The India Children's
Choir visited Bradford at the end of April 2008. They presented their
concert on April 30, 2008 at 7:00PM in the CLC. The choir came to
Bradford in 2005. The choir this year was an entirely different group
of children. This year's choir of 12 girls and 10 boys, ages 8-12,
were cute, entertaining, challenging and moving. Their singing was of
exceptionally high quality. They seemed to forget there was an
audience when they sang a hymn in their own language. They were
obviously worshiping, not performing.
The purpose of the Choir's tour is to solicit prayer and financial support
for Bibles for the World, a para-church organization based in Colorado
Springs, that distributes Bibles worldwide. Seven adults are
responsible for the children during their eleven months of travel around the
country, which began in November 2007. Before they accepted
Christianity the Hmar tribe, of which they are members, used to be
headhunters. The children don't look like citizens of India.
That is because they come from Northeast India, bordering Myanmar (formerly
Burma). They look Burmese (Myanmarese).
Quite a bit of advance planning is necessary to bring about an event like
this. There is publicity, arrangement for locations for their
schooling and the concert itself, and recruiting of host families.
Many people helped. Deep appreciation is expressed to Jim Baldwin
and his kitchen crew, Selene Machuga and her crew who set up the CLC
including setting up and taking down chairs. Dianne Deloe, Sharon
Long, and Pastor Schubert. Thank you to Foursquare Gospel
Church for making their facility available for the choir's schooling.
Apologies are expressed to anyone who helped but was neglected in this list.
Without the host families, the Choir would not have been able to visit
Bradford. Many thanks are expressed to the following host families:
Jerry & Martha Craver, Jim & Stacia Roggenbaum and Carleton & Emma
Campbell from Grace. Larry & Pat Harrington of
Sawyer Evangelical Church. Pastor Dennis & Deborah Swineford
of 1st Methodist Church. From Bradford Mennonite Church,
Kevin & Shelia Groff, Paul & Marlene Oberholtzer, Walter & Marlene
Zimmerman, Glen & Rachael Newsanger and Dale & Cheryl Groff.
The choir will not be coming to this area again until at least 2010.
Next year they will travel to California. Carleton Campbell
coordinated the event in 2005 and 2008. He will be passing this
opportunity on to someone else to do it next time. He will be sending
a list of names of people who have expressed an interest in being a contact
person in Bradford to help bring the choir to town again, to Bibles for the
World. If anyone would like to be on this list, please contact
Carleton.
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