In September 1994 we bought a house that 20 years earlier had been a working dairy barn. Its wide open spacious great room was a perfect setting for friends, food, and music. Around that time our first born David played at an open mic in Woodstock IL called The Mast House (http://www.woodstockfolkmusic.com/masthouse/mast-history.htm). Ed and Linda Mast used their home for monthly community sings and open-mics. Theirs was the model and inspiration we needed! We named our gathering Second Saturday Sing, hoping that name would satisfy the question, "When is it?" Or original goal was to encourage our young five kids, and whoever else, to develop musical talents for the Lord. Our very first Second Saturday Sing happened in January of 1996 with 25 in attendance. For the next 20 years, every month, we'd turn our house inside-out and upside-down , moving all the furniture, setting up the sound system, making lots of food. Then the following day we'd undo all we'd done the day before. We feel so blessed to have literally had thousands of people in our home over the years! But as the years advanced, so did we. It was decided in 2016 to start having SSS quarterly instead of every month. Much easier on these old birds.
Over the years we've enjoyed incredible talent! But the most famous performer we've had was the late Rich Mullins who wrote Awesome God (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBnzAepXOE8), Sometimes By Step, My Deliverer and hundreds of other songs. By a strange set of circumstances, Rich stayed at our house for three weeks, along with Christian recording artist Mitch McViker. They stayed with us right up till the the day a tragic auto accident took the life of Rich Mullins. The very last song Rich ever wrote was written in our guest room and, thankfully, recorded on our boom box. It's called All the Way to Kingdom Come. We feel so honored to have gotten to know Rich Mullins in such a stunning way. The link below is part of a video that was taken the night Rich and his band did a concert for Second Saturday Sing. The quality of the recording is rough, but this event changed our lives.
Rich Mullins last concert on earth was performed
at Second Saturday Sing September 6, 1997.
at Second Saturday Sing September 6, 1997.