Author: Renita Petersheim

We had three programs in the last week and a half–and we have a few upcoming ones that we’d like to alert you to.  We enjoyed having most of June off, but its good to be back in the saddle, singing, praising the Lord, and encouraging others to do the same.

We sang at the Pennsylvania Haiti Relief Sale in New Holland, PA on July 16th. We met some old friends–and made some new ones.  Especially memorable was the family up from North Carolina that was returning for the second year to the sale, and to hear the Garment of Praise in person.  Its exciting to meet other members of God’s family from elsewhere, and recognize that you are already “friends”.  Good News also sang on Friday evening with us, and Stanley Fox shared about Haiti.

On July 24th, several of us had “Elizabethtown College” written on our calendars, but didn’t really know what we were in for (its a good thing Jason keeps all the dates and places straight).  We had a wonderful night, though.  It was the Saturday evening of the “Brethren Alive Conference”.  It is held at the Elizabethtown College, and their meetings take place in the Leffler Chapel–a beautiful hall.  The men enjoyed sharing in such a beautiful setting–to friends–about our awesome God.

The following evening, July 25th, Sunday night, was to be an outdoor service at Hahnstown United Zion near Ephrata, PA.  Either way, we were prepared for “weather”; would we have high 90s like previous days, or would we face a thunderstorm?  Thank God for the thunderstorm that went through a few hours prior to the service and cleared out the humidity and heat.  What a gorgeous evening for an outdoor program! 

Continue to remember Brian in prayer, as he’s been having some pain in his throat over the last month or so.  He went to see the doctor–possible acid reflux or infection from his wisdom tooth? Hopefully, the problem will be resolved soon for more enjoyable singing for him. The last few programs have went better, but it is definitely still a strain on him.  Please keep lifting him up to the Lord with us.

We have a barbecue with Sunday School Meditations on July 31st, then we head into our August programs:

August 8th, Sunday night– Life Mennonite Fellowship

August 15th, Sunday night– Myerstown Mennonite Church 7:00 pm (an outside service)

August 28th, Saturday– Country Fest in Maryland

Our first program was in the square in Wooster, Ohio, and we arrived around 5:00 for the program at 7:00pm.  Davy Richards, the host of this event, puts on a “Gospel Sing” with preaching at intermission, every year.  There was also another quartet of guys from Virginia, Higher Ground, that shared the program with us.

 

Always a treat, pizza is provided for the singers and their families, after the program, by Davy and Irene.  Following the fellowship after the service we headed out to various homes of Chester Christian Fellowship, where we were hosted for the night. Our children are always delighted by the good dose of farm life that they are able to observe in this community.

The following morning we drove down to Berlin, to enjoy some of the shops, and the park for the children. Then we headed over to our next program for the evening at Gospel Light in Dundee, OH.

 This is the home church of our good friends, David Jr. and Rhonda Schlabach, now from Fairview.  They helped arrange for us to stay at Rhonda’s parents house (Since they were gone to Haiti for several weeks, we were able to have their whole house to ourselves). Rhonda’s brother, Keith, along with his wife, Lori, hosted us for dinner following the service, and kept Jason’s family at their house. Some of our daughters stayed at Rhonda’s sister, Marilyn’s house.  We were warmly welcomed and cared for.

The next morning we had a program just a half hour away at Gospel Haven.  Dennis Mullet has hosted us several times over the last 10 years, and its nice to be welcomed back to a familiar place.  Ten years ago when we sang here, the Little Friends (children and siblings of the Garment of Praise) sang along with the GOP.  As Danny said in the program Sunday morning, “You may remember me singing here before, but I was singing soprano back then.”

 After a scrumptious lunch, we had to beat it out of there towards our next program.  Cochranton, PA, is our favorite place to hit on the way home from an Ohio trip, since it puts us 3 hours closer to home on a Sunday night! We unfortunately didn’t have the right address to put into our GPS (we put in the pastor’s house), and we also didn’t have the right starting time posted on our website for the program… oops!

We shared our program in Pleasantview’s newly acquired/renovated fellowship hall.  It used to be an elderly care facility, so we had some good jokes about leaving Brian here or that he felt “right at home” since he’s the old man of the quartet.  We had a good service, although Daryl and Brian’s voices were pretty tired out from the weekend.

It was great to visit with some of our extended family, Ryan and Shari Zook, (Renita’s brother and family) who attended the program, as well as with longtime friends, Amy and Carl Wengerd (Amy taught at Fairview Christian School about 14 years ago).  We enjoyed a snack/supper, and then headed for home.  We arrived in Reading at 3:30 am on Monday–glad to be home!  Thanks to God for his travelling mercies upon us the whole trip.

We’d like to update our schedule for our Ohio trip which will begin in a few days:

July 9th–Friday night 7:00 pm

Town square Wooster, Oh

July 10th –Saturday night 6:00 PM

Gospel Light Chapel

Holmes County Rd 168

Dundee ,OH 44624

July 11th–Sunday Morning Service  9:30 AM

Gospel Haven

6871 State Route 241
Millersburg, OH 44654-8839
(330) 674-6123

July 11th– Sunday Evening Service  6:30 pm

Pleasantview Mennonite Church

47 Lower Road
Cochranton, PA 16314-3017  (western PA)
(814) 425-3340

Whenever the guys need an ego boost, they head out to boys camp.  Talk about enthusiastic responses! These boys are high energy, and loving Jesus and music is near the top of their list.  The Garment of Praise topped off the Keystone Boys Camp’s Tuesday evening chapel, June 29th, with some singing, jokes, and serious challenges.  The boys seemed to enjoy it.  Brian’s oldest son, Bryce, attended camp, as well as some nephews of the Fox brothers.  It was a good, fun night.

We were happy to participate in the singing after Gospel Express’ auction on Saturday, April 24th.  There were several groups that sang a few songs, Living Hope International shared a presentation about their ministry, the Dave Miller family shared a skit, and Garment of Praise sang two segments to make up a wonderful evening of worship. It was a chilly evening to be in the tent, but a great crowd still showed up to be blessed, and to bless Gospel Express in return!

We are very happy to welcome Danny back to the group.  He returned from Elnora Bible Institue in Indiana on April 11th.  This was his first program back with the group after 7 weeks off.  Thanks to Marcus Fox for filling the position during that time!

While Danny Petersheim is away at BMA Bible School for 6 weeks, Marcus Fox is back to fill the baritone position.  The Garment of Praise had a few warm-ups with him, but he fit right back in well with the group.  Those old hymns they do on the fly work out pretty good with Marcus there. 

We had quite a number of programs and banquets scheduled for over Danny’s absence, so Marcus will be filling in a total of 6 programs.

Pleasantview Retirement Community–where the old folks enjoy the music, and others come in from the outside to hear the program also.  Afterwards a group of 4 brothers serenaded us, a couple with Brian playing piano, and a number without.

It’s also nice to have the extra children along for Brian’s and Daryl’s to play with.

Sweetheart Banquet at Yoder’s Banquet Facilities–all the ladies were privileged to go along.

Life Ministries Banquet at Shady Maple Banquet Facilities–Ryan came along with his dad, Marcus, on this one. 

Programs ahead with Marcus before Danny returns: Mohrsville Church of the Brethren on March 20, 2010 at 7:30 pm           

               Derry Mennonite Church in Danville, Pa on March 21, 2010 at 7:00 pm

               Camp Andrews Banquet at Yoder’s Banquet Facilities on March 23, 2010 at 6:15 pm (if interested in attending, reserve a spot) 

Also, coming up is the Fairview Christian School alumni concert, led by Brian Fox and held at Bethany Grace Fellowship, across from Terre Hill Mennonite High School, on March 28, 2010, at 7:00 pm.

Danny returns April 9, 2010, and will be singing with the quartet at the April 11th program at Blue Ball at 7:00 pm.

Brian Fox, as the choir director of Fairview Christian School chorus for the last 15 years, is calling for all alumni to join in a FCS reunion concert. They have been blessed over the years with many good times singing, as they prepared for Christmas programs, Spring programs, and Conventions.  Their goal is to get together as many alumni as they can to sing some of the old songs. 

Alumni: There will be three rehearsals:

March 14, Sunday afternoon 3:00-5:00 pm at Fairview Christian School

March 25, Thursday evening 7:00-9:00 pm at Fairview Christian School

March 28, Sunday afternoon 3:00-5:00 pm at Grace Bethany Fellowship

(finger foods will follow the practice, prior to the program the same evening)

              Please bring a 3-ring binder to put printed music into.  Music will be handed out at each practice.

Everyone: You are invited to come and enjoy as they share old video footage and also recreate those groups in the present.  The concert will be on Sunday, March 28, 2010, 7:00 pm, at Grace Bethany Fellowship, located across from Terre Hill Mennonite High School.

The guys rented a 15 passenger van and headed out towards South Carolina on Tuesday evening.  SNOW is the word that resonates in people’s mind on the East Coast when we think of Tuesday and Wednesday, February 9 and 10.  Well, snow characterized the Garment of Praise’s trip down to the prison ministry in SC.

They had to drive through the snow for the first few hours, until they crossed the Maryland line.  This added some time to their travels–it took a total of about 14 hours down to the church where they were headed.  They tried catching some sleep on the trip, ate some breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and arrived mid-morning.

Gospel Express Ministries is in charge of this prison ministry, and does a tremendous job of planning and organizing the five days.  There are 28 prisons in SC, and this mult-prison crusade reaches 24 of them.  Each group of volunteers stays at the prison for day time interaction and meals for the entire crusade.  The singing groups and preachers minister in a different prison each night.

It was a new and interesting experience for the guys.  They met with all the other volunteers for orientation on the first morning.  There were about 500 people from all over the United States–a lot of them from Lancaster County.  They worshipped together, had workshops, and listened to one of the chaplains share about “Preparing our Vessels”.  When the orientation and supper was over, each group, as well as the volunteers headed out to the area where they would be ministering for the next 4 days. 

Thusday morning, Jason and Danny went into one of the prisons with a basketball team, to play with the inmates and interract with them.  That evening the group sang and ministered at Turbeville.  Bro. Jay Fox, Brian and Jason’s dad, preached.

The following morning, Daryl and Brian went along to another prison to watch the guys play basketball, but a stabbing within the prison caused “lock-down”.  All the volunteers had to get out immediately, and this “lock-down” cancelled the Garment of Praise’s program for Sunday morning.

That evening, snow began to fall in the south!  Most of the prisons closed because of the snow, and the volunteers could not go in.  The programs in the evenings also were cancelled.  This area in South Carolina had not seen snow since 2000, so it was disappointing to have snow hinder their ministry over this weekend! 

Friday night, because they couldn’t sing in the prisons, the groups assembled to worship together and have a program.  Several of the singing groups shared that night.  The next day, they found a gym to play in, get off some energy, and waste a little time.

Saturday morning, because of not being able to get in, 2 bus-loads of volunteers headed home. A few prisons opened up for programs on Sunday morning, so Garment of Praise was allowed in to give a program where another group had left.

The Sunday morning program was finished at 9:00 am, and the men were on the road home by 10:00.  Because the roads were clear, the drive home was much quicker than the road down.

Pray for the inmates who made first-time decisions and recommitments to the Lord. Also, thank you for your prayers for safety on the roads to and from South Carolina.