Posted: 12/02/05
| First Baptist Church in Port Neches welcomed 47 youth and adults home from an 11-day mission trip to Denia, Spain. The group partnered with The Alpha & Omega Christian School sponsored by the Holy Trinity Baptist Church in Denia to minister to children through a sports, music and art camp. Pastor David Mahfouz, Music Minister Tim Holder and Student Minister Adam Pardue were the group's leaders. While in Denia, the youth choir sang at an official meeting in the home of the mayor and at a nursing home and were warmly welcomed at various open-air venues around the city. |
Port Neches youth choir
shares the gospel in Spain
By John Hall
Texas Baptist Communications
A group of young people from First Baptist Church in Port Neches recently discovered moving to their own beat can have a powerful impact on those around them.
The youth choir from First Baptist Church spent time in Denia, Spain, singing hymns in public squares and marketplaces in an effort to spread the gospel in the city.
“People were just amazed,” said Tim Holder, the church's minister of music and senior adults. “Over there, you don't have people involved in the mainstream churches. It's just older people. People just came up and said: 'Why? Why did you come?'”
The young people's lyrics seemed to penetrate people's lives, Holder said. Some people turned to face the choir and listened intensely. Others prayed.
News stations covered the choir's performance at the mayor's home and carried it across the nation. Some news people cried during the performance.
Later, choir members prayed with each person at a nursing home where they sang in English and Spanish. English songs were translated by Jorge Pastor of the Alfa & Omega School.
“People's lives were changed,” Holder said. “We had a Muslim be saved. There were a number of professions of faith.”
The performances were part of a mission trip that also included a sports camp and arts and crafts activities. Young people from Port Neches taught Spanish young adults how to play several sports, including football and baseball.
“We wanted to go and do with them things that they enjoyed and in that process show Jesus cross-culturally through sports, through arts, through music,” Holder said.
Initially, the Spanish youth were hesitant to get close to the Texans, Holder acknowledged. But members of First Baptist Church in Port Neches showed the young people they were loved.
Soon, the separation fell, Holder said. “Christ crosses all those barriers, even the language barrier.”
This trip was facilitated through the Texas Partnerships Resource Center of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. For more information, visit www.bgct.org or call (214) 828-5180.
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