We just got back from a trip to the West Bank. I know many people think that is not safe but it really is. There were six of us who went. It is the six who have worked there for some time. About a year ago Terry McIntosh had the opportunity to get a TV station in the West Bank. One of the things we wanted to find out is how the TV station is doing. Continue reading
music
Music the universal languagepart 3
When you have music playing in Palestine you are going to have dancing. I can’t tell you how many birthday parties I went to where the radio was playing and every one was dancing and that included little kids too. It is just a part of the culture.
On Saturday morning after we had finished passing out the guitars we had our regular Bible Study. Now we had guitars so we had music and we could sing. On Saturday we started singing and one of our dear saints got up and started dancing. It wasn’t long before several of the ladies joined her. Before long I had joined, Karen had joined and even Terry McIntosh, who founded the Jesus House, joined in the dancing. Continue reading
Music is the universal language part 2
I told you we had a miracle getting the guitars into Jericho. The next thing we did was go to the home groups and tell them we had guitars and Karen was willing to teach anyone who wanted to learn. We wanted at least one person from each home group. We also told them if they finished then we would give the home group a guitar. They were excited.
The next thing that had to be done was scheduling lessons. It seemed the people could not agree on a day that all of them were free. We set up several different lessons to accommodate the people. We had afternoon lessons most days of the week and we had evening lessons. There were some men who had guitars who wanted to come for lessons or just to play with someone else who knew the guitar. Those lessons had to be at night.
I don’t play an instrument so I just stayed in the room and prayed for those who were taking the lessons. There was a young girl who was about eleven or twelve. We had a mother and her two teen age daughters and we had a few older women who had raised their family.
One day toward the end of the lessons our friend Fotma and her sister were there for lessons. Karen had taught a simple song that had one chord change. They decided to play together and sing. The two students started playing and singing but Karen was the only one who changed chords. They just kept playing and singing and the smiles on their faces were amazing. This went on for a time and you could feel the Holy Spirit in our midst. I truly found out what it is to make a joyful noise to the Lord. When they finally quit playing we were all laughing with the joy of the Lord. When they left, Karen and I were still laughing and she told me the music was terrible but the joy of the Lord was amazing.
When the month was coming to an end we handed out ribbons to those who had completed lessons and gave a guitar to the person from that home group who had finished the lessons. They felt a sense of accomplishment and that was good.
There is more to this story but I will have to tell it next time.
Continue to Praise our Lord,
Jan
Tales from the Mission Field 