Music that inspired my work, especially my work in Honduras

Music that inspired my work, especially my work in Honduras

By Wendy Griffin

 I learned in Vacation Bible School the following song.

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.

Red, Brown, yellow, black and White,

They are precious in his sight.

Jesus loves the little children of the whole.

From this song I learned Jesus loved me, he loved the other little children like the Pech and the Garifunas, and I should love them too, just as he does. I learned this song in a Southern town that still had segregated schools.

 

In high school I learned two church songs which would also inspire me

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in Lord, (twice)

And we pray that all unity will one day be restored

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,

Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

I did not feel I needed to convert people, just show them God’s love, that they were not forsaken, that God sent me to see how they were doing.

The song below is from the song book Carols Hot and Cool that we used in Senior High at Church.

He was a Rebel, yes a Rebel,

He changed wáter into wine,

He was human and divine,

And what he told the people sounded like treason.

He said you’re as good as me,

Though you’re from a strange country,

Though you’re  red or White or Black as Ebony.

 

Later at an ordination service of a gay man and a lesbian couple to be pastors for the San Francisco AIDS Mission, I learned the song Spirit, which I only partly know the words of, but which I felt were part of my call to go and work in Central America.

 

I the Lord of Sea and Sky,

I have Heard my people cry.

I would send a Word to them,

Who shall I send?

Is it I, Lord?

I have Heard you calling in the night.

I will lead them (if you help me)

I will hold your people in my heart.

Perhaps the idea to work overseas and help others came from a book in the church library which I volunteered with during my senior high years. That book was called They Lived Their Love, and was in my mind the complement of the song They will Know We are Christians by Our Love.


My ideas about the idea that we should be doing something else besides making war on each other partly came from the song on a Peter, Paul, and Mary album Where have all the flowers gone? In the song the flowers go toyoung girls, the Young girls go toyoung men, theyoung men go to soldiers, and the soldiers go to  graveyards, which go to flowers. When willthey ever learn, when will they ever learn? was the chorus. Apparantly the answer is Not yet.