The Adventure begins
Welcome back everyone to J209 Story Time!
This week we will giving you the exclusive story of the full Harmony Sweepstakes adventure, and to begin, we will zoom backwards, all the way to an obscure day in February- the day Ethan, our bass, told us we could compete in a regional acappella competition.
After hearing about this opportunity, we decided to apply, and then virtually forgot about it.
Then we got the news that we were ACCEPTED. That’s when the insanity began.
At the time, we only had 3 solid songs: Oh My Soul, Fire, and Come As You Are. We knew we needed another song that said “KABLAMO!” and knock the socks off the of judges, but we simply didn’t have one yet.
So David, our artistic director, enlisted the Lord’s help as he engaged his super-human arranging skills and whipped out an INCREDIBLE arrangement of Nobody, by Casting Crowns- one that was sure to get across who we are, and what our mission was.
Phew! Got that under our belt and ready to go.
But then weeks FLEW by, and we realized it was March 11th- FIVE DAYS before we were to compete at the Pacific Northwest Regional Harmony Sweepstakes.
And we didn’t have any choreography. For any of the songs.
So once again, we poured out our hearts to the Lord, and worked our TAILS OFF to make this come together- and somehow, with the help of Ethan’s, and a wonderful friend’s choreographing skills (and a LOT of sweaty mornings, afternoons & evenings), the Lord made it come together.
And before we knew it- we were off! Flying down the interstate towards Olympia, WA, where we would proclaim Jesus Christ to the acappella community.
A 15 hour drive later, we arrived, exhausted and feeling ill, but ready to take on this beautiful opportunity!
The next day, we had a last minute rehearsal, went to sound check, met all of the other AMAZING groups, and said a prayer behind a really sketch gas station to ask the Lord to give us the opportunity to sing for Him, and give Him the very best we could.
We decided to give the results to the Lord.
But little did we know…
WE WOULD WIN TWO AWARDS- AUDIENCE FAVORITE AND 1ST PLACE!!!
The Lord was so good to us that night. We saw so many miracles, and met so many amazing people, so we decided to say a prayer of gratitude to Him, and His goodness.
But more miracles were coming…
Because nationals was right around the corner!
Read the next blog post “Spread The Good Word Like Butter” to read about Harmony Sweepstakes Adventure 2.0 - when J209 went to NATIONALS!
This story is sure to pin you to your seat until you know every detail.
—Check out the following blog post to hear about the miracles we experienced at nationals!!—
