Can You Help?

Hey.  You remember when I blogged about the Music Academy in Zambia?  It's a real place, full of real people, and it is incredible.  I've been there.  It was one of the most hopeful things I have ever experienced.  To read more about it, follow this link.  And watch this.



See all those instruments?  And sheet music?  Do you know where they came from?

People like me and you.  That's how they got there.  Instruments and music and creativity in the hands of orphans, and you can make it grow.

I walked through a sea of children with nothing to do, many can't go to school, and life, well, looks directionless.  I have seen the power of what is happening at the Academy and it altered me forever.  I'm having a hard time expressing it here.

And the local people who give their lives and their time and their hearts to these orphans every day- these are the celebrities in my eyes.  They are living lives of beautiful music, and I care so deeply for them, and believe so fully in their work that they are on my heart throughout the day.  Every single day.  I care so much about seeing this ministry thrive.

If you want to help, and you live in the Sioux Falls area, you can donate your used (in great condition) instruments (clarinet in the basement, anyone?) to The Ransom Church's ZIP Drive.  You can also donate funds, sheet music, reeds, valve oil, all that music-related stuff as well.  FOLLOW THIS LINK, and the link within it for more information.  We're collecting through the end of March.  Contact me, or Phil Wiseman for more information.

If you don't live here, you can still donate to Poetice and the Zambia Instrument Project, or organize a ZIP Drive of your own. Watch this.




See this trumpet?

My neighbor Kayla had it in her house, hasn't used it since high school.  She dropped it off at my house one day, we took it to Africa, Phil (who is kind of a big deal on the trumpet) used it to encourage, instruct, and inspire orphans with music, then we left it with the Academy, and now it's being used there. 

It's pretty much that simple.