Touring Choir and Snow Storms

I began my final semester at Princeton by leaving Princeton.  After our opening communion service (which had been delayed due to winter weather), I got on a bus with our Touring Choir and headed for Newark.  Twenty-four of us then headed to Grand Rapids, Michigan to take part in the Calvin Institute of Worship Symposium, an annual conference of almost 2,000 people focused on worship and music.  Over our four days at Calvin we led worship, participated in workshops, and had the opportunity to reconnect with several recent graduates of PTS who live and serve in the area.  Following the closing worship Saturday afternoon, we made the drive across Michigan to Ann Arbor, where we helped lead worship the next morning at First Presbyterian Church.

Downtown Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty seen during takeoff from Newark.

Opening worship at the Covenant Fine Arts Center.

Interesting lights in the Fine Arts Center - taken while waiting for the closing worship.

Closing worship, view from the choir a few minutes before the service began.

What Jonah was really doing those three days!  Found at First Presbyterian, Ann Arbor.

Seminarians always know how to find the silver lining to everything, even a snow storm!

A beautiful, hand-carved baptismal scene.  Sitting on the piano at my host family.

Snow clearance equipment at the Detroit airport - this barely captures the magnitude.  Whole fleets of these huge machines would swoop down the runway between flights to keep things clear.

It was as we arrived in Ann Arbor that things started to get interesting.  We knew that a storm was headed our way, but we had no idea how bad it might be.  It turned out worse than anyone thought - over the course of Sunday, Ann Arbor got over 16" of snow.  As we sang during worship, we could see the ushers in the back shoveling snow out of the narthex each time someone opened the door.  By mid-morning, we learned that our flight home had been canceled.  By mid-afternoon, it took everything the choir could muster to get everyone safely to a place to spend the night (we were thankfully welcomed into homes of the Ann Arbor church choir).  We spent most of Monday afternoon and evening hanging out in the hotel bar at the Days Inn near the Detroit airport (which I do not recommend unless you are stuck from a snow storm).  We eventually made it home Tuesday night - two days earlier than the first predictions made by the airlines, but two days later than our original plan.  

All things considered, it was a great adventure.  I got to spend some long hours in conversation with friends, we played a lot of cards, and all in all we had a good time.  I'm very thankful for the hard work of Melissa, our choir assistant, who spent countless hours on the phone with the airlines to get us home as quick as she could, and also for Martin, our director, who made sure we had food.  Maybe I will visit Michigan again; but I think I'll wait for warmer weather next time!