A Wendy V Trip Report: 

MARK LOWRY SENIOR TRIP

TRI-LAKES CENTER, BRANSON, MO

APRIL 16-17, 2007

(photo by Kate Dunavant)

Over the month of April, I've become quite the road warrior. One week after the 15 hour, 900 mile road trip which moved me from St. Paul, MN to my new home in Nashville, TN, we were off again, this time to Branson, MO for Mark Lowry's Senior Trip. We got on 60 West, which for the first stretch was mostly rural road. It was a much more interesting view than what you'd see from the freeways, but with some of the low speed limits and the number of trucks we encountered, we wondered if were were going to get there before dark. Hours down the road, it did start looking more freeway-like, and we arrived in Branson about 3:30 p.m.Sunday afternoon.  Branson itself looks like any other American city out there...K Mart, fast food places, malls, other services...with a lot of theaters and tourist attractions thrown in with it all. After checking in to our hotel, we were off to dinner. We had a great time at BT Bones Steakhouse--fun atmosphere and a great performing duo of Andy and Brenda Coin, who can handle most country standards you can think of and do them well.

Monday:

After a day of shopping in Branson Landing, a great mall with a lovely lakeside walking path, it was onward to the first night of Senior Trip. It started with Mark's "God Is Crazy About You" concert with Stan Whitmire and the debut of the new LordSong lineup: Michael and Kim Lord and Kim's sisters Valerie and Heather and Greg Day, composer of "Midnight Cry". Mark's humor for the evening centered on sprouting tumors and the motorcycle accident  from a year ago. Musical highlights: Mark gave us a couple of songs from the upcoming (unfortunately, the album was not yet ready to be released in time for this event) hymns project: "Count Your Blessings" and "Does Jesus Care." Now, if you heard the latter song sampled on Mark's site, l am here to tell you there was no studio sweetening done to his voice. He sounded just as awesome live as in the sample. Mark also talked a bit about God's grace. He pointed out that Jim and Lori Bakker were in the audience, and also shared that we all need grace as every one of us has something to lean on God to go through, including himself and his family...all leading into a powerful version of "Make It Real". By request, Mark did "Mary Did You Know" which as always brought the audience to its feet.

Other musical highlights: Woody Wright and his wife Vonnie did a nice cover of the George Jones/Tammy Wynette classic "We're Gonna Hold On." For those who didn't know Vonnie sang, she has an excellent voice.  Joy Gardner rocked the house with "Promise Coming Down That Dusty Road." LordSong did "Under His Wings", introduced by Kim Lord giving us a praise report on her dad's recent illness (he is doing very well, beating the grim prognosis doctors gave him last year). Karen Peck and New River did their well loved "Four Days Late", showing us that God is always on time. (To digress--I witnessed the truth of this song in my move from St. Paul. My friends were one day late getting to me in MN because they were stuck in Chicago, but God gave us great weather, many scenic views and a smooth ride once we did leave. The weather was not as favorable along the route the day we originally planned to leave).

The always entertaining Barbara Fairchild shared a humorous testimony about getting a face lift, which was inspired thanks to someone who asked her what it was like to be married to someone younger!

In a switch of schedule, the now traditional "Truly Wed Game" hosted by Woody Wright and Mark took place after the concert intermission. Longtime married couples Joe and Norma Jackson, Ida and Ken Kellogg and Perrys couple Libby and Tracy Stuffle played a tight scoring round, but the winners were my friends Rod and Kate Dunavant. Cooked boots and crack cream were just a couple of the responses of "what is the worst thing your wife ever cooked" or "what's in the bathroom drawer" that had the audience in stitches throughout the contest.

By this time there were many familiar faces from other Senior Trips and as normally happens, new friendships taking place. The dedication of many is evident. Some  traveled for days and long stretches of driving solo to get to this event.

Tuesday - 10 am

The morning program was loosely structured, starting with Mark leading the audience in singing a medley of hymns.

Barbara Fairchild spoke and sang on two themes which carried throughout the rest of the day. One being that nothing could separate us from the love of God. The other, she explained with a story about someone being given a gift of song, but God seemingly not allowing her to use it. When this person asked why God would give her a gift and not let it be used as she thought it would, the response from God was "I thought you'd enjoy it." The point was: God is not concerned with how famous you are, but how faithful you are.

Following that was Mark with my personal highlight of the day: he sang a song written by Chris Rice called "Untitled Hymn(Come To Jesus)". A beautiful song, and Mark's performance was jaw-dropping incredible. This was an example of just how well-rounded and complete a singer he is...from the phrasing, vocal power, emotion and the gestures--absolutely stunning.

Aaron Wilburn entertained us with great humor about food and Disneyland...but we were also reminded he wrote great songs like "Four Days Late".  Joy Gardner had us all in worship mode, and Woody Wright did a touching song about his mother in law and her struggles as a child in Poland and how she made it to the U.S.

Our assignment as we went to lunch was: find three people you don't know and talk about the Lord and give your testimony.

(photo by Kate Dunavant)

2 and 7 p.m.

The absolute hit of the second half of the day was the high energy performance of the Perrys. The crowd loved their tributes to the Happy Goodmans and they earned several standing ovations.

Young Perrys pianist Matthew Holt was mentored by Anthony Burger beginning when Matthew was 6...he played a touching tribute of one of Anthony's own arrangements.

We showed our love for Stan Whitmire as he did a lovely solo for us. The new LordSong lineup was better than ever on "Lord of the Dance" and "Day Three". Greg had many requests for his song "Midnight Cry" and did a magnificent job singing it.

Austins Bridge was back with us for Senior Trip and their tight harmonies and energy impressed us all. They have a lot happening these days with a new CD and a special currently running on Gospel Music Channel.

Woody, Barbara and Joy did some additional songs for us, and Karen Peck and New River joined us later for a longer set with songs such as "Four Days Late" done a second time for Mark, and their recent gospel hit "Would You Hold Me While I Cry".

The evening concert started with Mark did a few songs from the "Be the Miracle" CD, plus "Old Rugged Cross" from the forthcoming Hymns album. (Side note: if you loved the hymns sound samples on Mark's site, you will love the full versions more. But, alas, we must wait until summer for the release. Good things are worth the wait.)

Barbara Fairchild did a song and showed a video about her grandchild who is now with the Lord, done with a hopeful perspective.

Mark took some questions and demonstrated yet another talent...playing the piano, which evolved into a four hands duet with Stan.

Greater Vision did a set for us with Gerald Wolfe providing some entertaining wit inbetween songs. 

Following the concerts was another session of Geri-oke. We had some great singers and piano players...and a motley crew known as the "Markettes" who "ministered" to the crowd with "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor On the Bedpost Overnight?" (with yours truly playing the bell).

******
Friendship was a major theme throughout this Senior Trip. There were also some testimonies during these two days. I thought I would share mine with you about how Senior Trip changed my life. At the first Gaylord Opryland Senior Trip last April, sitting in front of me was Kate Dunavant and her camera. We folks in the first and second rows bonded that weekend. That trip was one of many I've made to Nashville and I knew eventually I wanted to live there. Kate and I stayed in touch and she told me she had a friend named Sharon who would be willing to show me around next time I was in town. She did just that when I visited again that August...and Kate and Sharon decided they would help move me out to Nashville.  So, during the first week of April, Kate and Sharon flew to Minneapolis ( I won't even go into the problems they had getting there--see my blog entries at http://wvponder.blogspot.com for that story), we packed up a Dodge Caravan minivan and my little Geo Metro full of my stuff and drove 900 miles over Easter weekend from St. Paul, MN to Nashville, TN. Had I not met these two angels due to Senior Trip, this might not have been possible. But I am blessed to have made some wonderful friends and to now be closer to more of them in Nashville and doing what I love, which is encouraging musicians.

So Mark and Senior Trip crew, I owe you a lot.

If you haven't been to a Senior Trip event yet, please do go...you're in for a life changing experience. Next one is at Gaylord Opryland in Nashville in December.

Read my Mark Lowry Senior Trip Nashville blog

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