Making a Difference - by Allen Doyle 

While taking a short break from the road, at a truck stop in Mississippi, we noticed a young lady having a little car trouble. She was Oriental and there was a slight language barrier.  She was only a couple of hours from the university she attends, and she had no trouble to this point coming from Missouri.  After a few questions about her situation and inspection of the car, we concluded that it was a gasoline problem, probably water in the tank; advised a gas treatment, and put it in the rental car for her.

She was just a joy, and maybe with us taking the time to help her may just have added a little more excitement to her personality.  She is a musician and was happy to see we shared that.

Her name is Mitsue, from Japan. She was traveling alone.  She was en route from Missouri, where she had attended a competition, to LSU, where she is a music major and plays the upright bass.  This opened the door for us to respond with, 'We're 'The Southern Plainsmen', a southern gospel singing group."  

Seeing that she appeared a little puzzled, we gave her a sample of our singing right there in the parking lot with a couple of other bystanders.  From the expression on her face our rendition of "Mansion over the Hilltop" got the point across!  After getting the car going and departing with hugs, we pointed her in the right direction.  

Back on the bus, we were concerned for her safety, so we decided to follow her to Baton Rouge.  I guess telling her "not to 'baby-it' and "give it as much gas as it wanted" wasn't the best thing - We never could catch up with her, but we kept her in sight for a portion of the trip and an eye open in case she did stop somewhere.

The Lord brings people into our lives, often in the strangest way, we were blessed to meet Mitsue!  How many blessings did you miss today?

Dear fans,

I am very excited about our newsletter. I hope we can continue to do it for years to come. I would like to tell my story of how I started singing gospel music and became involved with The Southern Plainsmen. When I was growing up, my parents were in a family group called Heaven's Harmony. My sisters and I would sing with them while they were practicing. My dad started booking for different groups when the group eventually quit singing together. Throughout that time that allowed me to stay involved in gospel music, and I continued to sing with my sisters. My great aunt introduced my family and me to Marcelle and The Southern Plainsmen when I was eight years old. We learned all the songs on the tape my aunt gave us. Ten years later, my dad and I went with my aunt to hear the group to pitch some songs to them. While we were singing some of them after the concert, Tracy Brown heard me sing bass and ran outside and told Marcelle to come hear me. Once hearing me sing, he very quickly asked me if I wanted to go to the National Quartet Convention with them. I had been wanting something like this my whole life; so, of course, I said yes. I've been with the group ever since.

ERIC
9/7/06