August 1997-Adult/Youth Servant Trip
MUSIC BRIDGES CULTURAL DIFFERENCES DURING
SERVANT TRIP
It has been said that music is an international
language. The truth of that statement was discovered anew by the
twenty-one members of the Adult/Youth Servant Team from St. Matthew
Lutheran Church, Barrington, during their August visit to Ysleta
Lutheran Mission in El Paso, Texas. Music enabled them to reach
across language and cultural barriers to share the love of Jesus.
For the third time in the last three years a servant
team from St. Matthew went to work at the mission in El Paso and
at two sites in Mexico. Once again construction work was to be part
of their task. They finished the interior walls and hung a suspended
ceiling in the clinic building at Anapra, Mexico. They also helped
prepare the building site for the new Lutheran Church in Zaragosa,
Mexico. But there were some important differences in this year's
trip. The team was composed to eleven teenagers and ten adults.
Under the leadership of Cathy Gathman, Director of Music at St.
Matthew, the team incorporated music into their ministry.
Several members of the team are part of the Handbell
Choir at St. Matthew. Because hand chimes are more durable and easier
to transport, the team chose to take them rather than the bells
for this trip.
During team orientation, Gathman was able to form
a chime choir within the team. They learn two pieces, "Joyful,
Joyful" and "Children of the Heavenly Father."
At both the English and Spanish worship services
at San Pablo Lutheran Church in El Paso, the impromptu chime choir
played. The first cultural bridge was built during the Spanish service.
As the group played "Children of the Heavenly Father"
on the chimes, many of the Hispanic members of the congregation
could be heard singing along in Spanish. The music reached across
the barriers of language and culture to unite brothers and sisters
in Christ.
That afternoon the chime choir played at the worship
service at Zaragosa. Again their music made a connection between
the Anglos from St. Matthew and the Mexicans who were there for
worship. It also opened the opportunity for several members of the
group from Barrington to work with the Sunday School children from
Zaragosa.
Even on the job site, music helped to build relationships.
When the team broke for lunch at Anapra on Monday, they played the
chimes for the neighborhood children and then invited the neighborhood
children to try the chimes. Even though few members from the Barrington
team could speak Spanish and none of the children from Anapra could
speak English, they were soon playing "Jesus Loves Me"
and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."
When asked, "What was your best experience
from the trip," Elisabeth Bandy, one of the teenage members
of the servant team replied, "Probably holding a child's hand,
skipping with her and others, and singing 'Si Christo Me Ama.' This
and playing bells with the small kids was the best."
Even as St. Matthew sent off its second
servant team on October 11, a team of twenty adults, plans are being
made for servant trips in 1998. Music which can overcome cultural
and language barriers and help to build bridges between Christians
will certainly be part of those plans.
