"Ten Thousand Hallelujahs" Christmas Cantata

This Christmas cantata, "Ten Thousand Hallelujahs," written by Ron and Shelly Hamilton, was performed by our church choir today.... in Russian! Missionary Tony Hess, our choir director, had the goal of seeing this cantata performed by our own people. He gave the music to Sveta, one of our interpreters, who interpreted the words literally into Russian. Then Nelya, another young lady in our choir who is naturally poetic but does not know English, took the translation and the accompanying CD and changed the words around to fit the music. Who knows how many hours it took just for this aspect of it all!

The cantata also includes a skit that is interspersed throughout the songs. In all, the singing and skits took an hour to perform in its entirety. We had 77 people in hearing church today, with 17 of those being visitors! Seven of those visitors were first-time guests! One of our visitors was Oleg, the man who spent about a month in our home, laying tile throughout our main areas. He also brought his wife with him, and it was a joy to me to meet her! Many heard the Gospel clearly presented, certainly for the first time, and one lady was even saved!

It truly was a privilege seeing all of the hard work that was put into this cantata by our 25-member choir. None of us are professional singers. In fact, many of the choir members cannot even read sheet music and a few even struggle with carrying a tune! But all were willing to give it their best and were excited to be able to perform. This was the first time many of them have had the privilege of doing anything "big" like this in church, and I think God really blessed everyone's efforts!

I do not have any pictures from the cantata itself, because both David and I are members of the choir. However, I did snap some shots before it started, so I will share some of those with you here, so that you can "meet" some our choir members:

NELYA, LENA, AND KATYA WARMING UP LENA, MARINA, AND SVETA.... GETTING "NURSE" LENA IN UNIFORM

KATYA, TANYA, AND NATASHANATASHA AND SERGEI (David was able to lead Sergei to the Lord just a few months ago and he is already singing in our choir!)

LUDA, WHO PLAYED THE ROLE OF THE ELDERLY MARY, WHO WAS A WITNESS FOR CHRIST TO HER DYING DAY. (She is really a young lady with lots of makeup here!)DAVID, HAVING A GOOD TIME WITH SOME OF THE MEN

NADIA AND VALENTINE

BRO. TONY HESS (towards the left in the black suit), LEADING THE CHOIR IN PRAYER BEFORE THE CANTATA, AND ASKING GOD FOR SOULS TO BE SAVED

I wonder what the Hamiltons would think if they knew this cantata was performed around the globe in another language? I am sure they would be thrilled to know that God is blessing their music in such a unique way! I personally am thrilled for people such as the Hamiltons, whom God has gifted musically. I have been listening to their family since I was a child, and now my children are listening to them. Their music is simply timeless. But so is our God!