By: Takara Pate
I'm really excited for the opportunity to share this potential experience with all of you! Here's a little background on me before I get to the part where I ask for money... ;)
My husband, Travis, and I have been a part of the music ministry at our church since we can remember. Travis has been leading worship for our youth since 2002 (kinda sorta a big reason why I came into the picture) where I accompanied him with back up vocals in 2004. We dated, got engaged and now have been married for almost 3 years. Yep... high school sweet hearts with the same love for the Lord and for music! Put those 2 together and we have a pretty amazing worship experience!
Well.. fast forward to today and we have been very active with our church choir, praise band, praise team, and other music ministry opportunities.
Before I get into the "Yes, we need money to make this possible" speech, first and foremost, we wanted to make as many people aware of this cause in order to raise awareness and prayer for it! We thoroughly believe that when a church body has worship resources, their witness is that much stronger. Now, that said, we know New York City is no third world country, but there are just as many lost souls there than anywhere else. Our goal is to REACH as many as possible through the love of Christ and the music He's given us. Now, here comes the pitch. :)
Before I get into the "Yes, we need money to make this possible" speech, first and foremost, we wanted to make as many people aware of this cause in order to raise awareness and prayer for it! We thoroughly believe that when a church body has worship resources, their witness is that much stronger. Now, that said, we know New York City is no third world country, but there are just as many lost souls there than anywhere else. Our goal is to REACH as many as possible through the love of Christ and the music He's given us. Now, here comes the pitch. :)
We have had the opportunity to sing in the choir and on the Praise Team with the Florida Worship Choir and Orchestra since 2011. The FWCO exists to provide opportunities for singers and musicians to experience great worship and to lead others into His presence. 600 (yep - that's a lot!) members of this choir and orchestra are worship pastors, senior pastors, choir/orchestra members, and praise team/praise band members from over 300 churches in Florida!! Read more about the FWCO here.
[Here's a video from 2012 where you can peak at Travis & I on the Praise Team: http://youtu.be/IOWvXIH318Q]
One of the things we love about FWCO is that we get to sing brand new music that is distributed throughout the entire country, arranged and orchestrated through Prism Music. In other words, the choir CDs that churches all across the country use to listen to and then rehearse for their own performances could be listening to Florida Worship Choir. So cool, right?! This year, not only are we premiering brand new music, provided by Prism Music, and while we still have our normal concert schedule, an added element to our worship was revealed: The NY WORSHIP PROJECT. This project is a mission experience designed to make God known in a big way. The North American Mission Board (NAMB) has defined it as a "Send North America City". Missional opportunity which will include street witnessing, bottled water stations, as well as handing out free tickets to the worship concert at Carnegie Hall (that WE get to sing at!) We have also developed relationships with leaders in 15 new church plants in the Metro New York City area. The goal here is to partner with them and help provide worship resources and training based on their requested needs. Music instruments and equipment are super expensive so we are setting the goal of raising money and awareness to help satisfy those specific needs (we’re talkin’ everything from portable sound systems, microphones, acoustic guitars, to sheet music, etc.).
But get this… God has opened up the doors to these amazing and historical places for our worship concerts:
- Carnegie Hall
- Central Park
- Times Square (2 flash mobs… yep… that’ll be on YouTube for sure)
- Brooklyn Tabernacle
How neat, right?! While this mission sounds amazing… it will go on with or without Travis or myself. However, the “mission” will not happen without the missionaries. The messengers go when they are called, and Travis and I feel called to make this happen! Will you help us?
If you have an interest in giving or donating to help fund our trip (it's $2,445 pp for a double occupancy), you can do so by visiting our super duper, easy to use website: http://www.gofundme.com/6mrplw
Or mail a check made out to Travis & Takara Pate to our church:
First Baptist Church of Kissimmee
Attn: Kyle Grizzard (for Travis & Takara Pate)
1700 N. John Young Parkway
Kissimmee, FL 34741
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