How do music programs seem to go from a couple of tooting horns to a full blown orchestra overnight? I sort of saw it happen at First Baptist Church of Lake Orion and now I am seeing it happen at Igreja Batista da Fé in Sorocaba, Brazil! It is an amazing phenomena.
I need to put my Lake Orion experience into a missionary perspective. By that I mean, I need to remind the average person about what happens in missionary life. Missionary life (ML) is different that normal life, if you have a definition for normal life I’d like to hear it. Anyway, ML is different than normal life. ML runs in three to four year spurts. Here is how it works.
A missionary family leaves normal life (NL) and goes into a sort of Twilight Zone. In the TZ, NL becomes ML. By that I mean NL, is where everything sort of runs together into a birth to death scenario. Not much out of the ordinary changes. You have the same friends, house, church and work. You have your daily stuff you do and you get used to it all. There seem to be no gaps.
In ML there are these one year gaps in the above mentioned NL. You uproot your “normal” and go off to Timbuktu, or wherever you feel the call, for four years. When you return to your former NL it is not N anymore. Things have drifted along like a facebook timeline and the kids that were in diapers are now driving cars, going to college and or getting married. ML is a weird experience. It was one of the most distinctive parts of being a M.
Albert Einstein quoted in this article, “...believed [that] there is no true division between past and future, there is rather a single existence. His most descriptive testimony to this faith came when his lifelong friend Besso died. Einstein wrote a letter to Besso's family, saying that although Besso had preceded him in death it was of no consequence, "...for us physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one" (http://goo.gl/PHVrn).
Einstein wasn't a M. I don't think. At least he wasn't the kind of M that I am familiar with.
Back to the orchestra. We left Lake Orion in January of 1997. At that time there was a small group of kids who had begun to toot their horns. Actually they had begun to squawk their violins and cellos. I remember one of their first “concerts”. The word “concerts” is in quotes because what I heard was hard on the ears and hardly what I would have considered a concert. It was a great photo opp for the parents to see little Suzy and Johnny doing their musical thing but for the rest of us it was hard on the ears.
My family, however, was in ML mode and off we went to our Timbuktu for a few years. When we came back to the NL world a miracle had occurred. Low and behold there at the front of the auditorium at FBCLO was an orchestra! I wept when I heard it. Not tears of, “OH PLEASE STOP my ears can't take any more!!” But tears of, OH my! That is Heavenly.”
Where did they come from, these strange “orchestra people”? Who were they? They looked vaguely familiar. Were they the same group? Was that Eric, Jon and James? It couldn't be! Their bodies were too big. The music was too lovely. It was music. It was heavenly! For years our former pastor George Stiekes had played his trumpet in the front pew alongside Gary Stewart and his trumpet. For years they both had said longingly, “One day we’ll have an orchestra.”
Now it had become a reality. But how. What was the difference. What magic dust had been sprinkled.
Well, here is the secret. There is no magic dust. ML and NL don't exist.
What happened at First Baptist Church took three things: an idea, impetus and work. At Lake Orion there was a changing of the guard and pastor Juan Moreno was interested in music. Not that he is very musical, it is just that he had a great idea. He hired Jim Watson as music pastor. Good move. He also gave a great incentive. He allowed gifted people like Leonard Holiday and Julie McGhee to give string lessons. They could use the church building for free and keep their lesson fees. But they had to give a certain number of lessons per week to the church member’s kids.
Virtually overnight in that ML timezone there was an orchestra. It seemed to be a snowball effect. With the enthusiasm others wanted to be a part of the budding group. There were bassoon players, bass clarinet and oboe players. People who had hung up their instruments soon after high school began to dust them off and toot them again. It was a type of “awakening”. It was fascinating to watch, even from a distant land.
In that distant land the same scenario is taking place. With vision, hard work and incentive an orchestra is beginning to form. There will be no former high school band players dusting off their clarinets or french horns. That is because there are no school music programs here in Brazil. However, there have been adults that have begun to show interest in learning. I am one of those.
I thought that it would be fun to learn the cello. I began with Mr. Holiday a few years back. I then gave it up as, “too hard for old fingers”. Mistake. Now my fingers are even older and I’m doing the cello thing again. I am not that great. I’m not even that good. But I am getting better with practice. So, keep your eye on Igreja Batista da Fé (Faith Baptist Church). Something cool and wonderful is happening right before your distant gaze! Watch us grow!
I need to put my Lake Orion experience into a missionary perspective. By that I mean, I need to remind the average person about what happens in missionary life. Missionary life (ML) is different that normal life, if you have a definition for normal life I’d like to hear it. Anyway, ML is different than normal life. ML runs in three to four year spurts. Here is how it works.
A missionary family leaves normal life (NL) and goes into a sort of Twilight Zone. In the TZ, NL becomes ML. By that I mean NL, is where everything sort of runs together into a birth to death scenario. Not much out of the ordinary changes. You have the same friends, house, church and work. You have your daily stuff you do and you get used to it all. There seem to be no gaps.
In ML there are these one year gaps in the above mentioned NL. You uproot your “normal” and go off to Timbuktu, or wherever you feel the call, for four years. When you return to your former NL it is not N anymore. Things have drifted along like a facebook timeline and the kids that were in diapers are now driving cars, going to college and or getting married. ML is a weird experience. It was one of the most distinctive parts of being a M.
Albert Einstein quoted in this article, “...believed [that] there is no true division between past and future, there is rather a single existence. His most descriptive testimony to this faith came when his lifelong friend Besso died. Einstein wrote a letter to Besso's family, saying that although Besso had preceded him in death it was of no consequence, "...for us physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one" (http://goo.gl/PHVrn).
Einstein wasn't a M. I don't think. At least he wasn't the kind of M that I am familiar with.
Back to the orchestra. We left Lake Orion in January of 1997. At that time there was a small group of kids who had begun to toot their horns. Actually they had begun to squawk their violins and cellos. I remember one of their first “concerts”. The word “concerts” is in quotes because what I heard was hard on the ears and hardly what I would have considered a concert. It was a great photo opp for the parents to see little Suzy and Johnny doing their musical thing but for the rest of us it was hard on the ears.
My family, however, was in ML mode and off we went to our Timbuktu for a few years. When we came back to the NL world a miracle had occurred. Low and behold there at the front of the auditorium at FBCLO was an orchestra! I wept when I heard it. Not tears of, “OH PLEASE STOP my ears can't take any more!!” But tears of, OH my! That is Heavenly.”
Where did they come from, these strange “orchestra people”? Who were they? They looked vaguely familiar. Were they the same group? Was that Eric, Jon and James? It couldn't be! Their bodies were too big. The music was too lovely. It was music. It was heavenly! For years our former pastor George Stiekes had played his trumpet in the front pew alongside Gary Stewart and his trumpet. For years they both had said longingly, “One day we’ll have an orchestra.”
Now it had become a reality. But how. What was the difference. What magic dust had been sprinkled.
Well, here is the secret. There is no magic dust. ML and NL don't exist.
What happened at First Baptist Church took three things: an idea, impetus and work. At Lake Orion there was a changing of the guard and pastor Juan Moreno was interested in music. Not that he is very musical, it is just that he had a great idea. He hired Jim Watson as music pastor. Good move. He also gave a great incentive. He allowed gifted people like Leonard Holiday and Julie McGhee to give string lessons. They could use the church building for free and keep their lesson fees. But they had to give a certain number of lessons per week to the church member’s kids.
Virtually overnight in that ML timezone there was an orchestra. It seemed to be a snowball effect. With the enthusiasm others wanted to be a part of the budding group. There were bassoon players, bass clarinet and oboe players. People who had hung up their instruments soon after high school began to dust them off and toot them again. It was a type of “awakening”. It was fascinating to watch, even from a distant land.
In that distant land the same scenario is taking place. With vision, hard work and incentive an orchestra is beginning to form. There will be no former high school band players dusting off their clarinets or french horns. That is because there are no school music programs here in Brazil. However, there have been adults that have begun to show interest in learning. I am one of those.
I thought that it would be fun to learn the cello. I began with Mr. Holiday a few years back. I then gave it up as, “too hard for old fingers”. Mistake. Now my fingers are even older and I’m doing the cello thing again. I am not that great. I’m not even that good. But I am getting better with practice. So, keep your eye on Igreja Batista da Fé (Faith Baptist Church). Something cool and wonderful is happening right before your distant gaze! Watch us grow!
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