The Heavenly Journey Blog

If you look at our photo page, you’ll see a new album entitled MS Community Symphonic Band.  This album is just to show you what else Patrick and Karen do with their free time.  As noted on the About Us page, Karen plays flute and Patrick plays trombone.  You’ll find both in several of these pictures, but most are of other members of the band.  Most of the pictures were taken by another band member, Wayne Miller, who is a retired band director, and exceptionally good oboe player.  The director of the band is David Miller (no, no relation!).  David is also the webmaster for Heavenly Journey’s website.  David is an exceptionally fine website designer, so if you’re looking for someone, go to dmillerweb.com and check him out.

Also included in the album are pictures of Mississippi Swing, an off-shoot of the MCSB.  These people play year round at different venues across mid-Mississippi.  Patrick plays bass trombone with this group.  Their director is David Schommer, a trumpet player with the MCSB.

If you are interested in hearing these two bands, free concerts are held five times a year at the Belhaven College Center for the Arts.  Yes, I said FREE!  At this last concert, nearly 700 people were there, so if you come (and we hope you do), please come early to get a good seat.

We love you!!  And look forward to seeing everyone soon!!

What do you do when you lose two great members like Tim and Gretta Arinder?  You keep on serving the Lord and wait for Him to bless you with more changes.  Well, the Lord has blessed us richly.  The first thing we needed to do was put together a new repertoire reflecting what we sound like now.  The second thing is to take this new repertoire and make a new album.  We have previously worked with a young man in creating a couple new tracks.  We were so impressed with him we asked him to do all the music on our upcoming album.  After receiving a few more tracks from him we asked him to be Heavenly Journey’s official music composer and track builder.

Heavenly Journey is proud to announce the addition of Andrew Ishee to our team.  He will not be a traveling member of Heavenly Journey.  He will be on our support staff, creating tracks and helping us with our musical creativity and will remain in the background.  Now the best part…..this is not an exclusive arrangement!  If YOU are looking for someone to prepare some tracks for you, he is available to everyone at very reasonable rates.  What are those rates?  You will have to discuss that with him.

Who is Andrew Ishee, and why are we so excited about him?  To begin with, he formerly played piano for the Kingsmen and Palmetto State Quartet.  Yes, those Kingsmen and that Palmetto State Quartet.  Ten times he has been named as one of the five top pianists in the United States.  And to top it off, he is a member of the GMA Hall of Fame.  I think his credentials speak for themselves, but if you’re still not convinced, just listen closely to our tracks next time you hear us sing somewhere.  We hope to have all our tracks switched out and be using only Andrew’s work when we sing by September or October of this year.  If you would like to contact Andrew about creating tracks for you, or to receive a sample of his work you may send your request through our contact us button.  Or, you may contact Andrew by e-mailing to andrew@andrewishee.com, or phone 601-323-3335

Welcome aboard Andrew, we are proud to have you as a member of Heavenly Journey.

Today is a very sad day for all of us with Heavenly Journey.  Our very dear friends, Tim and Gretta Arinder, have resigned from the group.  First, before rumors start flying, we are still best of friends.  The decision by Tim and Gretta come after a long period of thought and prayer.  There are no hard feelings on either side concerning this decision.  We only want our friends to be happy and serve God in the fashion they feel God is leading them.

This change will give them the opportunity to be with their children more.  We all know the need for parental involvement in raising children.  But, do not think you will never see them again.  Before they joined Heavenly Journey, they were very popular as a duet team.  I wouldn’t be surprised at all if you see them singing somewhere soon in that fashion.

Gretta and Tim, we love you very much and we thank you for the contributions you have made to this ministry.  Your talents were used in a mighty way to glorify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  We are so blessed by the opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with you as the Holy Spirit came into our presence so many times.

One little story about Gretta.  She is part frog!  That is the only way you can explain her jumping from one seat to another, for an hour the first time we took a road trip together.  I never could figure out if she was sitting next to Tim in the middle seat of our Suburban or in the back seat between Patrick and his brother.  Remember Gretta, if someone in a nursing home licks the side of your face, he is probably just trying to kiss you.  I remember the first time Tim saw someone speaking in tongues while we were singing.  The man was right up front and I thought Tim was gonna make a new door behind us.

Tim and Gretta, we have a thousand stories, so remember and cherish them all.  We will.

Goodbye, dear friends

Tim, Karen, Patrick & Jonathan

Big news to those who have attended our anniversary singings in the past.  With the success of last years’ event at the coliseum in Kosciusko, and because of the number of groups wanting to take part in this years’ event, it has grown.   We have changed the name of it to the “Mississippi Gospel Jubilee”.  This year it will be at the Attala Co. Coliseum in Kosciusko, MS again, but it will be two nights this year!  It will be held Friday and Saturday nights, June 12th and 13th.  We have 18 groups and one soloist scheduled to appear, 8 groups on Fri. night with Sat. night hosting 9 groups, a soloist, and the Jubilee’s own quartet that will be put together from different groups.

None of the groups singing on Fri. night will be singing on Sat. night.  It will be two completely different programs.  Also different , we have brought two other groups in to help us with putting the event on.  This year the groups helping us are Joyful Noise Quartet from Ackerman, MS and New Genesis Quartet from Yazoo City, MS.  You can contact us here for ticket orders, Fri. advance is $8 and at the door is $10, Sat. advance is $12 and at the door is $15, Sat. night tickets get you in free on Fri. night, artist circle tickets are $20 and are good for both nights.

We have an incredible line up of talent:

Fri. Night: Masters Qt., Masters Sound Qt., Long Way To Go, Wells Bros. Qt., Psalms Trio, Looking Above Qt., Laymen Qt., and The Kinsmen.

Sat. Night: Southern Image Qt., Tracemen Qt., Glorybound Qt., The Harrells, New Liberty Qt., Hearts Desire, Scott Gregory, Buddy Eichelberger, Joyful Noise Qt., New Genesis Qt., The Miss. Jubilee Qt., and Heavenly Journey.

Please come join us for an incredible weekend of Gospel music.  We will have updates concerning the Jubilee as time gets closer.  A little hint….you might want to order artist circle seating early as these will be very limited.

Until later, we love all of you and look forward to worshipping with you in days to come.

Tim Hendricks

We had an incredible night last night.  We sang at Clear Creek Baptist Church at Taylorsville, MS, with our good friends Hearts Desire.  We also heard a great new group, Little River Trio, and a great soloist, Charles McNeil.  Little River Trio consists of two young men, Colton (12, almost 13) and Trenton (10), and their Dad, Michael.  They are truly wonderful to listen to and to watch!  Charles McNeil decided three years ago to learn to play the piano.  Wow!  He can tear up the ivories!!  And sing!!  What a wonderful combination.  God is using both this new Trio and Charles to bless all those who hear them.  We were blessed beyond words!!!  And of course, Hearts Desire is always truly wonderful.  As many of you know, Terri Boney of Hearts Desire,  has been fighting cancer for the past year.  Yesterday, she had a radiation treatment and then came out to sing for the Lord.  You can talk about people who serve the Lord, but Terri truly SERVES the Lord in all she does.  God Bless You, Terry!!  We love you!!

Heavenly Journey is looking forward to the new year and we look forward to seeing all our friends and making new friends this year.  May God bless each and every one of you!!

Well, 2008 is just about over.  Heavenly Journey has had a busy year.  We’ve traveled throughout most of the state this year, and we’re looking forward to traveling in 2009.  God has really blessed us and we thank Him for that!  We’ll be ending this year on New Year’s Eve at Clear Creek Baptist Church in Taylorsville.  We’ll be singing with our good friends Hearts Desire.  Y’all come on down for a night of worship and fun!

We’ve also lost some good friends and relatives during 2008.  Our friends, Voices of Faith, from Raleigh, have recently lost both a husband and a father.  Richard Holbert, who helped with their sound, passed away just after Thanksgiving.  Richard was their preacher and led many people to the Lord.  He is missed by all who knew him, but we know we’ll see him again one day soon.  Then, this past weekend, James “Pop” Williamson passed away after a battle with cancer.  James was the father of several members of Voices of Faith.  Again, James was a Christian, so we all know we’ll see him again soon.  And, this past weekend, Tim Arinder lost his grandfather.  Mr. Miles was well-loved by his family and they will miss him.  But, once again, they know where he is and they know they’ll be seeing him again soon.  What a wonderful thought!!  We will all get to see those we love once again when we all get to heaven.

This year has been a year of changes also for Heavenly Journey.  We bought a bus (working on it), we’ve been on tv, we’ve been heard by millions of people on the internet thanks to Cedar Valley Live, AND, we’ve met some absolutely wonderful, incredible people!!  One of them, Brother Gary Shelton, who hosts Cedar Valley Live, is an incredible man whom God is using to reach people throughout the world through the power of the internet.  We’ve seen the horrible things people use the internet for, but we don’t often hear about the wonderful things God is using it for.  Well, if you’re on-line, and want to be inspired, go to ubroadcast.com and click on the ’station’ icon.  Then, type in 10085, and you’ll hear streaming Southern Gospel music.  At nighttime, go to cedarvalleynetwork.com and find Bro. Gary’s live evening program.  You WILL be blessed.

We look forward to seeing you this next year.  And, if we haven’t yet met, we look forward to meeting you!!  May God bless you in all your endeavors in this new year!!  We love you!!

Heavenly Journey

Tim, Karen, Tim, Gretta, Patrick, Jonathan

Last night we sang at Sunnybrook Estates retirement community.  It was an incredible night, complete with fireworks.  Well, maybe not exactly fireworks.  Actually, it was more closer to explosions.  We started off the night by blowing up a couple speakers!  The last time we set up sound was an outdoor event with our amps cranked up to the max.  I forgot to turn them down!  When we set up, we were using our small monitors.  The power came on…what can I say?  We will miss those monitors.  They served us well for many years.

Not being discouraged, we changed some equipment around and went right on with our program.  We had been to Sunnybrook before and have always enjoyed ourselves, but last night was really special.  We knew it before we even started singing.  The Holy Spirit was there blessing everyone.  First, it was more people than we had sung for before at Sunnybrook, and secondly we could tell everyone there was ready to be blessed and to bless us.  This really helped us as we were singing without Tim and Gretta Arinder.  When you sing together for several years you learn to depend on each other and when the people you depend on aren’t there, it can lead to a lot of uncertainty.  Thank you Lord, for blessing our night so richly and giving us the courage and confidence to go ahead and serve.  How did it go?  We normally do not do encores.  It’s a personal belief concerning performing and I just don’t like to do them.  Last night we were requested to do encores and, as I felt the Holy Spirit still had something to say to someone, we wound up doing four of them.  Thank you so much to the residents at Sunnybrook Estates for asking for more!  I honestly believe God spoke to someone on that last song.

Soon we will be making some major announcements, so keep checking our news page.

God bless all of you, we love you everyone.

Tim Hendricks

Heavenly Journey

Well, October has come and gone, and the State Quartet Convention with it.  We had a great time all three days!  They had two new groups join the convention this year, Blood Bought and Calvary’s Harmony.  We really enjoyed hearing both groups and meeting them.  Blood Bought was in the booth space next to us, so we really got to know them.  Both groups are from the Hattiesburg/Laurel area, so if you’re in that vicinity, look them up!  The Dove Brothers were there on Thursday night again, and GREAT as usual!  After they sang, we had a Gaither-style sing-a-long with lots of musicians on stage.  Tim Hendricks sang a solo verse on “Love Lifted Me” and did very well indeed!  We left on Sunday morning and headed back to our home church Concord Baptist, in Little Yazoo, thoroughly worn out, but also very blessed from the weekend.  Next year’s convention will be held in June, not October, and is moving to Hattiesburg.  This will be the first weekend in June, so make your plans now to come!

On November 8th, we participated in WFCA’s annual radiothon to help raise money for them.  They raised over $50,000 this year!!  There, we heard some groups we haven’t seen before, one of them being a family group with Mom sharing lead singing duties with her 9-year old son!  They were some kind of awesome!  They consist of Mom and four children, ranging in age from 13 down to 9.  The group’s name is New Destiny and if you have the opportunity to hear them, you need to go.  You WILL be blessed!!

Y’all have a blessed Thanksgiving!!  Eat lots of turkey and ham and whatever else good stuff you have.

We love all and look forward to seeing or meeting you in the future!!

Heavenly Journey

Last week, we attended the Mississippi State Quartet Convention in Philadelphia, MS.  We really had a great time.  We met a couple of new groups, Calvary’s Harmony and Blood Bought.  Calvary’s Harmony is a quartet of young men who have really great harmony.  Blood Bought is a trio who just “wowed” us with their harmonies.  They sounded like more than three people!  They’ve been singing together about 2 years now and are really incredible.  If you see they’re singing somewhere, be sure and go ’cause you WILL be blessed.  Also, saw a bunch of groups we already know, but don’t get to see often.  Got to visit a lot.  Got to hear a lot of great singing.  etc. etc.

As you can tell, we stayed busy.  The Dove Brothers quartet sang on Thursday night and then we had a homecoming style sing-along.  Tim H. sang a solo verse on Love Lifted Me and did great.  On Friday morning, Tim A. joined in the golf tournament and he and his partner, David Todd of Endless Praise, won first place.  Way to Go, Guys!!!

We had a first for Heavenly Journey.  Much to Patrick’s dismay, he had to wear a “really” pink tie along with both Tims’.  Actually, his was the pinkest!  The month of October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and Heavenly Journey showed our support for cancer research by everybody wearing something pink.  Don’t worry, Patrick.  Next year in October, you won’t have to wear the pink tie.  We’ll just get all you guys pink suits, instead. <lol>

Patrick also participated Saturday in the Pianer & Band Jam playing his trombones, and then in the Battle of the Quartets.  He had a great time in both and is looking forward to being able to participate again next year.

The convention ended around 10:30pm Saturday night with most of the groups getting back on stage together for one last group sing-along.  As you can imagine, there wasn’t much room for moving around with that many gospel singers on stage, but everyone really enjoyed it.  And boy, did those bass singers put on a show!  What a way to end the weekend!  Tired, but thoroughly blessed!!  Thank you, Lord!!

On August 31, 2008, Heavenly Journey was one of 11 artists (soloists & groups) featured on Unity Broadcasting Network for a fund-raising night of gospel singing.  All indications are we had a large television audience.  The broadcast was also on the UBN internet website where they have a world-wide audience.  The singing went well, some incredibly talented people were there, and we made a lot of new friends!  Tim H. even found somebody who talks as much as he does.  Speaking of world-wide, we would like to thank our friends at Cedar Valley Network for broadcasting our music and the live interviews.  Recently, Tim H. had a live interview on Cedar Valley Live to an audience of approximately 6.8 million listeners.  While doing the interview, the host received e-mails from Iraq and England asking questions about Heavenly Journey.  This is quite hard for us to really comprehend!

Big News!!  Heavenly Journey will soon be putting out a monthly e-mail newsletter.  This is not going to be just a list of “here’s where we’re going to be next month”.  This newsletter will give you more of an insight into who the people of Heavenly Journey are.  If you would like to receive this newsletter, click on the “contact us” button and send us your name, location and email address.

We love you and God Bless!!