Author: Karen Burke

On November 2, 2011, a twelve member team left Canada to fly to Poland to present the first ever ‘Power Up’ Gospel Music Festival.

Andrzej Gorski, Founder of ‘Pro Novis and his team are dedicated to seeing Poland sing gospel music!  And sing they do.  This team has being working diligently and has grown their output to present over 10 workshops annually in different cities all over Poland.  To date, those workshops have consisted of bringing one or two gospel music directors from North America, teaching 9-10 gospel songs to mass choirs numbering in the hundreds (one over 1000!) and presenting them in a huge finale concert.

The idea of presenting a festival where there is instruction in various aspects of gospel music along with mass choir rehearsals was birthed by Terry Bridle and inspired by our very own ‘Power Up’ festival that TMC has been offering annually for the past 7 years. (Power Up 2012 will be Mar. 2-4!)

Our team consisted of myself and Terry along with gospel artist/instructors Amoy Levy, Nicole Sinclair-Anderson, Cassandra Sommers, music directors Ryan Resmer and Jared Erhardt, choreographer Gregory Hines and our support team consisting of Joel Erhardt, Jeremy Anderson, Ginny Bridle and Oswald Burke.

Together, we worked with a choir of about 400 and also offered a variety of small group sessions/workshops.  The team was also showcased in a concert featuring the instructors and local gospel choir, ‘Gospel Joy’ to open up the 3 day festival.  The event was capped by a 3 hour concert on Sunday evening attended by a huge enthusiastic audience.

After the festival, Andrzej sent this message:

Thank you for praying for Poland this weekend. We felt it!

Transformation of Poland is in progress – kids, youth and

adults were impacted! Some are already inviting us to their cities and parishes! Many, many conversations, trainings, discussions, tears, sessions, discipleship moments took place in just 2,5 days! I guess we’ll never know about the impact but faith and personal testimonies were shared during: 18 sessions, 3 concerts, 3 different gospel music workshops, mentoring sessions and countless informal conversations.

During our debriefing session, all of our team expressed how impacted we were by the entire experience.  It was truly life-changing and we know that God had chosen to use us in a powerful way to touch those in attendance.  Your prayers were definitely a huge help to us during this jam-packed but exhilarating weekend. It was truly a privilege to witness what took place during those few days.

Although Oswald and I have been many times to Poland (the Bridles actually lived in Poland for quite a long time), the rest of the team, except for Ryan who had gone a couple of years ago, did not now what to expect.  We were definitely struck by the obvious commitment and compassion that was at work by the over 60 volunteers who worked to put together this huge event.

When TMC travelled to Poland in 2008, part of our opportunity was to mentor, ‘Gospel Joy, a gospel choir established by Andrzej and his sister.  Their understanding of gospel music and the inner workings of a gospel choir were limited.  It was, however, a real joy to see their growth since 2008 and believe me, when they ever come to Canada, all will be amazed to see how professional and dynamic this young gospel choir has become.  They have already recorded several CDs and 2 Live DVDs and their musicians are stellar!

Again we were reminded what is possible when God is in it!   From the moment that God gave us the green light to go on this missions trip, we have received so much support and for this, we thank you.  Most importantly, Poland is a different place today because of this Gospel Power Up Festival with over 350 participants from all over Poland including kids, youth and adults.  Andrzej and his wife Ania will also lead follow- up Bible studies after the festival.  Your prayers and support are still essential!

One quote from a leader of 20-member youth group in attendance says it all:

“Your hard work, smiles, goodness, eyes, in which one couldn’t see tiredness, eyes which had strength and power, joy and love – this was true testimony for us and confirmation to each word you talked about Jesus” –Lidka

 On behalf of the entire team, thank you so much for your continued support!

Blessings,
Karen Burke

Leave a Reply