I hope this finds each of you doing the same and looking forward to what He has in store for you this spring. As I watch the grass turning green, small flowers blooming, animals making nests and hear the birds singing, I too feel a new surge of energy and enthusiasm. I’m reminded that we all are a part of God’s great natural creation and share in this wonderful rejuvenation of body and spirit we call SPRING. Thank you Lord!

The Patriots are certainly ready for spring. We’re looking forward to a renewing of our calling, the wisdom and patience to trust the Lord for direction, and the faith, strength, and energy to enthusiastically obey. So far this year we’ve experienced a mixture of great blessing and hard times. We’ve been blessed with the unfailing presence of the Holy Spirit in our concerts, with the love and prayerful support of our friends, new and old, and with the completion of a brand new recording. That’s just a short list of them. However, we’ve been beset by the devil as well. It seems that since we began last December to follow God’s leading toward a slightly new ministry direction, we’ve been having an unusually large number of problems. A short list would include: bus repairs; fuel prices (I know, everyone has that one); concert cancellations (weather related or sickness); poor concert attendance (also weather and sickness related); and finally, several rather large unplanned bills, resulting in a total draining of our bank account. I can only conclude that we must be on the verge of doing some great work for the Lord for the devil to try so hard to stop us! I can’t wait!

Our new radio single “We Don’t Have Time” written by and featuring our talented baritone, David Combs has gone out to radio stations all across the country. It’s a great song from our recording Standing for God and Country that zeroes in on how we sometimes think we don’t have time to do what the Lord wants us to do, but we know who is the true Master of our time. I hope you’ll “take the time” to call your local station and ask for “We Don’t Have Time.” We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our newest recording titled Classics II - In the Good Old Days. It’s a compilation of eleven more of our favorite gospel songs of the 60’s and 70’s. Several of the songs feature our brand new tenor, Sonny Rue (I like it anyway, heh, heh). The recording is getting very good marks from those who’ve given it an early listen, and I think you’ll like it too. We should have the finished CDs around the middle of April. You can order early by e-mailing me at www.gabhartd@bellsouth.net and forwarding a check for $18.00 ($15.00 + 3.00 postage).

Please pray for us as we press on through some uncharted waters for us. We are praying that some of you will feel God leading you to partner with us financially in our ministry. We’d like to ask you to pray about supporting us on a monthly basis, and then follow the Lord’s leading, whether it’s yes or no. Until next time, enjoy God’s great gift of Spring!

Please listen for (and request often) our new, soon to be released, radio single “WE DON’T HAVE TIME” written and featuring our own David Combs.  We are told this song will be on the first compilation disk to radio from the Eddie Crook Company for 2008 and should be arriving at radio stations accross the country in the next few weeks. 
 
For those of you who have asked, we really do have a schedule for 2008 and it, or part of it should be up on this site today.  I and the other Patriot member in charge of posting the schedule (Joe) pledge to do a better job of keeping this site updated this year.  I know many of you depend on us to keep you informed.  I encourage you to drop us a note when you can as well.  Your support and encouragement is very important to us.

Please pray for us as we begin another year of serving the Lord.  We are not always certain what direction He will take us but we want to always follow His bidding. May God bless you as you do the same.

dg 

With the ever-present attack on Christian Values and the attempt to remove all references of God as the primary foundation on which this country was built, this group determined that it was time for a “Southern Gospel Quartet” to take a stand for “GOD & COUNTRY” and hence, THE PATRIOT QUARTET was born.

Concerts feature favorite traditional songs as made popular by The Statesmen, The Blackwood Brothers and the original Oak Ridge Boys quartets. There are also original songs penned by group members and others. Concerts also feature patriotic songs used to remind us that America is GOD’S COUNTRY!

Whether in a church or in a concert setting, the main objective is to tell people about the “Amazing Grace” of Jesus Christ.

God continues to bless the group as they place themselves in His hands and work hard to do their very best for Him. The Quartet is getting rave reviews everywhere they go.

Opportunities for this ministry are greater than this quartet ever dreamed possible and they are humbled by the attention they are receiving. But be it known, THE PATRIOT QUARTET has been called by God to lift up the name that is above every name; to take a stand for Christian values and beliefs; to stand for the “ONE” that holds America above all other nations; and to tell a lost and dying world that the answer to all our problems, personally and politically is JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!

Their prayer is that the Holy Spirit will use the seeds they sow through song to germinate and fill each individual need in the hearts of those who hear.

Check out our NQC Carpet Special

]]> http://patriotquartet.com/site/archives/1/feed/ http://patriotquartet.com/site/archives/217 http://patriotquartet.com/site/archives/217#comments Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:38:26 +0000 Patriot Quartet News http://patriotquartet.com/site/archives/217 Come Celebrate with the Patriot Quartet and friends at the 4^th annual Patriot Homecoming sing. This event will be held Friday and Saturday October 26 and 27 at 7:00 pm each night. The site will again be the Lawrenceburg United Methodist Church located on the corner of US 127 Bypass and Carlton Drive, Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. We’re sure to have a great time with such guests as Lawrenceburg’s own Hilltop Singers to kick things off on Friday night, followed by the very popular Jay Stone Singers. Saturday night will feature talented singer, songwriter and actress Cheryl Jackson, followed by the Called Out Quartet, an excellent group of young men whose popularity continues to rise across the country. Of course, the Patriots will also be singing each night. The church doors will be open for all to come. However, there will be someone at the sanctuary doors to accept donations to help defray the costs of bringing these good groups to Lawrenceburg. We would suggest $10 per person as a reasonable goal for those able to help, but all donations, large or small will be much appreciated. Most of all we desire your prayers and presence for these nights of praise and celebration of the blessings we all enjoy as saved sinners and as Americans!

Since my last posting (and I’ve been dutifully chastised for taking so long) the Patriots have been very busy doing what the Lord has called us to do. We’ve sung to and worshiped with a lot of folks in such places as Akron, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; St. Louis, Missouri; Renfro Valley, Kentucky and lots of points in between. God just continues to bless us everywhere we go with the presence of His Spirit and with the blessed fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ. We truly love seeing old friends and making new ones.
The National Quartet Convention was great time of seeing old friends and making the acquaintance of many new ones. We hope all of you who came by will remember to mention us to the Father and will stay in contact with us. The Patriots were pleased to sing at an NQC showcase on Monday afternoon. I hope you were there. We certainly enjoyed ourselves for the brief time we were on stage and want to give a great big thank you to our friends in the crowd who supported us so well!
On a personnel note, we do have some sadder news. Jerry Shepherd, our long time tenor and brother has found it necessary to once again leave us for medical and family responsibilities. You may recall that he returned to us a little over a year ago after being gone for a few months due to medical problems. Since his return, the Lord has used him in a mighty way, both in his singing, in giving his personal testimony of the Lord’s grace in his life, and through the book Angels At The Crossroads by Ann H.Gabhart. It’s a biographic story of his tormented young life as a professing Christian who was also a drug addict, alcoholic and eventually convicted felon on whom God never gave up or forsook. The twists and turns in his life through his rededication and work for the Lord in prison and his eventual release is so compelling many have told us they stayed up all night reading the book. We, the Patriots, will surely miss Jerry and his antics on and off the stage. Please join us in prayer for him and his family as they start this new chapter in their life. Jerry plans to continue singing as a soloist and giving his testimony when the opportunity arises. May God richly bless you, Jerry and Connie. We love you both.
God is good! He always provides abundantly. When Jerry took his “leave” last year, the Lord almost immediately provided the perfect man for the time in Paul Stearman. This time it’s taken us a little longer but we believe God has lead us to just the right person to fill our tenor position again. His name is Ensco “Sonny” Rue. Sonny and his wife, Judy live in Danville, Kentucky where Sonny owns and operates his own insurance business. He (like the rest of us) is a “mature” man with many years experience in a variety of music genres, including a couple of stints in a southern gospel quartet. Although Sonny has already filled in a couple of times, we will be “officially” introducing him to our friends at the upcoming Patriot Homecoming Celebration. He will be taking over the tenor position full time at the end of October. We, including Jerry, believe the Lord has again brought us together with the right person and we are grateful to Him. God is indeed good!
This weekend begins with a Friday night visit to the Kentucky Gospel singing convention being held at the Convention Center in Cave City, Kentucky. We look forward to seeing a lot of our good friends there. From there we go on to Fairmount, Illinois and our friends at the Greer building for another great time at their Saturday night gospel concerts. On Sunday we travel just back up the road to the Central Park Church of Christ in Tilton, IL. We look forward to visiting and singing with these folks. They have become our very dear friends and staunch supporters. It’s gonna be a great weekend!
Until next time, may God richly bless you.
DG.