the calm before the storm

The Necessary Project was less than a month away. Tension was high, not just among our team, but also among all our relationships, families, friends, and significant others. We were still spitting at youth groups and churches, though we hardly had the time to write and memorize new pieces while also preparing a 25 piece set for the Project.

One of the traditions we set in place for our team in the beginning was to have--what we call, “team date nights.” They are nights where we cook together, eat at out together, go to the movies together, go on a roadtrip together, whatever. They are designated times for us to unwind and be a community together, not just a performance team. No rehearsing is aloud, and business talk is ideally minimal. We’d lose our minds if we didn’t take the time to sit back and enjoy one another. After all, though we had dealt with craziness in preparation for the Project, we all knew the true craziness was yet to come.

In the pictures are Kasey (our coordinator we hired on for The Necessary Project who quickly began to feel like a member of the SITM family) helping me make the boys dinner, then Nathan, Danny, and Steven Pate, after spitting at a youth group in Downey a week or two after, and the team, along with our friend (and Danny’s girlfriend) Nicole, grabbing some sushi as our long night was coming to and end. We love spider rolls.