Two and a half weeks ago, our school began a three week long music filming tour of California and Utah. We are in the process of putting the book "Steps to Christ" to song. There will be three songs for every chapter interspersed with short speeches and testimonies from the students. God has richly been blessing our time. If you want to see what we have done on this trip, you can visit the school blog at http://blog.fountainviewacademy.ca.

We are currently in Utah and have been filming at several very beautiful locations in the area. There are so many cool things around here to see! On Friday, I went with some friends 4x4 off-roading and saw absolutely spectacular scenery through Canyonlands and the Needles District. We saw dinosaurs tracks and the fossilized bones of some very large creature. Each vertebrae was almost a foot long! They estimate the animal was about 30 feet long. We also saw fossilized clams, coral, and a sea urchin that would have had 1 foot long spines. It was pretty cool.

The past two days, we filmed at Arches Nat'l Park. Monday morning, we went out to the park at 5am in order to catch the sunrise. A camera was set on time lapse to catch the morning sunrise and just as it started to peak over the horizon, the camera panned onto the students who were sitting on the edge of a bluff singing the song "No More Night." It was really neat. But it was very cold as well! (In the 30s!)

On Sabbath, we went to the little church in town and I was absolutely shocked to see that one of my friends from Andrews University days was pastoring in this area. On Monday, I was able to catch up with him so while the students continued filming in Arches Nat'l Park, he took me to see some of the other famous arches in the park. They were incredible! Here are just a few photos.

Balanced Rock

South Window Arch

Turret Arch

Another view of Turret Arch

The La Salle Mountains in the distance. A monk was passing through Utah in the dead of summer and saw these mountains. He was sure there was no possibility of there being snow on any mountains in that type of heat, so he guessed the white on the mountains was really salt fields. Thus the name "La Salle"--the Salt Mountains.

The Double Arch.

Delicate Arch--one of the most famous in the park. I didn't hike up to it, so it is not the best picture.

The sunset that evening.

Yesterday, we went back to Double Arch and filmed several songs there. It was spectacular!