PMA Songfest

Just got in from the PMA (Pentecostal Music Association) Songfest and my feet are so happy to be out of my pointy-toed shoes.

It's been a hectic day. After we got our kids off to school, my husband and I drove over to Greensboro to attend a marriage enrichment class sponsored by UGST. Fantastic session taught by Cindy Miller. At each break, we would see friends, quickly catch up on the past couple of years, then run back to our class. Lunch in a hotel restaurant was like being on the red carpet in Hollywood. A steady stream of familiar faces, hugs, a kiss in the air, looking over someone's head while talking so you didn't miss seeing who walked by, and all was good. How easily we slip back into that GC mode!

The Sheraton Hotel staff is superb. Very friendly and accommodating. I stopped to chat with a retired missionary widow and she was telling me that she had just left her purse on a shuttle van. As we talked, a staff member walked up with her purse and was so kind and gracious to her.

Several NC choirs were asked to sing in a mass choir tonight, to back up the soloists and praise singers/chorale. The band was superb, as were the praise singers. The concert started at 7 pm with a very small group of people in attendance - maybe 1000. I'm not good with numbers, but I'd say that there were maybe 5000 by the time the concert was over. Not sure why. Maybe they were watching the debate??? We started the concert with You Are Good, and then made our way through some newer songs (I Am Free/I Know Who I Am/Dancing Generation) and then circled back around and sang Nothing But the Blood, Oh the Blood, and How Great Thou Art. PMA Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to Priscilla McGruder, Hal Kennedy and Carroll McGruder. Sis. McGruder was very surprised, thinking she was there to help make a presentation to someone else. She is very thin, but looked remarkably good and her voice was strong as she spoke. (Hal Kennedy is a retired pastor from Titusville, FL who used to sing with a southern gospel group called the Dixie Echoes.)

Two winners from the North American Talent Search sang -- Mark Crowder and Brittney Macey. Mark Crowder has so much energy, he makes me tired, but he is phenomenal. Bro. Sam Emory led the congregation in Bye & Bye, and Have a Little Talk with Jesus and got everyone cranked up, as only he can do. Mark Crowder wrapped it up with Freedom and we were outta there by 9:15. No long offerings, no long announcements, just great worship and awesome music.

Oh, you should see some of the hairdo's I've seen. One girl's hair looked as if she had taken a toilet paper roll, rolled her hair around it (right at the top of her forehead!) and sprayed it stiff. You could see straight through it! Another girl looked like she only needed to slide a bone through her hair and she would look like Pebbles from the Flintstones. I'll try to take pictures tomorrow!

I almost forgot. . . after the concert there were hawkers, selling tambourines that lit up and flashed on and off, like something you'd buy at the circus. Is that new this year or have I missed too many conferences?

I'm off to bed!