The Gospel Music Association’s 32nd Annual Music in the Rockies event held in Estes Park took place between July 30th and August 5th, 2006. This was an incredible event and now that I have had a bit of time away from it… I will begin giving my impressions about the week at the event and give some details of other things that I did during the week.

I actually flew into Denver on Saturday morning and spent most of the morning scouring every grocery store between Denver and Boulder for Act II Sweet Corn on the Cob microwave Popcorn… alas, to no avail. I had planned to buy as much as I possibly could (as it is not available in Arkansas) and was going to ship it to my home. I gave up my hunt for the morning (I would later resume it full force and still come up empty) and gave my friend Hermes a call. He and his wife Jacolyn were going to be moving to Texas the next day and I thought it would be good to have lunch with them… so we went to the Spicy Pickle (absolutely delicious as always). I then spent a few hours going to different bike shops in Boulder (this is something I miss horribly) and bought a few of the newest energy bars and goodies to try out. I stayed with my friends Georg and Betsy Pingen on Saturday night and we caught up on things that have been going on in the past year. They are also expecting a baby very soon and were gracious enough to give Kimberly and I an outfit for our little Micah as they had a duplicate from a baby shower. Betsy gave me a copy of her book, “Did Your Grandfather Steal My Christmas Present?” (one of the most intriguing titles I have ever heard) and I am very much looking forward to reading it.

Sunday morning, I led the music at East Boulder Baptist Church where Kimberly and I attended during our time in Colorado. It was a great morning of getting to hear about the work that is going on for the Lord all over the world. Lunch at Old Chicago for some great pizza brought back some memories for me… most of “the gang” from Sunday School was there, but it just wasn’t the same without Brad and Patty Nix and Shane and Casey Ewen.

I took Highway 36 from Boulder up to Estes Park and thoroughly enjoyed watching all of the cyclists between Boulder and Longmont. By the time I got to Estes, the traffic was crazy and I started worrying that I had overestimated how much time I would have to get registered and settled. I was right, but it was mostly because of the insanely long lines for registration and then lodging check-in.

General Registration: SERIOUSLY… if you are going to the event next year show up early! This was supposed to take place between the hours of 1:00-5:00. I finished my registration and check-in at about 6:15 which gave me very little time to get done eating and get to the evening worship service. It was also just a little warm at the time and I had not changed out of my Sunday morning attire… big mistake!

Sunday Evening Concert (sponsored by Bible League): Chris Tomlin (here is his blog) is the real deal, folks! He did a great job of helping us worship corporately and prepared us for a very powerful message from Louie Giglio. The gist of the message was asking us what our worship services would be like if our church members stepped through the door to God’s Kingdom and stood in His presence before ever stepping through the door to the church building. They probably wouldn’t care too much what type of music was being sung or if there was any music at all… since they were already in an act of worship… it would just continue with other people around. Life application: Are we waiting for the church service to begin to start worshipping? I was exhausted at this point and went on back to my room… I still regret that I missed getting to hear the David Crowder Band. Maybe one of these days…