Some Stuff and Fall Availability 2015 :)

Hi Team!

I hope you are all enjoying your week and staying cool in this summer heat! I'm looking forward to this Sunday and the VBS closing program....I think the whole week at Hope has been a blast for the kids as well as the adults - it's so cool to see all that they're doing to reach these kids and show the love and power of God! 😊 

So, here's what's up!

1. We have a whole month left of this hot summer and I'm not trying to rush anything, but since I had some other stuff to touch base on, I figured I would go ahead and request your "UNAVAILABLE" dates for Sept, Oct, and Nov. There is no pressure to jump on it, but I'll be hoping to hear from you by the middle of August - let's say by Monday, 8/17. As far as I can tell, the only date that we will NOT have a Saturday night rehearsal is on Halloween, 10/31. We'll be bumping rehearsal to Thursday, 10/29 at 7:00 pm, so keep that in mind as you look at your availability. 

2. This is mainly for the band: I have a correction on a key for a new song. I initially added "Breathe on Us" to the blogspot and indicated that we would raise it 1/2 step from F# to G major - which we did and we'll keep! Then, I added "Hands to the Heavens" and said we would play it in the original key, but mistakenly thought it was G since it was the same as "Breathe on Us". BUT, the link is actually in F# - so we will raise it 1/2 step to G as well. Please note that as you practice it on your own. I'm sorry for the confusion!

3. Stuff coming up! Our sound team and some of you who are involved have already gotten a "heads up" on this, but I wanted to let the whole team know that we are going to be trying out some ideas and making some adjustments on the stage. There are a handful of reasons, but one of the main ones is to reduce the stage sound and bring some clarity to the band and the vocalists, and give our sound team more control over the room. We are going to be resetting the stage and possibly moving the drums to the side and elevating them, shifting the rest of the band as well, and possibly moving the singers to the stage. We are working toward evenly amplifying the drums levels by using sound dampening (already in the works, and/or plexi-glass panels), as well as moving our vocalists to a place where they have more clarity without extra things being picked up and amplified through their monitors.

We are 100% sure that we can improve overall, but as you know, we can't do anything unless we give it a shot...or maybe 10! ☺ The sound team has stuff in the works for cleaning up the house speakers and working toward in-ear monitoring for some of the band. We aren't sure what will work best, but as a team, I want everyone in the loop as much as possible. Thank you for your willingness to be flexible as we research and see what works and what doesn't. 

As always, I am so thankful for each of you and for your hearts to serve! I know we haven't had a "worship workshop" since April of 2014, so I'm praying over 'what and when' God is leading us to put together....I have lots of thoughts, but some are still pretty disorganized, lol! So, pray for that to be clear and I'll touch base with everyone when it comes together!

Have a great afternoon - see you on the weekend!
Dana