Life, Love, and Tex/Mex food!?
By Bethany Koenig

It was March 15th, 6:15 p.m. and I was going to my first-ever Point of Grace concert. You can imagine how wound up and hyper I was, considering how long I'd been waiting for that day. Since the doors of the Seventh Day Adventist Church didn't open until 6:30 and the concert didn't start until 7:30, I checked my Nikon, camcorder and all the stuff I wanted to give to the girls to make sure they hadn't somehow jumped out of my backpack since five minutes ago when I'd last checked it. When the doors were finally opened, my three friends and I calmly ran up two flights of stairs to the sanctuary where PoG would be performing.

My friend Lindsey and I grabbed two great seats, 3rd row, center, and I had the aisle seat (great for pictures). Our other two friends sat a few more seats back since there was only room for two at that particular spot and they don't really like PoG a ton anyway. Since there was still about an hour until the concert started, I wandered around a bit (looking for PoG, he he), bought a T-shirt and a glossy, and then I sat back down to fidget and wait.

After the head pastor of the SDA church played about 5 pieces of worship music, a man came out to talk about the Christian artist program thing they were sponsoring. Then he said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my privilege to introduce POG!!" and the crowd went nuts. The girls bounced out from "backstage" (think small church) to the opening music of "Life, Love, and Other Mysteries."

It was one of the strangest moments of the concert for me, because before then I hadn't seen them in person before. For the first time I was like, Whoa! They're people, not pictures and videos. It was pretty cool.

They all looked great, including Terry, who was HUGE. I mean, she was eight months pregnant. She was actually due one month from the concert's date. She looked so cute. I was praying she wouldn't go into labor in the middle of the concert. :o)

They followed LLOM with Gather at the River immediately afterwards. Then Shelley did her little opening introduction/warm up the crowd thing. She introduced each of the girls ("...in case you're wondering, yes, Terry IS pregnant.") and asked if we say "y'all" here. It was about an even yes/no. Then she made some comment on how beautiful Nebraska is, which got a laugh from the crowd because there's about 5 inches of snow and it's all sludgy and yucky and cold outside. She looked kind of bewildered at our laughter and Heather was like, "What?? Don't you think it's pretty?" and Terry chimed in, "Yeah, we're from Oklahoma, trust us, it's pretty."

Then they sang Gone are the Dark Days and an eardrum-splitting Sing a Song. Seriously, those speakers were LOUD! I got a kick out of seeing them dance to that song, especially Denise. My friend Lindsey leaned over and whispered, "That Denise girl was born to dance!"

Then Terry sang "You are the Answer" which got someone from the back to yell "ALRIGHT! YES!" and Terry kind of mouthed, "Yes!" It was funny.

Then their acoustic guitar guy, Dana Something-or-other (Sorry, I really don't remember his last name.) came out and they introduced him. Then they sang a medley of the choruses of "Dying to Reach You," "Without the Love of Jesus," and "One More Broken Heart."

Then Heather talked about sexual purity. It was very similar to her talk on the LLOM video, if you’ve seen that. It was even more awesome in real life. It led right into Shelley singing "Jesus Will Still Be There."

Then they sang "The Great Divide" and Shelley talked a little again. She said, "How many of you are from right here in Lincoln? Have you eaten at Amigos?" with such a pained look on her face that the crowd burst out laughing. (For those of you who have had the fortune to not eat at Amigos, it’s a very greasy Mexican food place.) Shelley continued, "WE ate there tonight, so if one of us has to leave suddenly, you'll know why." She went on to explain that they do like Tex/Max food a lot, though.

Then (have you noticed that I'm starting every stinking paragraph with "then"?) they did their "Noah" routine which was received VERY well by the crowd, especially Shelley's "Crazy" and Heather's Mariah Carey song,"Emotions." My only question regarding Shelley singing "Crazy" is: Did David ever see her perform that before they were married? :o)

When Shelley announced they were going to skip the eighties, the audience groaned. She turned around and asked the girls, "Do we have anything from the eighties? What about the Conga? Nah, that was something else." When she said the conga, Terry started dancing to it again with the little hand motions. It was pretty funny. Then she told the audience that we should write them an eighties song and send it and they'd stick it in there.

They sang "That's the Way it's Meant to Be," and then Denise asked the other 3 gals, "Should we?" and Heather said, "Ask them." Denise turned back around and explained that they were working on their new album, and did we want to hear part of a song from it? Of course the answer was yes, so they sang "Jesus Is." I liked it a lot, it sounded kind of like KTCB and "That's the Way It's Meant to Be." Denise sang the first verse, then they all sang the chorus, and Shelley sang the second verse with Denise and Terry softly singing "Doddle oo doo doo doo" behind her. I guess they really are her back-up singers! :o)

Then Denise talked about how'd she'd been having "one of those weeks," when her Grandpa had surgery, Spence was really sick for the first time, and her mom about had a nervous breakdown. She got kind of choked up and had to stop for a second. Then after she said that Jesus is always there for us and loves us so much, she taught the crowd the chorus of "More Than Anything," which I think the vast majority already knew. Then they sang that, encouraging us to sing on the chorus.

After that they sang two worship songs with the crowd, "Oh, How He Loves You and Me," (which I had never heard before, hard as it is to believe!) and "We Exalt Thee." After "We Exalt Thee" there was complete silence, just worshipping God. It was so cool.

Then Denise, Terry and Shelley left the stage and Heather sang the spine tingling "God Forbid." She did a great job. Then the other three came back out and Terry kind of talked about how they were friends ("As far as you know," quipped Shelley.) and how we (fans/supporters) kept them going out on the road and then dedicated the next song, "Circle of Friends," to us as always. It was cool. I was looking at the girls while they sang and I looked at Terry and her eyes looked really bright, so I was like, "Is she crying?" and then tears started to roll down her cheeks as she sang with a smile. Heather held her hand the whole song, it was so cute. I don't know, maybe it's one of those pregnant-woman emotional things. :o) She is the one who cries all the time, though!

Then they finished off with "Keep the Candle Burning," and I really wished I'd brought my lighter so I could sway back and forth to the song, he he. (Don't worry, I don't smoke, nor does anyone in my family. It was a joke. Ha ha! get it? Ok..nevermind.) :-)

Then with a wave they left the stage amid deafening applause. In vain, the pastor tried to quiet the crowd enough to close, but no one was sitting down or shutting up, so when he FINALLY got us quieted down, he said, "Do you want to hear PoG just once more?" and the crowd erupted in cheers. "See how much power I have?" he teased, pointing to the emerging smiling girls (and Terry was no longer crying :o)). They closed with "I'll Be Believing." Then everyone rushed to the table where they'd be signing autographs (Except me, I walked calmly, of course).

My friends and I got in about half way through the looong line. (I hadn't even realized that there were that many people at the concert!!) Some anxious woman asked us if we'd been cutting in front of her cause she didn't see us there a minute ago. We were like, "No, we've been here awhile." Apparently she didn't believe us as she questioned the man standing next to us, "Were they here before? These teens have to learn they can't always get what they want this moment." And the guy (our Good Samaritan, he he) replied, "Yes, they were here. I've been keeping my eye on that camcorder, wishing I had one." And so we stayed in line. I thought that his comment about my camcorder was funny, because my friends had been teasing me about bringing it since no one else did. HA! I'm not the only nuts person there. I taught Lindsey how to use my video camera so she could tape as we went through the line and she was playing with it, zooming in on Terry's neck, the back of Shelley's head, and Heather's elbow. Never again will I give that girl my camera (*jk* Lindsey). We finally reached the table where the girls were sitting and I gave them the cards I made and I gave Terry and Denise the presents for their babies. Terry opened it right there, but Denise stuck it behind her in a box of other stuff for Spence. Terry said, "Do you go online?" and my kind friend Lindsey, manning the camcorder replied, "More than she should." Then Terry opened the gift (a little book and sleeper) and said "Oh my gosh, that's adorable!" and she poked Shelley,"Look!" Shelley said, "Aww." During this time I was also saying, "You remember Alexa, right?" and Terry said, "Yes!!" and Shelley said at the same time, "No, who's that? Just kiddin'." I asked Denise if she got something Lex made for her and she said yes, it was cute. There was also a lot of other conversation that you'd find boring. :o) Shelley complained, "You know, Heather and I have dogs!!" cause a bunch of people brought blankets and stuff for Spence and "Baby Jones."

I thought it was so funny/cute how they'd be signing and talking to fans and Denise would yell, "PICTURE!!" and they'd all turn towards the camera and smile sweetly then go back immediately to what they'd been doing.

I stayed until way after everyone had left except PoG and a few more people wanting pictures. When one group posed for about three pictures, the guy manning the camera said, "All done." Shelley walked away and a different guy who'd taken about 100 with them said, "One more!" and Shelley said, "You have billions!" but she obligingly smiled once more.

There was some other stuff it'd take a looong time to write about, so I'll just sum it up saying that it was a great night full of laughter, tears (Terry :o), and hugs. It was one of the most fun nights I've had in a long time, and I hope to see PoG again soon.