TobyMac!!!

Those of you who know me well know that I am a HUGE TobyMac/Diverse City fan. I learned a long time ago in my Christian walk not to clutter my ears with secular music. It is rare for me to listen to anything that is not Christian, but my favorite thing to listen to is TobyMac! It is very upbeat, positive music that is just FUN and spiritual at the same time. I LOVE IT! His music appeals to a wide population because it is so diverse and is such a mix of different genres of music. His music has made the soundtrack of very secular hit movies and has crossed over to some secular radio stations. However, he has stayed true to his calling and GOD continues to be the central message in every song. Because of the hip-hop/rap sound in some of his songs, I have long thought that he could be very appealing to the younger teen crowd if they had a chance to listen to him. It has been a dream of mine to be able to take a group of kids to one of his concerts but he hasn't played anywhere close enough to me in years.

Finally, I heard last year that he would be coming back to Valdosta and I knew I had my chance. However, the idea of paying for Wild Adventure passes for each kid, reserve seat tickets (so they could be close enough to really see), transporting them, and feeding them at the park seemed like a pretty tall order. Was it possible? Could it really happen? Well, I have finally learned a little bit about stepping out in faith, so after prayer I did just that. I went out on a limb and reserved 15 seat tickets months before the concert, before we even had our yard-sale fundraiser. I asked for the use of a church van for transportation. I prayed for God to provide to make this happen. And then I waited.

Unlike I usually do, this time I did not stress and worry over it the entire time. I just trusted God and focused on other things, believing that it would somehow work out in the end. It did! Two days before the concert a loyal supporter dropped off a $300 check, almost enough to pay for the kids to get in for the day! Then, Wild Adventures agreed, over the phone, to give us a group discount for the kids' tickets and to let the chaperones in for free. WOW!!! This meant that the $300 actually more than covered the cost of the park tickets. The church van was not available, but between the chaperones we were able to transport the kids without a problem. And then, God had another surprise in store for us. At the gate, Wild Adventures decided (I'm not sure why?) to reimburse us for the cost of the reserved seats!! WOW again!!! I was still reeling from this when we finally took time out of the day to all sit down and eat as a group, and I realized that the amount of the food cost was the EXACT SAME amount as the seat tickets had been. Did God just pay for our meal? Something like that! :)

The kids had such an awesome time riding rides and looking around. Our only regret was not being able to see and do everything in one day. They were blown away by the concert and all "fell in love" with Toby and his music! My next mission: to figure out how to get them each a TobyMac CD!

It was an overwhelming blessing to get to share this experience with these kids, and to be able to pass God's love and blessings on to them in this way. It was a day that none of us will ever forget! Thank you for your part in making this happen!