The Singing Men of North Central Texas 2010 mission trip to Ukraine will mark two firsts for the musical group—travel by boat rather than bus through the Eastern European nation and an invitation for “mission partners” to join the musicians in ministry.
“It’s different than ever before,” said Don Blackley, a director of the North Central Texas chapter of the Singing Men of Texas and a worship leader at Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall.
Rather than making a slow journey by chartered bus over questionable roads, the group will take a Viking River Cruise ship up the Dnieper River—which bisects Ukraine—beginning April 20 in the Black Sea port city of Odessa and concluding April 30 in Kiev, he explained.
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Organizers of the Singing Men of North Central Texas mission trip to Ukraine include (left to right) international evangelist Michael Gott; Buntsev Ivan, pastor of Komsomol’sk Christian Baptist Church; John Bell, president of the Singing Men of North Central Texas and associate pastor of music at First Baptist Church in Bridgeport; Zygalenko Alexander, director of Kremenchuk Regional Bible College; and Don Blackley, director of the Singing Men of North Central Texas and a worship leader at Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall.
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Working in cooperation with the Ukrainian Baptist Union and international evangelist Michael Gott, the Singing Men of Texas will perform in churches and concert halls in six cities along the way. Following a one-hour concert at each venue, Gott will preach an evangelistic message and offer a public invitation to profess faith in Christ.
“The objective is getting lost people to the concerts,” Blackley explained. “Churches in the Baptist Union have agreed their members can only come to the concerts if they bring someone with them who needs to know Christ.”
Gott’s evangelistic organization has a long history of using conversational English seminars as an avenue for sharing the gospel with young professionals and university students in Eastern Europe.
In each city along the choir tour, Gott’s organization will invite alumni of those seminars to attend two-hour refresher classes in conversational English—and invite their friends to accompany them—prior to every concert.
Mission partners will participate in the conversational English classes, as well as distributing invitations to the concerts in each city where the choir performs.
“Members of the mission team will do everything the rest of the group will do except sing at the concerts,” Blackley noted.
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A complete itinerary is posted on the Singing Men of North Central Texas website at www.smonct.org.
For more information, contact Blackley at (972) 231-8302 or e-mail donblackley@sbcglobal.net.
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