Well folks…we have officially made it to New England! “Wow” comes to mind wherever we seem to go. This area is incredible…and the folks are even more incredible. Kind of tired now, but have to give you all a taste of what’s going on so far. After 29 hours on the road (with a brief “nap” in Allentown, PA) we rolled into an extremely wet and windy Cape Cod…and more specifically to Brewster, Massachusetts. Wish I could describe the incredible sights we have seen…towering bridges, salty old lighthouses standing as a beacon on a foggy seashore, and a pounding surf as a brisk Nor’easter slams against the New England coastline. Friday night we pulled up to a beautiful white Brewster Baptist in the pouring rain….but they had a covered entrance so we stayed relatively dry during load in. Eddie came cruising up shortly after and before we knew it he was tickling the ivories on a piano immaculately restored to it’s over 120 year old state. The church was an acoustic dream and the pastor and lay-members were even better. Pastor Doug was more than accomodating and, when done, showed us all over his lovely town and surrounding points of interest (not the least of which was a wonderful local restaurant in Chatham, Mass on Friday night and another awesome local restaurant Saturday where I tried my first “lobster roll”). The spirit at Brewster was sweet and the folks were very receptive of what the Lord had in store. Cannot wait to get back to the area…will keep you posted on plans there.

Today (Saturday) had us adding state number 11 to the list…yep, that’s right….when we left Tennessee we have traveled in the last 3 days to 11 states and it’s not over yet (Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and finally Vermont tonight). Went to Green Mountain Chapel tonight tucked just over the Vermont/Massachusetts border surrounded by beautifully colored up foliage, fog encompassed valleys, and cloud capped mountains…with more and more of the rain we have come to actually enjoy. For some reason, a rainy and cool day in New England just has poetic justice. The folks at Green Mountain were super accomodating as well…even served us a wonderful boiled roast, potatoes, and carrots (commonly called pot roast back home). I mentioned our desire to find some authentic and famous Vermont maple syrup…and wa-la! One of the members stepped out to their car and came in with some metal containers of the stuff…turns out he makes it fresh at home and sells it all over the world. Can’t wait for some pancakes when I get home…be ready Savannah and Lisa! Church and people again were awesome and the night could not have gone better. Hats off again to Eddie who once again had the people in awe of his unreal talents.

Tomorrow (Sunday) will have us in the morning (about 6 hours from now actually….need to sleep!) at a Nazarene church for two services then in Sharon, Mass. for our last service of the much enjoyed New Englad tour. Love home and all the churches we have been to and will be at before 2008 is in the books…but this will be a special time in our hearts and minds for years to come. Appreciate Joe Fitzgerald and his wonderful wife for their unrivaled hospitality thus far, and can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds with the Lord and with all the great people of the area.

More details later on all the trip, including getting here….got an interesting “tour” of New York you all need to know about and need to describe more about the Cape in greater detail. For all we have shared services with….God bless you all greatly and thanks for everything. Thanks especially to Pastor Doug from Brewster for being “Tour Guide” to Called Out Quartet. Guess I should be thanking his wife and kids for giving him up to us for the better part of two days. Hope the rest of your season as the star short stop in the 30 and over fast-pitch baseball league there on the Cape has you keeping up that .500+ batting average and rifling them down from “the hole”. Guess we should be nice and say “go Sox” in the playoffs…and I guess we want the Patty-Melts….err….Patriots to have an okay season and win a few games. If they play the Titans, I hope they get smeared…but for the rest of the time I guess they can go out there and be real adequate and we would be okay with that (aww…come on….owning the Super Bowl for many seasons isn’t going to make big fans in other NFL towns)…

Have a great Sunday and we’ll get back to you when I can. Pray for us as we travel…got a 14 hour drive Sunday night/Monday to Shipshewana…and please, please keep Scott and his family in your prayers too. His grandaddy Russell is on his deathbed as he suffers the painful end to his fight with lung cancer. He is currently in renal failure and the end will not be far. Scott will be heading back to Nashville after we sing tomorrow to be with his family and we will be meeting a good friend in Indiana to step in a take Scott’s place so he can be home at this difficult time. Scott Godsey of the Eddie Crook Company and former tenor with The Northmen will be stepping up to the plate for us. More on all of this soon…

Von and all the guys with CO4

Hey folks….had a “busy week at the barn” trying to get ready for the big weekend coming up in New England. Should have got to this before now, but you know how those things go. Anyway….looking very forward to stepping foot into the Massachusetts and Vermont area for the very first time in my life. Speaking of which….I stepped into a couple states last week I had never been to before….so we might as well chat about that while we are here.
Left out last Friday nice and early in route to Green Grove Gardens in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. The journey took us through Kentucky all the way to the eastern corner of the state, then into West Virginia for a while, slicing into Maryland (new state for me) and finally culminating at our destination of Pennsylvania. When I was a kid, my dad worked for a few years in West Virginia…so I kind of remember the terrain there….had no idea though that it extended well into Maryland like it does. I guess the Appalachian Chain snakes through allot of states…including it seems into portions of Pennsylvania as well (though we didn’t see that region). Absolutely gorgeous area full of the good Lord’s handiwork all over the place. Speaking of handiwork…Jerry Martin owns and operates Green Grove Gardens and I think he’s trying to give us all a little “Heaven on earth” action with his beautiful and bountiful gardens out behind his concert and entertainment facility. You’d just have to see it to believe it. When I was a kid a lady named Lineweaver had a garden up the road from my Granny and I loved to walk around the paths between the flowers and flowering trees and bushes…but it never looked like anything Jerry has in store for all his visitors. Waterfalls, topiaries, flowers…you name it, and it’s there. The biggest Weeping Cherry tree known to man has to be out back….Jess and I discussed how we could have easily made an impenetrable fort from it as a child. The “barn” portion of the place was originally a real working barn (for cattle and such)…but several years later after much blood, sweat, and tears it is a state of the art concert hall that looks straight out of the Opryland Hotel complex. That’s where we sang…and had a great time doing so. New area (obviously since I have never been there) so we met TONS of new friends. Looking forward to getting back up that way sometime soon for sure.
Took us all night Friday and most of Saturday to get home….I think we rolled in around 7:00pm that night. It was a full 11 hour drive with extra time needed to track down gas and grab a bite every now and then. Spent Saturday evening recuperating and getting ready for Sunday. We got word late Friday that the Sunday night church had to cancel…hope no one drove too far only to discover they had canceled us. One of those things I guess. We still had Sunday morning in the books and we were very much looking forward to heading to Lawrenceburg to Calvary Hill Church of God. Never been, but are certainly no stranger to the area having been to numerous other churches all over the county in years past. Enjoyed a wonderful service there and got to hook up with some of Darrell’s family while in their back yard. Had the pleasure of taking D’s mom down to Lawrenceburg with us as well…and even let her buy us breakfast on the way there. Thanks Nanny Babs!
Like I said…in full blown “got to get ready to go” mode now….but didn’t want to neglect you guys. For all of you up in the Eastern corner of the US….looking very forward to the weekend. Would say if we were close for everyone to be sure and come on out…doubt we are close to many who read (except maybe for you Joe….one of the few times you can actually come on out). Pray for us while we travel…it’s only 18 hours if driven straight…so we’ll be ready for a good time when we roll in I’m sure. Hoping to see a lighthouse and the Atlantic Ocean (amoung other things)….should be an awesome trip. After this our schedule winds back down to primarily Fridays through Sundays.
Please don’t forget about Gatlinburg. We still have some rooms left so make sure you get your form back to us to reserve your room. I think Scott has put up a printable form on a page on here (or the website, if you are reading by newsletter). So go on over and print out and mail it back in to us.

Von and all the guys of CO4