Romans 12:6

Have you ever considered the difficulty of being given the gift of song without the capacity or ability of being able to put the music stuck in your mind into print for the benefit of others?  What makes it even more frustrating, is that there are times I can hear an entire orchestra playing in my mind, with different vocal parts being sung to particular songs that I have been blessed to write.

In late 2008, at the age of fifty three, my theology began to turn into doxology in the form of poetry and songs.  The only problem (as mentioned above) was that I could not read or write music and did not have the desire or time that it would take to learn that skill.

On a Wednesday night, at Beacon Baptist Church in Burlington, North Carolina, I was encouraged to sing one of the first songs written—acapella.  With handouts of the words being passed out to the congregation, many joined in to worship the LORD on that first occasion.  After one or two more Wednesday night acapella sessions, I began to meet with Larry Hunter who had the capacity to hear the music and eventually picked out the cords on a guitar for accompaniment.  Together we moved from an occasional Wednesday night to an occasional Sunday night service.

May 18, 2010 Dianna and I were married, and drove across country to begin our life together in Citrus Heights, California.  While here, there have been a couple of brief encounters in which someone gifted with the capacity to musically play some of the songs I have written occurred.  Nothing more than the particular occasions ever developed until recently.

From a previous post entitled “The Fullness of Your Grace” dated Monday June 3, 2013, you were introduced to Celeste Chen who spent countless hours transcribing the audible music for three of my original songs from an acapella CD we had made.   This was part of her preparation for a concert she gave at two facilities where we minister.

Mike and Celeste will be leaving the Sacramento area to travel a bit before they begin their mission work in Kenya.  On the 4^th of July, we stopped by to bid them farewell and to drop off a DVD of the two concerts.  They took a break from packing and before we left, presented us with the actual sheet music for those three songs.

There are no words to express our gratitude for the grace that God has shown in providing the means by which these gifts can be shared with others because of the labors of this sweet Christian sister.

As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.”  (2 Corinthians 9:9)

 

Our Dear Friends - Mike & Celeste Chen

To read more about the first concert click HERE