Faculty at Sunshine Freewill Baptist

Last evening the faculty had the great privilege of ministering in song at Sunshine Freewill Baptist church in Huntington.  We absolutely love the church and the people! 

Our dear friend, Levi - who attends MSSGM every year - and his sweet wife, Rebecka and adorable little boy, Samuel attend Sunshine and we've been able to drive down to Huntington one Sunday night each year for the past three years and fellowship with those dear people.

We also got to hear a message from Pastor Jody Fortner, which was a blessing, about preparing your hearts for worship on Sundays.  I think that's something church musicians, especially, don't think about or don't take time to do - not intentionally, of course.  Because often times when it comes time for church service, we're pre-occupied with selecting music and making sure that we have someone for the special right before the sermon and other little things that go into a service, that we forget about the big picture.  We don't mean to forget, but we're often too busy concentrating/worrying on the little things.  

So this week before prayer meeting, before chruch services on Sunday - prepare your heart for worship.  Go to the church with gladness in your heart, thankful to God for all his many blessings - and especially thankful for the people whom he's planted in your life in your local church. 

It's Summer Singin' School Time!

MSSGM is a little over one month away, and we are busy creating lesson plans, private lesson schedules and getting students registered!

It's an exciting time as we see our numbers climb. We have set a goal of 100 students enrolled this year. Last year we had 88 total enrolled, almost twice as many students as we had in 2009.

To encourage more participation from church choirs - whole church choirs, not just a few members; church youth groups, and children's groups - we are having a little competition. The church with the MOST students at the MSSGM in 2011 will be able to go through the line first on Friday evening at the dinner.

Here's the current count:

Cobbs Creek MB (Sod, WV) has 10 registered
Dunbar Mountain Mission (Dunbar - the host church) has 3 registered
Sunshine Freewill Baptist (Huntington, WV) has 2 registered
Bible Center (Charleston, WV) has 1 registered

Church Groups

We are currently in major planning mode for MSSGM 2011, and are so excited for music school this year! We hope that you are too! I have always thought that if my entire choir would come to music school, then on Sunday morning we could bring our new songbooks to church and sing new songs the very next Sunday morning following music school. I mean, we would have a collection of like 10 new songs to sing and we all would know them - as written. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Many people believe that music school isn't for them, so they don't bother making the effort to try. We want you to try. We want you to come one night and if you don't like it, don't come back... but try! We believe that music school is something that every choir member - regardless of musical background - needs to experience. So this year, we want to prove it. Tuition at MSSGM is $20 per student. However, for a church choir/children's group, etc. It's 10 for $10. Bring 10 people from your church - yes, the same local church congregation - and each person's tuition is only $10. You can also mix that up, bring 3 kids along with 7 choir members and get the same deal : 10 for $10. Send me an email (tori@mssgm.org) for a church group registration sheet, and for more information! Go ahead and put it on your church's calendar... and reserve your church bus for July 18 - 23 for Music School!

Noah's Ark

Shortly before Music School began last year (2010) I remember hearing Katie say that the children's class would be writing a song, andn I thought to myself that there would be no time to write a song and teach them the theory needed to write the thing! But, I've learned one thing over the past few years, NEVER EVER underestimate a Leaptrot. Because they will always go above and beyond anyone's expectations. Katie thought that writing a song would be a good memory and keepsake for the kids in her class. The would write it, copy it for the kids to keep, and put in on the recording.

So the kids went to work! So in the day session, they talked about possible topics in class discussing their favorite Bible stories and characters. They all decided to talk about the story of Noah and building the ark in their song and began the brainstorming process. The kids shouted out everything they could think of that was the "best" part of Noah's ark - rain, animals, lions, boat, two by two, 40 days, etc. - and Katie wrote everything on a white board.

In the evening session, they got out a bunch of Bibles and read and studied the story. The outlined the facts and the order of occurences. Then they started to make things rhyme. Some times it's difficult to keep children on topic, so Brendon took over the marker and got serious with them. When the kids would get away from the topic, he would point the marker at them and bring them back to the song.

Katie had originally thought that it would be a good memory and keepsake for the kids - that we could make copies of the song and distribute it to the kids. Well, I got a call from Trey Daugherty asking for the names of all the kids that worked on the song because it had been picked up by a publishing company and they wanted to be sure that all the kids were recognized. So, congratulations 2010 Children's Class... your song is being published in a songbook!

MSSGM 2011

July 18-23
Location TBA

Videos from MSSGM

Clark Hagy - a really good friend to the staff at MSSGM, and a 2009 student of the school, was at the Closing Program with his camera in hand. Last week he started uploading videos from the Closing Program on to youtube. Visit www.youtube.com/user/pianogospel05 to see some of the videos. Clark also attended the WV School of Music, which was held the week after MSSGM in Kenna, WV, and you can see videos from their closing program on his youtube site a well.

The CDs and DVDs are currently in production, and we expect to be shipping them in the next few weeks. Thanks to Donna Leaptrot (Brendon, Katie and Andrew's mom) for taking on that project!

On Wednesday, July 21, I was in a bit of a pickle prior to the evening music school. The man that I had previously asked to do devotions for the evening had to back out at the last minute, due to some personal matters that needed to be tended. So, I prayed and asked God to help me make a decision - did He want me to lead the evening devotion or did He have someone else in mind? I felt that God wanted me to ask one of the men from Union Mission to share their testimony with the student body that evening; and so I did.

Joe was one of the men who had impressed the facutly with his previous musical background - he had even competed at band competitions in high school against one of our faculty members. He also was a great anchor of our bass section. Joe gladly agreed, and shared his testimony. The student body was quiet that night - and listened, hanging on to every word that Joe shared. He told of how he grew up in church and had been saved at an early age. But he grew up and made poor decisions - that included drugs and alcohol. About 11 months ago, he went to Union Mission and turned his life back over to the Lord. He's enrolled at Word of Life Bible Institute and will begin classes this Fall.

There were about 12 men who came to the music school from the Foundations program at Union Mission and we LOVED them! The first day of classes, they were hesitant. It was obvious that those men did not really, truly want to be at a "music school". Even after the first evening I was thinking that the men didn't really have a good time, and was "hoping" they would choose to give the school another night, another chance. They did. On Tuesday night they were more comfortable, their mouths were opening a little wider and they were smiling!

This past Sunday night, the men came to Cobbs Creek (my home church) along with Rex Whiteman (of Union Mission). They sang three songs ("Hand In Hand with Jesus", "Where Could I Go" and "Victory in Jesus"). Seth Gregory surprised the men (and me too, I didn't know he was planning on attending the service) and accompanied the men as they sang.

It was such a blessing! I wish you all could have been there!