Wildfire in Birmingham

The CMM choir has now organised performance dates across the West Midlands for Wildfire. The choir performed Wildfire at Birmingham as part of the original tour in 2003/2004, but have not performed it since. They have been rehearsing for a few weeks already, and auditions for soloists have taken place...

Anyway, if you would like to see the CMM choir, trained by Penny King, perform, here are the dates:

20th September at 1830 - Holy Trinity, West Bromwich

27th September at 1800 - West Bromwich Baptist Church

3rd October at 1930 - St. Martin's Walsall

8th November at 1830 - Six Ways Baptist, Erdington (also a fundraiser for St. Barnabas)

22nd November at 1800 - Marston Green Free Church

Saints Alive in Sandiway

On Saturday 9th May, Roger, Mary and Helen travelled to Sandiway in Cheshire for Saints Alive in a day. Keith, who had been at Saints Alive in Rhos on Sea only a week before joined us for the day to support on the drums, and it was great to have him.

To be completely truthful, 'Saints Alive in a day' is not completely accurate. Kathryn Holmes - the local wonderwoman - had gathered together the choir and instrumentalists for a couple of rehearsals in advance. She had done a wonderful job, so all that remained for us to do was some polishing. Roger was also able to do some bible teaching, which was brilliant.

There were at least 90 in the choir, and 5 instrumentalists, with Helen and Keith joining in too. There were also 3 'young' (late teens and early 20s) soloists, who did a marvellous job, sometimes singing in 3 part harmony together.

After a morning of rehearsals and an afternoon run-through, we put it all together for the performance at 3.30pm. The small part of the hall that wasn't filled with choir was filled with audience, and this created a wonderful atmosphere.

In a day so full of music, it was great to be able to have plenty of 'God moments' too - worship, bible teaching, prayer. The atmosphere of praise and worship was great, and the response to some of the songs in the musical (particularly When I Survey and All People that on Earth do Dwell) will stick in my memory.

Thanks particularly go to Kathyrn Holmes and Martin Cox for making it all happen.

Rhos on Sea

Last week Roger, Helen, and two associates - Andrew Lockwood and Sarah Harley - travelled to St. Winifred's Christian Endeavour hotel in Rhos on Sea, North Wales. It was our third visit to Rhos, and seems to be developing into a lovely annual event, well supported by the local churches.

We spent the week with 20 or so guests, learning the musical Saints Alive from scratch. Keith, a member of the local URC church travelled in every day to play drums for us, which was great. Andrew sang, played piano and flute, and Sarah sang and played violin. It was Sarah's first event with us, and we discovered more and more of her talents as the week progressed - her violin and flute playing were quite superb.

Every morning, after a time of worship, Roger led some Bible teaching around the theme of Pentecost and the first couple of chapters of Acts. Then after a short break, there was a choir rehearsal led by Helen, and ably assisted by Andrew on piano. They seemed to know the musical pretty well already, and made Helen's life very simple. A mention needs to go to the wonderful tenor section of Clyde, Mike and Andrew - they did a stirling job in the absence of any basses.

The evenings comprised of a variety of sessions - a sing through on Monday night, an evening with Helen on Tuesday, a rehearsal on Wednesday and finally the performance on Thursday.

The performance went extremely well. Roger played piano with Keith on drums, Andrew on flute, Sarah on violin and one of the guests, Catherine, making the occasional appearance on tenor recorder. Helen conducted the evening, and managed not to fall off her rather high podium. We also had some excellent solos from the guests, as well as brilliant narration. Over 100 people attended the performance at Penrhyn Bay Presbyterian Church, and we were warmly welcomed by the local congregation.

We had a wonderful week - the guests seemed really open to the Holy Spirit moving in their lives, and one lady was healed at the performance. A huge thanks go to the hotel staff for looking after us so well. Praise God for all he is doing, even amongst a small group of people on holiday together!