not be any supper!
The concert at Oliver went really well. I could definitely feel the Holy Spirit resting upon us as we played.
After the concert we headed to our hotel and bedded down at around 11:30 p.m. It was good to lie down and rest!
Sabbath morning we loaded for the Okanagan Mini Camp-meeting. We were to play a few songs for the service. It was another long, rewarding day, and by 11 p.m, we were settled into our hotels, and bedded down for the night.
Sunday. It came way to fast! Today was the day we would have to say goodbye to all the friends we‛d made. There wasn‛t much time to think about that though, because we had another performance to do. It was a rather interesting experience, and I wouldn‛t have missed it for anything! After the performance we all packed up, and prepared to head for the Kettle Valley Railroad. We got to ride on a steam train!!!! That was very fun. The only downside was that after the train ride, we would all head our different way‛s back home.
We left for home at around 3:45 p.m. It was sooooo sad leaving everyone. It was a rewarding experience though, and I look forward to going again!
Time is pressing me now, so I must close. May God bless all of you!
In Him,
Juanita
2 comments:
Do you know Heather Snyder? Sheplays violin and flute... and she went there I think.
~Alyssa from SDA teens & AOY
Oh the puppy is cute! Nice way to sneak in a request!
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