Bluegrass Gospel Sing and Jam

Greetings from the road:

Mike and I are traveling today from the Upper Hudson Bluegrass Festival in North Creek, NY over to The Blistered Fingers Festival in Sidney, Maine with luxury accommodations tonight at Camp Wal-Mart in Augusta! We completely enjoyed our time at the Upper Hudson Festival. It was very well run and the location at Ski Bowl Park was a good fit for Bluegrass. The Gospel Sing was fairly well attended considering this was our first time here. We had about 60 or so folks with about 6 musicians. Mike preached about being careful not to drift away from the truth of the Gospel. He started by asking folks to think about what was the most memorable thing that they will take away from the festival and then challenged them to consider that perhaps what they hear about Jesus during the Gospel Sing may be the most memorable thing for them to take away from the festival. (more…)

Greetings from Greenville, NY

This has been quite an interesting week for Mike and Mary and the Bluegrass Gospel Sing. This was the first Gospel Sing in a decade that didn’t have both of us leading it. Mike reported that he had a really great crowd this morning under the tent. At least 50 folks including six musicians. He preached about God’s will starting with the idea that for Mike and I, our “plan” had been to meet all the new folks, play music at our campsite under the awning and picking tent we had set up when we first arrived. Of course, none of that happened as I was only here a matter of a few hours before being admitted to the hospital for yet another bout of diverticulitis. Mike continued his preaching about how it is always God’s will that all come to repentance and that none should perish but all get rescued from sin and have a place in Eternity with Him. Mike manned the booth for a brief time before leaving to pick me up. He gave away 5 bibles and had several good discussions with folks, in spite of the limited time he had here. (more…)

Greetings from Mike & Mary,

We had another very successful Pemi Valley Bluegrass Festival and Gospel Sing. We’ve done the Gospel Sing at this festival every year for the past 10 years. We had over a hundred folks out with a large orchestra of musicians. Like every other, north of the Mason Dixon line festival, Pemi had it’s share of rain and clouds. We awoke Sunday morning to drizzle and thought, oh no, we’ve never had a rained out Pemi Gospel Sing and thankfully, by the time we headed to the spectator tent, it was just cloudy. During the Gospel Sing, Mike and I had this really amazing God moment. We had turned to one another for a brief moment and we were singing just to each other, and at that exact time, the Lord parted the clouds and a ray of sunshine came down on the two of us. Except for God, nobody else knows just how much Mike and I endure in order to bring the Gospel to the people who enjoy Bluegrass music. We felt like He was letting us know, He was with us. Mike preached a very strong message on salvation starting with the question, what if today was the last opportunity you have to receive Christ? (more…)