Mullavilly is an area nestled in Northern Ireland. The area’s population is so small that it wouldn’t qualify as a town in most of the 50 states, but the area’s hurting is disproportionately large compared to its size.
Over the last year, 15 teenagers within a 20-mile radius of the Anglican church in Mullavilly have committed suicide by hanging. And they’ve done it in public places, such as schoolyards, where their family and friends have had to see them.
Michael Adler, minister of music and worship at Shades Mountain Baptist Church, Vestavia Hills, in Birmingham Baptist Association, has seen the community’s hurting firsthand.
Adler took a group of 35 adult choir members and eight student praise band members on a choir tour to Northern Ireland and England in May. The group sang at the church while in Northern Ireland.
“We were there on the one-year anniversary” of the first suicide, he said. “And someone had killed themselves the night before our concert.”
Though the hurting was great, God provided an opportunity for an Alabama Baptist church to minister through music.
“I can tell you that God just came and dwelt among us,” Adler said. “God sat down in the middle of us. There was joy in the room.”
The trip, which put a new spin on the traditional youth choir tour by bringing along adults, opened students’ eyes.
“It was so great. It was the first time I had gone on a trip with adults. Most of the trips I have gone on have been with just students,” said Rachael Collins, a student from Shades Mountain Baptist. “I was planning on just playing, and while the adult choir sang, I was planning on just watching, but I sang with the choir. It showed me the different opportunities to minister.”
Stories like this are repeated church after church as youth groups from across the state travel across the nation and world to minister through music. Churches have been shuttling students on choir tours for years, but youth choir tours aren’t the same as they once were, said Keith Hibbs, director of the office of worship leadership and church music for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
“I’ll say up front that the student choir tour has changed,” Hibbs said, noting a lot of churches now combine choir tour with a missions project.
Kyndal Curtis, a recent high school graduate and member of First Baptist Church, Montgomery, in Montgomery Baptist Association, has had the experience of a missions trip and choir tour twisted into one.
“We always do a lot of singing but also a lot of working with actual people,” she said.
On this year’s choir tour to Miami in June, 80 high school students from First, Montgomery, worked at a homeless shelter.
Chip Colee, minister of music at First, Montgomery, sees music as a perfect way to do missions work.
“Many times, music is the perfect vehicle to open previously closed doors to the gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said.
Brian Witcher, minister of music at First Baptist Church, Cullman, in West Cullman Baptist Association, has helped transform choir tours at his church into a time to perform and do missions work, such as witnessing to people at malls.
“So many people relate to young people, most everyone will at least give them a listen. So with youth, you can scatter much seed for Christ,” said Witcher, who took 51 high school students to New York City and Washington in June.
Tony Higginbotham, minister of music at First Baptist Church, Sylacauga, in Coosa River Baptist Association, carried 50 students to Germany earlier this year to re-trace the steps of Martin Luther during the Reformation. “To sing in Martin Luther’s church, I don’t think our kids will ever forget that,” he said.
Heather Polk can vouch for that.
“[We] learned things that we would have never understood had we not seen and stood in the places where Martin Luther was,“ said Polk, a member of First, Sylacauga, and recent high school graduate.
She added that the trip “grounded us in witnessing.”
And that’s the beauty of choir tours, according to Colee.
“Choir tours train these high school students to be witnesses for Christ at all times,” he said. “There are always opportunities in the most unscheduled moments to share Christ on these tours, and we have to be ready and on mission 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Colee said he has seen students turn moments in which they could just as easily not mention Christ into a time to share about Him.
“Without any prompting, I have seen kids take the initiative in a restaurant or after a concert. They will come back to the bus telling about how they have shared the good news of Jesus Christ with someone,” Colee said.
Many times, the experience leads to more missions and ministry opportunities.
For Curtis, it is the relationship she formed with a new friend in Ottawa on a choir tour last year that means the most to her.
Curtis still talks about Christ with her new friend through messages exchanged online, slipping Him into conversations anywhere she can find a place.
“It is cool that after a year we still keep in touch,” Curtis said.
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