Monday, June 9, 2008

Music in Mexico

We knew that one of the things we were going to get involved in, once things settled down for us, was worship music at a church; after all, we did get a new Roland keyboard for Nancy before we moved. Well, we have accomplished that in our little Spanish church. There had been a worship leader from Guadalajara who had been "on loan" to the church until January of this year. When he left, the pastor and two of his kids, playing guitar, keyboard and drums, took over leading worship. On some Sundays, Pastor Samuel was alone on guitar trying to play and lead at the same time, as well as preaching the sermon. We met with Samuel one day to offer to help out with audio/visual. Then we heard him say, in Spanish to a team of people, "Nancy and Walter will play bass, play keyboard and sing". We know enough Spanish to say, "oh, oh," and within a week we were fully involved, just like old times. It has been a lot of fun, and we are thoroughly enjoying it, as are the other musicians and the people in the church. We usually have 6 singers and a group of worship dancers, as well as the "banda loca" (crazy band, as Pastor calls us)

Originally Nancy was going to play only when the pastor's daughter was not there to play keyboard and Walt was going to play somewhat more often. Well, that changed in a hurry and we are on every Sunday with the two keyboards complementing each other. Nancy enjoys singing again, all in Spanish. What Walt loves is that his Workingman 12 amp is at max gain and max volume, so he needs to get a new amplifier for his big Eden speaker. (Yes, Walt is getting a new toy this week.) He never played that loud even with the jazz bands he has been in. This really is paradise!

We captured part of this in a few pictures. Our church does meet outside under tarps! In the non-rainy season it is all dust and since the rain began three days ago, the dust has turned to gooey mud! But it is fun.