wfn.org | Students share faith, music in Baltics tour

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

July 16, 1998	Contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{419}

NEW YORK (UMNS) - A four-week concert tour of Russia and the Baltic
States has left 22 college students marveling at the impact their music
and their faith had on both their audiences and themselves.

"It has not just been another choir tour," noted the Rev. S.T. Kimbrough
Jr., as the Youth Mission Chorale 1998 prepared July 15 for its 28th and
final concert. Kimbrough, who is associate general secretary for mission
evangelism with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, was the
group's director. The mission agency sponsored the tour.

The students agreed.

"Our impact, I felt, always came at times when we didn't expect it,"
said Taemin Sohn, a recent graduate of Brown University. "It was amazing
how we kept hearing report after report of how God was using us."

The group arrived June 1 at the United Methodist Hotel Viktoria in
Hasliberg, Switzerland, for two weeks of rehearsals. They learned 35
sacred music selections in 14 different languages before spending a week
each in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and St. Petersburg, Russia, giving
concerts, offering testimony and visiting people.

Audiences at their concerts "ranged from as few as 12 to as many as
700," noted Joyce Sohl, chief executive of the board's Women's Division,
who accompanied the chorale during the trip. 

Fellowship after each concert allowed interaction with the audience.
Although local United Methodists were present, an estimated 95 percent
of the listeners were from the community, not the local church, Sohl
said. The largest audience was in Vilnius, Lithuania, which has no
formally organized United Methodist congregation.

"Wherever we traveled, we sensed the power of music as an avenue of
mission and evangelization," Kimbrough reported. As an example, he cited
an occasion where a woman rushed up to the tour bus after hearing a
performance and tearfully asked to pray with one of the missionaries.

Clinton Rabb, the tour coordinator and a board executive for new church
development, reported that the concerts were "high-impact" events,
leaving an image of a church that sings what it believes in its heart.

The students were impressed by the commitment of the small congregations
they encountered. Katrina Van Gorp, a student at Dickinson College in
Carlisle, Pa., said she had never "really appreciated what our church
stands for before this (trip). It was so inspiring to see these people
worshipping together just because they could."

The tour also strengthened the personal faith of the participants.
LaDonna Brown, a student at Bethel College in Mishawaka, Ind., called
herself a "baby Christian." But she soon learned that her lack of
experience didn't mean she couldn't minister to others. "I have learned
more of God's love on this trip than I have in the past two years," she
wrote.

In his written reflections, Shawn Curtis of the University of Wyoming
called the tour "my own personal 40 days in the wilderness." He learned
that "we are all the angels delivering the message, not only to those
who would listen, but to each other."  

# # #

EDITORS: The students who participated in the tour and their
institutions are:

Danton Bankay, Brooklyn (N.Y.) Conservatory of Music
LaDonna Brown, Bethel College, Mishawaka, Ind.
Shawn Curtis, University of Wyoming, Laramie
Emily Dawson, Colorado State University, Fort Collins
Shea Dibley, Gettysburg (Pa.) College
Laura Englehardt, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Ill.
Andrea Ezzell, First State University, Boone, N.C.
Shannon Gayk, Duke University, Durham, N.C.
Nicole Gerber, George Washington University, Washington D.C.
Kenneth Griswald, Millsaps College, Jackson, Miss.
Shaneik Isaac, Bennett College, Greensboro, N.C.
Tomoko Nakajima, Boston University School of the Arts
Janice Pennington, Willamette University, Salem, Ore.
Leatus Reed, Lindsey Wilson College, Columbia, Ky.
Jason Rockney California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Johanna Salgado, Delaware Technical and Community College, Dover
Matthew Shimmin, Western Illinois University, Macomb
Carrie Ann Smith, Western Carolina University, Cullawhee, N.C.
Thomas Bryson Smith, Ferrum (Va.) College
Taemin Sohn, Brown University, Providence, R.I.
Katrina Van Gorp, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa.
Ginger West, Spartanburg (S.C.) Methodist College