Colossians 3:17 “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him”.
We give thanks to God first and foremost for the bountiful blessings He has bestowed upon us that we were able to put one of Focus Singers’ long awaited plans in motion and to fulfill it with much success.
Sunday the 27th of May was the chosen night for something we had never done before–a Focus Singers Concert for the public along with a healthy vegetarian four-course meal. To have these two things together at one time was something that required hard work and lots of preparation, but we thank the Lord that all involved pulled together to make it happen with great success.
With Schofield’s church having their first cooking demonstrations for the year in early May we collaborated with the Elim Health Team to have them cater for our event. Our plan was to give the first invitations to those attending the cooking demonstrations, then we would canvass the local area and then advertise on social media. We set our goal to get at least 100 attendees.
With the cooking demonstration sessions finished, we were eager to start getting reservations for the concert. However, the response rate was slower than we anticipated. At one point we questioned whether we had bitten off more than we could chew. So, we prayed a little more about it and left it in God’s hands. The RSVP date had come and gone. Though the number of bookings were small, we remained positive and the Lord answered our prayers. As the event loomed closer, more reservations were received.
It was a bonus that we had the EMC students around at the time which was a great help in making this a huge success. In the week leading up to the dinner concert, the EMC students, the Elim Heath Team and the Focus Singers came together several evenings to start on the preparations for the wonderful four- course dinner menu that the Elim Health Team had put together for the event. By Thursday evening 24th May, the Schofields function hall had its pews moved out ready for setup.
Due to the Schofields hall being unavailable for Sabbath services, combined Sabbath services were held at Wentworthville church. This proved to be a beautiful Sabbath with a great number of visitors attending. After Sabbath closing back at Schofields church, all involved in the preparations became busy either practicing, cooking, decorating, dish washing, drying, or ironing. By the nights end, the hall was 90% setup, the Elim Health Team and their helpers were successful in the kitchen, and the Focus singers were ready.
The hall had been set up to cater for 100 guests and we had reached our 100 reservations already, but phone calls were still coming through to book in. Rather than turn anyone down, we arranged extra tables and chairs to cater for all 112 guests we now had on our list. Out of this number we were thrilled to have about 60 guests that were either from the Elim Health cooking classes who were bringing their family and friends along with them or just interests who had seen the advertised invitation.
Starting at 6pm we were able to run a three-hour program with Focus Singers, One Glory, Hayden Wiseman, Ben Ah Mann and EMC Students presenting gospel music as an accompaniment to the meals that were served. The meal consisted of four different Entrée selections, two different soup selections, two different main selections, two different dessert selections, a green salad and a bread and spread board.
The night went without a hitch, the healthy food was very much enjoyed by all and the gospel message through music was deemed an absolute success, so much so that we were asked when we will be doing this all over again. It was an absolute blessing.
We all have different talents that can be used to God’s honour and glory. We don’t all have the talent of preaching or teaching, but these are not the only talents that one must possess in order to fulfill God’s mission. You may have the talent of playing an instrument or being a great cook or having great vocals or being a great writer or maybe just being great at meeting and socializing with new people. Whatever our talent may be, God wants us to use it in a way that could help and win a soul to Christ. Focus Singers mission from the beginning has been to do just that, and this time round it was an even bigger blessing to have worked together with like-minded people to make this all happen.
We could not have made this event happen on our own and are truly grateful for being able to work with the wonderful Elim Health Team – Lidia Voncina, Stela Gules and Lilly Sas who played a huge part in making this a great event. And a special thanks also goes out to all the behind-the- scenes helpers for all their notable hard work, to our 2018 EMC students and the extra little hands that were our servers on the night.
On the musical side of things, we thank One Glory, Hayden Wiseman, Ben Ah Mann and the EMC students for being able to travel from near and far to contribute and assist us in presenting the message of love and hope through music. Our wish and prayer is that God continues to bless us and grants us opportunities like this again to continue spreading His gospel. May His name be forever praised.
“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Psalm 100:1, 2
~ Tanya Ah-ching
