Day 7

Hey everyone! Well its the end of our final day in Chicago. Which means choir tour 2010 is coming to a close. It's a bittersweet moment for me. I anticipate a warm bed, my own shower, and the comforts of home. But a big part of me also is sad to see this wonderful time come to a close. We have truly built a bridge to Chicago. God gave us some awesome ministry opportunities to the lower west side today at The Marcy Center. And He has done that for us all week. But just like any time you build a bridge, BOTH sides are changed. In the few days we have been here, I have seen so much change for the better in our group. We have grown closer. We have grown stronger, and we have grown a little more like Christ. We are united in purpose and being. New friendships made here will be long lasting and old friendships have been sharpened and become deeper. Jesus is doing amazing things and NewSong is a part of it. It is an honor as a youth minister to witness it and to tell you all about it back home. Tomorrow, sadly, there will be no video here, but instead you will get the NewSong choir in the flesh as we arrive home tomorrow. Our schedule has us arriving around 9:30. We will have the students call you after our dinner stop at Lambert's to let you know what variations we run into whether it be earlier or later. Thank you so much friends and family for your prayers. I believe they were answered. Be ready, you will have changed kids when they come home. But you will also have tired ones. You're welcome :) Just kidding! We'll see you tomorrow. Once again this is Zack signing off. We'll see you on Blogspot next year!

Day 6

Day 6! Play day and a LONG DAY. Its 1 am and we are all actually still up. We had an incredible day in Chicago being tourist! Our day began in the clouds as we went to the 103rd story of the Sears (now WIllis) Tower. Then we had an afternoon at Wrigley field where we had an incredible game. Cubbies won in the 9th inning! What a game! Then the seniors wen ton a super secret trip. I'd tell you more but it wouldn't be a secret! After a late night coming back we got together for a wonderful night of deep worship together with communion and blessing our seniors with our affirmation, encouragement and love. It was a truly powerful night. Because of the late hour and all the activities, there was no time to edit. Unfortunately we won't have a video tonight. But tomorrow we will present our final video. We'll include some footage from today in it as well.

Thanks for your prayers. See you soon!

Z

Day 5

Wednesday is a good day people! :) The sun came out for us as the rain departed for a great day of ministry in Chicago. We started with a brief orientation time and then got to work! The girls and guys split up today to take on two different tasks. The guys went to a home our host deacon knew and did some major yard clean up and work to give the yard a new face lift. The girls went back to Cornerstone Community Outreach to help with the major task of sorting through clothes and shoes for the homeless living in the shelter to have. After our ministry time we went to lunch and then came back to our host church in Indiana early to get ready for our Wednesday night Church concert for them. Then we had an amazing time where our youth shared testimony to the other youth group the power of doing missions and what Christ is doing in our group. Then we had some play time with them and bond together. Overall, an incredible day. This trip has been great so far. God is doing so much in the lives of our students. It's amazing to see. Tomorrow is our play day so be ready for a really fun video. Thank you for your prayers! I believe they are being answered in a big way! Have a great night!

Z

Day 4

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO AT www.ustream.tv/user/zackbutterfield

Our update is on a video recorded live tonight. Go to that site and click on the video titled "Newsong live from Chicago." At the beginning i give an update on what we did and you will get to see the kiddos. Check back tomorrow for another video.

If you had problems on ustream, go ahead and make your own account to use for future chatting. It is pretty simple to do and it is a sure fire way for it to work. Thanks everyone. I'll keep you updated for any future USTREAMS!

Z

Day 3

Day three is done. Boy what a long but awesome day! Today was our first day to the city and our first ministry partnership with Uptown Baptist Church. We spent our morning doing some mission training/orientation with them. They showed us around their campus and put us to work cleaning up a nearby playground. Then we went off to Millennium Park for some lunch and a brief hang out time. After that, we headed back to UBC to sing for the homeless as they waited for the weekly meal the church provides for them. Needless to say it was an extremely powerful experience. And the best part I we are just scratching the surface when it comes to the mission work we will be doing with this church. After cleaning up, the hour was late and we headed home for a late dinner and debrief with Taylor Bodmer as our U Rock Winner! I think we will all sleep well tonight. More to come tomorrow. We'll see you then!

USTREAM UPDATE: Tomorrow (Tuesday) at 9:45pm we will be bringing you a LIVE update. Go to www.ustream.tv/user/zackbutterfield and then click 'go to show page" to see us live. You can chat with us back by logging in in the chat window. username you will use is tbcuser and the password is trinity. Go their now and watch and instruction video on how to do this. See you tomorrow night at 9:45!

Z

Day one is done! Well the first FULL day. Today was our Highland day as we stayed in the suburb for worship and local ministry before hitting the big city tomorrow. Today marked with an early wake up call. The kids did great being flexible and cleaning up and repacking so church functions could still be held. We were blessed to be a part of the worship service this morning as well. After spending the Sunday School hour with the youth and then leading in worship at Cline Avenue Baptist, we headed to a park for lunch and then performed our first full performance at a Highland Nursing Home. The choir sounded great and really had a wonderful ministry opportunity with those living there. After that, it was already time for dinner, showers and debriefing with our U Rock Winner, Emma Morse! Tomorrow we get up earlier, work even harder and head to Chi Town. Enjoy the video! Look for us tomorrow night!

USTREAM UPDATE: Tomorrow is looking to be a very late night for us. Be looking for a time Wednesday or Thursday night during our debriefing time. I will send you an exact date and time soon. We look forward to seeing you LIVE!

Z

Fresh Wind Tour Day 1

Well, we made it to our destination! We had a great day of travel. We didn't see too much traffic and we didn't see a whole lot of rain. Although the one downpour we did see happen to come right when we were off the bus :). After a long day on the road we made it to our host Church in Indiana about 30 minutes away from Chicago. We had a good set up, found all of our food here waiting for us and all got our showers in. After that, we had our first night of evening devotions as we prepared for the week, we also had our First U Rock presentation. One choir member a day has the opportunity to win the U Rock for showing a great attitude, hard work, spiritual leadership, and being an overall model for the group. Tonight it was presented to Austin Cash. I am so excited for what lies ahead. Tomorrow is our first full day of ministry and we hit the ground running singing for the service tomorrow and for a local nursing home down the road. It is so clear God has paved a way for us and we cant wait to be a part of His glory. Be praying for us. Leave some comments in the comment section if you like, and ENJOY THE DAY 1 VIDEO! It's 1 am here now and this will be the usual time for videos to be loaded. The quality is a little low due to internet mumbo jumbo but it still should be fun to watch.

USTREAM UPDATE: I'll leave one of these everyday. We still do not have a time for the ustream. We will find our rhythm tomorrow and get a feel for what will work best. We are very optimistic as the internet works well here. We'll keep you posted. Thanks for your prayers!

Z

New year, new look, NEW VIDEOS!! Hey everyone. Welcome back to the NewSong blog page! We have a new look to the website, and new videos coming to you this year every day during choir tour. These videos will be 2-3 minutes packed with tour action, singing, missions, and testimonies. We are so excited about the week coming. In our excitement, Jamie and i made a video that many of you have seen, High Five Chicago. It's a teaser of all the places our choir will go to while on tour. Hope you enjoy! Keep praying for us as we get prepared for the awesome adventure God has for us