Weekend Update from Unity Quartet

 Below is the schedule of events for Don't be Blue Park at Skyline, AL for September 11, 2010. We hope to see you there.

Well, the time has come to close the door on August and open the door for September and the beginning of the changing of the season from Summer into Fall. School is back in session and the last holiday before Thanksgiving and Christmas will be this coming weekend. Unity will take off the Labor Day weekend and spend some time with our families.

We enjoyed the previous weekend starting with an early recording session where we put the finishing touches on our newest recording. We then made it out to B&J Family Restaurant where we got to see so many of our friends. Mark Carlisle dropped by and sang a few songs with us. We cut it a little short as our generator on the bus went down. We were really dreading our Sunday journey to the Birmingham area to be with the folks at Harmony Baptist Church due to the heat. But, God sent the rain that cooled down the temps so the trip was very pleasant. We had a great singing there and the food was terrefic to boot. We are looking forward to going back again.

Dan Adkins

It has been a couple of weeks since my last update. I am sorry it has taken me so long. My real job sometimes gets in the way of keeping everyone updated on our travels. Since we last spoke, we have had one week off and then two weeks of singings.

We were with the fine folks at McFall Baptist Church in Rome, GA. We went over to Rome on Saturday evening to set up and practice for our Sunday Concerts. Upon arriving at the church we were greeted by a number of the church members, including the pastor and his family. They decided to stick around and listen to our practice. I must tell you that we were so blessed by the spirit that was in this church. We sang for a couple of hours and God was with us from the first song. On Sunday morning we sang during the regular service, broke for lunch and then sang again in the afternoon. This church stayed full before and after lunch which has become rare at homecomings. We enjoyed our time at McFall Baptist and can't wait to join them again.

Sunday evening we were to be in service with the Church of God Union Assembly in Cedar Town, GA. When the service started, we were given such a treat, as it turned out, everyone in this church can SING! We got to listen to "CHOSEN" who had just opened for the Crabb Family Revival the night before. We should have been opening for CHOSEN. This trio of young ladies were absolutely amazing. They have about the best harmony I have ever heard and the spirit they have is nothing short of awesome. We sang for about an hour and God just poured out a blessing on al that were present.

We started a new recording project on Wednesday of this past week. We have Eric St. Claire doing the engineering and production on this project. We were not able to finish it this week due to our voices not being at 100%. We will go back in studio and try to finish it up this coming Saturday.

Saturday evening we were with the folks at Edison Chapel Presbyterian in Baileyton, Alabama. This was our first time to be with these folks and they treated us super nice. They fed us after the service.

It was so good to see so many of our friends that travel near and far to be with us in service. I can't begin to tell you all how much that means to us. Some brought us food, snacks and drinks for the bus ride home. Just your thoughtfulness means so much to the guys.

Finally, keep us in your prayers as we prepare to finish our CD this Saturday. We will also be at B&J in Huntsville on Saturday night at 7:00 PM and then on Sunday at Harmony Baptist Church in Pinson, AL. Come out and be with us if you can this weekend.

Dan Adkins

The months are flying by, already August and it seems that only a few weeks ago I started back with the group and now were at the one year mark. I want to thank the guys in the group for taking me in and working with me as I tried to learn the words to all the songs they already knew. I truly enjoy each of the guys and the UNITY we have as a group. I think that it is easy for the audience to see that we really do like one another and have a great time traveling and sharing the good news through song.

We were between Cullman and Birmingham all weekend, I should know all the communities but I have a difficult time keeping my kids names straight these days! We had a great service on Saturday evening at the Johnson Grove Methodist Church and then on Sunday afternoon we were at the Haig Missionary Baptist Church for homecoming. We had a great time with both churches and were singing in front a majority of folks that had not heard us before. We had great food and want to thank the ladies of both churches for your time and effort that went into making us at home with good food and desserts.

We will take this coming weekend off before getting back on the road to Georgia for a weekend of singing. I want to ask that you pray for the guys as we have two new CD projects that we will be doing in the coming weeks. We have Doyle going into studio to do a Bass Solo CD on August 12 and then the entire group will go into studio on August 18 to do a new CD project with a lot of the new songs we have been working on. Pray that we will have good voices and that every person who listens to these songs will be blessed. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

Dan Adkins

It has been a couple of weeks since my last update. We were two weeks during July, which is rare for us. We had one scheduled week off and then I had a weekend that I was out of town on business. We are back in action getting through the dog days of summer. Seems that this year has been the hottest one I can recall in a while. Not very long ago I had asked for your prayers for the bus as our generator was out and we were worried that we would all fry inside the bus as temps turned hotter. Thank God, we were able to get a new generator and the AC works better than ever. But as the old saying goes, when it rains it pours!

On our way to Knoxville the guys were going to meet me in Chattanooga, TN. As the bus turned into Shoney's, the right steering axle broke and the tire went rolling across the parking lot. Had this have happened 10 minutes earlier or later, it could have been a deadly accident as the tire and axle weighs hundreds of pounds and would have caused severe damage. Determined to not let anything stand in the way of our Knoxville trip, we went and bought a 12 ton hydralic jack and log chain. We (Doyle and Ron) jacked it up and fixed it so that it would not drag along the highway. We drove the entire weekend missing a wheel. We had some strange looks as we passed through areas. Thank God these guys know how to work on things. I did purchase a pair of white gloves just in case I have to pick something up. Thankfully, Randy was there to hold up the bus and supervise while Ronnie and Doyle did all the dirty work. Once again, I also worked as Photographer!

We had a great weekend of singing in Knoxville, got to visit some old friends and made some new ones over the weekend. We thank you for the kind words, the food and hospitality that you showed us all weekend.

This past weekend we were at our monthly fourth Saturday night sing at B&J in Huntsville. We were joined by the Joymen Quartet as well. The place was packed all night and both groups really had a great time singing to all the fine folks that came down for dinner and singing. We played to a number of few folks that had not heard either group. Continue to pray for our friend, Jerry Holman as he continues to battle cancer. He is singing as good as he has ever sang, we pray he will be on stage for a long time to come.

Pray for Unity as we travel to Cullman, Alabama this weekend. Saturday we will be with Johnson Grive United Methodist Church in Breman, AL at 6:00 PM on Saturday and on Sunday morning at Haig Missionary Baptist Church in Morris, AL. We look forward to seeing you soon and thank you for your prayers and support.

Dan Adkins

Good Monday morning to YOU! We are coming off another great weekend of gospel music. Saturday evening was our monthly trip to B&J Family Restaurant in Huntsville. We arrived to set up and before we could finish the place had started to fill up. By the time we grabbed a bit to eat, the place was now packed and the servers were a bit overwhelmed. I grabbed a couple jugs of tea, water and coffee and started making the rounds to insure that everyone had plenty to drink as the servers worked to catch up on the orders. Bud keeps the kitchen up and running but he was so swamped on Saturday that we never saw him. That is a good thing, we need to support him and his efforts of keeping live gospel music in this venue where we can sing to a lot of folks that may not go hear us in a church. We had a great time and even got to see Jeff McLain sing some lead, I moved to baritone, Randy moved to Bass and Doyle got to listen to "I wouldn't take nothing for my Journey now" we appreciated Jeff bringing in a number of his "HELL FIGHTERS" motorcycle group to join us.

Sunday evening we were at Section Church of God in Section, AL. Again we had another great service with a full house and so many faces that we hadn't seen in a while. I had more than 20 members of my family present, Randy had his sister, mother and wife present and Doyle had Ms. Mary with us as well. We also had former Unity Quartet lead singers, Tim Sampson and Mark Carlisle and their wives to join us. It is always good to visit this church as they really know how to make us feel at home. After the service the ladies of the church had prepared a nice meal for everyone before they were to head home. We look forward to our next date at this church.

We will take the weekend of July 4th off to be with our families. We will then be heading to Knoxville, Tennessee for a full weekend. Keep us in your prayers as we travel, keep praying that our old bus will continue to climb those hills. It will be worth every mile to see one more soul make that eternal decision to follow Christ.

The group traveled to Hazel Green for a benefit for the senior ministry at the Hazel Green Church of God of Prophecy. We were joined by a couple of the Boyette Sisters, The Kent Smith Family and a Bluegrass Group from the church. We had a great night of gospel music and one of the highlights for me was hearing Eric St. Claire sing numerous parts throughout the evening. We were blessed to be a part of the evening and have been booked to do the homecoming for the church in May, 2011. We will be singing at B &J Family Restaurant this coming weekend in Huntsville and then a Sunday evening concert at the Section Church of God in Section, AL. We look forward to seeing you this weekend. We have a couple of new songs we will be singing, GONE, the old Teddy Huffman standard is a blessing for us to sing and "Look for Me" that Ronnie is singing is another crowd favorite. God Bless!

 Dan Adkins

The Boys had to make the trek to Atlanta this weekend. I really enjoy it when we sing in Atlanta as my family gets to come and hear us when were close. We started off the weekend at Center Methodist Church in Houchston, GA as we were there to help celebrate Skipper Smith's birthday and several members of the old Crossmen Quartet were present as Jerri Smith presented an appreciation plaque to Rick Durham. We had hamburger and hot dogs grilled out for us for dinner before singing to a number of old friends.

Sunday morning we were at the Norcross Baptist Tabernacle to do a homecoming and kick off revival. The folks treated us well and worshipped with us as we warmed up the audience for the guest speaker to bring the revival message. Keep the church in your prayers that they will see the church revived after a few days of special services.

We finished off the weekend at Five Forks Baptist Church in Lawrenceville. We had a good crowd that came to worship with us in song. The evening was filled with both laughter and tears, all good! The pastor got to show off his one week old grand daughter to the audience. This shall be one spoiled little girl as I think everyone in the church held her before the service was over. Thank you to all the friends that came out to hear us this weekend. A special thank  you to those of you that told us you read my post each week and enjoy hearing about our services. Keep us in your prayers, we will be at the Hazel Green Church of God of Prophecy along with the Kent Smith Family and Boyett Sisters. We look forward to seeing you there.

Be sure and drop by our guestbook and let us know your coming to our website. Feel free to leave us with prayer request as well as prayers answered.

Dan Adkins

My last update stated that we would be off this weekend. However, we received a call from Lighthouse Ministries in Scottsboro, Alabama telling us that they had a cancellation for their homecoming on Sunday. We were able to re-schedule our weekends and be in town to do the Homecoming/Pastor appreciation service. The church was packed out and the service was one of those that you wish could go on and on for days. Brother Richard Tyler brought the message, I had heard him many times as just a young boy but had never forgotten the passion and power with which he delivers a message. I've never been around anyone that knows the Bible any better than he does. I told someone sitting next to me that he was a walking Bible.

After the message, we broke for lunch which the ladies of the church had prepared. The food was great! We ate as much as we could stand and then went on to sing a full program. The church had us sing "Mercy Walked In" two times and Ron's new song "Look For Me" was the hit of the day having sang it three times. He does such a good job with this song because you know he means every word in it. Doyle and Randy were sharp and had some good songs for the service as well. "Old Man Death" was a timely request by someone in the church. It was great having Ms. Mary McLain and Geanie Whitten with us on Sunday.

We are off to Atlanta for the coming weekend. We will be at Norcross Baptist Tabernacle in Norcross, GA on Sunday morning at 10:00 AM and at Five Forks Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, GA on Sunday evening at 6:00 PM. We are looking forward to seeing some folks we haven't seen in a while. Keep us in your prayers.

We have finished all of the editing of the live CD project. Look for copies to be available within the next 30 days.