Barlow Girl and World Vision Night
On Friday I volunteered with World Vision at the Barlow Girl/Matthew West/Down Here concert. I wasn't really up for going since I had to be up early to head up to Cleveland to the Yankee Peddler Fest (which was a groovin' time! Thanks, Shari and fam!). I decided to go since I missed BG last time they were here. Volunteers needed to be there an hour before the show to get our bearings. The Underground is a big standing-room only club. All the merchandise tables and the World Vision tables are stationed around the perimeter of the audience area. were were standing outside the WV booth with Erin, the volunteer coordinator (who is married to the drummer in Down Here) and a guy came over and stood next to me. He said "Are these our World Vision volunteers?" Erin said "Yes"...The guy said "You guys are awesome for doing this" then he turned to me and extended his hand and said "I'm Matthew West". Trying to hide being caught off guard (I had only heard Matthew West's voice prior to that moment) I smiled, shook his hand and introduced myself. He went around and shook hands with all the other people and then thanked us again. Later he and the Barlow Girls and Down Here were milling around in front of Down Here's merchandise table so I went over and asked if I could get a picture. They were all happy to do that. One of the girls even said 'Hey! It's our first group shot from our tour!" It turns out that the show Friday was the kick off to their "Don't Conform" tour - Barlow Girl's first headlining tour. Woohoo. :) The rest of the night was fabulous. I met some other really cool folks. Me and another lady, Kim, hit it off right away talking about God's fabulousness and our World Vision kids. She goes to Crossroads. They travel all the way from Batavia to go there.
Just before the concert started there was a screen above the stage that had text messages coming in...You could send a text message to a number they gave and it would show up. I sent 2 - one said "Give God the Glory - We are never alone" and the other said "Support World Vision - Kim and Helen"...What topped it all was when one of the other volunteers said he couldn't think of anything to text but then he sent one that said "Jennifer (random name he picked) - GOD wants you to sponsor a World Vision child!"...We joked that at intermission we'd have a wave of Jennifers feeling convicted and wanting to sponsor kids.
The concert was awesome. Down Here is really good. I was not that familiar with them. They started off with "We will rock you"...And the lead singer actually does sound like Freddy Mercury. And he sorta looks like him too...But I think he looks more like Donny Osmond.
Matthew West was fabulous and so was Barlow Girl. At intermission 3 of us got to go onstage to hand out sponsorship packets to the folks in the front who didn't want to leave their prime spots by the stage. We were trying to get through the crowd but they were packed in like sardines so I asked Vince Barlow (manager and dad to the girls) if we could go up on stage to hand them out. He told us that would be fine. The packets we gave out were not individual kids, but a new campaign that Barlow Girl supports called PREY. It is aimed at rescuing kids in Cambodia from the sex trade and other abusive situations. They have a place they can go to find love, be introduced to God, get support, education, and if possible, be reunited with their families.
The night ended with NEVER ALONE and one other song. woohoo! It was a gorgeous night out so they had their Meet-n-Greet outside. I didn't stay around long because I had a long day ahead of me, but I did find gasoline for $1.99 a gallon! YAY!!!!!!!!!
Just before the concert started there was a screen above the stage that had text messages coming in...You could send a text message to a number they gave and it would show up. I sent 2 - one said "Give God the Glory - We are never alone" and the other said "Support World Vision - Kim and Helen"...What topped it all was when one of the other volunteers said he couldn't think of anything to text but then he sent one that said "Jennifer (random name he picked) - GOD wants you to sponsor a World Vision child!"...We joked that at intermission we'd have a wave of Jennifers feeling convicted and wanting to sponsor kids.
The concert was awesome. Down Here is really good. I was not that familiar with them. They started off with "We will rock you"...And the lead singer actually does sound like Freddy Mercury. And he sorta looks like him too...But I think he looks more like Donny Osmond.
Matthew West was fabulous and so was Barlow Girl. At intermission 3 of us got to go onstage to hand out sponsorship packets to the folks in the front who didn't want to leave their prime spots by the stage. We were trying to get through the crowd but they were packed in like sardines so I asked Vince Barlow (manager and dad to the girls) if we could go up on stage to hand them out. He told us that would be fine. The packets we gave out were not individual kids, but a new campaign that Barlow Girl supports called PREY. It is aimed at rescuing kids in Cambodia from the sex trade and other abusive situations. They have a place they can go to find love, be introduced to God, get support, education, and if possible, be reunited with their families.
The night ended with NEVER ALONE and one other song. woohoo! It was a gorgeous night out so they had their Meet-n-Greet outside. I didn't stay around long because I had a long day ahead of me, but I did find gasoline for $1.99 a gallon! YAY!!!!!!!!!
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