Büsingen, Germany – European Nazarene College (EuNC) held their 33rd Advent concert in three churches in Germany and Switzerland on 28 November and 4 and 5 December. The concerts were attended by EuNC faculty and students as well as several hundred local people from the community.

The concerts were held at the Church of the Nazarene in Büsingen and Gottmadingen, Germany, and at the Free Evangelical Church, Thayngen, Switzerland.

The 2010 Advent concerts were the last to be performed with EuNC resident students, as the college announced this month that it will be discontinuing the residential program in 2011 so as to focus more on its 15 learning centers across Europe and Central Asia.

Martina Arnold, the hand bell and choir director since 2001, has been involved with music at EuNC since 1995 and has lived in Büsingen for 17 years. Even though being the director is a lot of hard work, she finds it fulfilling to witness something deep happening with the audience during the performances.

“There was this one moment in choir where I could tell that everyone was paying attention to the words and the meaning of what we were singing and it spoke to our own hearts,” she said. “It is the realization of God’s presence and in that, there is a sense of accomplishment.”

This year the choir was directed by Martha Dalton, the associate professor of music at Olivet Nazarene University, Bourbonnais, Illinois, U.S. Dalton is in Büsingen with her husband, Ron, on a four-and-a-half month sabbatical.

“It is a very rewarding thing to start off not knowing the music and not knowing each other and then to come to the performance where you now know everyone and the music and you then present as a whole that music to the audience,” said Dalton.

“This was a blessing at just the right time and I am extremely grateful towards her,” said Arnold.

Dalton’s favourite part of being the choir director was experiencing the joy that came from watching the choir group come together as well as the ability to worship together during rehearsals.

“You start out with a wide variety of experience and musical ability levels, and at first choir members will often say ‘Is this ever going to come together?’ and it always does,” said Dalton. “It is the choir recognizing the fact that they have been working together and it is paying off at the end. It is that ‘Aha’ moment.”

Andrew Pottenger, a Mission Corps missionary serving as librarian and instructor at EuNC, joined the hand bell choir despite having no previous music experience.

“I know the community looks forward to it – they have really good turnout every year,” Pottenger said. “It doesn’t seem to matter if we make mistakes, people just love hearing the songs and watching us perform. What they’re really there for is to be led into the Christmas spirit; that’s how their season officially begins.”

For Arnold, her favorite part of being a part of the two choirs is the fellowship within the group.

From 1974 to 1976, the Büsingen church used to sing and invite people to the church during the Christmas season. In 1977, they began the Advent concerts, making it official. What was once an activity from the church became an activity from the college.

From the very first concert there has been both a vocal choir and hand bell choir. The hand bells were brought from the U.S. in 1975 by then music professor, Dr. Ervin Kranich and they have been a part of the Advent concerts ever since.

“Hand bells are unique for the college and unique for Germany,” said Arnold. “We have maybe 25 hand bell choirs in all of Germany; most are in the northern part of the country. We are the farthest in the south.”

In the past, the hand bell choir comprised mainly students, but lately it has included faculty, staff and volunteers as well.

 

 

 

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