Part 4 - The Driver
It took a while for me to shake what had happened. For a couple weeks I was scared to get in my own car. How was I going to get back to feeling normal? My mind was all over the place. Then I received a message from LaTonya Norton. She wanted to do a two part story on the school's final days and the choir's final performance. I was excited. Things were getting back to normal.
When LaTonya came to the school to get the first part of story, she expressed how moved she was by the other songs. She told me she let her children listen to them and they loved them all. She also said they sat down as a family and discussed all the messages in the songs. This really touched me. I didn't know how to respond because none of this was my doing. God had full control over everything that was going on. Every song that was written was from Him. So after the interviews I thanked LaTonya for everything she had done for the choir, and she said "No, thank you for letting God use you."
Part one of the story was complete and we were ready for Part two, The Final Performance. Getting ready to go on stage, you could see the nervousness on the boys faces. There was standing room only in the sanctuary and everyone was excited. The boys walked on stage and began singing "Royal". By the end of the song, the atmosphere had changed. The audience knew then that this was no ordinary performance.
As the concert went on many had tears in their eyes. They had been touched and could not hold back the emotions. When it came time to take a look back at our time as a choir, the boys all sat on the front row to view the video. As the video played, one by one the boys broke down. I was trying to stay as calm as possible, but when I got up to speak after the video, I looked at my boys and the tears began to fall. What was all this? This was just supposed to be a teaching job. Why were these boys so different from other boys I've taught at other schools? A flood of emotions came over me. No one could have told me that this was how things would turn out. You see, when God is driving, you will experience the ride of your life. At times, I got too excited about getting to the destination that I grabbed the wheel thinking I knew a shortcut. The only problem was that I didn't know where we were going. So God would wait for me to realize this and then take back the wheel once I let go. He would put us back on route and continue forward. That is what God revealed to me as I stood there. I looked at the audience and said "I introduce to you, The Royal Boys Choir." A movement had begun.
The Giver
The stories had just aired on the news and I was so proud of how everything turned out. Immediately after the story aired, I received a brief anonymous email that read " Saw the story, I would like to help. What do you need?" I didn't know what to think of this or how to respond. I just thanked them and told them about the trip we would like to take the boys on and the new uniforms we would be raising money for. I said anything towards this would be greatly appreciated. Almost immediately I received a response saying "What's the trip cost per member, how many boys, and how much are the uniforms?" Now I'm like "God, who is this?" I sent all the information which totaled about $2800. Immediately, a response, "Ok, I will give you $3000. Where would you like to meet?"
"...Jesus."
The Royal Boys Choir