Sunday: July 13^th, 2003 

Unexpected complications with our buses caused PFC to leave later than desired, but overall our trip up to Atlanta went very smoothly. We arrived at Perimeter church, in eastern Atlanta around 6:00 pm, astounded by their facilities, which included a gym, large sanctuary, track, and pool. Perimeter is undergoing construction, which will further extend the size of the church with more rooms and special offerings for youth (such as a rock wall).

When we got to the church, Sandy Graves’ brother and sister-in-law and her nephew, Taylor, met our team. That night we had a pool and pizza party at the church, and were then split up and housed by different families of the church for the night (Our team is tremendously grateful for their hospitality).

            That night we drew names from a basket; each paper had the name of a student or leader who was on tour. Throughout the week we were asked to look for Christ’s gift and light in them, and to remember them in our prayers. We were supposed to keep our “puppet pal” a secret until the final day of tour.

Monday: July 14^th, 2003

            Our families took us back to Perimeter for our Monday morning performance at “Camp America”, a large camp for children of the area. We performed for approximately 600 kids, who were a very tough crowd (they did not take very well to Brittany’s jokes). We performed mostly black light numbers, including our performance piece “Adore”, and one number that includes sign language along with puppetry, which was in white light. Overall the performance seemed to be a big success, especially since it was one of the largest crowds that PFC has ever performed for.

            After we were finished at Camp America we packed the van and headed over to the Mall of Georgia. Some of the team went to see Pirates of the Caribbean, while the others shopped enjoying some stores that aren’t in the malls in Tampa. After a full day in Atlanta we hopped back on the vans to head out to our destination of Cullowhee, North Carolina.

            We arrived in Cullowhee in the early evening, and settled down into our dorm rooms. Although the rooms themselves were disappointing, we were in the only dorm hall with air conditioning at the Western Carolina campus.

Tuesday: July 15^th, 2003

            We woke up early in the morning for our ride down to South Carolina. PFC decided to skip the first day of the Fellowship of Christian Puppeteers Conference to opt for the adventure of Whitewater River Rafting. We went to the Nantahala Outdoor Center Post at the Chattooga River, which runs along the Georgia/South Carolina state border. Last year PFC went rafting on the Nantahala, but this year wanted to experience a more challenging river. The team was divided into groups of 5, and each put with a guide to navigate down the river with. The Chattooga was filled with some pretty difficult rapids. We went down a lot of 4’s and one 5 (on a scale of 1-6).

The rafting trip also offered some other unique experiences. We were able to get out of our boats and crawl out to the middle of the river on some of the rocks. Then we could jump off the last rock into the 65-degree water and swim/float through some class 1 rapids. Getting out of the current and back to the shore after swimming proved to be a difficult task. Midway through the day we stopped to eat lunch and we able to take a short hike up to a pretty sizable waterfall. We were able to actually walk up right into it and stand under the water falling above our heads. On the way back down we used the rocks and pouring as a slide to get back down to the base of the shore.

We were lucky to only loose one member in the river while going through a rapid (a class 4 named “Seven Foot Falls”). Meghan Nash took an accidental dip in the chilly water but we were able to quickly pull her back into the boat, so she obtained some painful bruises but thankfully nothing more.

Wednesday: July 16^th, 2003

            First day PFC participated in the conference, we were required to attend 3 out of 4 workshops each day. Most of the team attended a humorous “face painting” class, followed by a very fun and entertaining improvisation/storytelling through mime workshop. Much of the team also attended sign language workshops for learning and performance throughout the week.

            Wednesday night PFC performed two numbers for exhibition. “Now’s the Time”, which won the National Title at the FPC conference last year, followed by “The Astronaut Song”. Both black light numbers were well received by the audience, and many stayed afterwards to ask questions and see the behind the scenes action of our team deconstructing our stage.

Thursday: July 17^th, 2003

            We continued with workshops, however this time all but 2 or 3 teammates chose to participate in the Hip Hop Dance Workshop, which ended in a performance that night. The dance is to Out of Eden’s “Different Now”, it took us 4 sessions to learn the dance, and we hope to bring it back to perform at a Higher Dimensions service before school begins.

            Thursday afternoon it was PFC’s turn to perform in the “Challenge of Excellence” (term used for the time in which teams were being judged for their performances). Our program was entered in the category of Creative Movement. It was a black light number that featured fluorescent streamers and dowel rods to Jaci Velasquez’s “Adore”.

            Thursday night they announced the winners of each division after a very long night of exhibition programs. Adore won first place in Creative Movement. After announcing each division winner they then announced the top 3 overall performances in which PFC ranked 2^nd. A clown performance ranked 1^st, and the 2^nd place winner in Creative Movement for a baton twirling routine ranked 3^rd. This meant that we were going to have to perform again Friday night for the award of People’s Choice. Instead of judges’ scores, the winner would be completely based on the ballots of the audience.

Friday: July 18^th, 2003

            Last day of the conference! Following the usual schedule, we participated in workshops and almost everyone chose to attend (except those who wanted to sleep in) another sign language workshop, where we learned how to sign “My Redeemer Lives” by Nicole C. Mullins. Mrs.Bonanno would like us to sign to that song in future puppet programs.

            Since we participated in 4 workshops on Thursday, we were allowed to only go to 2 on Friday. Most of us used the break time to do our laundry, with great difficulty as the dryers at WCU are not overly effective. It takes about 50 minutes to get your clothes fully dried (about $1.25) and some did not have the change nor the patience to let their clothes dry. So, Scott and Chris tried to “sun-dry” their clothing by spreading it out on the vans outside. We also used our free time to make and give gifts to our “secret puppet pals”, as we had been doing for them throughout the week.

            For the last session of the day, many went down to “Ice Breakers” where they ended up doing a scavenger hunt. During this, members of PFC were able to make friends with another team there called, Praisin’ Puppets from Pennsylvania.

            Friday night the 3 top acts performed for the People’s Choice award. After each team was done competing there was a long waiting period, filled with drawings, games and videos. So finally the suspenseful moment came, and to our surprise and excitement, PFC won! Although we were all proud to have won, we made the comment that perhaps it would have been good to lose for once, practicing some humility, and giving other teams a shot. So, I think as a team we’ve decided against competing a 3^rd year in a row.

            That night a bunch of the puppeteers at conference got together at our hall, we had cookie cake, and went outside to play volleyball – which turned out to be a very fun night of fellowship.

Saturday: July 19^th, 2003

            We packed up and headed out of WCU, but not without stopping to take a group photo with our winnings. Hopefully those trophies will be reminders of, not how good we are, but of how well God can use us to do amazing things for his kingdom.

            From Cullowhee we left for Conyers, GA for our final performance of tour. When we got to the church in Conyers we were given a spaghetti dinner, and were amazed to find out that an article about our team had been published in a local newspaper.

            Our performance that night went really well, we did about 9 numbers, including some of our dowel rod dance numbers. We had a good-sized crowd of all ages who really enjoyed the show, and talking to some of our puppeteers. Robert and Sherri Leatherwood also made a surprise appearance for our show, which was a lot of fun!

            That night we spent the night at a campground, where a local summer camp has been going on for 175 years. They had a bunch of cabins, in a semi circle, around a grass field, which was a little scary in the pitch black. So we ended up hanging out and playing cards in the girls cabin until it was time to go to sleep.

Sunday: July 20^th, 2003 

            Final day of tour! We got an early start, and met in the girls cabin for a music devotion and breakfast then headed on our way home. Unfortunately, the way home was plagued by traffic, as 2 lanes of I-75 were closed down, so this delayed our trip home quite a bit.

            We finally stopped in southern Georgia at a Cracker Barrel for Lunch, where we had good food, and met a man with a very interestingly shaped hat. There were also 2 men dining when we were who later asked us, that if we wished he could help us bring our ministry to Romania, where he is a missionary! That’s probably a bigger step than PFC can conquer for now though. While we were at Cracker Barrel we revealed our “secret puppet pals” and talked about the encouragement that we had seen through our pal throughout the week.

            When we finally got back to the church, much later than expected, I think we were all very grateful to see our families, and to go home, but we will definitely remember all the fun that we had on Puppet Tour 2003!

Thanks for the photos Casey