Recently, I had the opportunity to return to an annual spiritual retreat in Paris, TN. It is nearly impossible to explain what happens at the retreat. Suffice it to say that it is a mountaintop experience every year.

This year, we gathered together several old fogies to sing, calling ourselves Acappella Classic. It was me, Keith Lancaster, Rodney Britt, George Pendergrass and Steve Maxwell. At one point, we sang the old favorite “He Gave Her Water” with our friend Jerome Williams.

Every time we sing this song, Jerry Jones hops on stage and tries to sing the song with us. This time, we pulled the old trick “turn your back on the guest from the audience” that Acappella (His Image) used to do years ago.

It worked, until Jerry decided to take the lyrics of the song literally. In an attempt to get the microphone, He Gave Me Water. I suppose I’ve been sprinkled by the pope. A baptismal redeaux. Take a look.

I ran across an old friend today. Wayburn Dean and his wife Janae are here in Midland for a concert at Tru-Lite Fellowship. Unfortunately, I cannot make it for the event since tonight is my daughter’s eighth grade graduate banquet. So I ran by the church just after sound check and had a great time talking to them.

For those of you blissfully unaware, Wayburn and I sang together for several years in the group Acappella, along with George Pendergrass and Duane Adams. It was very good to see him again. We had the opportunity to laugh (which I’ve been short on lately) and just be stupid again.

Wayburn’s new album is doing well. He currently has a song at #3 on the charts and I expect there to be more to come. He has a song co-written by another friend, Albert Hall, that should be another chart-topper. Of course, being up on the charts is not the ultimate goal and Wayburn would be quick to tell you that. But it’s neat to see that God is still blessing Wayburn’s work.

Even is he is an old man now.

Follow this link to learn more about Wayburn’s ministry.

>It’s Christmas day and I haven’t put anything into this blog in almost a week. I figure I better do something before I get out of the habit.

At this point in time, I am cooking giblet gravy for leftovers. We had a fine meal this morning, but didn’t get around to the gravy thing until it was too late. So I am making the gravy for leftovers. Nummy….

Kevin and Michelle Schaffer came over yesterday after church. They are visiting the area (his parents live in Crane) and we had lunch and a good time rehashing old memories. I can’t believe how big his kids are, but then he said the same about ours. Kevin lives in Clovis, NM and teaches in one of the local school systems. He’s an elementary music teacher and is very good at what he does.

Music is still his passion. He is the volunteer worship leader at their church (which has doubled in size in the past year) and he is just beginning to write and record a new album of math fact jingles. There is a school curriculum company that has hired him to record an album based on their book… sort of a learn-by-singing kind of thing. I have no doubt it will be fun to listen to, math or not.

Kevin hasn’t changed much at all. Same old Kev. His son, Ethan (2 yr-old), is a chip off the old block. He gets that same twinkle is his eye just before he does something mischievous. His daughter, Elise (5 yr-old), is a beautiful young lady and sharp as a tack. Her mind is way ahead of her age. And Michelle looks as pretty as ever and is doing well. Kevin married above his pay grade.

I hope to see them more now that we’re closer to them. They brought back a lot of great memories. Time to add some stuff to the gravy, and Dallas starts playing in about 15 minutes. Merry Christmas everyone!

>Even though I have not been with Acappella Ministries for over three years now, I am still connected in a round about way. Keith has kept in touch and occasionally needs help with this or that… usually something to do with the Internet.

The past couple of days he has had me working on getting the domain kinks worked out for the new Acafest site. Aca what, you say? Long history. Here we go.

The Acappella Christian Music Seminar, or ACMS, started in the late 80′s in Paris, TN. In the beginning it was a week long festival/seminar in based in Acappella’s home town and studios. People came from all over the country (and later on, the world) to participate in classes about the art of acappella music and listen to singing groups perform. It always culminated in the homecoming concert of Acappella. As time went on, AVB and Vocal Union were added to the mix.

It started very simply. I remember my first year involved. Our home church, Paris Chapel, met in an old empty WalMart building. This is also where ACMS was hosted. Our homecoming concert of 1988 was on a flat bed trailer in the parking lot. A good portion of the city came out to hear it. It was stinking hot out there. And we were wearing jackets. Holy cow.

A few years on, we reduced it to a 3-day event and held it in the new Paris Landing Convention Center. It became international in nature with performances by groups from France and Guadeloupe (that small island nation in the Caribbean). It eventually got too big for us to handle properly. We had to make the decision to really put a ton of effort into it, or redirect our efforts into our ministry. The choice was easy. Make the main thing the main thing. So Acafest (as it was called by then) was retired for a season. A decade, it appears.

Acafest has been revived, now subtitled “The International Acappella Singing Festival.” It is scheduled for Nov. 1-3, 2007 in Nashville. Who knows? Maybe my worship team from wherever I end up in the next few weeks can participate? That would be a blast. I’ve got 13 months to get my schedule worked out.