Posts Tagged ‘Big Ticket Festival’

Posted on June 28, 2009 - by Mary

Visit from my Sister and her Family

This morning was a sad morning. My sister who was visiting us from New Mexico, along with her family, left for home today. She arrived May 31st when Jeff, Karlie and I were in Sault Ste. Marie for the Chosen Youth Conference. They made themselves at home until we arrived the next day.

When I walked in the door to my house, my sister and I hugged for a very long time. It’s been 6 long years since I’ve seen her and we both cried.

The temperatures were quite chilly upon their arrival, but slowly they rose to over 90 degrees so we got some good beach time in. One hot day, we took all the kids to the beach for 7 hours! We both look like Bob the Tomatoe from Veggie Tales! LOL.

Part of the reason my sister came to visit us was because her daughter, Kara, who’s been living here for a couple of years now, graduated high school, as well as my son Kaleb. They also came to enjoy the Big Ticket Festival, and were a blessing by volunteering. My sister’s husband Frank was blessed to be able to be a stage hand on the main stage. He got to help set up and tear down as all the different bands arrived and left. He was one pooped puppy when it was said and done, but he loved every minute of it and others were saying what a blessing he was to have up there and that he really knew what he was doing and so on. Frank couldn’t have been more thrilled or blessed!

My sister helped me with the Chosen promo booth and the Chosen Merchandise booth. She was a huge blessing to have there as well. She was able to see most of the bands she wanted to and got some photos and autographs, as well as some cd’s and t-shirts. Her daughter Katie and my daughter Karlie volunteered by selling BTF programs. It’s a great thing to see our kids helping out like that!

Other than that, we just enjoyed each others company and I showed her some stuff on the computer and about affiliate marketing and working from home. She already has a website, Open Talk Mom, where she talks about living with MS and Diabetes and other issues such as being sexually molested as a child and so on.

I am sad to see them go, but we are planning a trip to New Mexico in the Spring of 2010. Jeff has never been there and it’s been way too long since I’ve been home!

Posted on June 22, 2009 - by Mary

The Big Ticket Festival 2009 Highlights

VID 00011It’s the Monday after Big Ticket . We are recovering from the three days of Christian Music, Christian Speakers and Ministry. It was awesome, and each year it gets better and better!

This year, there were over 60 bands on 6 stages, plus over 100 ministry booths, all with the same mission, spreading the good news of Jesus Christ and reaching others for Christ.

I don’t have the final numbers from the event yet, but just from looking there were double, if not triple the amount of people from last year.

This year’s event was 3 days. The three headliner bands each night were Switchfoot, Newsboys and Third Day. I was excited to see the Newsboys this year because Michael Tate formerly of DC Talk is now the lead singer. I’ve loved the Newboys ever since I first got saved and started listening to Christian Music. I love Peter Furhler and am sad to see him go, yet on the other hand I’m excited about the change. At the festival, Newsboys did some old school Newsboys songs and some old DC Talk songs. Michael Tate also gave a great message during their concert. Newboys even signed autographs this year, which is something they had not done in the past.

As in past years, I was in charge of the Chosen Booth. This year we also had a separate booth for Chosen Merchandise, which I was also coordinated. We sold lots of merch and had a good time doing so. I had about 10 volunteers to help out at different times.

My husband was heading up the BTF Minister’s Connection in the prayer tent and was a runner for the production crew. We love helping out and really look forward to next year’s event.

Because we were coordinators, we didn’t get to see every single band we wanted to but I was able to get out to see a few of my faves, like FFH, The Katinas, Salvador, Chris Sligh, Sargent Avenue, Michael Gungor, Only 9 AM, 33 Miles, Blue Tree, New World Son, The Andy Stefanic Band, and Thousand Foot Krutch. Jeff and I were blessed with VIP passes to TFK, so we got to stand on stage in the back and watch them. After it was over, we got to meet a couple of the band members. Jeff was so excited.

Below are a few pics we took. I took some video with my phone as well, but not sure how good they are.