The Emmanuel Quartet

I Love You. You Are Safe. Go To Sleep.

"I cried out to You, O LORD: I said, 'You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low; deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your name; the righteous shall surround me, for You shall deal bountifully with me.'” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭142:5-7

I was at my desk working on some delivery coding algorithm when my wife called, “There is a 18 month old boy who needs a home. Should we take him?” We had…

Happy Holidays and Quartet Update

Merry Christmas from The Emmanuel Quartet! Emmanuel is a name of hope and encouragement. At this time of year, the Quartet is especially honored to call attention to that name and to the One to whom the name was given. It's been an honor to meet many of you during our concerts this year. We are scheduled for concerts all over the country in 2020 and we hope to see you there.

In 2019, The Emmanuel Quartet became a non-profit corporation. Over the past 30 years, the quartet members have donated their time…

A Tactical Error

In perhaps not one of my finer moments of booking concerts for the quartet, I arranged for a worship service concert at the Statesboro, GA SDA Church and an evening concert at the Chattanooga First SDA Church. The problem is that they’re 5½ hours apart! When I had first looked at the distance on a map, Statesboro looked to be about 4 hours away. So I tried diligently to book an evening concert at a church that would be on our way back home. Unfortunately nothing panned out for a church in that area, so …Read more

A Texas-Sized Miracle and Buc-ee the Beaver

This year has been full of firsts for the quartet and August was yet another first. The Lord had led us to the great state of Texas and we were excited since it would be the first time the quartet had ever traveled to Texas for a tour. Once, many years ago, we were coming back home from Shreveport, Louisiana and popped over the line at a Texas welcome center, sang a song for the staff there and took a group photo at the “Welcome to Texas” sign. Ever since then we’ve wanted to go back for a full tour. …Read more

Are We On the Same Page?

It’s been over 10 years since we’ve been to the Memphis area so all year I had been trying to book a couple of churches but there were always scheduling conflicts. Even after we got everything worked out, there was a miscommunication between me and Tim which meant I scheduled the tour on the same weekend he was to be at a major Boy Scout event! But we went ahead with the weekend since it seemed the Lord wanted us to go even though the devil was throwing so many obstacles in the way.

Friday night Ryan…

Where the Deer and the Prairie Dogs Play

We started out at Gary’s house loading up our rental van and it was strange to get back into a minivan after riding in Gary’s Suburban for the past year or so. But since we were driving all the way to Arkansas we decided to rent a van to save the wear on Gary’s truck. When we were all packed, we headed over to Four Corners for me to meet up with my wife Charity, who was getting off work and wanted to say goodbye before we left. Then, after picking up a case of water, we headed to Tim’s house to pick him…

Seeking out a Higher Purpose

Gary had arranged for us to sing for the Home and Family Relationship Seminar Series at the Duluth SDA church in Duluth, Georgia. The speaker for the day was Dr. Neil Reid, founder of Hope Fort Ministries, an organization that helps families find solutions to modern social issues.

Gary and Ryan were in Spartanburg, South Carolina for a youth event for Southern so they arrived there on Thursday. Tim and I decided to take my Taurus, and left Collegedale on Friday around 5:00. We had a good drive on the way…

Bowties Are Cool

We’d been asked to sing for the annual Michigan Academies Reunion of the Collegedale Tennessee Chapter. This is the Annual Tennessee Reunion of the Lake Union Academies for all area graduates, attendees, and former staff living in the Tennessee-Georgia area. Since the quartet had last been on tour, my wife Charity and I had gone to North Carolina to pick up her daughter Lori who had decided to come to Tennessee and live with us. And since this was a local concert, Charity and Lori decided they’d spend the…

The Born-Again Bel Air of Woodstock, Georgia

After a successful trip to Richmond, Virginia with our friend Jaclynn Huse, she invited us to sing with her at two churches not far from the Collegedale area at the end of February. The Jasper SDA Church has an outreach called “The Potter’s House” where people in the local community are invited to come for a free meal and a concert. This time Jaclynn would be able to bring her daughter Shelby who is also a very talented vocalist and violinist.

The meal started at 6:00 PM with the concert being shortly…

Winter Weather and The Midnight Caller

We haven’t traveled to Virginia in several years, so we were excited to have the opportunity to go to Richmond for a four-concert weekend at three churches we’ve never visited. Our good friend Jaclynn Huse recently embarked on a solo music ministry journey and since her parents recently moved to Richmond, she suggested that we all travel there and sing together. I worked with Jaclynn’s sister Judy to put together two concerts at local SDA churches and two Sunday morning concerts at a Richmond Methodist…