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WES JANZEN, Trinity Western University’s director
of choral activities, is about to embark on one of his favourite
adventures.
He will be principal guest conductor of the Kiev
Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; it will be his seventh visit to Ukraine
since 2006.
This time, he is taking his whole family, for a six
month stay. They will all be participating musically. Janzen’s wife
Kim is worship director for Missions Fest; and their three children are all
members of Pacific Mennonite Children’s Choir
In addition to musical activities, the family will be
involved in humanitarian work. Janzen works with Music Mission Kiev (MMK),
which combines aid work and musical evangelism.
“We’re hoping to be walking in step with
what God is doing there,” he told BCCN. “The Spirit of God is working in ways I’ve
never seen before.”
Janzen said he had often witness remarkable spiritual
transformations in Ukraine.
He noted one widow who had survived Josef
Stalin’s Gulag prison system.
Through MMK, he said, she found love – “and
received Christ at the end of her life.” He added: “Multiply
that by hundreds,” to get some idea of the impact of the ministry.
MMK, he said, has also touched Ukrainian musicians,
many of whom are university professors.
“For decades, they were forbidden to do the great
sacred classics. They are now hearing them for the first time.”
He noted especially the effect Joseph Haydn’s The Creation oratorio had on
some of them – particularly, the passages from Genesis.
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“It made some of them cry,” said Janzen,
“because of the truth the lyrics are expressing. “
Many of them, he emphasized, “are coming to
Christ.”
Info: musicmissionkiev.org.
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DFD
January 2009
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