Belhaven students Lindsey Berg, Hannah Cross, Mandy McCullough, and Tory Senete, along with Belhaven alumni, Jill and Eddie Moran, Natalie Tackitt, Belhaven faculty organizer, Rev. Dr. Christopher Shelt, and Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church member, Deana Dryden, left May 28 on an 18 day ambassadorial mission to Africa with Belhaven Connections, an ongoing Belhaven College musical missions ministry.
Last year’s Belhaven Connections trip to Peru impacted not just worship and evangelism, but education, government, and business.
Dr. Shelt, Belhaven’s Coordinator of Vocal Arts and an ordained PCA minister, will take four days to teach the entire book of Psalms to seminary students in Zambia, then preach in local churches, and teach seminars on music and the family from a Christian worldview in Zambia and Uganda.
The team chaplain, ruling elder Eddie Moran, will also minister the Word in local churches and in the seminary chapel services. Jill Moran and Natalie Tackitt will be doing a school assessment for the Centre for Christian Mission Trust School in Zambia.
The arts will be featured prominently in the ministry with numerous opportunities for education and cultural exchange in both music and dance. Belhaven Connections will feature musical offerings in both Zambia and Uganda with voice, clarinet, flute, piccolo, and piano. Dancers will teach American folk dances and creative movement in the Trust School and during the cultural exchange festival.
The group will hand-carry three Orff xylophones, designed for children’s music education, as a gift to the Trust School. The team has also raised $1500 for a new building at the Trust School. Pray for Belhaven Connections as they visit the continent of Africa.