Final Bethel Choir Concert (June 7th)

Today is a bitter sweet day. Today I sing my last concert with Bethel Choir. It has been an amazing ride these past four years. As with every parting, I reflect on my past experience and memories.  I consider every member of Bethel Choir as a part of my family. Bethel Choir is a community and a family, and I am positive that I am not the only person that feels this way. I cherish the memories and friendships that I have made over the years.

At this time I would like to give a special thanks to DP. Dr. Dennis Port. You were one of the major reasons why I came to Bethel. I look up to you with the utmost respect and honor. Singing for you will be something that I will cherish forever. 

When we arrived in Bydoszcz, we arrived in time for lunch. I explored the city with Ellie, Lisa, Leah, Andrea, and Kali. The story, for at least me on this trip, was that there were many people on this tour and in this choir that I really did not know. I am surprised that I was not friends with some of the people sooner. The six of us had a lovely day exploring the city before our concert. 

This statue was balanced on a wire that spanned the width of the river/canal

The Girls (left to right: Lisa, Leah, and Kali)

The Canal

The girls try an album cover shot (left to right: leah, Kali, Lisa, Andrea, Ellie)

We ate lunch at a place in the main platz. It was fun and equally hard to order food. We really did not know what we were getting because we could not read the menu. We stuck to one of the few things that we knew...pasta. It turned out pretty well. I ate a spicy pasta dish. Don't know what it was or what was in it, but it was tasty. After lunch we walked around more and then we took a break and got some ice cream in a cafe. By then we had to meet up with the rest of the choir people to have our rehearsal before the concert at the church.

Left to Right: Lisa, Leah, Me, Ellie, Kali, and Andrea

We arrived at the church for our rehearsal. It did not really strike me that this was going to be my last concert. I decided that it was not time to be thinking about that. The space upfront was rather limited. The two back rows were squished and therefore had to add an extra row. It was also really hard for those in back to hear the people in front of them. Somehow everything worked out the way that it was supposed to work out. There were some people that came into the church and left the church during our rehearsal. A few of them even came back for the concert. Throughout the tour we were recording every concert to make a live CD. At every concert during our songs "Agnus Dei" and "Magnificat," someone would also cough or make some noise. We just did not have a clean recording of these two songs. So Natalia basically blocked the door or made sure that the door itself did not make noise. We sang these two songs nearly perfectly. So that was good to have finally gotten a clean recording of these two songs.

The site of my final concert

Our dinner consisted of pizza and doughnuts and water. After a few slices of pizza the choir had some down time. Several people used the couches, chairs, and even the floor to take a nap. Others decided to hang out on the lawn of the church. Others yet walked back into town a ways and sat in the platz feeding pigeons. I did a mixture of all three things. I walked around the church and took a few pictures and then walked into town.

The platz with a statue

I don't really know what the statue is of or what it memorializes, but it was very interesting to look at

Once we had robed and had our final devotional, I was handed my robe by my Robe Princess Gabrielle, and I slipped it on for the last time. Throughout this tour my robe has had some malfunctions. The clasp at the top went missing, my zipper pull broke, and the zipper constantly became unclasped. I will not miss wearing my robe. Rather what I will miss are the people that I sang with. Before the concert I made sure to get a picture with the 4-year seniors. We have been around the world together. Arizona and California, the Midwest including Chicago and Ohio, Colorado and everything in-between, and now Europe. I tried to get a picture with each senior separately, but I only managed to get pictures with two of the 5 4-year choir members. There were more of us, but they have dropped out since our freshman year. It was important to get these pictures before the concert, cause almost for certain every senior would be crying having sung our last notes with Bethel Choir.

Jena and Myself

Callie and Myself

The Four Year Seniors (left to right: Myself, Andrea, Jena, Callie, and Jeff)

Crazy Picture!

The concert went well. I felt that I sang one of my best concerts. To be honest, I was unsure of how long I was going to last in the concert. I was confident that I would make it though the end of the concert. But come the end of the concert I would probably loose it. After we had sang our last song, I started to feel the joy and sadness welling up inside me. I could not even sing our benediction "Stay With Us." Hilary, Bre, Jeff, and plenty of others were unable to sing. Tears were in our eyes. After we had sang our last note, DP decided to sing another song. Tynelle next to me yells "why...we can't sing anymore." It was emotional for all of us. As we went outside the seniors were in tears and the underclassmen were crying because the seniors were crying. I completely lost it when I saw Jeff just bawling. We embraced and cried into each others shoulders. Then then looked up and saw Hilary. Hilary is the Robe Queen of the choir. She saw me crying and just bursted into tears. I told her that I am taking my robe off for the last time, and she started to cry again. I approached DP to thank him for all that he has done. I instantly started to cry and I could not even speak. DP embraced me and not much else was said. The embrace said it all.

There were lots of hugs and lots of things said like "I will miss you," "be sure you visit next year," I'll miss your hugs" etc... It was very emotional. The only weird thing was that we still had a few days left of tour. Because the choir was no longer going to Prague, this was our last concert. So what should have been our final act as a choir before leaving was not our final act. I don't think that it will really hit me till next fall when I realize that I do not have to go to choir every day. Then I think I will greatly miss my Bethel Choir family. Despite all of this, it feels like it is time to move on. However that does not change how I feel about the choir. I will remember this choir for the rest of my life.