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| Orchestras & Choirs Serving in God's Love |
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• For our family it has been relatively easy to do volunteer work as a
family because we made a decision about 10 years ago to make it a
major focus of our family regardless of the hardships we might need to
endure. We began in 2001 by building our own 20 foot pop-up camper
and driving through Mexico to Guatemala. In our first few years we
focused more on medical topics but in time our focus became more and
more musically oriented. Now whenever we have enough funds for a trip
we go to some of the villages we have previously visited and work with
groups of children that we started with violin. During the time that we
are away from Mexico and Guatemala the challenge is to keep in contact
weekly with the children and to keep them encouraged with new songs to
work on and new verses from the Bible to learn.
• We have learned a lot from our experiences on the road…
sometimes we feel very much humbled by the generosity and kindness of
the people who live with much less than even the poorest of Americans. I
think it has helped both us and our children learn to appreciate “little
things” like hot water from a faucet, drinkable water, variety of foods,
heated living spaces, shelter from rain, and washing machines.
• In the very beginning we did have some help making connections to
people in need from a Guatemalan organization connected to language
schools. But as time went on we learned it wasn’t so hard to find things
to do on our own. Now when we want to start a group in a community we
usually just go to the community and contact the mayor or someone in
administration at the local school. Sometimes even an influential
individual in the community can gather people together for a
presentation of what we have to offer. Sometimes there can be cultural
suspicions but in time the ice usually melts and people are willing to
listen. In the U.S. there are more challenges in finding volunteer work
especially when involving children because of liability issues but I am
sure possibilities exist here too.
family because we made a decision about 10 years ago to make it a
major focus of our family regardless of the hardships we might need to
endure. We began in 2001 by building our own 20 foot pop-up camper
and driving through Mexico to Guatemala. In our first few years we
focused more on medical topics but in time our focus became more and
more musically oriented. Now whenever we have enough funds for a trip
we go to some of the villages we have previously visited and work with
groups of children that we started with violin. During the time that we
are away from Mexico and Guatemala the challenge is to keep in contact
weekly with the children and to keep them encouraged with new songs to
work on and new verses from the Bible to learn.
• We have learned a lot from our experiences on the road…
sometimes we feel very much humbled by the generosity and kindness of
the people who live with much less than even the poorest of Americans. I
think it has helped both us and our children learn to appreciate “little
things” like hot water from a faucet, drinkable water, variety of foods,
heated living spaces, shelter from rain, and washing machines.
• In the very beginning we did have some help making connections to
people in need from a Guatemalan organization connected to language
schools. But as time went on we learned it wasn’t so hard to find things
to do on our own. Now when we want to start a group in a community we
usually just go to the community and contact the mayor or someone in
administration at the local school. Sometimes even an influential
individual in the community can gather people together for a
presentation of what we have to offer. Sometimes there can be cultural
suspicions but in time the ice usually melts and people are willing to
listen. In the U.S. there are more challenges in finding volunteer work
especially when involving children because of liability issues but I am
sure possibilities exist here too.
| Symphonies of Hope Chris & Coleen Anderson P.O. Box 1061, Pharr, TX 78577 In the U.S. : 608 - 313 - HOPE Message phone in U.S. : 956-781-5133 Email: chriscoleen@symphoniesofhope.org Email: chriscoleen@choirsoffaith.org |
| SymphoniesOfHope.Org ChoirsOfFaith.Org SinfoniasDeEsperanza.Org CorosDeFe.Org |