So….  it’s been a bit since we’ve last blogged!  Here we are though, in July 2019 with the National (and International) LCMS Youth Gathering in Minneapolis!  As Jason Rahn from CSP says, it’s time to “channel the flannel”!!!  Praise Jesus!  We Gundermanns, Kayla, Noah, and Eva, along with Amy and I, will be playing  music before the lumber jack show at the District Events hosted by CSP.  We are soooo looking forward to it!

As we’ve been preparing, we recorded some songs-some new, some old.  (Go to tunesbytom.bandcamp.com.)  “Real, Present God You Are!!!” is a new song, obviously centered on the theme of the Gathering.  “Valley of Bones/Pentecost Roars” (Ezekiel 37/Acts 2) is about a year old, written a year ago for Pentecost Sunday at St. Stephanus in Saint Paul. “Throw Your Net” (John 21) was written for a skit a few years back for chapel at Concordia, Saint Paul.  “Hearts on Fire,” (Luke 24) “Ghost” (I have no idea-wrote it 20 some years ago) and “Peace, Be Still” (Mark 4) are old songs of mine, two sung with BUCK for many years and the other from a VBS musical written for Peace Lutheran Church in Robbinsdale.  “Through the Seasons” is an original by my son, Noah.  Enjoy that one!  We threw in “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus” as one we do often at our church and elsewhere. 

Also on the site are old songs when the kids were much younger, including a Christmas album from…. 2012?  It’s worth checking out. 

I wish we had a picture to share, because this will be hard to really do justice with words. Tom recently was nudged by God to accept a new ministry position several states away. So, a couple of months ago, we relocated our family from NY to MN. This is not a small task, of course, in the physical sense nor the emotional sense. We left most of our belongings behind to be moved by a company, but wanted to move our most valuable instruments and equipment ourselves. To this end, Tom drove two full days with an electric keyboard, 2 trumpets, an upright bass, an electric bass, a mandolin, a banjo, an amp, and 2 guitars…in our prius…with a canoe on top. He was a sight. Thankfully he arrived safely and we are slowly finding our way. I am glad the show is now off the road and stacked on the kitchen cabinets of our dorm apartment instead.

To celebrate the start of this adventure, we launched a rocket with our kids today. We are thankful for this exciting step in our journey!