Praise in Daily Life: Children’s Choir Achievement Performance

June 28, 2014

See the music. Use your God-created body as your inborn instrument.

This April, children from various churches gathered to form a children’s choir. To actualize our goal of holding a performance of achievement on June 28, we invited two outstanding professional teachers, Kuan-tzu Chiang and Ying-chuan Chang, to teach the children; one specializes in vocal training, and the other specializes in getting the children to experience music through movement and through “having fun” via a variety of activities.

Ms. Chiang said, “In these ten classes, we showed the children how to see music and substantialized music.” The children learned how to sing and also developed their bodily movements. Since “our God-created bodies are our inborn instruments,” children did not use just their mouths to praise, but also used their bodies to express emotion and feel music. This type of praise that uses the body to glorify God contains more vitality and vigor.

When she’s teaching, Ms. Chang emphasized the concepts of love, concentration, and effort. This “love” is to love God first, and then love other children as well. A heart sticker would be given to the children who achieved this with willingness and sincerity. Ms. Chang expressed, “As I was teaching, I realized that through this choir class, the children were really fundamentally establishing their faith and character as they cooperated in group activities.” The children’s simplicity and innocence left her very moved.

Instead of just receiving passively, the children start to give back assertively.

One time before class, a couple of students ran up to the teacher and asked if they could help post the musical staffs. (Apparently, before, Ms. Chiang had the sudden inspiration to make a music staff by sticking black tape on the floor and let the children jump around and move on top of it). Then, a couple of students started to seriously take out the black tape; even the boys who rarely sit still in class ran over to help. These boys guided, helped, and supported one another. It was just like Heaven on Earth, as children of different characters assertively prepared for class together; the atmosphere of the classroom transformed.

The Praise of Truth, Goodness and Beauty

The Life of Truth, Goodness and Beauty

One day, when contemplating how to teach the children the C major scale, [the teacher] suddenly received an inspiration to rewrite the lyrics to the movie, The Sound of Music. Thus, the teacher and the children composed their own “Do, Re, Mi” lyrics! Pastor Jung Myung Seok often says, “When you praise, the song that you praise has to become your life.” He expressed, “The life of human beings is an art work on the stage of life.” After discussion, they set the condition of praising seven songs and calling out to God one hundred times every single day to prepare for this achievement press conference performance. During the choir’s last practice on June 28, they held a mini achievement performance. One of the song numbers was the self-composed “Do, Re, Mi”. The people present - regardless of their age - resonated greatly with the song. This philosophy of taking action enabled daily life and faith to naturally come together. The children’s sincere and joyous praise will continue in their daily lives, where truth, goodness and beauty are experienced each second and each moment together with God.