Resonant Adventures

This year at ol' Briercrest College, I have made it on one of the traveling groups. No, not RU, I cannot dance. Nooo, not any sports teams, I cannot play, and I have no sport skills. What else is there? Singing? Yes, singing. I made it onto Resonant, which is mixed ensemble of 12 singers specializing in unaccompanied choral literature rich in poetic content and stylistic nuance. Selections in their repertoire reflect the church’s musical heritage from antiquity to present. Under the direction of Scott M. Finch, Resonant is Briercrest College and Seminary’s première touring choir. So, basically if you didn't understand the definition that Briercrest gives, it’s a choir that tours around and sings really amazing music. And sometimes we even go into schools and do workshops for them.

Two weekends ago, we did just that and went to Lethbridge. As we left Caronport on Thursday afternoon, I was unaware of the amazing impact and time we would have. After at least 5 hours driving, we finally made it to Lethbridge, met our billets, and slept! Then on Friday we worked all day with a Christian school, working with the senior and junior choirs. It was amazing to see these kids in love with music and love to sing, it made what we do so much more worth it. Then we sung "Rock my soul" with the senior choir, and did our African song with both choirs and invited the whole school to listen. It was amazing to see the joy on these kids faces, whether they were in the audience or singing right beside us, I felt really blessed and full of joy. Then that night we sung at College Drive Church and heard the story of Briercrest College's past student-body president, which was amazing to hear. Saturday was singing at the hospital, taking a break and having a beautiful lunch at the park (before climbing these pretty high amazing stairs with Abby), and then singing at Nursing home in the evening. Sunday was the busy day, singing at one church, but in three different services. But my highlight of the whole trip was singing at a nursing home right before we left for home. This nursing home that we sung at this time was...hard to do. The people were a little more on the rough side, and slowly fading away, some already lost. Two amazing people I met there, a man named Martin, who I'm sure anyone on Resonant would agree is the most amazing joyful man there could be. It’s not my story to tell, but he has so much joy and spirit when he is slowly fading away. Every song, he yelled for joy and loved it, which really blessed and touched my heart. Another special man we met was a man named Hank, who we found out through communication with him, used to be a conductor. With that information, Scott, our director, decided to let Hank conduct one of our songs. When he asked Hank to come up, I almost lost it, the flood almost came! I've never seen anything like it, this man sitting in a wheelchair, was soooo happy that he was conducting us. To see the joy, the love of what he used to do, come to the surface while conducting was amazing. And we actually followed his directions and did what he asked of us which gave him so much joy.

God did amazing things that weekend, worked in our hearts, and used Resonant to make a joyful sound for His glory. I cannot wait for more Resonant Adventures!