Angels In Voice

This spring has been very busy for us.  Our brother Sanjay and Rebecca got married on April 3rd.  The wedding was beautiful!!  We're so happy for the two of them.  We had a booking on Easter Sunday at Lynnhaven Community Church which was a real blessing.  God has opened many doors for our ministry this year.  The HPS 11th annual benefit concert was April 16th.  We have pictures below of the concert.  We had our friends John Edmonds, Chuck Kinslow and Judy West, pianist Paula Dahl and organist Rick Jordan help us out again this year.   Candice and I sang 6 duets including "End of the Beginning," "Thank You Jesus" and "The Prayer."  We also sang several new songs "Your Grace Still Amazes Me" and "In the Calm."  Both songs are beautiful and have powerful messages.  We sang two trios with Sue Jordan.  We did an upbeat arrangement of "His Eye Is On the Sparrow" and a new song "Fear Not Tomorrow."  We also sang an upbeat southern gospel song with Pastor Paul Nunez.  The song was called "Walking with Jesus."  It's one of my favorite songs and definitely one of the audience's as well.  One of the highlights of the evening was the Salvation Army guests.  Their choir was scheduled to sing, but due to the volcanic ash the choir director and a few of the members were stuck in the UK and could not make it home in time for the concert.  So three of the members  from the Salvation Army church were so kind and took their place.  There was a pianist, a male soloist and mime artist.  They were all wonderful.  So far we have raised $1,308 dollars.  It's not as much as we raised last year, but it's still a wonderful amount.  We are still taking donations for HPS, if you are interested in contributing.  We are so thankful to be so busy with our ministry this year. 

After the benefit concert we had two vocal recitals with our voice teacher.  The first, was a small recital at La Loma Retirement Center.   It was nice practice for us in helping to prepare us for the bigger recital. The residents seemed to enjoy the afternoon of music. The second recital was held at St. Peter's Episcopal Church.  There were seven of us who performed and we were grateful to have Paula Dahl accompany us.  She's a wonderful pianist and it was really special for Candice and I to have her play at one of our recitals.  We both sang three solos.  I sang "Let the Bright Seraphim" by Handel, a Spanish piece called Con Amores La Mi Madre by Orbradors and "The Letter Aria" from Ballad of Baby Doe.  Candice sang "Spring" from the Six Elizabethan Songs by Dominick Argento.  She sang a beautiful Spanish piece called "Del Cabello Mas Sutil" by Orbradors.  and "Widmung" by Shumann.  We also sang "The Prayer" for the closing.  It truly was a fun recital! We were happy to be a part of it.  Singing solos is not really our forte, but it really is a pleasure to work with Karen.  She has challenged us, and helped us to grow both vocally and musically.  The past five years have been so enjoyable for us.  We look forward to working with her again this next year. 

 We also had the opportunity to sing last Sunday afternoon at Hillside Baptist for their youth fundraiser.  It was an Ed Sullivan variety show /bake off. They were auctioning off many cakes, cookies, brownies etc. All that yummy stuff.   Many people from Hillside sang.  I think the most interesting act was the whistling top hats. They were too funny.  Candice and I sang last.  We did three songs "The River Is Here, Let the River Flow," "Jerusalem," and finished with "When You Believe."  We gave our testimony and received a standing ovation from the crowd.  It was truly humbling and a real blessing.  We had a wonderful time! Now, we are looking forward to seeing what's in store for us this summer.  Enjoy the pics from the concert!!

I know it has been a very long time since we have written.  Everyone is doing very well.  Our health has been good the past couple of months and we haven't had any major sickness.  We truly thank God for that.  

This year has been a great year so far.  We are singing quite a bit.  We started lessons again at the beginning of January after a month break.  We're both working on solo repertoire for a couple of recitals our voice teacher Karen is planning for April and May.   We have had two bookings this year already.  We sang at Highlands Church in Scottsdale two weeks ago for their single's dinner meeting.  There was a speaker by the name of Jerry Traylor who has Cerebral Palsy.  He has quite an amazing testimony and is known nationally.  He jogged from the Golden gate bridge in CA to the Brooklyn bridge in NY on crutches.  He has jogged in over 35 full length marathons.  His story is inspirational and God has used him in many incredible ways.  He has a book out and both Candice and I have started reading it and it is excellent.  

Last Saturday we sang at Baptist Village retirement center for the third time for the residents.  We're blessed every time we minister there. The people are always uplifting and a real encouragement to us. 

We have some exciting things coming up.  We're looking forward to the HPS conference in NY mid March.  Our brother Sanjay and his fiance Becca are getting married on April 3rd.   We are also planning for the 11th annual benefit concert Friday April 16th.  We've already started working on new music for that.  We're praying it will be as successful this year as it has been the past several years.  We're thankful that we're staying busy this year with our singing.

 HPS 11th Annual Benefit Concert

Happy Fall everyone!!  It has been a while since we've updated, but everyone is doing well.  Our health is staying consistent, other than fighting allergies, asthma and sinus due to the change of the season.  We have really had a rough time with allergies this year.  The weather is finally getting cooler through the day, but this weekend it is supposed to get hot again.  Hopefully it will be the last of the heat.

Last month Candice dropped a floor fan on her right shin.  She put ice on it right away because it was starting to swell.  We have never seen a bruise this big before.  Her whole shin and ankle down to her foot were black and blue.  She never had any pain with it, just was real sensitive when walking on it.  She finally went to see the doctor three weeks later, as it looked like there might be infection in it because it was really red and hot.  The doctor put her on ten days of antibiotics and she finished taking it on Thursday.  It is looking so much better, still slightly red but I think that will take a while to completely go away.

Candice and I have been busy this past month with our singing.  The Lord has been opening doors for our ministry. We sang at the Logos Mission (Eastern Indian Church) for their 9th anniversary the first weekend in October.  Pastor Thomas and Sucheta invite us to sing each year.  We sang for the Friday and Sunday services and the theme this year was Discipleship, Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus.  It was a great theme and we sang five songs.  Reverend Leslie Stewart challenged us with a great message through out the weekend.It was great seeing old friends again and meeting new ones.  We enjoy our time with our Eastern Indian family and we always look forward to singing at the anniversary each year.

This past Saturday we sang at Baptist Village retirement home for the assisted living.  Candice and I sang there several years ago.  It's a beautiful place and the people were such an encouragement.  We did about 30 minutes of music and our mom gave our story half way through to give us a break. 

We have some fun things planned for the next couple of months.  Candice and I are going to stay a week in Cottonwood toward the end of this month to spend some time with our niece Danielle while her husband Mike is away hunting.  We are looking forward to our visit.

We have also spent the past month working on a song with Sue who also attends our church. Sue sang with us at the HPS benefit concert last April.  We sang our first trio together last Christmas and we're starting to develop quite a repertoire.  We've been working on a jazzy/ swing arrangement of "His Eye Is On the Sparrow" which we sang at church on Sunday morning. It went really well.  Many people have said we sound like the Andrew Sisters because of that 40s style and the tight harmony.  We enjoy singing with Sue and we have already started working on two new songs including "Do You Hear What I Hear."  

This week is the missions conference at church.  The theme this year is "Pray, Give and Go." We have missionaries to Mexico, the Philippines, and Australia.  Candice and I always look forward to the missions conference every year.  It's very interesting learning about the different countries and hearing about the way God is using them to bring souls to Christ.  The conference concludes tomorrow evening with a banquet.  

Click on image to enlarge

I know it's been a long time since we've last updated.  We're both doing well, staying busy and looking forward to the summer.  I really can't believe it's already here.

After the benefit concert we took a break from singing for a couple weeks.  We had the opportunity to spend some time with friends that we had not seen in a while.  We're both doing well health wise other than dealing with allergies off and on.  Candice's allergies were so bad that it affected her asthma and she had to go on Prednisone for five days.  A week later I had the same thing, but mine turned into a sinus infection.  I did five days on the Z-pak and that seemed to clear it up.  We're both taking Allertec and it really does help.

Our sister Rhonda came down from Cottonwood to surprise our parents for Mother's day weekend.  She had told Candice and I, but we didn't tell our parents because we wanted them to be surprised.  The four of us spent the Friday before Mothers day shopping for mom.  We bought her a top and capris.  Rhonda helped mom pick out a nice purse for the summer.  We had a great visit with her.  We were all sad when she left to go back home.  

Our voice teacher Karen is putting together a recital in June for her students. and so we are working on our solo repertoire for that. 

This past Sunday we sang at the Salvation Army Phoenix Citadel.  We sang there about seven years ago, and Major and Mrs. Lacey invited us to come minister in their morning worship service.  We sang five songs including "God Bless America Medley."  We gave a brief testimony and our mom gave a greeting and shared about the trials we have gone through with our health challenges.  It was our first booking since the HPS benefit concert and it truly was a blessing.  We're so thankful the Lord is using us to spread HIS word.

We have some home projects we're currently working on.  Our parents are doing some remodeling in the kitchen.  Our dad added new cabinets and we are having new counter tops installed.  It will be awesome to have a nice new touch to our kitchen.  

Candice and I decided a couple of weeks ago, that it would be nice to have our own rooms.  Candice is staying in our room, and I am moving into the guest room.  We moved all my stuff over to my new room last week.  Our mom has decorated the room in spring colors with a garden theme and butterfly's.  We're also going to be using fairies and humming birds.   Candice's room is already decorated in the victorian era with angels and cherubs.  Her colors are burgandy and gold.  It's definitely keeping us busy and we're both enjoying having our own space as well.  

Romans 5:2-8 CEV

²Christ has also introduced us to God's undeserved kindness on which we take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God. ³But that's not all! We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us to endure. ⁴And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope ⁵that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with his love. ⁶Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful. ⁷No one is really willing to die for an honest person, though someone might be willing to die for a truly good person. ⁸But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful