In 1984 at the height of the Ugandan civil war and genocide, human rights activist Ray Barnett was called on to help the many thousands of orphaned and starving children left to fend for themselves. He and his team were inspired by the singing of one small boy, and soon the first African Children’s Choir was formed and started traveling throughout North America, and now the world.
Carrie Lyman is one of the group’s volunteer chaperones. She told KSMU the African Children’s Choir usually has a couple of choirs touring at the same time—“they overlap some. There are 18 children in Choir 42, 9 girls and 9 boys.” Choir 42 is the group coming here this weekend.
With each church on the concert tour, a chaperone and two children are housed by volunteer host families from the congregation. Carrie Lyman says it’s a “great opportunity for the kids to experience American culture and to get to meet with people all over the place. It’s a really good experience for them.”
Carrie promises an equally good experience for audiences, who “can expect to hear some wonderful voices, lots of energy—it’s a very high-energy performance. The kids also have wonderful smiles.”
Admission is free to the African Children’s Choir church concerts, but donations are accepted, which according to Carrie Lyman “help support the choir, the kids, and the ministry of the Choir in Africa.”
The African Children’s Choir will perform concerts at the following churches here in Southwest Missouri: two concerts on Sunday February 8—the first one at 9:30am at Fellowship Bible Church in Rogersville; then they perform that afternoon at King’s Way United Methodist Church in Springfield—that’s at 4:30pm on Sunday February 8. The final area performance will be Tuesday February 10 at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Joplin. For information on their concert schedule, visit http://www.africanchildrenschoir.com and click on “Shows.”
