By ThinkJP.Consulting™ Copyright© 2015 - All Rights Reserved
One of the fun things I always did with the foster people whenever Jack was out
of town was play loud music and dance with them.
They LOVED it! A couple of
my guys were actually very good dancers.
I have always enjoyed dancing myself, so we had ourselves a good party.
I will never forget the time I escorted one of my foster guys and his date to a
special dance that was sponsored for the mentally challenged.
It was a formal affair and my guy looked very handsome in his white suit
and baby blue shirt. He had
beautiful blue eyes and the color of the shirt really accentuated their
brilliance that night. He stayed on
the dance floor and danced every single dance, even though his date grew tired
and had to rest through a few. He
didn’t care
who he danced with; he was
just enjoying every minute of the party.
He led the entire group when the YMCA song came on.
I was quite proud of my young man for how nice he looked and how well-mannered he was throughout the night.
All of our folks loved music and dancing, even Johnny, our most severely impaired. Of course we had varying tastes in our selections, but it seemed that we all agreed on “Today’s Country”.
One particular female vocalist seemed to be Johnny’s favorite.
Whenever his favorite song of hers came on, he would furrow his brows and
make a crying like noise. While he
liked most of her music, that particular song really tapped into his emotions.
Johnny sat through all of our practice sessions for J & P Ministries, and was
often our toughest critic. When trying new music, Johnny would communicate
through his emotions and attentiveness the degree to which he either liked or
disliked our selections. We soon learned that if he was “touched” by the song it
would be a winner with our audiences as well.
There was never a song that
Johnny didn’t “really like”, judging by his emotions, that wasn’t also popular
with our listeners. It was a
special gift he had, and of course he
loved being included. He also
loved to attend our concerts and
would clap and sway to the music he liked. He
was positively our most faithful fan.
Johnny’s favorite country singer finally came to Grand Rapids, Michigan shortly
after he died. We had always
promised Johnny that we would take him to her concert if she ever came near us.
I guess for some reason, it just wasn’t meant to be.
We invited a couple of friends to go with us and enjoyed great seats, and
a really nice time, even though the sound wasn’t all that great.
Being a certified Audio Technician for many years, Jack felt impressed to call
this singer’s Stage Manager the following Monday morning.
He saw and heard something unusual that he wanted to mention that he
thought might help to improve her sound quality.
The secretary told Jack that her Sound Techs were in a meeting discussing
the sound problem from the concert that very minute.
She put him on hold to see if they wanted to speak with him right then.
The next voice he heard was not that of the sound tech, but of Reba herself, the
very famous country singer. They
had him on the speakerphone and said they were very interested in hearing his
suggestions. After discussing his
suggestions about the sound, he had the opportunity to share with them some of
our religious beliefs regarding the Sabbath, and how difficult it was for us to
get decent tickets because they were on sale only during the Sabbath hours.
He also had the opportunity to tell her about Johnny and how much he
loved her music.
She was very touched, and promised to see that we had some of the best
seats in the house the next time she was in our area.
Jack could hardly believe that he was having a conversation with such a popular
musician on a cell phone. He
actually pulled off the road so he could give his undivided attention to the
conversation.
We never really know why we are given the opportunities we are, but we do know that we are counseled to always be ready to share our personal testimony with others. God has been so good to us and it would be wise for us all to count our many blessings each day.