VII. Brotherhood of Humanity is as Close as Next Door
1. People help those who help themselves; Heaven Rewards Those Who Work Hard
The first tour to the U.S. was a gutsy one. I
felt the weight of the heavy responsibility. We relied on our
faith alone to provide for the travel expenses of over 40
members. Although I do not get involved in the financial matters
or the administration of the Home, I know that it is a challenge to
provide for the living expenses of over 100 orphans, let alone to
provide for the exorbitant travel expenses. (Later Rev. Yang told me
their arrangement with the travel agency was buy first, pay later.)
Knowing the strength of Rev. Yang’s faith, I knew this was also done in
faith. Although the decision to go was made by the Home, I was
the one that started the ball rolling. If the performances were under
par, not only would the offerings be low, it would also kill any future
opportunities to perform in the U.S. The success or failure
rested on me, because my abilities determined how good the choir can
be. To be honest, no matter how talented I am, I can not take a
year-old choir to the top, not to mention that I am only an amateur
musician.
Before we made the decision, the administrator and I
carefully evaluated the choir’s progress to determine the risk of this
tour. This was a brand new way of serving the Lord, a new
experience.
All of the members, none of whom have been out of
the country before, knew the importance of the first tour and they did
whatever was required to prepare for it. Every morning they got
up at 5am to jog, practice breathing, and vocalize. Each evening
when I was there we would rehearse for 2 hours. On weekends we
practiced all day. Every one knew how rare the opportunity was;
especially for children in an orphanage, this is something they
wouldn’t even dare dream about. Now that they were given the
opportunity, they were willing to work day and night. Even so,
everyone was very unsure of themselves, before the performances were
declared a success.
The scheduling of performances was also quite
laborious. Since my contacts were all church related, the churches
became my targets. During the 8 years that I have lived in Los Angeles,
I was often invited to preach or lead retreats and revivals at various
churches; I have established good relationships with the church
leaders. However, they knew me as a good preacher. Especially
after I published “Seeing through the Heavenly Secrets”, it created
quite a stir, and I received even more invitations to preach. Now that
I approached them as the conductor of a choir to “sell” the Children’s
Home choir, of course their attitudes were some what reserved. For one,
they knew nothing about my ability as a conductor. Two, many orphanages
from all over the world want to raise money here in LA where there is a
large concentration of Chinese population and big Chinese churches; the
churches felt pressured and try to avoid them if at all possible.
Christian Mountain Children’s Home choir must be just like the rest,
trying to raise money in the name of musical evangelism. Because of
these two considerations, it was especially hard for them to accept us.
If this U.S. tour could not resolve these doubts, not only would my
reputation be ruined, the possibility of future oversea tours would
also be nonexistent.
Now I realize God gave me the wisdom to make the
decision from the get-go to not handle any money for the orphanage.
Because down the road many people would hand their offerings to me; I
immediately took them over to the person in charge so that they can
accept it personally. This is consistent with my principal of not
handling church offerings in the forty-some years of pastoring churches.
Fortunately the relationships and reputation that I
have built up over the years paid off. For the first few years in
Los Angeles, we were booked to capacity, sometimes with multiple
performances on weekends.
Before the tour, I wrote to each sponsor stating the
types of food that are harmful for the voice and therefore should not
be offered to the choir. In addition, I emphasized that I would
not handle any offering. To ease their minds, I stressed that the
performances were purely evangelical in nature and we would only accept
voluntary offerings; no tickets will be sold nor fund raising
activities be conducted.
The key to our success still rested on proofs that the choir’s performances:
1. were not to raise money. Jesus taught his disciple
not to bring money when they go out and preach the gospel. They
should faithfully rely on God’s provision through believers’ voluntary
offerings. However the motive should not be money.
2. were effective in reaching its goal. Either people were saved or revived in spirits.
3. were outstanding and able to move and touch the audiences, in order to achieve our goals.
Based on the above visions, with the support and
cooperation of the entire orphanage, I lead the choir on a journey to
“preach the gospel throughout the world”, starting with paving the road
to North America. During this period, there were non-stop singing
and praying throughout the orphanage.
After overcoming many obstacles and twist and turns,
we finally obtained U.S. visas for the entire group and were on our
way. Each choir member had to pack 4 brand new aboriginal
costumes and 2 choir robes. With 2 suitcases each there were 80
suitcases piled up at the airport. The people picking us up were
not prepared for this and had to send in a chartered bus to transport
us. (After that trip we learned to pack lighter and lighter each
time.) Everyone was extremely excited and couldn’t believe
that they were actually in America. The youngest was 9 and the
oldest 17. Out of 27 members there were only 4 boys. When
the hosting churches saw our age gap and the uneven male/female ratio,
they didn’t expect much from this group of kids whom they thought had
come to have some fun.
But as soon as we started rehearsing, our incredible
volume and beautiful tones made quite a stir among the workers. They in
turn spread the news: “You have to come tonight, or you’ll regret it
for the rest of your life!” We’ve made a name for ourselves. Throughout
the tour the audiences were moved to tears and many decided to accept
Jesus Christ as their savior.
The newspapers started to write about us and the TV
news had a special interview with me by Mr. Guan-Boa Gaw and
broadcasted part of the live performance. This news program was
broadcasted via satellite to many cities in the U.S. The Liu-Kwei
Children’s Home Choir became a well-known name. The Media publicity
attracted many people and the performances were packed. The
churches and we were both pleased and relieved. How sweet is the
success after an entire year of hard work!
For the children, the life lesson learned from this
tour was that hard work pays off. The impact of this tour will
influence and stay with the children for the rest of their lives.
The tour proved to everyone that the choir has
substance and the power from the Holy Spirit to convey the message of
the gospel; we didn’t come to have fun or to raise funds. Our
voices call to people; many non-believers would not have stepped into
the churches if not for the music. Many churches had
record-breaking attendances. Some listeners even complained why
we didn’t perform at their churches.
The success of the first tour far exceeded
everyone’s expectations. This established a great path for the
future tours.
There is an ancient Chinese saying: People
help those who help themselves; heaven rewards those who work hard.
They were proven by this and future tours. The only way to earn
respect is to possess the qualities that would earn respect. Because we
strived to go upstream, we were worthy of people’s respect and
love.
The Bible says: “If you seek me with all your
heart, you will find me.” ‘Seek and you will find’ can also be applied
to business and other professional endeavors. If you concentrate
and persevere, you will achieve your goals. The Children’s Home Choir’s
accomplishment was rooted in their focus on their faith, rather than
their knowledge in music. Even though their music techniques are
comparable to any other choirs, their uniqueness lies in their
faithfulness to their beliefs. Though I like music, the biggest
motivation that turned me from serving through preaching and writing to
choral training and musical evangelism was God’s calling. This is what
made the Lie-kwei Children’s Home Choir different from the rest; we
sing not to show off but to serve the Lord. We serve the churches and
spread the message of love through music.
Coming from a group of orphans, this message of love
is even more powerful and alive. The love of God was manifested
through Rev. Yang and his wife’s sacrifice for these orphans; the love
of God was also the motivation that moved another preacher to train
these abandoned, helpless orphans into outstanding singers who are
loved and respect by everyone they meet. This is why the choir has such
great appeals. Through them, God speaks to this cruel and cold
world, “God is love, the final destiny for mankind.”
Although God is our focus and strength, musical training was also essential for a choir.
Usually a musician establishes his ranking by
participating in competitions. Winning a major competition builds
the foundation for a successful career, and it strengthens the
musician’s own confidence. The Children’s Home Choir was not
allowed to compete from the start to establish its qualifications and
place. It was extremely difficult to gain others’ and establish our own
confidences.
So we found other alternatives build up our
confidence. One way was to find opportunities to perform on the same
stage as other choirs as a comparison. Even though no places were
given, we at least know where we stand. When we went anywhere for the
first time, the hosting choirs always looked down at us, especially if
they’ve placed in competitions, but the results usually stunned
them. On our tour we were invited to perform with three other
choirs; one has placed first in competitions; another was made up of
music teachers and had won gold in an international competition in
Vienna. Our choir was only one year old, and unknown, a filler. The
outcome shocked everyone; the applauses we received were the loudest,
and encores were requested. We were so encouraged and warmed by the
audience’s enthusiasm. It was the same when we sang on the same stage
as a gold-medal winning children’s choir in another southeast pacific
country. Like this our confidences were built up little by little. When
we visited these places for the second time, we weren’t offered the
same opportunity again.
In our third year, a university in Kaohsiung held a
benefit concert to raise funds for children’s cancer research.
They invited a professional European children’s choir with over five
hundred years of history to perform. They wanted a local choir to
perform the next day for the guest choir and other music lovers.
Surprisingly they picked us. The purpose of that performance was
to showcase our native musical prowess; the musician that recommended
us has heard us before, so they knew that we will not lose face for our
country. Just as expected, at the end of our performance, there were
four encore requests. I made up my mind not to sing more after the
second encore, so we exited the stage and turned off the stage lights,
but no one left or stopped clapping; the applause and shouts of
‘encore’ grew louder instead. I was weighing the situation in my
head: the guest choir only sang two encores; we as hosts can not make
them lose face. I refused to sing more. However, the audience
would not leave. The sponsors asked us to sing one more, so I said we
will go back on stage only if their applause lasted longer than 5
minutes; it sure did. We had to return to the stage and sang one more
song. After the concert, the school choir asked us to sing The Mountain
and Sea Rejoice one more time, because they are going to compete with
it soon, and then they will be performing in Japan. We actually sang 4
additional songs.
This performance meant a great deal to us because we
were raised to the same level as the premier professional children’s
choir and received the highest praises. One of the university choir
member described us as ‘more professional than the professionals.’
The guest conductor was very humble and went up to
each of our choir members to shake hand and congratulate them, and had
pictures taken with us. His praises especially showed his
professionalism; he pointed out the choir’s ability to move the
audience and in-depth interpretation.
Remembering the night before the, in a reception
hosted by the university choir for the guest choir and the Liu-kwei
choir, when our volunteer, Prof. Chang, tried to take pictures of the
guests, he was stopped. “We do not allow our pictures to be taken with
just anybody.” They were so high up that we felt intimidated. When the
hosts invited guest choir to stay for our performance, they refused
initially; they’d rather go bowling. In preparation of the concerts,
the sponsors used the equal space and standard to advertise for the two
concerts. Even though our performance in name was arranged for general
public, in actuality, it was meant for the guest choir. They wanted to
return the favor by offering the best in the country. They never
expected to be turned down cold. The sponsors felt really awkward.
After much persuasion and asking, the conductor finally relented to
attending the concert himself. After more negotiation, he allowed the
whole choir to attend, but only for the first two songs; they are
leaving afterwards to play bowling. The negotiation was a success. “A
weak nation has no diplomacy.” No substance, no respect. This famous
choir visits Taiwan yearly; they must have heard other local choirs
sang before, and are familiar with the quality of Taiwan children’s
choirs. Could it be they have such a low opinion of the choirs in
Taiwan that they thought nothing of the Liu-kwei choir as well?
This gave us tremendous pressure, because we needed
to turn their opinions around and prove to them that this is not a land
of cultural desert. We carried the responsibilities of cultural
ambassadors; we could not disappoint the sponsors. Just for them, we
moved the 2 most difficult songs to the beginning of the program. One
was the aborigine hymn, Mountain and Sea Rejoice, a song with complex
structure and multiple themes, accompanied by their dance movements; an
artistic show piece. The second was the Queen of Night from ‘The Magic
Flute’ by Mozart, the highest song ever written, up to high F, which
appears four times in a string of fast, staccato notes. It was sung by
all the girls to show our superior techniques; even our altos could
easily sing soprano arias, not to mention the sopranos.
My strategy worked. After the first 2 songs, the
conductor and several soloists from the choir stayed through the whole
performance.
Was the applause that night in appreciation of our
singing because we did not disappoint the sponsors but saved face, and
it take away some of the sting from the night before? I think it more
or less conveyed their pride in who they are.
There really is no fair way of comparing the guest
choir, which is their country’s national treasure, with the Liu-kwei
choir, which is Taiwan’ national treasure. They are professional; we
are amateur. They are made up of the best of the best in students and
teachers, nearly perfect, and a model to the rest of the world, with
deep financial pockets. We on the other hand was only three year old at
the time, supported by an orphanage, with one amateur teacher who only
trains the choir made up of children in the home part-time. Who are we
to stand on the same stage as they? I hazard that’s one of the reason
they refused to attend the concert. However, the generosity of spirit
shown by the guest conductor that night was worthy of our admiration.
Their performance that night was well worth the ticket price of
$3,000-$5,000 the audience paid to attend.
The guest conductor even left his address and phone
number, invited us to visit. This encounter has created a treasured
friendship.
Ever since then, the Liu-kwei choir members had
something to build themselves on. To have established its place in the
world without ever going through competitions was a miracle out of
God’s grace.
Because of the importance of this performance, every
one was nervous and work especially hard and long; in addition we had
consecutive performances and didn’t get enough rest, my right eye blood
vessel popped and didn’t receive the right treatment in time, causing
permanent damage to my vision. Maybe this was a price to be paid for
doing God’s work.
Since the Home is located in a remote area and
disconnected with the mainstream society, I requested that the children
be allowed to attend cultural events, such as concerts of high
quality. They attended many concerts performed by local and
world-renowned artists, such as the Vienna Boys Choir, Les Petits
Chanteurs a la Croix de Bois, the Ukraine Children’s Choir, and the
performance of “Turandot” by The Latvian National Opera, LNO.
We also tried to sit in on major music competitions
to see how well others sing and to expand our horizon..
More importantly, when we encounter well-known
singers, we would invite them to hold master classes to teach their
vocal techniques, so the choir members would know something about the
various schools of vocal techniques. This is so when they leave the
choir and meet other teachers, they would know what to do. We try to
learn about other methods, and to analyze each for its advantages and
disadvantages, as a way to protect ourselves so that we would not be
misguided by the wrong methodology.
Because my methodology is all of my own, different
from the traditional Italian Bel canto, as well as the German and the
Austrian, I needed to repeatedly explain my theories so that the
children will not be confused by the other schools.
To prove the superiority of my methods, I have
collected many CD and DVD of famous singers so we can listen and
analyze their vocal techniques. I’ve also shown them footage of solo
and choral competitions and master classes, to raise their level of
appreciation. I also ask them to express their observation afterwards.
Now, choir members can point out the good and bad points of each
performance. This ability was not build overnight, but the accumulation
of years’ work. Although they are young in age, they are no longer the
foolish village kids who know nothing about vocal music.
2. Generous Hospitality Everywhere We Go
Over the years we have been to many places; we have
stayed in nice hotels, sometimes host families, but most often in
churches or dormitories. Regardless of where we stayed, the
children experienced much love and care. I asked the children
where they enjoyed staying the most, they unanimously replied, “The
host families!” The children have been brought up well; not only
can they sing well, they also have good manners. Whenever they
stayed with a host family, they were courteous, clean and
considerate. The host families only had good things to say about
them and always offered the children the best they have. When we had to
leave, it was hard for many hosts to let go; they frequently ask the
children to come back next year. Grandma Pong cried so hard that her
eyes turned puffy and red.
Countless people had wanted to adopt these children
so the children so receive the best education in the U.S.; but how can
the Children’s Home let go of them? Besides, many of them have legal
guardians that adoptions were not possible. Many ended up pledging to
support the children by sending monthly financial assistance. When we
were in San Jose one year, the members of an American church pledged to
support almost all the choir children. Such a group of angelic children
are loved everywhere by everyone.
In the largest Chinese church in Boston, the chef,
Mr. Hu, welcomed us garbed in his chef outfit and hat. At first we
thought he was a hired professional chef; we later found out he was
responsible for receiving us. Mr. Hu earned his doctor’s degrees from
both MIT and Harvard, and is currently teaching at MIT. We were
shocked, and learned to not judge a person by his appearance. Such an
accomplished scholar personally prepared dinner for this group of
children. Dr. and Mrs. Chung-I Hu even accompanied us on our entire
Boston trip for 3 days. It was the same the next time we visited
Boston. A love as great as this will be remembered always.
During our first visit to Los Angeles, Dr. Peter
Chung, pastor of the hosting church appointed a deacon to be in charge
of hospitality. He is no other than a member of my first church,
who was a teenager at the time, now middle-aged. We all stayed in a
motel. For 2 weeks he took off work and made arrangement for all the
meals, lodging and traveling. He even used $10,000 of his own money as
a buffer. Not only that, he personally prepared breakfast each day; if
no lunch arrangements were made, he’d make his famous beef noodle soup
for everyone. Kids call him Daddy Fang, because he took care of them
like a real dad. He especially liked to give massages to children who
took ill, because he is also a licensed Chinese chiropractor and often
give free clinics at home. All for free. He knows each of the children
by name; children flocked to him when they saw him, asking for
massages. He is concerned that I did not have the appropriate attire on
stage, so he made an offering designated for formal suit, which I wore
all the time until a tuxedo was made. However, that suit is still one
of my favorites. Their whole family has a deep bond with the choir and
my family. During our 3rd visit to LA, we heard that he fell critically
ill and was hospitalized. We were all shocked, and visited him as soon
as we could. We prayed for him and sang his favorite song, Those Unseen
Hands; that attracted the attention of the hospital workers to
gather and listen; they even applauded afterwards. After treatment he
was completely recovered. He then dedicated the rest of his life
for God’s work and entered seminary for full time ministry. At this
time he should have already graduated and is serving in churches.
In San Jose Pastor Paul Lee received us all 3 times
that we visited, each time for over a week. Because he lives right next
door to Rev. Joseph Yang (Rev. Yang’s second son,) the group would stay
at these two house and cook their own meals. He also arranged for most
of the performances in that area for us. He left his own affairs behind
to accompany us on our performance. How great is this love?
On one occasion he invited his college friend, Mr.
Liu, to a performance; Mr. Liu was moved to tears. He then invited the
children to lunch the next day; he was sitting across from me. As
is our tradition, we performed 2 songs after the meal to express our
appreciation to the host. Afterwards he made the following
request, “Could I use $10,000 to buy a song in memory of my
mother?” I thought about it and said, “We do not charge for
singing, but we will gladly sing in memory of your mother, no strings
attached. What song would you like?” He paused and said, “I will donate
$20,000 if you could sing Those Unseen Hands.” I told him, “The
offering is between you and God; we will do it no strings attached.”
During our singing, the couple cried from beginning
to end. There was another group of diners at the restaurant;
after we sang they handed over money that they have just collected
among themselves. Because of Mr. Liu, they go to hear our music, and
found out that this choir was made up of orphans; someone suggested
making an offering, and they brought it over. They repeatedly
expressed their being moved and their appreciation. Heart-warming
events like this happened often.
When I visited the Home a couple of months later, I
saw a new 4-wheel drive SUV parked in the Home. It was the gift from
Mr. Liu; its worth was more than $20,000. Is the cost of a song more
than $20,000? Of course it can not be valued in monetary terms, because
art is priceless. What it really represented was a heart on love. This
love is also priceless, the best! All because of Jesus.
In 2003 North Carolina Men’s Choir, consisted of
mostly music pastors, was on tour in Taiwan and China to spread the
gospel. We had the opportunity to perform with them twice in
Kaohsiung. Except for one, they have not heard us sing before, so their
surprise was expected. Due to the spread of SARS, they had to cancel
their trip to China and stayed at the Home for a week. Every
evening they sang with our choir. Before they came, they thought
the Children’s Home chapel must seat three-thousand, how else could you
have a choir as good as ours? They never imagined it to be so small.
After they returned home, they organized a group of volunteers from
their churches to come and build a bigger church for the Home. This was
to be a sure thing, but was delayed by the shortage of certain
equipment. It was because of the choir that attracted people to give to
Liu-kwei. Otherwise, why would they build a church for Liu-kwei
Children’s Home, and not for one of the other thousands of orphanages
around the world?
Every time I’m at Liu-Kwei, there were visitors from
North America, and also short-term church missionary groups to perform
voluntary work such as tutoring English, math and other subjects in the
summer. This love is not limited by race or boundaries.
An Uncle Liu in LA also accompanied the choir as
much as he could each time we visited LA; he also took them to
expensive Japanese buffets and paid for their purchases at Target. The
same thing happened in San Francisco. When we were there, on our Monday
breaks, Uncle Du would open his home and invite the choir to swim, play
ping-pong, play pool, sing Kareoke, watch TV, ply the piano, etc. When
they are tired, they could rest in any one of his rooms. Everyone is
allowed to have all the food and fun he wanted, just like home. The day
always end with the Japanese buffet dinner followed by shopping money
for the children to buy whatever they wanted. In Boston and Rhode
Island, we were treated to lobster dinners; some boys managed to eat
four! When I met my old friends, Mr. and Mrs. Wang in San Francisco (I
married they in Taipei some twenty years ago,) we made an appointment
in LA for a dinner of lobster and crabs. It was the best lobster I’ve
ever had. In New York, an elder of a church treated us to the most
expensive buffet we’ve ever eaten. In Seattle, Grandpa and Grandma Kung
gave each member $50 two years in a row; even though they are already
retired. In Hong Kong, Rev. Shen-He Wu treated us to the best seafood
dinner. In Malaysia, elder Davy Wood accompanied us to everywhere, and
took care of our transportation and lodging. These acts of kindness
happened in Toronto, Vancouver, Macaw, the Philippines, etc., more than
we can count. It was all because of the choir’s outstanding performance
which earned the public’s respect and love. If they performed terribly,
would any of these chain events happen?
When we visited LA for the second time, I was the
interim pastor at West Los Angeles Chinese Baptist Church; naturally my
church served as hosts. Not only did the choir stay at the church, the
church also organized a hospitality committee with Prof. Tze-Dan Wang
at the lead, making arrangements for transportation, meals, medical
care, news conferences, and communications. He was like family to the
kids. For more than a week, the church was busily taking care of the
kids like preparing for a wedding. After each night’s performance, by
then it’s usually after 11pm, many families would come to pick up the
children to take them home for showers, because the church is not
equipped for such. Someone treated them to meals each day, because they
truly loved these children. Daddy Fang said jokingly, “Rev. fired me.”
Even though he wanted to, the opportunity to receive these children has
passed down to someone else. What moved me what the church fully
supported me even though I was at Taiwan one-third of the year, serving
God with the Liu-Kwei Choir; they also supported my music ministry with
prayers. The Church Council Chairman, Dr. Chin-Shung Shao even visited
the Home to see what more can be done on their end.
The church choir director, Mr. Tsing-Ming Lee, even
conducted a joint concert of the church choir and the Children’s Home
Choir, as an expression of fellowship and friendship.
On our third visit to LA, New Life Alliance Church,
pastored by Rev. Ya-Ge Tai (my seminary classmate,) had bathing
facility and was willing to host our stay; they also had a hospitality
committee that received us warmly. Later on they also organized a
short-term mission group to visit Liu-Kwei and deepened the friendship.
Rev. Gon-Chueng Chiu of Vancouver (also my seminary
classmate) also received us in his church many times, each time for a
week. We will forever remember his graciousness. Such moving
experiences are being lived again and again. More of them were made
possible through Rev. Timothy Lin of CCCOWE-USA and Rev. Tai-Ping Li of
CCCOWE-Canada, who we didn’t know but showed great love for the sake of
the Lord’s name. It’s not possible to thank each and every one of them.
3. Raise the Flag of Love, Win the War for Gospel
Commissioning the orphans to spread the gospel all
over the world, and having them accomplish the goals of reviving
Christians and bringing people to Christ was a brand new concept.
Looking back, we never foresaw the possibility of such potential.
People’s initial conception of our North America
tour was to raise funds. In our first tour, the Chinese American
Performers’ Fellowship organized a charity concert where they invited
many well-known Chinese celebrities, who now reside in the U. S., to
perform with the Choir. They included award-winning actors and singers,
famous talk show hosts, and the Evergreen Choir. Such a strong cast was
naturally a big attraction; all tickets were sold out, and the facility
was full to capacity. The celebrities also sold CDs for us. The
proceeds from the concert were close to $20,000. The offering from Los
Angeles Chinese Baptist Church also reached $20,000 after one
particular concert. Just the proceeds from these two concerts were
enough to cover all the traveling expenses. If fund-raising was our
primary goal, we have already exceeded our expectations.
However, the Spirit of the Lord showed us that we
will come to a dead end if we follow this path. Not only would our
focus of spreading the gospel be turned away, our goal of preaching the
gospel would not be accomplished either. At the end we probably
couldn’t even raise any funds. Fund raising is something to be done
once in a while; it isn’t possible to ask for money year after year.
When I shared my thoughts with the administrators of the home, they
also had the same foresight. To declare our position clearly, we
established the following principals;
A. All performances are unconditional. We
would only accept voluntary donations, like the other evangelical
groups.
B. We will not sell tickets to our performances which are open to
every person. Our programs and flyers will not carry advertisements; our goal is not to make a profit..
C. The choir will perform alone and not be associated with any celebrities.
D. Singing will be the main focus of our concerts; all others will be
kept to a minimum, so that music does no become a supplement to the
sermons. (That’s why I normally do not say anything during concerts.)
To audiences who were familiar with and liked my sermons, music was
usually supplemental. Now that the roles were reserved, it felt weird
to them. So I said to them, “I’ve found that singing is much better
than speaking; so I am using the children’s singing to replace my
sermons.” Unexpectedly, they audience responded with laughter and
applause. I realized then that people like good sermons, but they like
good singing even more.
The art of singing truly has great appeal. People
are willing to pay a lot of money to hear the Three Tenors’ concert in
LA, the highest price being $1,000. All fifty-seven thousands seats at
Dodge Stadium were sold out, with additional 1,000,000,000 people
watching through the satellite all over the world.
The Liu-Kwei Choir can outperform any other choir;
it has a unique style all to itself. That’s why people can listen to
concert after concert. The last concert in a big city was usually the
highlight, with many repeat listeners plus new listeners filling the
facility to capacity. Some one told me that his favorite CD or DVD is
by the Home Choir. Some say Those Unseen Hands can still move them to
tears time after time. When we visit a place for the second time, many
people who have heard us before would come, some bringing family or
friends with them.
People often call to find out about our schedule so
that they can bring people to the concerts, especially non-believers,
because they know the moving power of the hymns makes the concerts the
best opportunity to preach the gospel. Some Christians who had stopped
going to church or become discouraged and cold were revived in faith
once again.
A family in LA received a call from their family
member in Vancouver, urging them to attend our concert. In Edmonton,
Canada, a couple received a call from their parents in Calgary, Canada,
telling them to go to our concert. Unexpectedly, the next day the old
couple drove down for two hours to personally bring the son and
daughter-in-law to the concert. It turned out they wanted to listen to
the concert one more time; if they don’t come this time, who knows how
long they wouldn’t have to wait for the next opportunity to hear this
music that ‘should belong in heaven.’ It’s funny that two
English-speaking brothers, age seven and two, would only listen to our
CD on the car, over and over again.
Some fans would follow us from city to city. An
Aunty Huang, along with her twin daughters followed us from Seattle to
Canada, first Vancouver, then Kamloops, Calgary, Edmonton, and then
back to Seattle to pick up her husband to come to our Vancouver
concert, and then send us off in the airport. She volunteered to help
in many aspects along the way.
Those Unseen Hands has traveled around the world
along with the choir. A Sunday School teacher in San Jose told me that
the only to get the children who are acting up in class to calm down
was to sing Those Unseen Hands. No other songs worked.
When performing overseas, we mostly focused on the
large cities. Small and mid-sized cities hoped that we could visit
their churches also. That opportunity finally came in 2003. Because of
SARS outbreak, the choir cancelled their tour to U.S. When the alert
was cancelled, we decided to visit states of Washington and California
during the last three weeks of summer. Because these were last minute
arrangements, we scheduled a visit to Tri Cities in the Southeast
corner of Washington. Their Chinese church has only a little over one
hundred members, but many of them are scientists with PhDs. Many of
them have already heard of the Liu-Kwei Choir through their friends and
family but have never heard us sing live. However, they listened to our
CD often; so much so that they all knew the song Those Unseen Hands. At
I asked the audience to the last song Those Unseen Hands with us at the
end of the concert, they all knew it well; it was because they sang it
frequently.
Whenever we visit a church for the first, second or
third time, the audience all knew the song well, sometimes even sang
parts. This deeply touched me. We’ve never thought how much the Lord
would use a choir like ours to spread the gospel through this song.
This song is inseparable from the Liu-Kwei Choir. Whenever this song is
sung or heard, the image of the children’s faces would appear. This
connection is more than just the song; this is a connection of souls.
To those who were revived in spirits because of the
choir, the children in choir will forever live in their memories, far
exceeding the connection between singers and audience. The force that
attracted the audience to follow the choir everywhere is more than the
singing. The greater attraction comes from the power behind it. God’s
love was emitted through this group of living souls. Those who heard or
felt it were being pulled like magnets; God’s power was released
continuously. Their sins were cleansed and souls revived.
This way, the Liu-kwei Choir became a treasure to
churches. Believers and non-believers all love this group of aborigine
children from Taiwan. This is why the choir was able to bring the fire
of revival from a small town like Liu-Kwei to all over Taiwan and the
world. Listeners are able to feel the power of the gospel from their
voices. They can also see these children face-to-face in close
contacts.
4. Academic Authority volunteers to Make Recordings
God’s providence was beyond our expectations.
One month after the choir was established, we sang at Taiwan Lutheran
Chien-Chen Church in Kaohsiung after our tour in the mountains.
Dr. Hung-Wen Chang, Professor at Institute of Electro-Optical
Engineering of National Sun Yat-sen University, and his family attend
and serve at this church. Dr. Chang happened to be feverishly pursuing
technology in audio recording; he set up the institute at the
University, and bought state of the arts digital recording equipment;
he also has many computer and recoding equipment set up at home,
looking for subjects for experimentation. Since he has met and heard
the choir, he volunteered to record a CD for the choir free of
charge. What a pleasant surprise? Having a professional CD
made was not something that the choir could have afforded. We
were very grateful for this offer. Arrangement was made for a
recording session at the performance center of National Sun Yat-Sen
University Activity Center. After a whole day’s hard work, our first CD
was made with 13 songs in it. This was a huge encouragement for
the choir which at the time was merely one month old and not much good.
We were overjoyed that a loving brother has had enough faith in us to
do this. Look back now, our standard then was bad enough for us to feel
ashamed. But back then, it was the only thing we had to show others.
After a year when we visited the U.S. for the first
time, our performance has already greatly improved from the recording
from a year before. So the audiences who bought the CDs were greatly
disappointed by their low quality. Some questioned the competency of
the recording technology; we had to explain that it was because the
children’s improvement outpaced the recording.
Therefore, I am especially grateful to the churches
who hosted us the first year because they accepted us despite of the
quality of our first CD (and the only one at the time.) Was it because
their love was too great or they are music illiterate? (Which was not
the case.) Or maybe it was because our friendship? I rather believe it
was the greatness of God’s mercy.
Once we returned from America, we made our second CD
in a small log cabin in the Home, which was naturally an improvement
from the first one. It’s too bad that its acoustics was less than
ideal, so we decided to do future recordings in recital halls
However, when we visited the U.S. for the second
time, our standard had been raised considerably again. We got the same
reaction as the first year. I felt apologetic towards Dr. Chang. I had
no idea how fast the children would grow and mature.
During our 3rd year, not only did we record a new
CD, we also recorded a DVD for our live performance in the Sun Yat-Sun
Performance Center at the National Sun Yat-Sen University. I
thought by our next visit to the U.S., we would have a CD that matched
our quality. Our choir was so blessed by God that our third year was a
great improvement from the second once again. Comparably the CD and DVD
are a disappointment from live performances. Fortunately, Dr. Chang was
not discouraged and continued to volunteer his expertise, time and
money to this endeavor. One year he even accompanied the choir along
with his two children and paid their own way, to record their
performances. Now we have three DVDs, yet none of them match up to our
current standard.
There are two main reasons why the choir improves so
speedily. One, the techniques I’ve developed emphasized on using the
stomach muscles, and incorporated the Chinese Kung Fu to enable greater
volume, better quality and wider range. The power that trained stomach
muscles can develop is limitless. Secondly, as the choir members grow
and mature through the years, their physical bodies including the vocal
apparatus mature as well. At the same time their comprehension ability
also improved, added to that they have experienced all different
circumstances that their techniques and interpretation also matured.
We have hired professionals to make recordings, but
because they were not familiar with our tremendous sound, the quality
can not even compare to Dr. Chang’s.
We have also made tapings at the largest studio with
the most advanced equipment and a large group of trained professionals;
the results are comparable to Dr. Chang’s with advantages and
disadvantages to each. Their echo was too great, and the parts uneven;
but their stage set was superior to most with their professional
lighting, background, camera angles and direction.
What Dr. Chang did for the choir was monumental and
beyond what we could express by words. He had to enlist help from his
graduate assistants to set up and operate the equipment. Because I had
to return to the States right after the taping, he alone spent
countless hours and evenings doing the mixing. All the post-taping
production including filming, subtitles, editing, and graphic designing
were done by him. We merely enjoyed the fruits of his labor. We would
also like to thank and Ms. for
their work in subtitles and artistic design.
The time and energy he has devoted to the projects
can not be measured. Each project took many hours deep in to the night,
on the fringe of interfering with his academic work.
He even made the accompaniment CDs for us.
His contribution to the choir and to the Liu-Kwei Children’s Home was too great for words.
According to Dr. Chang, no matter how good the
technology, the recording can never be as good as the real thing.
Because extreme volumes can not be recorded or heard well on home
stereos, low volume voice parts had to be turned up and loud voices
needed to be turned down. This changed the sounds completely. This
limitation in technology can only be compensated by expert mixing.
The key ingredient of recording techniques, the
mixing, is usually done by the conductor and technician together. I
gave up on this critical responsibility and let it all to Dr. Chang. I
especially appreciate him personally.
No matter how good the CD or DVD, it can not be as
good as the original. For instance, the CDs of an untrained pop singer
can sound almost as good as that of a professional Bel Canto singer,
because the voices can be digitally altered to sound better. Live
performances, on the other hand, can not be made up with equipment;
it’s especially true for classical singers since they do not use
microphones.
With the above understanding, we know not to expect
more than what recordings can offer. The only way to appreciate any
original music is to hear it live and without the use of microphones.
Audio CDs also served the following functions:
1. Maintained a record of the chorus’s growth thru the years; history is priceless and timeless.
2. Left lasting impression in the minds of the
listeners; through repeated listening, the convictions are renewed.
3. Expanded the impact of the choir, reaching the unreachable; the gospel is spread to the ends of the earth.
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