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Cultural MusicSong Writing Workshop
 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Col. 3:16 (NKJV) On returning from our time in the Philippines, we are rejoicing with the Koronadal Blaan Christians over the wonderful gift God has given them in their traditional music.
The First Blaan Music CD
The collection of songs grew, so that on the final day they chose the 12 best songs. Each singer practiced and then a recording session captured the songs in digital form. As the workshop drew to a close we held a rousing program of songs, dance, chanting, and playing of instruments. Each participant went home with a CD of the 12 selected songs.The most significant part of the workshop was the great desire which sprang up for these 10 men and one woman to continue to write songs to present the Gospel message to Blaans. They formed a group and chose leaders. We assured them of our help to preserve the songs. Their plan is to write songs, gather every month or two to edit their songs and teach them to each other, then, when they have a set of 12-15 perfected, to contact us to arrange for SIL Vernacular Media folks to go there and record them. Of great concern is that they do not have the skill of writing the tunes so want to be sure the songs are recorded and thus not forgotten. Blaan Worship Music
Opening the way for Blaans to use their own cultural music to create their own worship songs for church     Encouraging Use of Traditional Music
Blaans will gather June 29th through July 2nd to learn how to create their own worship music using their own traditional music. Mostly they just need to be shown that their traditional music is valid for worship. Working with them to create a few songs in the workshop will, hopefully encourage to continue creating worship music on their own. An ethnomusicologist will lead the time. We hope to see a number of new; refreshingly "Blaan" songs come into existence as a result.Here is an amazing fact: Blaan is the 5th most used language of worship in the Philippines, outnumbered only by the major languages like Tagalog and Cebuano. There are hundreds of churches that use Blaan in their worship services, and singing is a big part of this. Many Bible conferences or large gatherings include a singing contest. Until now, almost all their songs are translated western hymns and choruses, in particular the familiar hymns most of us grew up with like "To God be the Glory", "Trust and Obey" and "Higher Ground". The older people often cannot sing the translated western songs because they don't know how to handle the eight-note scale. Their traditional music sounds more like a chant or music sung on just a few notes. To our western ears it sounds a bit odd, but when Blaans hear it they get excited. Our desire is to see Blaans enabled through this training to create their own songs for worship. Songs that will speak to their hearts in a new way, increasing their depth of worship. Sally's role in the music workshop will be as interpreter for the leader, Glenn Stallsmith, and to help with questions of spelling. Glenn is a highly trained ethnomusicologist. Consider praying daily for us during the time we are in the Philippines, June 26th until July 16th. Pray especially during the days of the music workshop, June 28th to July 2nd. May God bless you for this gift of prayer. God only knows what gain for the Kingdom your prayers can bring.
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