Friday morning everyone woke up bright and early. We had a long drive ahead of us, so we needed to get a head start. We drove up to the Waimea Canyon Lookout to film I Sing the MIghty Power of God. The choir was placed a few feet from the edge of the cliff that drops down into the Waimea Canyon. The lookout is one of those places where you have to catch your breath, then exclaim in a voice full of awe (but does not, in any way, do justice to the view), "Whoa! That is so beautiful!" I can't even describe the canyon properly. If I were to try to describe it, I'd probably end up using words like "beautiful," "gorgeous," "huge," and other helpful cliches.
But the most ironic part of it was the fact that while the tourists had the entire gorgeous Waimea Canyon to gape at, they weren't looking at it at all. They were staring at us! Who wants to look at an enormous, beautiful canyon, when you can watch eighty kids dressed in blue and pink sing hymns of God's power?
We finished I Sing the Mighty Power of God incredibly fast. The next part of the plan was to go up to the top of Lulawatson Mountain (I hope that is the correct spelling) to film the Heaven Medley. Unfortunately, this mountain is notorious for its dripping skies, which is exactly what we met when we got to the top. We ate lunch while we waited to see if the sky would clear up. While we were eating, some students were able to speak with a few local Hawaiians. The entire student body ended up singing to them in the parking lot and we were able to invite them to our concert. Maybe that was God's plan? Who knows? If we had been filming, we probably wouldn't have interacted with them nearly as much as we did.
Sabbath was a blessing, as always. We students were given the choice of going on a nature hike to a waterfall with the church service outdoors, or going to church in town. Another academy visiting Hawaii performed the church service, and I'm told the food was amazing!
Saturday night was the fateful night. Most everyone was on pins and needles. If you promise to keep it a secret, I'll tell you why. The majority of the orchestra had to play on filming instruments. Now, I have let you in on another little secret: the filming instruments are from eBay and cost about twenty-five dollars each. Obviously, the sound quality is nothing near what it normally is. But thankfully, God works miracles. I believe His angels played through the orchestra that night. One of the staff said that they thought it was the best we'd ever played. Praise God!
Sunday was our rec day. Shoppers filled their hands with Jamba Juice and scoured the shops. Hikers exercised their muscles and got lots of vitamin D, and by the afternoon, most of the students had migrated to the beach. The aqua waves were perfect for boogie boarding, and with the warm sand and sun, who could stay stressed?
Well, until the next post, mahalo and aloha!
Sounds so fun! :)
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