Music Conference

This is going to be a long post.

Just a few days ago I was trembling in my boots as the First Baptist Church of Lake Orion's missions team was just hours from their arrival. My fears were many because I felt that the weight of success or failure of their visit would fall on me and I could see a tremendous failure looming.
I knew that the team would come well prepared and ready to minister. I knew that there would not be a lack of talent and experience on their part. I knew that they would have great expectations I just didn't know how our people would react or if they would attend. My fear was that the attendance would be poor and that the team might go away frustrated.
God be praised! God be glorified! God be worshipped!

I highlight the previous paragraph because my Father deserves all of these and more. Let me explain. It is a wonderful story.

The team, Jim and Hannah Watson, Faith Gaskell and Brenda Johnson, arrived safe and sound on Tuesday, July 19 though Brenda lost her suitcase in the process and had packed the bare minims in her carry-on. As I write, five days later, she is still without her bag. She has not complained one time! Her gracious attitude is just one of many examples of the blessings that this visit would produce.

The First Baptist Church team came ready to sing in Portuguese. However, as I sat listening to their attempts in practice I winced as I wondered how they would be understood. Apparently my thoughts were reflected in my facial expression as I heard  one member of the team in passing say, “I wonder if we should sing?”

For three days I saw Faith combing over her transliterations as she sang and asked question after question about pronunciation. She was incessant and she was rarely without her papers.
I had never been in charge of putting a music conference together and had left most of the actual conference planning to Jim. I knew that he was the expert and would do a great job. There were, however, logistics on our end and I wondered how they would all come together.

Alexandre had secured the use of the school building where we hold our church services. Dawn had arranged the arrival of our lunch meals and had purchased food stuffs for our afternoon Coffee Breaks. I had contacted my American coworkers and a couple of Brazilians about translating for the team and all had agreed to help. Everything seemed ready to go but again the looming question in my mind was, “Will they come?”

Conference, day one, came and as we left the house that morning I quivered in anticipation. For me it was one of those “Wanna get away” moments. However, as we arrived at the school there were already a couple of our kids waiting at the door. One of them was Camila. She is a sixteen year old and has only been saved for a week and for some reason I had not expected her to be there. Her presence was a real encouragement. Graziele and Amanda were also there and as always ready to help. These two young ladies have been such a blessing to our ministry and it is a joy to see them Growing in their walk with Christ.

That morning, with members from six churches participating, we began with prayer a brief devotional challenge by Jim and, to my surprise, choir practice. I am not sure why choir practice at a music conference was such a surprise but it was. I guess that I was expecting more lectures and instruction on Good Musics vs. Bad Music type things. But all of a sudden there I was translating for choir practice Jim Watson style.

If you’ve not experienced that you should go just to watch. It is quite entertaining. Hilarious might be a better word. Jim leads with a gusto, bravado and enthusiasm that makes practice fun. I heard one lady say, “I am having so much fun that I don’t even realize that I am learning so much too!” Our people loved it! It was so neat to see them reacting to movements and sounds that most had never seen in any of their choirs.

A goose-bump moment came early in the practice. One of our young ladies, Monese, had done the lion’s share of translation work on four new hymns. She did an excellent job and our people loved singing them. However, before I get to that special moment I need to back up just a minute at this point in the story.

Jim, our daughter Abby and Jon Jenkins a friend at Lake Orion had worked hard at putting Monise’s translations into the Finale music program which helps align the musical text with the notes. If you have ever worked on translation you will understand my surprise at how well they had done. However, as my Brazilian coworker, Alexandre, looked at their effort he noticed some tweaks that needed to be made. The tweaks took several hours!

Then there were copies of the: conference schedule, the five pieces of music (about eight pages), biographical information about the team and workshop descriptions that needed to be printed. That too took several more hours of work. Alexandre worked into the night getting the hard copies in order.
First Baptist Church had supplied folders and mechanical pens for each of our Conference participants. Those needed stuffing and the FBC team jumped at the opportunity to serve. Within in minutes we had a nice packet of information and music for each conference attendee.
Now back to the “goose-bump moment”. Jim had the choir stretching, aligning themselves and making strange sounds to hit the center of the proper pitch target he had drawn on the green-board.

After several attempts the fifty or so participants pierced the center of that target! It was a sweet sound and a special moment in our musical history. I stood stunned and near tears. They sounded angelic! Jim was communicating and precious things were happening.

The work-shops were practical without being boring or long. Each teacher had prepared well and it showed by the classroom participation. However, after the first day I wondered if anyone would come back for more.

They did! We had over seventy on our second day!! Again we practiced long and had fun in each of the work-shops. At the end of the day we presented our concert. It was complete with two special numbers by the FBC team. They presented well and our people loved them! Junior played a cello/ piano duet with Hannah, Faith played a piano solo and the choir sang five numbers. It was a heavenly time. Thank you one and all who had a part in making it happen!