New Experiences

We woke on Saturday excited for the day of our first concert. Each of us were anticipating our international debut and eager to share our music with the people of Galway.

Before we did our evening concert at St. Nicholas church, we had the opportunity to visit a few interesting places. First we learned about Connemara marble, a type of marble exclusively quarried in Connemara that was actually used in building the State Capitol in Harrisburg, PA. It came in the beautiful colors of dark green, light green, red, white and black and was absolutely stunning to see.

Next we toured Kylemore Abbey, a lovely castle situated by a small lake built in 1867 by Mitchell Henry. In the years since then it has functioned as a home to nuns of the Benedictine order, a girls school and now a tourist attraction. Just adjacent to the castle is a small cathedral built in memory of the first owners wife after she died and is a beautiful example of neo-gothic architecture. While in the cathedral, we did an impromptu concert which served as a practice session for our evening concert. We ended up having a rather nice audience of tourists who trickled into the cathedral while we were singing and enjoyed the chance to share our music with them.

Following our time there, we returned to Galway, the city in which we were staying that night and also performing, and spent some time walking the streets of the city and visiting shops. A few of the chorale members happened to meet some fellow Christians while on the street and we spent time encouraging each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. It was exciting to see the presence of believers in Ireland intentionally trying to share their faith with the people in their city.

That evening after enjoying a scrumptious dinner, we set off for our first official concert. The space was fantastic and we quickly set up, rehearsed and waited. While our audience was not huge, The concert proved to be successful and those in attendance expressed genuine enjoyment. We tried to find points of connection with those we talked with after the concert and, when possible, asked for contact information to stay in touch and share Christ’s love in some way with them once we had returned to America.

Even though some of our chorale family were feeling ill, overall it had been a smooth day. On our way back to the bus, however, something rather unexpected happened. One of our chorale members, Shawn Lassiter, had begun to feel ill towards the end of our concert and as we left the church he grew light-headed and we had to help him to the ground. He was taken to the hospital and after a long night of testing, sitting, talking and waiting, it was determined that he had simply experienced faintness due to low blood sugar. He was a trooper through it all and is now doing fine, as are those of us who spent the night with him in the hospital.

Prayer Request: Pray that the mission God has given us while here in Ireland would not be hindered by sickness but that he would use it for his glory.