My Mom flew in from Portland on Thursday evening. On Friday afternoon, she came to my Russian class with me. That was fun (although she didn't understand anything)! Afterwards we drove four hours south to the city of Visalia, checked into a motel, and that evening went to see Petra perform at a church in town.
Petra is one of the first Christian bands I started listening to when I was a freshman in highschool. Their album Petra Praise: The Rock Cries Out was the first one I owned, and I would listen to it daily. When I spent my 11th grade year in Chile as an exchange student, I had their Beyond Belief video with me, and it was one of my biggest links to home. I watched it all the time! Petra's music was very instrumental (no pun intended) in my spiritual life during my most formative years. When I saw that they are retiring this year (after over 30 years in ministry), and that they were on their farewell tour, I knew I couldn't miss the chance to see them perform one last time. Visalia was the closest location, hence the road trip!
The concert was awesome (loud, but awesome)! There were two bands that performed before Petra: Bread of Stone and Farewell June. They were good, but the crowd went crazy when Petra came out! They performed a lot of great songs, including a few medleys. It was so fun to sing along with them live! Finally, the concert was over at 11:00PM. Mom and I grabbed a quick dinner from McDonalds on the way back to the motel, and turned in for the night.
Aside from the Petra concert, it was so wonderful to have those extended hours in the car to just chat with Mom and get to know each other better. Living so far apart from each other for the last six years has made it difficult to keep our relationship as close as I'd like, so this was a real treat for me. She flew home on Sunday after attending church with us.
Thanks, God, for my Mom, and for the chance to spend this time with her. And thanks for Petra, and the great ministry they've had all these years. Thanks for giving me this chance to see them in concert -- it was truly a blessing for me!
Here's the cute Petra t-shirt I got at the concert:
And here's a photo of Mom and me at the airport:
3 comments:
Sarah, I'm going to see Petra on Friday night! My DH was a HUGE Petra fan growing up. We saw them at a music festival this summer and we're excited to see them again. Mike went to LOTS of their concerts growing up and got to go backstage several times. We had backstage passes this summer so I got to meet them at my first Petra concert. We're really looking forward to Friday.
Glad you got to enjoy the concert, and how fun that you got to spend the time w/ your mom!
merry from HP
Mary, I know you're going to love it! I'm so glad I "seized the day" and decided to go -- it was worth it!
The only thing I was disappointed about is that they didn't do any kind of "meet and greet" afterwards, so we didn't get a chance to get a photo taken with John Schlitt...how cool that you got to meet them last summer!
We went Friday night, and I got the same t-shirt you did! It was really fun.
They did have a meet n greet after this concert, but the line was really long and since 4 of the 5 of us that went talked to them in August, we didn't stay this time.
For my DH who has been a huge fan for years, it was bittersweet, but it was a great time.
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