MID WEEK MOTIVATION - May 14, 2025 (Marc Lewis & Sid McNeil)

You're listening to the Midweek Motivation Podcast from DeSoto Hills Baptist Church in South Haven Mississippi.

Here's your hosts Mark Lewis, david Burgess and Pastor Grant Stegall.

Welcome to the Midweek Motivation Podcast for Wednesday, May 14th, here at DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

I'm Mark Lewis and I'm here with special guest today, Sid McNeil.

How are we?

We're doing fantastic.

We hope this programming can encourage folks throughout DeSoto County and beyond.

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Don't know Sid McNeil?

He's the guy who's been helping out on stage on Sunday mornings an amazing musician and an amazing guy, and we are so lucky to have him here at DeSoto Hills.

Tell us, sid, where did you grow up?

Well, we could spend the whole podcast on my childhood, but we'll make it quick.

I was born in Louisiana, bossier City Where's that close to?

In Louisiana, shreveport, okay, yeah, so not too bad.

And then we moved to Brandon for a little stint and then in high school I was in Decatur, which is where I graduated.

So I call home Decatur because that's where my grandparents, all my family's from Decatur, which is right outside Meridian East Central Community College, is there.

Okay, Tell us about school, high school college.

Well, like I said, I went to Decatur High School and I was the last graduating class of Decatur High School.

How's that?

How'd that work out?

They merged into.

What is it?

Newton County High School, I believe, is what it is now.

So was it a big to-do with that last graduating class.

It was.

Even though they shared, they still stayed in that building, but the last class before it turns into, because there's lots of little towns all around.

Even Decatur was a small town.

I think we had maybe 40 in our graduating class, so very small.

It was a small town.

I think we had maybe 40 in our graduating class, so very small.

And then now that it's Newton County High School, it's a large and probably much needed for the resources and just to be able to merge all of that.

But yeah, big to do.

I enjoyed high school.

I was, of course, band, played trumpet and I was the musician of the school.

So that was quite fun.

How many people were in the band, like how big was the school.

So, okay, that was quite fun.

How many people were in the band, like how big was the school?

The band maybe had 20.

Okay, so it was a small compared to what we think of here in de soto county.

Yeah, and I was a decent trumpet player, so I stood out.

As you know, I was the trumpet player right and so um, y'all did.

Y'all did all outout marching drill and everything we tried.

Yeah, we tried.

We didn't really go to festivals, certainly like Lions Band and things like that.

We didn't know much about that.

And so it was only when I got into college, when I really started to, I knew I wanted to do something with the trumpet because I just enjoyed it and music.

It was natural to me, music was so I wanted to do something musically.

So tell us how that I was about to say.

Tell us the transition.

I went across the street.

If you go to where the old Decatur High School is in Decatur, right across the street is East Central Community College.

So then I went there for two years Right across the street and I got to live at home and I worked at a truck stop on the side, made some money, Nice yeah.

And then I went to Delta State and that's where so how did you end up at Delta State?

Also an interesting story.

I always thought I would go to Mississippi State but then the director of bands at Delta State came to East Central and we got to talking and he offered a lot of money and so I went where the money was and so I was fortunate in that and to be able to go to Delta State loved it.

I mean really loved Delta State.

You know, relationships will typically trump anything else it will and it's amazing that just because he came to East Central to see me, that one trip changed your entire.

It made me feel like I was wanted, and that's how I ended up there.

I ended up at William Carey because David Young came and I had no plans to go to William Carey, it was not even on the radar, and he just said I'll give you a lot of money if you'll come down here and play.

I was like, hmm, I hadn't even thought about that.

So to me that's fascinating.

And you love Delta State?

I did.

Delta State is a different world.

It is.

It's a bubble.

I love the smaller size.

Yes, which it sounds like you came from that I did Comfort.

I will tell you that when I was there I guess that was telling my age it was in the 90s, and so the band program at that time was pretty large.

They had a big trumpet studio and the music education field was really big there.

Of course, teachers, many teachers, come from Delta State and so it was a great education program so I loved it there.

I even stayed after I finished my bachelor's.

So I loved it there.

I even stayed after I finished my bachelor's, stayed there and got a master's directly after which sometimes getting a master's directly after your bachelor's is not always the right thing to do, but for me, and where I was, it turned out great because then I was able to go to Cleveland High School to teach.

Then I was able to go to Cleveland High School to teach.

Okay, so how did you?

You met the band director at Delta State.

Did you immediately know I kind of want to go into education and do band because I just like I love it?

Or you had an idea you might do something else and then you just fell into that because you loved band so much Like how did that Actually?

no, I'll tell you what my original plan was to be an orchestral trumpet player.

Okay.

Yeah, my goal in life was only to play for Boston Symphony or play for the group Chicago.

Play a trumpet player.

Oh.

Chicago, I know and I still think wow.

Just watch that documentary yesterday.

Show that to my students, how fun would that have been.

I mean wow, wow.

Just watched that documentary yesterday.

Showed that to my students, how fun would that have been.

Of course, you'd have to be on the road, but back in those days that's.

All I wanted to do is just play the trumpet and go and be in an orchestra or university trumpet professor in that area, right, and then I student taught and because when you get a music education degree, that's even if you want to be a professional musician at adult state you had to get a music education degree and then you could get a master's in performance and go on that route and so when I student taught at Kosciuszko High School.

do you know?

where Kosciuszko is.

I know exactly where Kosciuszko is.

In fact I've been to the Kosciuszko High School before Friday night.

That entire place shuts down for football, by the way.

There's nothing.

There's not even hardly a service station open in Kosciuszko.

It's a fairgrounds, I mean they all come out and I went.

I student taught in the fall during football season, which is odd.

Most students student teach in the spring.

But I went in the fall and loved it.

I mean, I really dug in and loved just the change.

I don't want to get long-winded, but when?

I was student teaching and I would go to sixth grade band and teach.

I did woodwinds at the time because I needed to expand my horizons with woodwinds, and so I was sitting in the front of the auditorium teaching sixth grade woodwinds and just to see the difference that they made day to day and the excitement on their faces when they would just excel, I thought, ok, this is where God wants me and it just naturally that when I student taught maybe after the first week I knew that was what I needed to do.

Man, that's, that's incredible.

And I had no clue that you were in Kosciuszko Now.

You didn't like the town of Kosciuszko, loved it.

There's were in casias.

Now, you didn't like the town of casiasco loved it.

There's nothing to eat what I?

Well, it was pizza hut and a mexican restaurant.

You are correct, I will.

Uh, very short story, my the, the band director that was there at casiasco uh, kevin bishop was his name and he would take us.

He would, we would ride around at lunch and he would give me all the wisdom, right, but we had to go eat chicken livers for lunch every day at a gas station and that was what you did in casillasco, and I hated chicken livers, but I did it because I wanted to learn more.

But, yeah, there's, there's not much.

There.

There's a walmart.

They did build one yes, and it's.

It is actually a nice walmart, um, but I love casillasco I'm trying to think the closest town you would have gone to might have been Philadelphia.

Carthage is about 25, 30 minutes.

There is nothing around Kosciuszko Mississippi.

It is central Mississippi, dead central Mississippi, and you can't get to another town easily.

That's just it.

I mean, the trace runs through it.

That's the reason it's probably known the most.

All right ministry.

You have been in the ministry for years.

How did you end up in the ministry?

You ended up now after you student taught.

Where did you end up?

What city did you end up in teaching?

Well, so I'll go back to when I was in high school in Decatur.

I went to Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church and that's many years ago.

So what we had was the Broadway hymnal and maybe 50 in the congregation and I grew up there.

It was just a church I went to and it's Missionary Baptist.

I like to call it Southern Baptist, but a little stricter.

So it was Southern Baptist, but it had its own association and so they called it Missionary Baptist.

It was Southern Baptist but it had its own association, and so they called it Missionary Baptist.

What are?

the biggest difference that you would be able to look at today and say that's the difference between missionary and and Southern Baptist.

Nothing other than my grandmother wouldn't wear pants.

I've heard that the dress yeah, the dress code stricter dress code.

Now, there were many people in the Missionary Baptist Church that wore pants, but my grandmother was not one of them and you didn't work on Sundays.

I was about to say the work on.

I've heard that people won't do anything.

I mean go get gas or anything on Sundays Gas groceries.

The food was prepared on Saturdays.

We all ate at my grandmother's house and you prepared food on Saturdays.

She did, and, yeah, we sat around every Sunday afternoon and that was where we had family time and playing games.

But no, he didn't work on.

Sundays, the cooking always got me when I heard people and I've heard many people say well, my great-grandmother didn't cook but every generation after that would cook and it was very old school.

I'll tell you a quick story about that church.

I think I was a senior and it split the 50 members or so that were there.

They split and it was due to the NIV.

One of the Sunday school teachers wanted to teach out of the NIV and that was a no-go.

So that teacher left and took some with them.

They created their own church but you know, it was just a little stricter than Southern Baptist.

So you grew up in that church, I did, and so they asked me to lead worship right.

Okay so you started it as a kid I did, I think, maybe sophomore in high school but three hymns and offertory right.

So it was a formula every week the Broadman Hymnal, not even the Baptist Hymnal, the Broadman Hymnal, heavenly Highway.

Remember the little brown book?

I think they had a blue one too.

It was a blue one and a brown one.

Yes, I had the brown one, and so that's a great book.

Some great songs in that book.

It had shape notes in it.

Yes, yeah, yes, now I'm talking about my short.

That's how I started.

And then I went to at Delta State it wasn't ministry, I got paid.

I just thought of this while I was just talking to you.

I haven't thought about this in forever.

I got paid $25 a week while I was at Delta State to sing in the Presbyterian Church Choir, and so every Sunday I went to the Presbyterian Church and sang in the choir, which was in the loft in the back of the church, because I could sing and was in choir.

So I did that all throughout Delta State, got my $25 for the week and so I did that.

That's your fast food money, man, it was.

And that $25 back then I thought, great you could do a lot with $25 back then back then I thought you could do a lot.

Well, you could do a lot with 25 back then.

So then I uh, of course, got, unless casiesco, uh, came back to delta state, finished with my master's, yep, but also the band director at cleveland high school quit at the same time, like in october, and they called it delta state needing someone to just fill in, and so I filled in with, uh, rob chase.

Do you know rob chase?

I do at district office, yes, the COO at DeSoto County Schools.

He and I split the day at Cleveland High School for almost a year.

I didn't know.

Rob Smith was a musician.

Yeah, rob Chase.

Chase, that's what I meant.

Yeah, he was band director at Hernando, actually at her.

So Rob and I did Cleveland for almost a year, um, and we held it together, was what we like to call it.

Uh, while I got my master's and then I just the next year went in to be the director of bands at cleveland high school so they they liked you and said, hey, would you, would you take the job right?

and I?

I mean, I was on cloud nine you know, I had a job right out of college and and a town that you had been in for many years and loved.

I liked Cleveland.

I mean, it's the Delta.

Right, but I did enjoy it.

And I was talking bad about Kosciuszko because there's nothing to do.

But Cleveland's a different kind of town.

There's the Bowling Alley.

It's unique.

Yes, there's a different life to have in Cleveland and it's certainly a romantic kind of life.

And we're going to talk about this I'm sure later, but it was a God thing, because it is why I am married.

So you met your wife while you were there, but I won't get ahead of the story because you were asking about my ministry.

So as I went to Cleveland and started teaching, I was a golfer.

I still am a golfer.

So I golfed a lot in the little free time that I had at the Delta State Golf Course and I played with this guy named Tim Arnder, and Tim, his father, was the pastor at Emmanuel Baptist, which is directly right behind Delta State that church there, and I was playing with Tommy, which was the pastor.

I was playing with him, with his son, one day, and Tommy said our music guy just quit, do you think you could help us out?

And at that time I had no desire.

I was so involved with band and for our listeners.

You were married to a band program at a high school.

It takes up all of your time.

I say that, as I said.

I was playing golf 15-hour days.

Of course I was single high school it's.

It takes up all of your time.

I say that, as I said, 15 hour days, 15 hour days.

I mean it was of course I was single right um and I, but yes, it took up a lots of time.

But he asked me and I said, well, I'll give it a shot and I will do the best I can, but I can't commit too long because I I'm a band director first, right, I'm called to be a mentor and and I know that's a calling my calling was to teach kids.

So I tried it and it was a great church.

It wasn't huge, they were hymnal right.

So you were already comfortable with that.

Honestly, yeah, comfortable.

Had a choir with the robes right.

A great choir.

They could sing.

They loved it.

Was it the kind of place you could just pick up on Sunday mornings and go in with a little plan and make it work?

It was.

And we would.

Yeah, the pianist and the organist were great there, and so we met on Wednesdays and we went over and played the service and, yeah, we had a great time.

I was there for well, I don't know, I think maybe five years maybe, but that's also where my wife, my dear, sweet, loving wife, her mother and father, went to church there and Andrea grew up in that church, so she's from Cleveland.

I didn't realize that.

Okay, she came home from law school about the second year that I was there and she came home from law school and began working in Greenwood and living at home.

She clerked for the federal court Great job.

But her mother told her you have to come and meet our music director because he looks like Rudy.

That's how the mother explained it.

Oh man, so she was being a matchmaker a little bit she was, and so Andrea joined the choir.

She came back home, joined the choir and I always tease her that she joined the choir so I'd ask her out.

But it took a while because we were both doing other things.

And then after about a year we knew I asked her out and she said, yes, we were going to go after choir practice Because I had flirted with her forever.

But it took a year before I finally got the nerve to ask her out Because we knew that if it failed I'd have to leave the church.

Right, she grew up there.

That was Andrea, dallas was her name, and I could not mess that up, right.

So we went out and it's just been great ever since.

So y'all developed a friendship before A little.

We didn't talk much while she was in the choir and for that year we did a little bit and a little flirting.

But yeah, as soon as we went out on the date, I knew it.

You were head over heels at that point and of course we were older, we were 28.

We were both 28 years old and married to our jobs.

So it was a God thing from the start there.

So how much longer were you in Cleveland and how did you get to DeSoto County?

Because I feel like I met you right around when you were 30.

I mean, this is Well.

I spent five years at Cleveland High School and in 2003 well, I'll back up To 2002, I was offered.

I came up to a job interview at Olive Branch, but I was getting married.

No, I think it was 2001, because we got married in 2001.

So I was getting married, or had just gotten married, and I came up for a job interview with the director of brands at Delta State at the time, ken Lewis, and he was interviewing and brought me with him.

I wasn't really planning to move, I just came with him.

Well, were you there when Barry Owen was the principal at Alleran?

He hired me.

Okay, there you go.

So you know, barry Owen.

Well, barry Owen and I kind of hit it off right then, even though I wasn't looking.

Well, he called me and asked me to come up, and that was his MO man.

He would find somebody and then he would snatch them away.

And I'll tell you, it even gets better because I said no, because I couldn't, I was just married.

And he never took no for an answer.

He did not.

Now.

It took him a year.

I did say no and I did not come that year and I thought I have ruined my chance because I just said no to Olive Branch High School in DeSoto County.

Was Olive Branch already a well-established the band?

program?

Absolutely not.

But the school Right, yeah A lot of clout, big and because the football program had been huge.

For years it was just where you wanted to be Right.

But years, it was just where you wanted to be right.

Um, but it just wasn't right.

I told him.

I said it's just, it's just not right, not this year.

Well, we talked monthly for the next year.

Every month came in.

We actually went and had dinner with him, my wife and I, and really go to concerts.

He took us uh, uh, what's the place on the uh?

the outdoor concerts overton, oh, overton, show yeah.

And then also the gardens.

The gardens, that's what it was Botanical gardens.

Which are amazing concerts Because you're under the trees.

That's right.

And he took us to.

It was a symphony out there.

That joker man.

He was slick.

And it worked Because we were.

We did come up the next year, so in 2003.

So I hated to leave the church, hated to leave the church, hated to leave Cleveland, but we knew that Soto County was where we needed to raise a child.

What did Andrea say about that whole?

I mean the move and the whole thing, because her family was.

I mean this.

Her family was there and her job was the best job.

She's an attorney Right and she was a law clerk for a federal judge and who had a lot of clout.

Didn't get much better than that, right, right.

But we had to live in Cleveland, so we did make the move and because she's just that kind of woman, she said let's go.

We went and we packed it up and we came up here and we got here.

Was that 2003?

It was 2003.

I started at Olive Branch, I think in 2004.

Really, because you were one of the first people I met, he brought you because he knew Barry Owen.

I'm telling you, barry Owen was slick, he had a way to do it.

He knew that my whole background was band directing, and so the first person he wanted me to meet was his amazing band director, and I think it's been so long ago, but I think I remember when he brought you in there.

Yes, I mean, I was a young thing, so weren't we?

Yeah, I was so young back then.

That tells you how old we are.

I can't believe that it's been that long since I've been here.

So, at 03, we started at Olive Branch and when we got here we still didn't have have lee.

We didn't have lee until 2008, right.

So we had five years and we were members at.

We were members at uh, longview, okay, wow, and longview heights.

There wasn't a point, correct, so we just called it longview.

And then I got a call from Cedarview I couldn't remember the name Cedarview Baptist Church.

Where is Cedarview?

Cedarview is where I live.

Actually, it's down Highway 305 from Olive Branch.

You go south and it's not far out of town.

It's a little town of Cedarview, a community of Cedarview, is that where the little service station is, right past the service station?

Okay, that's Cedarview Baptist Church, and I just helped them out for maybe 10 months and I loved it, loved it there for about 10 months or so and then I got a call from Boulevard.

Okay, so you were from Boulevard.

Okay, so you were at Boulevard for a long time.

I was, I think maybe I don't know eight, nine, ten years, A long time we loved it at Boulevard Great place.

Have you ever been to Boulevard?

I have Great people.

It's really not a very big church.

It wasn't great and it's a.

It's really not a very big church, it wasn't.

But al pierringer came in and he it turned out that they started just flowing in and there was a time where we had so there was a season where it, where it surged flourished.

I had 50 in the choir and whoa yeah, I mean huge now and this is back when that was the only building on Church Road.

Yeah, there was no other game on Church Road.

So there was a time when it flourished and now I did lots of recruiting.

So I had a big choir because I did lots of recruiting.

But you talk about a great time.

Yeah, man.

And our child was raised or born while we were at Boulevard and they just loved on us so much.

So I did that.

You know how difficult it is to be bivocational.

I mean you and I right now currently both doing that.

Darrell Bock, yes but man, I cannot imagine running a band and doing it.

I'll just be honest with you and for our listeners you have no clue what being a band director is, and I don't mind.

I was never a band director because I knew I saw it my entire life how tough it was on those guys and on their families, and so I knew I was like I don't want to get into that hole because I know it's going to consume me if I do.

The attrition rate of being a band director is insane Because you just can't.

You can do it and flourish at it.

But if you want a life and you value your family, I'll tell you.

The story that leads into why I'm no longer a band director is my son was I don't know maybe kindergarten, first grade and I had my admin degree at that moment.

But my son came home with a piece of paper, a drawing.

It had to do a self-family portrait and he drew I already know wherefamily portrait.

And he drew the mom.

I already know where this is going.

He drew the dog.

We had a dog and he drew himself and then in a little bubble up at the top said Dad's not here, he's a secret.

And from that moment, and that's because, I was never home Draking the heart man I was never home and I knew at that moment okay, that's it Right, because I'm a family man, I just I needed to change what I was doing.

And I don't want to offend anyone out there, no, it's just difficult Because I've got tons of friends, close friends, who are band directors.

You can almost be married to the band and nothing else.

That's right.

It's just because of the nature of it, especially the way the programs are today.

They're not like they were 30 years ago.

They're not, and I will also add that it's DeSoto County.

Not in a bad way, it's become a beast.

In DeSoto County.

The band programs are so good I mean, they're nationally known, all of them, and if you slack it's going to be seen right.

And so you think in your mind you have to keep going, right.

And they've added the winter seasons and all the stuff that when I was in school did not exist.

We had two after school practices a week, and that was just in marching season.

I left dollar branch high school on the way here and the band was practicing after school insane in may right when, when 20, 30 years ago we would have been past done man, I would have been playing softball with my kids right out in the backfield having fun like it's just.

It's just a whole different thing.

Yeah, um, sorry we got off topic.

No, man, it's that's.

The whole point of this is to get to know you.

So at some point you felt like your season at Boulevard was done and you ended up at DeSoto Hills.

How did that happen?

How did DeSoto Hills?

How did we end up being the church y'all landed at?

Well?

So when Lee, my wonderful, talented, gifted son he is and I don't want to brag too much about him, but he's pretty awesome as soon as he was in his preteens, we knew we needed to make a change.

Because of the youth I wanted him surrounded.

We just wanted him to grow up.

Not every church has programming for the older kids.

Boulevard was great with kids and did Awanas and they babied him and loved him and showed him to Christ and did everything they could do.

But when it came to peers and the preteen and the youth while David getting ahead of the story, while the youth director was at Boulevard, it was great.

Once the youth director left, the youth dwindled and we knew we had to do something different.

Consequently, that's when I decided to quote unquote retire from.

Boulevard.

I retired from the music ministry to and David was at Boulevard before Darrell.

Bock and David Burgess was at Boulevard, and that's how I knew Darrell Bock, so y'all knew.

Darrell Bock.

We loved each other, we had a great time there, and so when he came here, when we decided to retire, we said, okay, we're going to go see David, we're going to go see the church We'll visit, and we visited one Sunday.

We and and Manning had a great service, you know, and an orchestra which most churches?

don't have, and I was so looking forward to.

How do I say this in a nice way?

I did music ministry for so many years.

I could not wait to sit in the choir loft and just worship.

To have a season where you were not having to work.

Yes, and I loved every moment of it.

I knew that this was where we were not having to work.

Yes, and I I loved every moment of it.

I knew that this was where we were supposed to be when we we came here.

Lee knew some some of the people some people and he found his niche and, uh, that's how we, we didn't.

Uh, I don't think we visited another place.

We came straight here.

and of course manning you know right caught me that we were here and of course they showed up at my house on that next Monday night, him and Gary.

They showed up at my house and we had a good time.

But yeah, Like we got to recruit this joker, make sure he stays Well, and isn't it funny how all that works.

I thought at one point that that was the end of my music ministry, other than singing and performing, and singing in a choir, but here we are right.

God had a plan.

He did.

Isn't that funny how that works.

It's amazing.

I was going to ask you on here.

I have a list of questions, your passions outside of everything else, but it sounds like golf might be your passion outside of music, and I would say family, of course, and my family is my passion, but for hobby.

Now I'll tell you how to bass boat.

For many years did tournament uh okay, I was a tournament angler for uh, I don't know 10 years or so seems like I remember.

That seems like you had a boat on the back of your vehicle at school one time if as if I didn't complain that I didn't have enough time to be at a band director, I had a humongous, a very expensive bass boat that would fly and had all the modern electronics, and I loved my bass boat.

Where did you fish around here?

What was your favorite spot?

The problem is that we couldn't.

There's Arcabella, but there's not good fishing there when it had water in it.

Now it doesn't have water in it.

Right, good fishing there when it had water in it, now it doesn't have water in it right I started, but we would go to pickwick okay, and that's two hours away hauling a 21 foot bass boat.

Amazing it is, but it is a hike over there it is but, and we would have to be there at 4 30 in the morning to get in yeah, for the tournaments.

You know so, um, you know I, so I did that.

And then it was only a couple years ago I decided to sell the boat and just be a golfer.

Now I don't golf every day.

I golf once or twice a week.

I like it.

It's a way for me to just get out and be at peace, me and God.

Most days, just us two just hanging out on the golf course talking.

All right.

What styles of music did you enjoy growing up on?

Just hanging out on the golf course talking All right.

What styles of music did you enjoy growing up on?

I grew up on James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg, Carole King, John Denver, Dan Seals, Ronnie Millsap, Amy Grant.

Later in life, Jamie Cullum.

How much younger are you than I am?

I'm 52.

I am 45.

Okay, so, yeah, none of those I grew up on.

Isn't that odd, I love all of them, it is.

I love all of them.

Eagles in Chicago.

The Eagles Chicago.

I love them Certainly.

I honestly can't say that I grew up on them because my parents didn't play them, but as I got into college, especially the Eagles are man.

They're a fascinating story.

How they got together and the Laurel Canyon and the whole LA, the way they just formed, and they make great music, great harmonies.

So I listen to a lot of that.

I listen to a lot of hair bands.

It's sad to admit.

No, it's not sad Back when I was in high school.

That's what it was right.

We've got to have our punk rock in there too.

Yeah, so I did, but lots of all the Eagles.

Yes, amazing, and there's such a vocal band too, which is what's.

I will tell you.

I was in an a cappella vocal band.

You said vocal band.

Maybe it reminds me of when I was in high school.

We were called Voices, so we listened to a lot of the group acapella.

I don't know if you know acapella.

They had an offshoot called Acapella Vocal Band, but they're strictly acapella but they sang hymns and all that.

But they were really really good back in the day and we mimicked them.

So we created our own group.

We sang at baseball games, softball games.

We did some concerts at EC.

We had a great time with the acapella as well.

Our name was Voices.

It was five of us.

I love it, man.

I know we're running out of time.

No, we're fine.

We rehearsed in the tire shed at the Roadrunner truck stop, which is where I worked.

I worked at the truck stop in Newton and we rehearsed in the tire shed because I changed 18-wheeler truck tires Another story for another day but that's where we rehearsed every week.

Man, I love it.

Yeah, it was great.

We didn't need electricity, we didn't need instruments, it was just our voices.

We had a pitch pipe.

Did y'all perform?

Where all did y'all perform?

It's been so many years I don't remember.

But we did a few auditorium shows, mostly outdoor things, those Saturday festivals we would just get up on, I think, an 18-wheeler trailer and sing, but we loved it.

We thought we were something, man.

I love it.

We were singing for the Lord.

Yes.

I will tell you that you all met Andrea, my wife.

She's just so, so, so great.

I hope everyone gets a chance to really sit down and visit with her.

She is why I am the way I am.

I could have turned out to be much worse, but she keeps us in line.

She's a strong Christian lady and she steers us.

Wonderful, wonderful lady.

I'm just not going to leave here without saying that.

I love it, man.

I love it.

Well, thank you so much.

Thank you All right, we're going to move on to our calendar portion of the show.

We wanted to remind everybody we have VBS registration.

It's online and please get on there and pre-register.

It helps us out tremendously.

Vbs is going to be June 2nd through June 6th, be June 2nd through June the 6th.

We have the Night of Worship business meeting.

That's coming up this Sunday, on the 18th, and that's going to be at 5 in the attic we have Addie Ellenberg who is going to be sharing a mission testimony and then we will also have a short business meeting.

Our Sunday, Wednesday night classes start up tonight and our general class is going to be the Missions Mobilization, which is going to be a fascinating book that Grant's going to take people through and that's going to be in the DeSoto room at 5 pm.

Also at 5, we have the Women's Study.

They're looking at the Book of Jude and that is going to be Katie Downs in S206.

And then the men have the Titus 10 with Barry Dale in the prayer tower.

So I want to make you aware of that.

If you need any help getting to those classes, don't hesitate to come up here.

We can certainly get you where you're supposed to be.

We will have meals throughout the summer, but we need you to sign up ahead of time.

You can scan the QR code on Sunday mornings or you can call the church office by Monday at 10 am before each week, so that we know to have enough food for you.

It is now.

We're now going to shift to our devotion portion of the podcast that we call the Midweek Moment.

We've got a pretty quick one today.

I'm just going to be in Romans 12, 1 through 2.

It says I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewal of your mind that, by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We don't tend to use the word sacrifice much, except in baseball and for those of you who serve in the military.

Maybe that's because so few of us ever really sacrifice.

Sacrifice means surrendering something precious for the good of another.

Sacrifice is also costly, painful and challenging, but we should remember that the foundation of our faith is Christ's sacrifice for us.

He surrendered heaven to suffer and die as a sacrifice for our sins.

A sacrificial life pleases God.

It is true and proper worship, but that sacrifice is taken up in view of God's mercy.

Christ's sacrifice proved his love for us.

It changed the world and it changed the future.

It brought hope and healing, grace and goodness, joy and peace.

So we follow his example.

There's no more powerful demonstration of love and courage than when a man or woman willingly sacrifices their wants and desires for their spouse, willing to surrender for the good of someone else.

In view of God's mercy, Choose today to live sacrificially for your family, your community and for the cause of Christ.

Real love costs something.

Be willing to pay the price and leave a legacy that matters, and leave a legacy that matters.

Thanks so much for listening.

If you don't have a church home, we'd love to see you here on Sunday morning.

You can catch our services online at desotahillscom, our YouTube channel at Desota Hills Baptist Church.

For all of our church family.

We love you so much.

We'll see you back here next Wednesday morning, bright and early.

God bless.

This has been your Midweek motivation.

We'd love to have you join us in person on Sunday mornings.

Our services are at 9 and 10 30 AM.