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9th Annual Heart and Art Worship and Music Training Make Me a Blessing | ||||
| Summary And Sharing | ||||
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◊ Introduction ◊ Main Talks ◊ From learning worship to practicing worship ◊ Ministry Activity on July 1 ◊ Ministry Opportunity on July 2
◊ Choir Concert at Hope Mission - Herb Jamieson Center ◊ Sharing of Choir Members |
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Introduction | Back to Top |
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| The 9th Annual Heart and Art Worship and Music Training was completed on July 2! The theme for this year's training is "Make me a blessing," through learning and ministry opportunities in the community, we reflect on how to extend our worship beyond Sundays and church, so to be the ambassador of God's blessing and grace in the community, and to be the salt and light for the world. This vision is a continuation of last year's "Act Justly, Love Mercy, Live out Worship" theme, with the goal to form a more worshipful life. | ||||
After a month of rehearsal, two days of classroom learning, and completion of caring service and singing at seven locations, all participants were extremely tired at the end of the training program, but we were full of excitement and gratitude at the same time, because we have been richly blessed by the grace of God, and had the opportunity to share God's love and hope to a diverse group of people through music and caring activities. In particular, we are thankful for our guest conductor Dr. Joy Berg, because of the careful preparation and musical leadership during rehearsals and concerts. Joy is dedicated and she also has excellent conducting skills. Under her effective leadership, the choir members learned a lot. In addition, Joy is always positive and humble, and always has a smile on her face which gives great encouragement to the choir members. | ||||
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Main Talks | Back to Top |
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Main speaker this year is Dr. Marva Dawn. Dr. Dawn is a world renowned writer, lecturer, educator and theologian. Although she is weak in her physical health, she is a faithful servant of God who lives a live testimony for God. In her two seminars, Dr. Dawn used "Worship as Service", and "Worship into Service" as the themes to share what God requires us in our worship, and how we can be blessed and formed in worship, so that we can bless others. Main talk recording "Worship as Service" | ||||
| Both seminars allowed participants to reflect on our relationship with God, and consider the "Idols" in our life that become obstacles to God in our worship. Dr. Dawn makes it clear to us that the believer's life is full tensions of all sorts, and these tensions could take us away from God. Only when we are able to correctly place God and others things in the rightful position, they can manage those tensions healthily. | ||||
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From learning worship to practicing worship - Community Ministry on July 1 and 2 | Back to Top |
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| After morning seminars, the choir shared meals together. We were ready to sing and brought together all the necessary equipments. We decided to do this community singing during Canada Day long weekend because many people would have the opportunities to spend the holidays with friends and family, however for those in prisons, addiction centers, hospitals or shelters, they are away from friends and family and they do not have the opportunity to enjoy the holidays. Being the case, why don't we show them our care by sharing God's love through music? | ||||
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Ministry Activity on July 1 | Back to Top |
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| July 1 was the first day of our two-day choir presentation, and we visited the Edmonton Institution for Women. Pastor Snowy Noble is the pastor of the facility, and he shared with us that these women fear that the community is no longer going to accept them because of what the wrongdoings they committed in the past. By if the community is willing to show care by visiting the institution, this helps relieve the fear and to help them build confidence, thereby helping them to integrate back to the community in the future. | ||||
| In the audience, we see lots of younger faces, we could not help but wonder what wrong decisions that they have made that they have to serve their current sentences in the institution. We pray that the women may get to know God, and find the path of light and life direction. | Snapshots of Choir Concert at EIFW: | |||
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Ministry Opportunity on July 2 | Back to Top |
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| July 2 was the second day and we had a tight schedule. After lunch, the choir divided into four teams to go to the Inner-City, Pioneer Place Senior Citizen's Building, the Salvation Army Addiction and Residential Center, and Chinatown. | ||||
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Team 1 - Inner-City Prayer Walk | Back to Top |
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Team 1 went to meet with Pastor Rick Chapman of Inner City Pastoral Ministry at the Bissell Center, and started the prayer walk in inner-city to get to know the social issues in the area and to pray for them. In this prayer walk, the team found that there are already many organizations who serve the inner-city community, and many of them are Christian organizations started back in the 1970s. On one hand we are thankful for the rise of the workers and give thanks for God, on the other hand we felt the challenge for these organizations is not simple, and they need a great deal of prayer and action in support. Meanwhile, the team also realized in order to help the inner-city people, it takes a lot of energy to help serve their daily needs. Whether they eventually become a Christian is beyond our control. However, when we recall the work of Jesus Christ, His love is always unconditional and without reservation no matter what. | ||||
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Team 2- Pioneer Place Senior Apartment Visitation | Back to Top |
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| Team 2 went to the Pioneer Place Senior Citizen Building to visit a group of Chinese elderly. In Pioneer Place Senior Citizen's Building, there is relatively small number of Chinese residents, and there is no Chinese language program or activity scheduled on a regular basis. The visitation program included hymn singing, Chinese gospel opera and a talk on Chinese medicine. We hope to share love and care of Christ to these seniors. | ||||
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Team 3- Visitation in Chinatown | Back to Top |
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| This team went to visit stores in Chinatown and they sent greetings with Far East Broadcasting care ministry disc production. | ||||
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Team 4 -Choir Presentation at Salvation Army Addiction Center | Back to Top |
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| In the Salvation Army Addiction and Residential center, the choir shared hymns and anthems with the theme of God's love and hope. After the concert, the audience also expressed that they were very grateful and inspired by our visit. And one of them said that he never participated in any Christian gatherings in the building, and on his way walking back to the building, he heard the choir singing, it was then he came to the chapel to hear the songs. He was very glad he came because he was touched by the music. The choir members also understand that many lives are in need of the divine embrace. In light of these people ‘s struggle with drug addiction, only God can bring release and forgiveness. | Snapshots of Choir Concert at Salvation Army: | |||
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Choir Concert at University Hospital | Back to Top |
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| The full choir then re-joined in the University Hospital. We sang in various locations within the hospital, brining comfort to patients and their families. In the process, we met a mother and her newborn daughter has just completed eight surgeries and staying in the intensive care unit. The mother found solace in our songs. We also met an elderly Christian patients, he told us that he was encouraged by the music and the message. We met a patient that was bedridden, the nurses especially arranged for us to sing outside his room. The lyrics of "Jesus loves me" bring him to tears. We also encountered a African-American employee and a family members of an African-American patients, they sang with us the song "Jesus Is My Saviour" as well. | Snapshots of Choir Concert at University Hospital: | |||
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Choir Concert at Hope Mission - Herb Jamieson Center | Back to Top |
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| After we left the university hospital, the choir went to Hope Mission - Herb Jamieson Center. The facility is a men's shelters. Met with us at the door was Pastor Alan Pysar and his staff. In fact, the choir members were all exhausted at that point, but we were determined to persist to the end and supported each other by relying on God. Before the singing, choir members uses the song "Grace Alone" as mutual encouragement and prayed together. We prayed that God will use us as the channel for his message. Thank God, we sang very well and God gave us a very enthusiastic audience! We saw that audience was deeply moved by the music and message. Some of the audience shed tears, some sang along with us. At the end of each song, they applause with excitement! We were greatly encouraged! | ||||
| Snapshots of choir concert at Hope Mission: | ||||
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Sharing of Choir Members | Back to Top |
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After the choir concert at Hope Mission, choir members shared feedback on this training event: "I am thankful for the opportunity to serve those who I don't usually encounter in my normal life, that helps me understand more of the needs of the community." "I become more appreciative of how fortunate and blessed I am! When I see that people are lost in their life because they don't know God, that motivates me to share the gospel to more people" "I see that we are all weak and inadequate, but in God's grace, we can serve Him well, and we need brothers and sisters to teamwork to serve others" "Thanks Joy for the great leadership, Thanks Marva for the inspiring talks" "I am touched by the pastors and staff who work in the community organizations, they have a big load and it is definitely not easy to serve the marginalized community. We need to pray for the marginalized people, and we also need to pray for those who serve them" "Thanks Edmccchoir for a great program, which allows us to serve and experience God in a very special way" "I will not have the same fear towards the homeless anymore, they are friendly, and I will smile to them next time I see them in Chinatown" "This is not the end but the beginning of a ministry approach to go into the community and serve" "I am thankful for being able to serve at the senior apartment and at the hospital, because they need our love and care" "We don't need to analyze too much before putting some ideas into actions, the more important thing is we start with what we know now" "I didn't think music would be such an effective channel to serve the poor, I always think that donation and volunteer work would be it. This experience make me understand that music is an effective channel to share the gospel message with others." All in all, we are very thankful for this learning and serving experience. We thank God for His vision and challenge, and that He gives us resources and teamwork in this faith journey as well! The Edmonton Chinese Christian Choir is hoping to further this vision of "Worship God and Serve Others" through partnership with local churches and organizations, and we definitely need your support, stay tuned for more ministry activities and event that will be launched in the near future! |
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