The African Childrens Choir

African Children’s Choir at Phoenixville Baptist

  The African Children’s Choir performed to a packed house (about 400 people) at the Baptist Church of Phoenixville on Sunday night, December 13.  The Choir, made up of children from Uganda and Kenya, sang a collection of African tunes, traditional spirituals and popular songs while bearing witness to the joy, hope and love of Christ.  The African Children’s Choir has been singing around the globe for 25 years.  The children of the choir are children aged 8 to 11 who have lost one or both parents to calamities such as the AIDS pandemic.  They sing about the love and hope they have found in Jesus, and bear witness to his sustaining grace.  They raise awareness of the plight of African children as well as funds to support approximately 8000 children in Africa.  Children in the choir travel and perform while attending school and eventually go back to their home countries where they make a difference for their people.  Participants in the choir go on to become nurses, doctors, social workers, teachers, pastors, engineers, and any other number of professions needed in their countries.  They represent the hope, dignity, and potential of every African child. 

  The 23 children of the choir spent three days at Phoenixville Baptist, where they attended school during the day and went home with church families at night.  The children of the church enjoyed getting to know their African brothers and sisters during a special night of pizza, games and sharing on Monday night.  The families who housed the children had the special grace of spending significant amounts of time with the children.  Getting to know these children, who have endured so much and yet exhibit such joy in Christ, has been a life-changing, church-changing experience for the people of Phoenixville Baptist.   Members of host families have called it the ‘best experience of our lives.’  Pastor Brent Miller of the church sums it up: ‘This event showed us what life is all about.  We met Jesus in the faces of those children.  I don’t think that any of us will ever be the same again.  It will be impossible for us to approach life with the same attitude or priorities we had before.  These children teach us everything about what it means to live in the hope of Christ, and remind us that we must give everything we can to help those back in Africa whom they represent.  We can’t just look at the smiling faces and joyful dancing of the children and leave it at that.  These children have overcome so much, they still struggle with so much, and they represent millions more in Africa who still live without much hope.  It is the responsibility of the church to do everything it can to show them the love of Christ in tangible ways.  I think our church understood that before, but we really understand it now.  My hope is that this experience will ignite a fire and passion for missions to Africa and to orphans throughout the world in the people of our congregation.’

  The concert at the Baptist Church of Phoenixville was part of an ongoing ministry effort at the church to reach out to Africa and to promote caring for orphans throughout the world.  Pastors Brent and Megen Miller of the church at ABCOPAD ministry partners in the field of adoption and orphan care ministry.            

  The world-renowned African children’s choir travels and performs and churches and other venues throughout the world.  They have performed at such venues as Royal Albert Hall in London, the Kennedy Center, the U.S. Capital and the Pentagon.  In recent weeks, Phoenixville Baptist was one of three American Baptist Churches in the Southeast area to host them.  The other churches were Siloam Baptist in Norristown and the Baptist Church of West Chester.  For more information about the African Children’s Choir or to help support their ministry, please visit them on the web at www.africanchildrenschoir.com.