Mission Spotlight

For those of you who were raised in the Adventist Church, I will not need to explain. For the others, Mission Spotlight was a slide show which reported activities in the ‘mission field. Every thirteen weeks they would show a slide show of some remote village in Africa or South America. What I remember most about these programs is the sound of the taped voices that accompanied the slide show. The youth of the mission would sing various songs to accompany the pictures. It was the thing that I liked most about church, the view of another part of the world. It whetted my appetite for more. Ever since those days sitting in the uncomfortable pews and watching the exotic locations with their colors and romantic villages, I have wanted to travel. Welcome to my mission field.

This week, the entire school has been focused on the Choral competition, which will take place on the 16th. On Monday, several teachers assembled about ten tape decks or small boom boxes for the students to use in their rehearsals. The students have been practicing without teachers, without adult guidance or supervision. Small groups of eight to ten students have gathered around the school to sing. It is primarily girls; in fact I haven’t noticed any boys in the groups. I did however see a group of boys in the classroom, but I didn’t go investigate what they were doing.

The harmonies that the girls sing have taken me back to the slide shows of Mission Spotlight, although, now I am not sitting in a terribly uncomfortable pew wearing a suit and tie. The sound track sounds very similar and the exotic location I am watching hasn’t quite satisfied my desire to travel, at least not yet.