Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Who would have Imagined

Who would have Imagined?

I live out in the country in Central Wisconsin. My wife and I attend a small country church about twice a month. Last Sunday the minister announced that the Annual Christmas Music Festival was being held tonight and Linda and I went. As a matter of fact we just got home. The euphoria is still making my heart pound.

When I retired from the military and moved back to the site where the family farm had once been, I was used to services in the South. Those southerners can really do a service and the music is a joy to hear.

What I discovered in the church my grandparents attended was a rundown facility, about twenty active and aging members and the wolf barking at the door. I did what I could to energize things but lacked the social skills and was considered an outsider. Every time I tried to do something innovative I encountered resistance.

As things reached the bottom I found myself in a position of finding a lay minister to preach every Sunday and recruited the woman who is pastor today. She is the real deal and God’s spirit lives in her heart. Then a new retired couple showed up who were able to do some of the things I had been unable to accomplish. The low point came when the church burned to the ground after being struck by lightening.

The insurance paid for everything and the new church leadership did a splendid job with the rebuilding. In the process the church began attracting new members and one family was very musically inclined. If they lived near Branson I guarantee they would have their own show and as a matter of fact they do…. Throughout the summer they give shows in their barn not five miles from where we live.

Anyway the Clausen family is very talented and Brent, the Son, teaches music.. He let the church use the music barn for Sunday services while the rebuilding was taking place. Now every year, his music students, do a Christmas recital in the local community. This was what we got to see tonight and they were sensational!

As we watched tonight’s performance Linda and I were both spellbound. It was like seeing a musical phoenix rising up from before our very eyes. There were young children from seven to nine years old, young adults, and mature players and everyone was a gifted talent displaying skills that made the audience gape in wonder. I wish you could have seen and heard the music. Who would have imagined that in this rural community being overtaken by factory farms and a huge Agro industry, that still, at the roots is a fierce burning, white-hot locus of musical genius?