Saturday, July 23 ASYC Student Journal

This week has been amazing! I’ve met more awesome friends, like Kenan and Morgan! All the music this year is wonderful, beautiful, and so heartwarming! I can’t believe this is my last year!  It’s been a great 3^rd year. Practicing 2 days straight, family time, great church food I’ll never forget in all my years with the ASYC! Concerts are going so well you can feel the Holy Spirit in the room with you when we sing.  I love my Allstate family! I thank God for allowing me to come to ASYC!

                Shelby L.

Being my first week at ASYC I actually enjoy it thus far! I enjoyed and still enjoy the rehearsals. The way that Dr. Kenney Potter conducts is pure genius! He connects us with the music through teachings of the Lord and the Apostle’s Creed. Throughout this week I have made many friends that I know I will keep my whole life. The music we sing connects us in a way that is unexplainable to anyone other than us.  Going to the Billy Graham Library was eye opening. The video at the end was moving and made me realize a lot of things in my life that I need to do and change. Also the man at the end, Mr. B, was a delightful guide and just made us all feel comfortable in his presence. I wish we could have sung a little something for him since he couldn’t leave his station when we did sing. I love this week so much and I am really looking forward to doing it again next year. I am very appreciative for all the counselors and all the friends I have made this week. I am also very thankful to God for leading me to this opportunity.

                Michael-David R.

This is my first year of All-state Youth Choir. Also, unfortunately, it is my last. It really has brought together my summer in a way that is unexplainable. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful group of people that God has brought me to know. I have become closer to God not only through the music that we have been taught, but through the experiences that we have gone through. We have sung in several nursing homes, churches, and also today the Billy Graham Library. The library, which was more of a museum, was truly spectacular. It amazes me at how a man can go from being a small farm boy, to being a well respected and humble man who has inspired millions of people to come to the Lord. I hope that God will guide me in such a way, that I can have an impact on at least one person, the way he did the world. This whole week will forever be engraved in my mind, and I know that everything I have learned here will be taken with me throughout my life. The music that we sing has such a beautiful message the way the program is woven together. Dr. Kenny Potter has put in so much work and effort to make sure that we can be the absolute best we can be while we attempt to influence people’s world views. I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world.

                Yesterday, during the concert I could feel the Holy Spirit descending on me. But just as I was getting into the music and really starting to enjoy it, I felt the devil creeping in on me in the form of an itchy nose. I knew that the devil was again trying to take hold of me and I knew that I couldn’t let that happen. So instead I concentrated on the words of each song we sang and meant each one with all of my heart. Soon afterwards, the itching stopped and I could again feel the peace of the Holy Spirit.

Caitlin M.

                Wow. That is one of the only words I can use to describe today. I can just feel the Spirit moving through our group. Everyone here is so in love with God and excited to sing for him. Several times I have felt the Holy Spirit so strongly amongst us,  that I came very close to weeping with joy and awe. Nothing has been able to truly describe this week. Everyone is so tightly bonded with each other. No one is ever alone.  Never.  I pray that the rest of the week goes well. Better even. 

Jessica W.

Friday, July 22 ASYC Student Journal

This week has brought a shower of blessings upon my life and I continue to see God in so many new ways each day. This is my second year in All-State and the experiences that I've had these past two years have been life changing. Singing with Dr. Potter is so wonderful and he is honestly one of the best directors I have worked under. Yesterday we had the opportunity to sing at a retirement home and assisted living facility, named Taylor Glenn, and when we arrived we had no idea how the Lord was going to work through us. After singing to the residents we had the chance to talk to them and get to know their stories. A couple of us approached a lady named Coreen, who looked like she had a stroke, and we began talking to her and letting her know how happy we were to be able to sing for her and the other residents. She couldn't really speak any words, but her smile was enough. The nurse approached us and informed us that her husband and her were Baptist missionaries in Africa and China. After hearing this, I said, "Man, I really wish we were singing Ukuthula because it is an African song." Then it occurred to us that we could still sing it because we had enough people to sing 4 parts. We held her hand and began singing and the Holy Spirit overcame us all. Her face lit up as she listened in awe. There was something magical about her presence, that when we sang she would stare into our eyes so deeply that words were not even needed and it was as she was staring into our hearts. After we sang, the nurse asked us if we would be willing to sing for her and her husband. Considering Coreen's condition, she is unable to see her husband very often so needless to say, that in itself was special to see them connect in such a passionate way. We gathered around them both and others from the choir had joined us at this point. The room was filled with SUCH beauty and power. I have not felt the Holy Spirit move in such a deep way in a long time. It was so special to watch Coreen sob and smile as she watched us sing. It occurred to me after all this, that is what is so special about music. All of us are here for the love us music and the love us Christ. The words we sing have such power and through the love of the Lord, powerful things can happen.

Lindsay P.

  Today we sang at a nursing home for the residents there. At the end of our concert, a lady who I had noticed earlier began to cry in load, sad moans. She didn’t seem to have tears, but it was clear how overwhelmed she was in hearing our music. I couldn’t help but cry! It was so pitiful. I normally don’t cry easily, but the combination of being so moved by her crying and my exhaustion made me extremely emotional. It took me a while to get over it. After we greeted the residents after our concert, we went a little ways down the retirement home to sing for a husband and wife who are retired missionaries. The lady in charge of the activities there took us to them. She said they (especially the wife) were very near death. The wife was the same woman who was crying earlier! We sang a song for them in Swahili, Ukuthula, because they had been missionaries in Kenya and spoke Swahili. Many of us girls began to cry as we watched the couples’ reaction to our song. It was very difficult to sing and cry at the same time! By the end of the song, there wasn’t A SINGLE DRY EYE. Every one of us had tears. The husband was very moved by our song. He spoke to us about how beautiful it was. I will never forget that moment.

-          Sydney N.

                I’ve been so inspired by the joy this choir can bring to people all over North Carolina, and as a first year I feel so embraced by the choir members that have already been here before me.  The passion people have for this choir is absolutely amazing.  Today has been a joy to my heart, and I could never stop smiling on our final song “I Believe in God” knowing that this is praise to our one and only Heavenly Father.  While taking a look back at the very few days that I’ve been here, I realize that these songs mean so much to so many people, and I pray that everyone we minister to this week will have the seed of Christ planted in them.  If there is one important thing that I take away from this tour, it is that no matter how the voice sounds or the pitch of a note is on tune, if it’s praise to God he will love it just as much as the most beautiful song ever sung before.

Morgan S.

Anna-Marie H.

                As a first year singer, I can honestly say, the things I have experienced in All-State Youth Choir have changed me, and its only Thursday. The way God is working through me, and 70 other youth, is absolutely amazing. The number of people we have touched is multiplying as each day passes. To see the reaction on the faces of those we sing to makes every early morning, and late night, practice worthwhile. I remember, on Tuesday, we went to sing in a nursing home and in mid-song I turned to see a little old lady sitting next to me. As a normal reaction, I smile at her, and she breaks into tears. Something so simple for me to do, that I probably do dozens of times a day, had made her day. Afterwards, as we were mingling, I went up to go speak to her and she couldn’t help but go on about our beautiful signing. Something that comes so easily to us as a smile, or singing, can mean so much to someone else. No matter your situation, God finds some way of touching you. This week we’ve had the opportunity to sing to a variety of people. From Children’s Homes to Nursing Homes, God has been using every one of us for his glory. Although we are young, we do not let anyone look down on us, we are examples of Christ and all believers, just as 1Timothy 4:12 instructs us to do.

 Anna-Marie H.

                My first year in all state youth choir has been better than I could have expected.  Everyone has been so accepting and to me as a new person.  I have gained so much spiritually and learned more about music as this week has progressed.   At each concert I feel that we are ministering to the people in different ways and we are touched through responses and the experience.  The elderly missionary couple in the nursing home especially touched me this week.  I could feel the Holy Spirit moving in this situation. Who would have thought that we would learn a song in an African language and be able to touch and be touched in that situation? ... Only God.  This has been a great experience and I can’t wait for next year!

Jeremy L.

 

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Thursday, July 21 ASYC Student Journal
Today was the day that all-state (for me) seems to start. We traveled to Wingate University today. On our way we stopped and sang at three different places: first children’s home, second an assisted living or retirement home, and last we sang at Mooresville Baptist Church. Today was the best day of camp that we have had so far and the most….emotional and spiritual. When we were at the assisted living area we were singing one of our last songs when I noticed this precious lady crying, a nurse was talking to her saying “Yes happy tears, Happy Tears!” After words Dr. Potter gave us the chance to go out and mingle with everyone and I automatically went up to this women. I introduced myself and held her hand and just didn’t want to let go. More youth came over and began to talk to her and we learned from the nurse that she and her husband used to be missionaries in Africa and China. So some of the girls and I decided that we should sing he Ukuthula (one of our African songs). Once we started more and more people began to come over and sing also, and it was just extremely touching (I was balling and so was the woman). Then we all went to her room to sing to her and her Husband…and it was like nothing I have ever experienced before and it was just great….I could type all day so I will leave it with, today God truly touched me and I would venture as far as to say that this one event made my trip.

It was a truly…spectacular experience and I am so thankful that I was allowed to be apart of ASYC. God Bless!    P.S. I’m grateful for all of the friends who are around here to support each other in our hardest times.                   ~Taylor  S.

So, today was a pretty rough day for me. We first arrived at the Baptist Children’s Homes in Thomasville, it was a small crowd but many of them were very receptive of what we sang. I will pray for each of them and hope that they keep hope with them. Our second stop was the rest home in Huntersville. Dr. Potter asked the people to sing during “Christ the Solid Rock”, I have never seen anything more beautiful in my life. I noticed at least four different women singing and I’m certain there were more. As they sang they reminded me of my grandmother, who I knew so little about, I only know is that she had one of the most beautiful soprano voices. When I saw these women singing with such conviction while I was singing the same thing was one of the roughest moments in my life. But not as rough as what happened next. One older woman had started crying during our performance and Dr. Potter asked us to partake in fellowship with the residents many choir members went to this woman. The nurses asked us to sing another song for her and we sang one of our most beautiful renditions of Ukuthula, it took all my strength to not cry while I was singing. But when the nurses asked us to sing the song to both this woman and her husband, who have been married for the longest time, and we were on our way to see him I started to break down. The thoughts of the three deaths in my life overwhelmed me. When we sang to this woman and her husband half the choir completely broke down, myself included. We all clung to our nearest, and not so nearest, anchors to help support each other. It was the most beautiful thing I believe I will ever see in my life. I thank God for love that endures through the years and for friends who support and love each other.

                                 Tyler G.

This is my second year at All-State Youth Choir and I love it so much!! It has been a different and more relaxing experience this time around. I’m thinking that it’s because last year I was meeting ALL new people! But, this year, I know a lot of people from last year so it has been easier to connect. For me, there is no good way to describe how I feel when I am at All-State. But I love it!! The leaders, and fellow youth have been such a blessing to me. I am so very thankful for that! I can’t wait to see what God has is store for me in future years! And even the rest of this week!

-Trevor D.