Banjos Are Here!

I have all six banjos here now! We have one Deering and five Morgan Monroe banjos. A friend of mine from a jam session is a dealer for Morgan Monroe and was able to get us a really good deal! I got three that are open back with a frailing scoop and two resonator banjos. The Deering is an open back also, which they gave us at cost. I got them all set up and have been tinkering with some minor adjustments such as bridge placement. Now I just have to test drive them all to make sure they are ready for the students!

I also have all six cases for them. I had been looking online for a good sturdy case so that they won't get damaged during the baggage handling at the airports. I budgeted for about $130 dollars each, thinking that the ones I saw online for that price were good enough. After reading reviews online and doing my research, I realized I would need to get better cases and they were going to cost more than we had funds for. I was getting pretty discouraged but I kept looking and praying that I would find something.  I finally came across the Reunion Blues Continental case after someone on a bluegrass page suggested it. After reading the reviews and watching their "drop test" videos, I knew this was the case we needed. These cases were out of our price range, but I figured I would send them an email and see if they would be willing to donate some or give us a discount. The next day, I had an email from the company and they wanted to donate all six cases! These cases will be easy for the team to carry through the airport because they have a regular handle as well as backpack straps. 

I am so grateful for everyone who has been helping me with this project, whether it be financial support, prayer, helping me pick the banjos, troubleshooting the travel logistics or just listening to me ramble on about banjos and Uganda. My next step in preparation for the trip is to pick out what books and learning materials I want to get for the students. I'll also be listening to some of their music to see how I can make the banjo fit in to their style. This will be a fun challenge! 

So Close!

                                      
We are so close to reaching our goal of $3,000! We just need $264 and we will have the money needed to buy the banjos and cases!
I'm so excited to be done with the fundraising phase of this project. It is definitely my least favorite thing. I HATE asking for money. I hate it... a lot. Even though I'm not asking for money for myself, I feel bad asking for other people's money.
Recently I was talking with someone about this. He said "people want to be generous and we need to give them the opportunity to be generous". I never thought about it that way. Other people want to be a part of something and I'm giving them the chance to do that. They might not be able to go on a mission trip or maybe they don't even want to,  but they are able to help make that happen for someone else. Your contributions are impacting the lives of these students in the music school. I can't wait to go and be a part of this ministry next summer! Thank you to all who have supported me financially and through prayer!
As for that other $264 that I hate to ask for... you can go to the paypal button on here or make a donation in the offering at Grace Community!  :)    

New Song!

I finally have another song on my youtube channel! I've been having some issues with my recording equipment but finally figured it out and got a song done tonight. I still have some bugs to work out with the sound but it's good enough for now, I think. :)  
Update coming soon!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX303ryDmsQ

Progress Report

Hey everybody - just wanted to give an update on the fundraising.  I'm sorry I haven't been blogging much lately. (If anybody cares, haha!). I've been crazy busy the last few weeks.
     This weekend was our annual camping trip with the church at Detroit. As she does every year, my mom made her delicious cobbler in the dutch ovens. She did apple, peach and marionberry. She and Debi French serve it out of her trailer together every year. They also did banana splits one night.

Jason, Danny and I put together a few songs and played for everyone while they ate. The first night, we did three songs and the second night we did a longer set. I had a lot of fun playing. Everyone seemed to especially like the song "sweet tooth".  We had a tip jar out that was for the Uganda trip. Between the two nights, we raised $270! I'm so blessed by the generosity of my church family!

  I've been writing some letters to music companies and have had two companies sponsor this project so far. Deering banjos provided a banjo at cost, so instead of 500 dollars for a banjo, they gave it to us for 149!
D'addario is going to donate strings, straps and tuners! I'm still waiting to hear back from a couple other companies and am going to write more letters. So far I have 1/3 of the funding that I need. I'm feeling really good about our progress!
 Thank you all for your support and continued prayers and stay tuned for a new video! That Deering Banjo is awesome and I'll be recording a song this weekend on it so you all can hear how it sounds :)

Just wanted to give a quick update and thank you all for your encouragement! I was able to overcome my fear of public speaking and share in front of the whole church my vision for this trip and why God has placed Uganda on my heart. I have had a lot of people offer to help in whatever way they can - whether it be praying for me, giving advice on travelling with instruments, offering financial support, helping with fundraising.  One person came up to me right after the church service and offered to buy the first banjo, then a couple weeks later, someone donated a guitar for the music school! I still have some work to do to get more banjos and I am planning a fundraiser. I will update you all once I have a date and details on that.
Also, the music school has a new website http://ultimatemusicsch.wix.com/ultimatemusic

Rock of Ages

Here's a song by Gillian Welch called Rock of Ages. It's a simple little melody to figure out in modal tuning. I had a harder time not mixing up the lyrics than I did playing the banjo!  I will be posting another song next weekend, too. I'm still working on getting the music room and recording equipment figured out, but while the weather's nice, I'll do a few more videos like this.

Wisdom from a Fortune Cookie?

So here I am at the gym, doing my work out routine... moving slowly forward one walking lunge at a time, when I spotted a small scrap of paper in the distance. That all familiar 0.5 x 3 inch piece of paper - a fortune cookie paper thing! I was going to just ignore it, those things say the dumbest things anyways, so I lunged on by. As I kept going, I thought, "Oh, just pick it up anway, it might be one of the funny ones you could add 'while pooping' to the end of". Lunge, step, lunge, step...Then a guy went walking by on the way to the water fountain. I suddenly felt myself become very protective over that silly piece of paper that I had now claimed as mine. Keep walking, dude, that's my fortune! He didn't see it. I must have it, but I can't be obvious about it, so I figured I would just get it on my way back down the row... Lunge, step, lunge, step. I finally reached the end of my row.  I don't know why I had to have that thing, but I wanted it and it's mine! I picked it up and here's what it read.

 With Uganda on my mind, I immediately associated it with that.  Hmmm...is that a good kind of unexpected or a bad? Maybe I should have left that thing on the ground! But no....miss curious Sarah had to pick that thing up! Well, whether that was meant for me or not, I still had to ponder it for awhile. Through my whole workout that thing was bugging me. 

 I thought about it and I also prayed about it. I do believe unexpected things will be happening and I'm going to believe they will be good things that can only come from God. I'm  praying that God will do great things in Jinja through the Ultimate Music School and I believe that he will!  I can't wait to be a part of this ministry and see first hand what God is doing there!   Even though those fortune cookie things can be pretty silly sometimes, I think that one was alright!

 I'm super excited to announce that next summer I will be going to Uganda to teach banjo at a music school! The purpose of this blog is to raise support and to keep everyone updated on where I am in my progress with collecting banjos and supplies. I will update the blog while I'm in Uganda, too. This summer I will be working on recording some music in my new music room and I'll share some of that here, too.