“Spread the good word like butter”
Last month, we were gearing up for the Harmony Sweepstakes Nationals in California, and let me tell you—things got wild right before the competition. So, here’s the scoop: Abi was super sick leading up to the event. Like, really sick.
We tried rehearsing without her on Monday and Tuesday, crossing our fingers for a miracle recovery. In the meantime, we decided to switch up our opener, and spent a bunch of time working on tuning, vowels, and choreography. By some stroke of luck, Abi managed to make it in on Wednesday afternoon! She couldn’t sing full out (poor thing had to take it easy), but honestly, just having her back with us was a huge relief.
Fast forward to Friday evening, we’re all heading to the airport, making our way through security… well, all of us except David and Jarom. When they finally arrived at the airport, we got a call from Jarom—turns out, he forgot all forms of ID and couldn’t get past security. Cue the panic. We were joking about the worst-case scenarios—like, no beatboxer for the competition, or David stepping in to beatbox for us—but we also held onto hope that maybe Jarom could catch a later flight.
And then... miracle moment. Jarom somehow managed to get his identity verified with some super helpful airport security folks, and literally ran onto the plane as the very last passenger. Of course, the whole J209 crew went wild, cheering and clapping like he was coming back from battle.
It was an adventure, to say the least, but we made it through and headed off to California!
When we finally landed, we piled into our new rental van, which we immediately named “Thug” (because it rhymes with “Doug,” our other band van, obviously). After a quick pit stop at McDonald’s for some much-needed snacks (not sponsored), we rushed over to the hotel and pulled in at 11:57 p.m. – just three minutes before they were about to shut down the check-in system for the night. Talk about cutting it close!
We all got checked in, which felt like a little victory, and then headed to our rooms. But, of course, Kim, Abi, our manager Shane, and I didn’t get any sleep until around 2:00 a.m. thanks to some seriously rowdy neighbors—and, oh yeah, the police showing up. But hey, no harm done, and we were all safe and sound in the end. Just another miracle to add to our list for the day!
The next afternoon, we grabbed some epic Shake Shack burgers (also sadly not sponsored) and then had a rehearsal to run through our set and touch on some last-minute things. After that, we headed over to the Marin Center for sound check. We ran through our set, and when we finished, we got the most priceless reaction from the sound guy. He was absolutely blown away. It’s always a good sign when the sound guy’s speechless!
We got concert-ready, grabbed some dinner, and finally it was time for the competition to kick off! Our performance was scheduled right after intermission, so we had a chance to sit back and watch some other groups, and let me tell you, we were blown away by their talent!
Right before heading on stage, we gathered for a prayer, dedicating our performance to God no matter how the competition went. We had some nerves, of course, but mostly we were just pumped to share our fiery faith with everyone in the crowd.
We gave it everything we had, staying focused on our mission: to ignite the fire of faith in Christ. Abi absolutely crushed her solos—she said she only had about 60% in the tank, but we all knew that God was working through her, filling in the gap and making it all come together.
We ended up placing third, which we were super honored by, but honestly, the real win for us was just having the chance to share our message of faith. And the cherry on top? After the performance, an audience member came up to us and said, “You guys spread the good word like butter!!” I mean, how amazing is that?!
The next day, a friend invited us to come sing at their church during the service, and it was such a special, heartfelt moment. We got to perform “Come As You Are” for the congregation, and it was honestly a privilege. We’re so grateful for all of you who believe in us and help spread the fire of faith in Christ!! 🔥
