The Blessing Tree is On The Road!

Hi friends,

we are now in NYC. Played and sang to a rockin crowd in Washington Square Park on Sunday. we are having adventures in singing publicly - this wild thing of being in the wild open world and simply lifting up the voice, and letting it draw folks.

Yesterday we made our way down into the subway to sing to passers by. First thing in Times Square station we saw a group of young folks wearing shirts saying "prayer changes things". we decided to go sing them "Ever Near" - one of our a capella songs about God singing our lives. Turns out they were from Hope College in Michigan on a mission trip. they loved the song and asked if they could pray for us. we joined in a circle and thanked God together.

later, after a dissapointing failure at performing on the subway we found ourselves eating slices of pizza on a balcony in Grand Central Station. Ben, with the light of God on his brow pointed out that we could sing to the great broad masses passing by. with a bit of trepidation in the immense hall, we opened our mouths and sang our 3 a capella songs. We watched with great delight as lots of the folks below turned their heads, searching for where the voices were coming from. finally, they began to realize that we were above. lots of people stopped and watched and listened. when we finished there was scattered applause.

We sang for about half an hour, going through a little set of songs. people coming and going. at the end of each song, giggling to one another at the spectacle we were creating. our 3 voices mingled in the air over all the people, and at each pause we could hear them bouncing around, echoing across the immense room.

this wonderful concert ended abruptly when the machine gun toting police came and let us know that this was not the place to be singing without a permit. as we happily left we waved down to the folks who were watching the whole moment. they waved back, sweetly, and we could feel the love that had been shared between the voices hungry to share, and the ears, hungry and adoring to hear.

Amen!