Spur-of-the-moment performances...

Oh, btw, let me just say...

I GOT MY LICENSE!!!!!!!
="D ^_^

There. Now that's out of the way, I can go on. v_v

The above being said, I've driven myself to work the past couple days. Which is pretty cool. No more looking out the window after we've closed to see if my ride is here yet...

But anyway, after work the band Sparrowsworth was playing tonight, so my parents and I met up after I got off work to go see them.

First, a little background on these guys...

Sparrowsworth is a local Christian band, comprised of 3 guys in their twenties (all husbands and fathers) and one girl, who just graduated a few years ago but was homeschooled before that. Their bass player, Brandon, was my youth leader when I just started going to youth group, and the lead guitarist Jason goes to my church (he used to give me guitar lessons a while ago too).

Oh and remember that band that asked me to open for them at a small concert last June? That was them.

Tonight they played at a church backyard concert/worship/eat/hangout thing in Troy, the next town over. The evening was comfortable with a cool breeze rusting the willow trees, the music singing through the air... It was nice. ^_^ I love summer evenings like this. They played some new songs, and improved versions of their old ones. Lavinia was having a good time watching some of the teens swing around some things that resembled small versions of a mace, and we played with Mom's camera. ;D

It was such a beautiful night, just sitting and listening, laughing and singing, watching the band members' little kids play and dance barefoot in the grass... It was like you could almost feel God smiling. At the beginning of this summer He had promised me it was going to be an awesome year. He was going to do beautiful things this summer, and I could feel it. This was the embodiment of one of those sweet, sweet times promised. I was already planning on blogging about it when I got home. It was such a beautiful night.


But then, something really cool happened.

"Rachel did you bring your guitar?" Brandon called from the stage.
I laughed and said no, and thought that was the end.


"Do you want to come up and play something?"


I went up on the stage (which was the back of a semi-truck once-upon-a-time), Jason introduced me to the audience (though a lot of the people scattered around already knew me), handed me his guitar and adjusted the microphone stand as I thought of which song to play... But I think I already knew before I decided. Everyone else stepped off the stage except the drummer, Ben, who was apparently going to play along.
Oh and then they asked a guy (who had been the one swinging the mace-thing), to come up and play bass. I figured out which chords I was playing and relayed them to him.

"This is a song I wrote called Past Disasters, and... I hope you guys like it. ;D"

It was the first full song I ever wrote, actually, but I think it's still my favorite. ;)
I started the picking pattern, and guy on the bass jumped in, and Ben eventually found a beat. I had only played this song on an electric like once or twice before I think, but with that and the drums and bass, OH MY WORD IT SOUNDED EPIC!!!
Mom got most of it on video, but it sounded way better in real life. Not that I'm bragging. Just saying the drums and bass made it awesome, that's all. x)

But unfortunately the video doesn't want to upload right now... -.- Maybe it'll be more agreable tomorrow.

But in any case, it was all pretty epic. Fairly certain Jesus just did it to make my day. ;) Some other ladies got up and sang (they were scheduled to play, though) some songs they had written. The first lady was kind of olderish and did some hymn-sounding ones, and the other was in the Southern-Gospel/Patriotic genre. So between them, me and Sparrowsworth, we got a pretty wide variety. xD
It was really fun though. Most of my songs have stayed just between me, God and close friends, so it was cool and interesting to play it for a crowd of mostly people who didn't know me and get their reactions from it. Everyone said I did really good, so that's good to hear. ;D

So yeah! Leaving to staff at Glacier Bible Kids' Camp on Monday, then going to Teen camp the week after that, and really excited for both. ^_^ My awesomest God-experiences have always been at that camp, and I'm so excited to see what He's going to do this year! After all, He has promised amazing things for this summer, and tonight really got me stoked. Church and packing tomorrow, and then the adventure begins.
Or continues, I should say. It started long ago, and has just gotten more exciting these recent months. ;)