9. The New Adventure
The ad touted an ecumenical music-missions group located in California that traveled around the United States and the world taking the message of Christ through song and prayer to those needing His light. It had four full-time ministry teams and were looking for people to join three additional teams for summer tours. Reading further, I felt that there was no way that I would ever be accepted for a group like that. Though I’d played the piano since I was seven, the violin since fourth grade and had sung with our little family band locally since the age of nine, I was not nearly disciplined enough to make it into a professional music group. But, shrugging my shoulders, I figured I would send in an audition tape (yes, that’s right an audio cassette tape) with my competition violin solo on it, plus a song for which I sang while I accompanied myself on the piano. If they accepted me, then I would go. If not, I still had my application ready to send out so that I could to go to Oxford University for summer classes – and yes, that’s the Oxford in England.
So, out went the tape and I said a little prayer as it went. I showed my boyfriend the ad and told him my summer plans. He was less than ecstatic about the thought of me being gone anywhere for three months but he was very sweet about it and told me that whatever God had planned was good enough for him. Or something like that anyway.
Mid-winter came and in Michigan, that can be quite a depressing and very cold time. But I was happy, taking classes I liked, dating a nice guy, managing the illnesses and panic pretty well. Soon a letter came in the mail and I discovered that I had been accepted to the ministry as a keyboardist. “A keyboardist!! What in the world does that mean?” I thought excitedly. It appeared that the team would be made up of about ten vocalists, an orchestra of various instruments, a sound technician and a light technician. The three summer teams would be going to Greenland, Central America and Bulgaria. Soon I would be getting the recordings and the sheet music I needed to prepare for a ten-day rehearsal camp in the mountains of California. I needed to be there by early June and we would be on the road performing ten days later. What?!?!
My family and I were so very excited about this incredible opportunity. Needless to say, the rest of my second semester at college flew by easily and without my active participation. Today when my parents and I talk about it, we laugh about how naïve we were. Racing me off to the west coast to join a ministry we knew nothing about sounded a little like a cult actually. But it all worked out for the best and I joined the Central America team. When I discovered I would be playing not one, but two keyboards at the same time I cried for about 2 hours. But after that I did all right. And soon we were on our way.
The ad touted an ecumenical music-missions group located in California that traveled around the United States and the world taking the message of Christ through song and prayer to those needing His light. It had four full-time ministry teams and were looking for people to join three additional teams for summer tours. Reading further, I felt that there was no way that I would ever be accepted for a group like that. Though I’d played the piano since I was seven, the violin since fourth grade and had sung with our little family band locally since the age of nine, I was not nearly disciplined enough to make it into a professional music group. But, shrugging my shoulders, I figured I would send in an audition tape (yes, that’s right an audio cassette tape) with my competition violin solo on it, plus a song for which I sang while I accompanied myself on the piano. If they accepted me, then I would go. If not, I still had my application ready to send out so that I could to go to Oxford University for summer classes – and yes, that’s the Oxford in England.
So, out went the tape and I said a little prayer as it went. I showed my boyfriend the ad and told him my summer plans. He was less than ecstatic about the thought of me being gone anywhere for three months but he was very sweet about it and told me that whatever God had planned was good enough for him. Or something like that anyway.
Mid-winter came and in Michigan, that can be quite a depressing and very cold time. But I was happy, taking classes I liked, dating a nice guy, managing the illnesses and panic pretty well. Soon a letter came in the mail and I discovered that I had been accepted to the ministry as a keyboardist. “A keyboardist!! What in the world does that mean?” I thought excitedly. It appeared that the team would be made up of about ten vocalists, an orchestra of various instruments, a sound technician and a light technician. The three summer teams would be going to Greenland, Central America and Bulgaria. Soon I would be getting the recordings and the sheet music I needed to prepare for a ten-day rehearsal camp in the mountains of California. I needed to be there by early June and we would be on the road performing ten days later. What?!?!
My family and I were so very excited about this incredible opportunity. Needless to say, the rest of my second semester at college flew by easily and without my active participation. Today when my parents and I talk about it, we laugh about how naïve we were. Racing me off to the west coast to join a ministry we knew nothing about sounded a little like a cult actually. But it all worked out for the best and I joined the Central America team. When I discovered I would be playing not one, but two keyboards at the same time I cried for about 2 hours. But after that I did all right. And soon we were on our way.
Angel, I cannot tell you how much I'm enjoying reading this!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm happy about that!
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