University of Mobile’s RamCorps and Welsh Revival instrumental ensembles experienced the beginning of a new year in a new world recently.
RamCorps, led by Kenn Hughes, and Welsh Revival, directed by Steve Dunn, traveled to Jamaica during the New Year holiday to share the love of Christ through music with the people of Jamaica.
RamCorps has a tradition of serving others and its trip to Jamaica was no different. The group had been praying together weekly about the experience since last August.
Although it led the local Jamaican church in music-based worship, RamCorps and Welsh Revival also encouraged Jamaicans to participate and played alongside an area youth band.
Students also built relationships with the citizens by dancing and singing with them as well as offering to show them how the various instruments worked.
RamCorps accomplished a goal of working as a team, a mentality which is reflected in the way RamCorps operates, as explained by Hughes, who also directs instrumental studies and Jazz Band at UMobile.
“Our purpose was to glorify God … and (to) invest in the lives of Jamaicans in Montego Bay,” Hughes said. “Eight Jamaicans that we know of prayed to receive Christ.”
But the trip also affected the spiritual lives of the RamCorps members.
In fact, many of the students chose to be rebaptized as a sign of a rededication to the purpose that God has for their lives.
Loni Taylor, freshman music education major from Jacksonville, Fla., said, “I waded into the water and got baptized again as a declaration to the Lord that I surrender to Him. God didn’t work on us just as individuals, but as a community.”
Leslie Ann Godwin, junior music education and vocal performance major from Pensacola, Fla., described her sense of God’s presence as “overwhelming.”
“My goals for the trip were to draw nearer to God and to serve,” she said. “Not only in the music and taking it to a foreign country, but also in serving others and investing in the lives of the people there.”
While students prepared to invest in the lives of people through their performances, some were shocked to learn they would also leave a physical impact behind. The students mixed and poured concrete, painted and cleaned the local church, re-establishing a place for worship.
“I did not expect any physical work to be involved. I thought it was going to be just performances,” said David Haney, sophomore sociology major from Semmes.
But the main element the students wanted to leave behind was a witness for Christ.
“The City of Montego Bay and the surrounding areas are hungry for something that will last, something eternal,” said RamCorps trumpeter Ben Stith, junior math major from Birmingham “The area is desperate for people to take a stand for honesty, integrity, love and Christ.”
RamCorps member Jayme Snellgrove, 2012 graduate and biology major from Headland, said, “Lives were changed. The most exciting part of this whole process is that it is not finished.”
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