Tuesday, our 4th day of tour, was a glorious day. We escaped Kraków’s blistering heat with a hike in Prcepięky Park’s lovely forest. I asked several people if they had a highlight to share from the day.
Rose: “Hearing the wind in the pines.”
Taylor: “Not particularly. Saw pretty trees and pretty rocks on a pretty path. It was a pretty good time.”
Well, that’s putting it gently. “Pretty” is a mild word to describe Prcepięky Park’s airy woods and sheer faces of rock. Speaking of sheer, a group of people went spelunking in the park while the rest of us ambled elsewhere. Representatives of the group had this to say.
Natalie: “We climbed 170 feet straight up the side of a mountain to see a cave with nasty spiders and bear bones. It was delightful. We also ate red berries and almost died of [indecipherable].”
Belinda: “For the record, I coaxed Natalie and Roxanne to come to the cave with me and we climbed 170 feet up the mountain. It was a beautiful view. And we saw God’s handprint. We ate wild raspberries.”
After we finished hiking and spelunking, we ate a delicious lunch prepared by Jaden and Jewel. Of note: the tuna salad, seasoned liberally with many things including lemons, squeezed by Jaden’s hand.
After lunch we drove to our concert venue. There, we had some extra rehearsal time which we needed after having no concert yesterday. In between rehearsing we drank coffee provided by the coolest European coffee machine on which you press a button and voilà, it makes you a coffee drink of your choice, of coffee-shop quality. Get it together, North America.
At this concert, we had the space to sing Alleluia as a processional for the first time—or so we thought. When concert time came, the venue was packed, and much of the back of the sanctuary was filled with chairs. So some of us had the uncomfortable experience of walking slowly through very tight back rows of people until we finally got to the aisle and had a little more room. Still, a processional is such a fun way to begin a concert, and I was glad we went with it.
Professional videographers recorded our concert, and apparently we’ll be told when and if we can access those videos. We sang the concert under blazing stage lights, an experience Jaron described as “cool.” It wasn’t. It was extremely hot.
Still, it was a solid concert, and our audience connected well. Praise the Lord.
After the concert the church fed us supper. We were entertained by a sweet mentally handicapped young man who blew bubbles for us and also blasting noises on leaves he had stripped from trees. His tone was described as “pure” and his volume as “fortissimo.”
–Abigail Heatwole