Sarah Roberts is a classical pianist who is accustomed to dancing her fingers across a keyboard to perform the complicated works of such composers as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Vivaldi.
“I’m trained as a classical pianist. That’s where I get most of my performance opportunities,” she said.
But this summer she broke from the complexity of classical music, embracing the simplicity of children’s songs to express her Christian faith to Taiwanese first- and second-graders.
This jump in style meant that Roberts, a piano performance major at Samford University, had to use her creativity to communicate in an interesting way to 6- and 7-year-olds.
Based in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Roberts was assigned to teach English and assist career missionaries with the International Mission Board (IMB). She explained that when considering missions openings, she was not looking for a “music teacher” position, but an assignment where music could be incorporated into the experience spontaneously.
She created a curriculum to accomplish the objectives of IMB career missionaries for Vacation Bible Schools. Besides VBS, she taught English in a classroom setting that proved to be a challenge.
“I had no training. I’ve never even taken an education course,” Roberts said. “So the first couple of lessons were pretty frightening. I had translators who were instrumental in making the approach work.”
The approach was to teach language to children whose only knowledge of English was the alphabet while weaving the gospel into the learning.
“We somehow had to communicate from the creation of the world to Jesus’ death and resurrection, and we had no shortage of difficulty in doing that,” Roberts said.
Nonetheless, she persevered and drew the children in through music.
“Music is more universal than anything else,” she said. “Every day we could bring music into this. The children’s faces would light up. In coming up with the next day’s curriculum, I would think about ways to put the gospel into the English lesson. One day we told the story of children coming to Jesus and the disciples telling them to go away. But Jesus said to let the children come to Him.”
Improvising, Roberts — who also is a trained vocalist — came up with a simple melody using the words, “Jesus loves the little children,” and added some simple motions. Through this, the children learned English words and motor skills. “Best of all, they equated it with the love of God,” Roberts said. “We tried to apply at least one song to every lesson.”
In doing so, she was living her dream on this two-month assignment.
“It was by far the best summer of my life,” she said.
Back in Birmingham, her work with children continues. After her courses each day, she teaches piano to 16 elementary-age students, who come on campus through a university education program.
Roberts has been studying and playing piano for 14 years. She anticipates graduating from Samford in May 2002 and hopes to earn her master of music degree in piano. She serves as president of the Samford A Cappella Choir, a prestigious 54-voice choir.
Her family is steeped in musical talent. Her father, Bill Roberts, is interim minister of music at Hillcrest Baptist Church, Mobile, and her mother, Sandy Hearn, teaches music in the Mobile County public schools.
Roberts recognizes her talent for music as a gift. One of her piano teachers, Connie Sullivan, organist at Christ United Methodist Church, Mobile, helped cultivate her love for piano.
“I can’t think of a time when she did not encourage me to be a good steward of my gift,” she said.
She is considering where God might be leading her next.
“It’s vague right now but I know I’ll continue in music and I’m pretty positive that I’ll go back to Taiwan — I’d like to go back to the same area,” she said. The IMB has many avenues Roberts is prayerfully considering. Among them is a journeyman assignment lasting two years or a shorter-term missions trip.
Roberts is a native of Mobile and is a member of Spring Hill Baptist Church, Mobile. While in Birmingham, she attends Briarwood Presbyterian Church.
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