RockTheDesert

Massive Rhino sighting at FAO Schwartz

Most stuffed animals are soft and comforting and adorable. Something to clutch and hug while falling asleep. This rhino, with a relatively modest price tag of $550, isn't so great for cuddling but is a great reminder to me of our need to crash thru the jungles of Africa at full speed, not looking to the right or the left, full of faith and perseverance, confident of our mission as Team Berryman...to evangelize an area in partnership with local churches, establishing churches within walking distance of every person on the planet and equipping them to make disciples who then plant churches and continue the work!

Join us this summer...Burundi & Rwanda '09!!

Tale of Two Trips

I have no pictures to post just yet - all my technology is not working together the way I envision that it can. So for now, just the words and your imagination!

I just returned from back to back trips. Both involved large amounts of people. Both yielded a highly satisfactory outcome. Both left me exhausted but exhilarated at the end of the day.

First trip was with a group of 14 singers from Voices, A Music & Arts Studio.  After months of painstaking, diligent practice individually and as a group, we joined a large contingent of singers from around the country at the Hyatt Grand Central Station in east mid-town New York City. We practiced 3 times together. Mozart's Requiem in D minor. So beautiful. And challenging. And wonderful. And complex. And a work he actually never finished - he died before its completion so it was finished by some of his colleagues. On Monday, January 19, in front of a packed house, we performed in Carnegie Hall. The orchestra was incredible. I could have just listened to them for hours. I stood in the second row and could watch the orchestra in action. So amazing!

We had a lot of free time while in NYC. I spent most of my time exploring various parts of the city. I walked to Central Park. Shopped at FAO Schwartz, browsed through a massive Apple Store on the famous Fifth Avenue, walked through The Plaza Hotel, took a quick picture at "30 Rock", contemplated ice skating for about 60 seconds then decided against it, took a quick picture at Radio City Music Hall, took a long walk to the upper east side to Hunter College for a church service on Sunday night. It snowed the whole time I walked, great, soft, slushy snow. The church service was wonderful. Redeemer Presbyterian Church. 5 services every weekend. Tim Keller is the main teaching pastor. Music was jazz-flavored, played by really great musicians. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of slippery snow after church. I chose to take the train back to home base!

My second trip began right after the first one! I landed in Phoenix on Tuesday afternoon, off-loaded dirty laundry, added in some more essentials, made dinner for Steven, then headed back to the airport. Made my way to Dallas for the E3 World Conference! I'm so glad to be part of E3 Partners Ministry! There's so much going on in the world of missions and we get to be an integral part of it!!

Lots of changes within the organization. Incredible new vision was cast for this current season of ministry. We had some fantastic times of worship first with John Hewlett from Valley Ranch Baptist Church in Coppell, TX then later in the week with Pocket Full of Rocks. So refreshing and energizing and fun!

Hopefully I'll be able to post links later to photos of both trips and links to keynote speakers at conference!

For now, I'm off to one of my favorite conferences ever - Re:create in Franklin, TN.

NYC Saturday Night Update...

OK, so it's 10:25. I've just returned from an exciting little excursion. I decided to go walk around at the Grand Central Market. But on the way downstairs, I decided to throw caution to the wind and be impulsive and adventurous...I turned left then left again and started power walking down Lexington Avenue. I walked confidently with purpose. I dug deep inside and mustered up the New Yorker in me. It was really cold but not raining. I had my bling hoody on, jeans, purple crocs, I felt pretty in step with the people around me. I had a lot of company. Lots of couples, groups of friends, Asian tourists, 1 yelling crazy man who stopped occasionally to curse and dig thru trash cans. I tried to breathe in the city. I kept looking up. NYC is all about the vertical. Tower after tower. Pretty soon I passed the Waldorf Astoria. Beautiful and majestic. I turned right on a street. Turned left again. I think I was on 3rd Avenue by this time. Maybe. I walked past Bloomingdales. I decided I wanted to find a little Italian place to eat at. I stopped and read the menu at one. Didn't sound too bad, but there were no customers. That could be a problem. So I kept walking. Turned down another street, maybe 59th or 60th. Came upon a neon sign that said "Patsy's Coal-Fired Pizzas." This was definitely the place I was looking for. There's a really great place in Scottsdale called "Patsy Grimaldi's." They have coal-fired pizzas which are fantastic. I was sure this place would be similar in taste. I wasn't disappointed. I ordered a calzone loaded with incredibly creamy ricotta, really fresh mozzarella, and spicy pepperoni. They topped it with fresh basil and gave me a gravy boat filled with delicious marinara for dipping. It was a very vibey little place. Super-loud in a boisterously friendly way. I decided to order a cannoli to save for breakfast. I hope it's still fresh in the morning. I set it by the window which is a pretty cold spot in the room. In fact, Daphne has had a piece of cheesecake cooling on the windowsill since Thursday nite. She and Marianne are convinced that it will be good as new for at least a few more days. I also brought half of my calzone back...if Daphne's window cooling system works out for me, I could have that for breakfast on Monday!

Waldorf

Patsy's Pizzeria

Patsy's Delivers!

Inviting entrance. Once inside, there's a fireplace in the waiting area

My receipt - not exactly a budget-friendly place - actually, the prices were pretty much Scottsdale prices. $16.50 for the calzone. $2.75 for the Coca Cola. $7 for the cannoli.

NYC Saturday

Lots of rain today. We had a photo shoot outside of Carnegie Hall with our Voices group. Had lunch at the Europa Cafe across from Carnegie. NYC is so cool. I can't wait to come back for more of Broadway.  Most of our group headed out to see Spamalot tonight. I don't want to ruin the perfect memory I still have of Legally Blonde so I'm planning on blogging, reading, journaling, wandering around the Grand Central Market and figuring out a public transportation route to the Brooklyn Tabernacle - we've got a little group interested in experiencing the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir live tomorrow - then we have dress rehearsal at 5:30pm, dinner, then the big performance begins at 8:30pm. We've got tickets for a harbor cruise aboard The Spirit of New Jersey directly after the show. Monday we head back to AZ. Not sure when I'll blog again - I'm paying $10 per day for internet service - I'm really surprised it's not included in the highly inflated price of our room!

#1 Group photo inside Carnegie while waiting for part of our group to arrive.

#2 Group photo inside Carnegie - still waiting for the rest of the group to arrive - decided to be silly.

#3 Historic Landmark sign on wall outside Carnegie Hall

#4 Poster outside Carnegie announcing our concert

#5 Lunch at the cafe - Clay & Claudia

#6 Lunch at the cafe - Daphne, Satyam, Brooke

#7 The Russian Tea Room - I've read about this place for years. I'm still not sure what it is - we were walking pretty quickly (late for rehearsal), it was raining and slippery and we were pretty much running, trying to hail a cab, and we couldn't stop to peek inside.

Friday in NYC

First off, we met Dr. David Thye. He's one of the conductors at Carnegie Hall. We had an intense 3-1/2 hour rehearsal with him. We actually sounded pretty decent by the time he was done with us. Here's a few friends from Voices - that's the studio that I'm here with.

I had great Chinese food for lunch at a restaurant on e. 45th street. Then we all headed to the Empire State Building. We walked. And walked. This is definitely a walking town. Tons of people are on the street all the time. We went to the observatory on the 80th floor. Since it was overcast, the visibility was only 5 miles and it was a pretty grey 5 miles. The wind was icy cold - brutal, really. I'm surprised I didn't drop the camera - my hands were frozen and numb. I tried to take pictures from the north, south, east and west. In the third picture you can kind of see the Statue of Liberty in the distance on a tiny little island  Tonight I decided to splurge on a ticket to "Legally Blonde" at The Palace Theater on Broadway. It was an amazing, wonderful, invigorating, feel-good show based on the movie and book by the same name. I had a center seat, 14 rows back from the orchestra pit. I got a last minute deal - $67. When we left the theater it was raining. Icy cold rain drenched us all the way back to the hotel. It actually felt good. Fresh and wet and sloshy and drippy and rainy. Tomorrow I'm going to head to Central Park, possibly the Twin Towers, the Soup Nazi for lunch, a four hour rehearsal, and a photo shoot in front of Carnegie Hall.

 

I'm in NYC

It's really hard to take good pictures while travelling in a bus. Tried to capture our journey from Newark (I'm not sure why we landed in New Jersey instead of New York). Our bus ride was uneventful except for our ride through a tunnel, possibly the Holland Tunnel - I took a picture that I thought would be really cool. Dark tunnel, red lights on the ceiling, tail lights of vehicles all around. The picture turned out sort of OK, but our bus driver got really mad at me. He said it's illegal to take pictures inside tunnels in New York because of terrorism. Evidently there are security cameras throughout the tunnels and if someone caught me taking a picture of the tunnel they would pull over the bus and confiscate my camera. I debated for 2 seconds then deleted the picture. It wasn't my best picture anyway. Here's my other 2 best shots.

We're staying at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan. It's a beautiful, 4 star hotel. We're going with 4 to a room. I'm in a room with Claudia, Daphne and Maryanne. Here's one of the beds we will share - did I mention 2 full-grown adult women will be sharing these beds?

One final picture - our hotel is literally right above Grand Central Station. We wandered downstairs and checked out the market and bought some fruit for breakfast tomorrow. I loved the hustle and bustle of rush hour. Tons of people rushing past us to catch the train or subway.