From Strangers to Family.

Something about tour is there is nothing quite like it. It's one of those things that you have to experience to understand. We find ourselves often saying when we are home, "It's a tour thing. You wouldn't understand."

A fact that most don't really think about is the fact we were 13 complete strangers being put on a tour bus to live with each other for 9 months. We eat, sleep, work, and live together. When we put on shows, we are together. When we go to host homes or hotels, we stay together. When in cities, we do the buddy system and are with each other. When we eat, we're together. When we get on this bus, we're together. 24 hours of the day, we are with each other. 13 complete strangers. We see each other more than a married couple sees each other. Within the first week, your friendships are put on fast forward. You learn to make friends within a few hours of knowing them. 13 different personalities, 13 backgrounds, 13 testimonies, 13 leaders. All coming together for one purpose. All possible for one reason...God. If this tour bus did not have God at the center, we would all hate each other. I would never hang out with some of these people in the "real world." It's awesome that we all get along so well and the lifelong friendships that we have made in the past 8 months on tour. Everyone's personalities are so different and each individual brings their own characteristics to our team. We go from being complete strangers to a family. Our own dysfunctional family of 13. Brothers and sisters in Christ. So...let's take this time to meet my family, shall we?

Danielle: Otherwise known as Dani, or Mom. Dani is our female leader. She is an incredible woman of God. Sometimes, we all like to fight with her...who doesn't fight with their mom occasionally? It's just a little bit different of an argument. Such as, "Retape these wires. Volunteer meeting at 4:30. Why aren't these done yet?" All in all, she does it to challenge us. To make us better in the end. She is so precious and is the cutest bus driver in the country:] She is also engaged to Kyle, which I will talk about a little later in this blog.

Paco: Paco is our tour leader. I like to call him Payco. Paco definitely knows how to challenge us. He pushes us to give 110%. He makes us strive for perfection in every aspect of our lives. His wisdom and knowledge help keep us challenged spiritually as well. There are often times where I overhear conversations between him and others with people coming to him asking questions about the Bible. He can easily lead you straight to a Bible verse and explain in detail what it means. 

Mason: Mason is by far one of the funniest guys I have ever met in my life. Our thing is I will call out, "MASANNN!" and I can expect a response of, "SAVANNN!" If Masan has a bad day, we all have a bad day. He brings joy to our hearts. His testimony is incredible and it has been a blessing for me personally to see how God has been working in his life. We always like to joke that he is the crazy Mexican.

Mary Scott: Nickname...MSG. Mary Scott is one of my best friends and will be for years to come. When we first came on the road, we briefly knew each other from the past and because of our COMPLETELY different personalities, we were expecting not to get along on tour. Both of us prayed a ton before coming on tour that we would get along. Within the very first week, we discovered we were gonna be roommates on tour. Within the first week, we were best friends. Our different personalities balance each other out. She brings out the crazy in me and I help her calm it down some. To see how God has worked in our friendship has been incredible and I know I can come to her with anything. Sometimes we want to kill each other, but that is what is so great about our friendship. 

Kristen: Otherwise known as Kristan due to a typing error at the beginning of the year. Also known as Big Red considering she is 6 foot 1 and red hair. Kristan is such a sweetheart and can fall asleep anywhere. She can fall asleep in a Starbucks, but goes for a run at 3 in the morning. At this point, we find it comical. She is so outgoing and so genuine that I just love her presence in the room. She is great. I'm so thankful she is from my same hometown so we can hang out when tour is over.

Ronnie: We like to call him, Rajay Smoothie...we are still trying to decide how you spell that. Ronnie is your typical guy with dreads. He spends way too much time on the phone. Half the time, we wonder who is willing to listen to him for that long on the other end. Since most of us have found a newer way of communication called texting, we find it fascinating how one can talk on the phone so much. It's also strange because he is one of the quietest on the team. Ronnie would do anything for me and I greatly appreciate the friendship that we have built. We have our own friendship handshake that we created the first week of tour. 

Parker: Our little Sparky. She is my seat partner. She knows how to be honest with you. The first week of tour, I could see a growth in her already. It has been great to see how God has been stretching her and taking her out of her normal routine to come on the road with 12 other VERY different personalities. I can definitely say there is no one quite like Sparky:]

Mackenzie: Mary Scott gave her the nickname of Mac B at silverringthing dot net. I gave her the nickname of Junie B as in the famous childhood book series Junie B Jones. She was the newbie on the road. Mackenzie joined us in January and became an addition to our hotel room:] She enjoys bringing her life with her into every hotel room and is definitely the pickiest eater I know. She is your typical blonde, but I love her dearly. She actually got saved at a Silver Ring Thing show. I love seeing her happiness and to see how much she wants to learn. We got her a baby Bible for her birthday and she absolutely loves it. She always wants to learn more and be fed constantly with knowledge.

Jack: Jackie is my other best friend on tour. He is my brother in Christ and my adventure partner. You can always count on him to find the best local food spots, best things to do in a small city, and carries the best conversations. We joke he needs to work with the FBI because he is great with interrogating people. I can go to him for absolutely anything and always count on great Godly advice. If he wasn’t on tour, I don’t know what I would do in cities! He reminds me so much of my best friends at home, so it is awesome hanging out with him. I always feel like I’m at home going on adventures with my bros. He is an incredible man of God and is going to continue doing great things for the Kingdom. 

Aaron: MSG gave him the nickname of Arab Tax Money Records. He used to be our accountant in our office but joined us on the road in January as well. Aaron is very quiet but can be super funny. And he is definitely a prankster. Before he came on tour, he decided to play a prank on the team and put tuna in our heater and air conditioner. We could not understand why our bus smelled like cat food! He has been so much fun getting to know and I enjoy our truck rides. I also enjoy torturing him by occasionally playing screamo music:] We often joke he is 30. He tried to get away with no one finding out about his birthday, but WE STILL GOTCHA. And Aaron, we know...you’re only 29.

Leslie: I had the blessing of having Leslie come live with me last year when I was a host home. She is so kind hearted and cares about everyone but herself. She is always willing to help me due to the fact I have no sense of fashion. She tries to help me look cute:] She went to school for fashion and that girl can pull off wearing anything. I love her so much, and she was one of the reasons why I decided I wanted to come on the road. She was my biggest role model last year. I knew we would be best friends when she said she had a tattoo of a bow on her toe because it rhymed.

Kyle: I have known Kyle for 3 years now. He has grown up so much since the first time we met. He is a big goofball and such a kind spirit. He sets such a huge example for what a Godly relationship should look like. Like I said, Kyle is engaged to Danielle. The two of them are incredible and we appreciate their relationship so much. They don’t hold hands, they don’t sit next to each other on the bus, they don’t kiss. Tell me what engaged couple you know that is that incredible. They chose to be best friends instead of a “typical couple.” It sometimes catches us off guard when we hear them say I love you. We forget they are getting married! I look up to them so much and love seeing how God is working in their lives. They also met on tour! How cool is that?!

Then, there’s me. Facts about me. Let’s see. My nicknames on the team are Sayvanay, Savy, and Savan. Paco always jokes I have been around Silver Ring Thing longer than he has. I was a host home for 2 years before coming on tour. Tour became my dream. I knew so badly that when I graduated, I wanted to come on the road. Now that it’s almost done, I honestly have no idea what my next dream is. This year has been such a blessing for me to use my passion for photography to work for a ministry like Silver Ring Thing. On the team, I am known for all of my t-shirts. I collect t-shirts from every city or state that we go to. I have about 75 t-shirts. At the end of tour, my mom is making me a t-shirt quilt. Oh, I also twirl fire and knives. And love bowling. That’s about it for me.

So, if you’ve gotten this far reading, you have officially met my family. We are 13 normal people with normal flaws living this life together on the same path...the path that God called us to. God placed each and every one of us together for a specific reason. So we can be one family, one body of Christ, all working together serving one God.