A Once in a Lifetime Mission - Building an Orchestra for the Lord at Dipolog

Before I generously narrate to you our life-changing mission here in Dipolog, let me once again tell you that we are no professional musicians to legibly teach the whole concept of music and its theories to this children but rather we only rely to what God has endowed us - that is the very kind of music that comes from him. We firmly believe that God qualifies the unqualified so nothing can boast of his own.

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Being called the shots to spend more than 2 weeks here in Dipolog for this mission is both a responsibility and a priviledge. Responsibility because we have to make sure that the children are learning and a priviledge because we get to experience this whole new place in Dipolog. The moment we arrived to the City through the Medallion Ship, we were all stunned because of the beauty and the simplicity of the city which can be regarded as a small village. One amazing thing also on the other side is that their breath-taking boulevard is just a few steps away from the church where we are staying at. Therefore, we can just imagine the perfect scenery of this place which all of us absolutely enjoy and rejoice.

The stunning boulevard of the City. It extends up to the port of Medallion Ship and to other ships of the City.

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And so when we arrived to the place, we were met with eager kids both coming from poor families and the rich ones with some even owning huge malls and big establishments. However, despite such variation of their social status, we still treat them equally and in justice when it comes to the teaching of their instruments. This is for the truth that in the eyes of God, everyone rich or poor has an equal standing to God. That's we make sure that everyone recieves the equal amount of attention and guidance in this mission.

Here are a glimpse of these shots during this whole intensive training:

I with these students attentively listening and introducing the fundamental concepts of violin as an orchestral instrument. We also had teachings and evaluation of its basic parts

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May Ann, the lady in violet one of our violinists interacts with the aspiring Young Adults who also wants to be a violinist. They share their sentiments about learning this instrument.

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Kearck, the guy in gray one of our tenor sax players demonstrates a correct example of blowing this brass instrument. He is assigned teaching the Pastor of the church the man he is facing with.

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I had a serious session with Darylle, the girl on the keyboard about teaching the basic and fundamental chords used in songs. Good that she is eager and quick to learn.

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Jean, the lady in stripes our cellist tries to teach the basic chords on the guitar this young boy.

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Mayeen and Kwyn patiently teaching flute to this young girl named Lian who eagerly desires to learn this particular instrument. Though she's having a little difficulty with its blowing still she managed to make the sound of a concert flute.

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Dave taught bass guitar to this young boy named Alex. The good thing about this lad is he has already a little background of the instrument that's why it's just now easy for Dave to teach him a little advance way of playing.

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Kearck teaching drum to Shane. They tackled the basic beat pattern and the techniques everytime going up high in momentum in a song.

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We had this little orientation with regards to these woodwind and brass instruments. It was eagerly listened and participated by these young group of students who want to try these blowing instruments.

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All in all, we had a victorious mission to Dipolog seeing lives of these young children redirected and empowered. We did not only teach them about music but above all the word of God which is their guide to their personal lives. With that, we could not say for more but be in awe of God's hand moving in us.

The whole member of the mission team with the Mayor of Dipolog Mr. Daryl Uy as a sign of gratitude for one another.

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Now we can see them moving as one cohesive unit as if like an army rising up and conquering the entire city. Indeed the vision, to redirect lives of young people from too much of the world to the excellence in the field of music has been slowly coming to pass.

Shalom everyone and may you be bless by this mission.