This note was sent by Mel and Patty Davis, our American missionary contacts in Murska Sobota, Slovenia where we stayed and performed from May 27-29, 2003.

Dear Ones All,

Thank you, thank you for your prayers for the 'Wheaton project' ! The team arrived late Monday night, and within the next 24 hours we had completed a choral workshop with pupils from 3 schools, had a joint rehearsal with our church choir, did some TV interviews and performed a noon and evening concert (approx. 900 combined attendance). The response of the pupils, teachers and the evening audience was wonderful, and the 'odmevi' (literally 'echoes' in Slovene) have been tremendously positive. A couple we've been getting acquainted with came, and the next day the wife told me "it was such a wonderful experience! When the choir sang they shone with something--our (Slovene) young people don't have that, they are empty. You have something spiritual."

Some of our students enjoying a snack with Slovene kids during a rehearsal break

Brass preparing for the evening performance

It has also been great to see and hear the connection that our church choir made with the audience (many who are neighbors, relatives, co-workers) when they sang with the team. In the words of some, Wheaton's music making was "impossibly good!", and by allowing us to share in some of that goodness on stage, they threw open doors to relationships that we, here, can continue to nurture. One gentleman (a musician himself) approached Pastor Joze after the evening performance, raved enthusiastically about the concert, then asked "and who are the Slovenes that sang with them?" God is very good. With grateful hearts, Patty, for our family and the Novo Zivljenje church family