African sounds at local church with Ugandan Kids Choir
Ten talented, spirited youngsters sing for the Ugandan Kids Choir, a ministry project for the Christian child sponsorship organization named Childcare Worldwide.
And they’ll be in Texarkana this weekend, singing for a free concert at Hardy Memorial United Methodist Church Sunday at 6 p.m. All are welcome to attend.
The 10 youngsters are evenly split: five boys, five girls, ages 9 to 12, explains the tour leader, Michelle Holstein.
“The Ugandan Kids Choir is a ministry of Childcare Worldwide, and that’s a child sponsorship organization dedicated to sharing the gospel, providing education and developing the unlimited potential of poor children around the world,” Holstein said.
The children will perform songs from their home country with traditional Ugandan dance moves. Some worship songs will also be performed, some in English and some in Luganda, a language spoken by many in the East African nation bordered by Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda and other African Great Lakes countries.
“Part of the mission of these performances is to be spreading the love of Jesus, but also to
be raising the awareness of children living in poverty in the developing world and to help raise more sponsors of children,” Holstein said.
The children, who come from an economically poor village area in the eastern part of Uganda, audition to participate in the choir. Sponsorships have given them a chance to attend school.
“They’re selected based on their enthusiasm and their talent with song and dance, as well as academic standing and overall character,” Holstein said.
Sponsorships, she said, will hopefully help these kids gain skills from their education, become employable and break the cycle of poverty. For the children chosen to tour as part of the Ugandan Kids Choir, they visit more than a dozen states while on tour for 11 months. Sometimes there are a couple choirs touring at the same time.
The cultural part of the concert is energetic, Holstein said. They use traditional Ugandan instruments. “They will drum and dance and sing in traditional costumes,” she said.
The Rev. Patrick Evans at Hardy Memorial says the concert is free but they will take a love offering for the choir. Children will be staying in members’ homes and attending classes on the campus, which is what the choir does across the country while on tour.
Evans said a previous experience seeing a similar choir at another church inspired him to pursue hosting this choir.
“When they came and sang, I was just so impressed by these kids. They are not bashful at all,” he said, adding, “They sing. They dance. They are into it.” That energy is infectious, he said.
“They’re live wires so it’s a lot of fun,” Evans said about their energy.
The Ugandan Kids Choir will perform traditional hymns, “both Western and African,” including their interpretation of hymns here and traditional African hymns, he said, noting that on a mission trip to Africa he saw that church is different there, more interactive.
This concert program should last an hour.
“Everybody’s welcome to come, and we’re just glad to host them,” Evans said.
The Ugandan Kids Choir will also perform the same day at 11 a.m. at Siloam Baptist Church in Simms, Texas, and then again on March 18, 10:30 a.m., at Covenant Christian Church in Paris, Texas, while on the Texas leg of this tour.
( More info : ChildcareWorldwide.org.)