Israel Houseparty 1 - the Advance Party

Christ Church, Jaffa Gate

On Friday 8th March, Roger, Mary, Helen and Beth met at Birmingham Airport ready to fly to Tel Aviv via Schiphol.  The flights were good and uneventful, and the party arrived in the early hours of the morning and found a taxi-minibus to go to Christ Church Guesthouse, just inside the Jaffa Gate in the Old City part of Jerusalem.

Beth just outside Christ Church

The purpose of this advance party was to meet with key people locally - the tour operator Shoresh, the folks at Christ Church, and the team at Bethlehem Bible College.

For the Saturday, Sunday and Monday the weather was sunny but with a very cold wind, although the temperature was to increase steadily in advance of the main party arriving in the early hours of Wednesday morning.  The team met with Levya and Sahar from Shoresh.  Levya had been instrumental in all of the planning of the tour, and Sahar was to be the guide.  It was a very important meeting with them as it laid the groundwork for the arrival of the main party and ironed out a few potential problems.

Beth, Roger and Mary on the tram in Jerusalem

On the Sunday morning the team attended worship at Christ Church.  As the service there already included guest musicians, it wasn't appropriate to perform any music, but Roger was able to stand up and advertise the performance in the 'notices' slot of the service.  The Rector, David Pileggi, was very welcoming, and he had worked with Roger on a number of occasions in the past.

Roger, Mary and Beth at BBC

On the Monday George the taxi driver drove the group to Bethlehem and to the Bible College.  There the team was able to meet with Danny and Gabriel, in order to plan the visit of the main houseparty.  It was very exciting to see the work of the college, including their own mini TV studio, and to hear about their work with the choir.  The team were also treated to lunch with the staff of the college.

View from the hotel, Netanya

On Tuesday, after one last meeting with Levya, Sahar and David, the advance party travelled to Netanya, the seaside town just north of Tel Aviv, to await the main party who were due to arrive in the early hours of the morning.

Mary paddling at Netanya

Apostle recording day

Finally the Apostle Book had arrived in the office and was ready for sale, so all that was left was to finish off the CD.  For all of the CMM musicals, one of the most important factors in a recording is to achieve a 'massed choir' sound - one which gets as many people involved as possible, and also one which shows how singable the musical is.  The involvement of a large number of singers also adds real richness and depth to the recording, even though it is a huge headache for Chris (our producer) finding takes that are both in time and in tune!

After a couple of initial worries about numbers and Chris suffering from an illness he picked up on holiday, in the end we had a wonderful choir for the recording day.

Keith was away on holiday, so Helen had to 'woman' the sound desk, leaving Annie and Roger to do most of the hard conducting work up front.  There was also some wonderful assistance from Denise on the bookstall and Sarah and Jane who came specially to serve tea and coffee.  There were also lots of other wonderful helpers who made sure the day ran really smoothly, so thanks to all!

We are really proud of the new Apostle CD, and we hope that it will bless many people and enable the gospel to be spread ever further.

As a special bonus here is one of the more bizarre moments during the recording day.  Bill was performing some silent narration, while the crowd reacted to him.  He is saying something like: "Brothers and sisters, let me introduce to you our brother, Saul."

Kidderminster Churches Lent Course

Right at the end of February, Roger was invited to lead the first of a special lent course for Churches Together in Kidderminster.  The Churches group had long been planning these meetings, and each would be led by a different speaker including a bishop and the Manchester United chaplain!  Simon Gudger, a Baptist Minister in Kidderminster and CMM soloist invited Roger to take the first of these, speaking on 'What the Resurrection means to me' and to include some music.

The evening was held at a Catholic Church, and as it was the first in the series the organisers had no idea how many would be present.  They needn't have worried - there were a lot of people there, and Roger had a  great time sharing with them.  He was able to include some personal testimony, as well as some lovely music including Man of Sorrows.  Roger was joined by soloists Simon Gudger and Kathleen Owen, who between them were an excellent team for an evening really blessed by God.