Grace Choir Leads MV United Baptist Church in Prayer and Song
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By: Kimberly Cooper
Community Writer
Photo Courtesy of:
Kimberly Cooper
Photo Description:
From left: the mixed ensemble Grace Choir: Jasmine Davis, Corey Hunting, Julianne Frye, Anthony Valenzuela, Ashley Hofer, Rudy Villarreal, Elizabeth Wickham, and pianist Mike Kestler of California Baptist University.
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Songs of encouragement, prayer, victory, and praise were sung by California Baptist University students as the choir, Grace, performed at the Moreno Valley United Methodist Church on Sept. 29.
After the congregational prayer and prayer requests from individual members of the church, Ruth Pemble, a Co-Lay leader of the Moreno Valley United Methodist Church, introduced the voices of the hour.
Grace Choir of California Baptist University, located in the city of Riverside, is one of many fine ensembles that sing and do live performances from church to church. There are up to 10 members caravanning around Southern California both to perform and to minister.
Performing various gospel songs, Ashley Hofer, leader of the choir and music major at the University, stated, “I want to first say thank you, Moreno Valley United Methodist Church. We are all glad to join you and be of service. On behalf of [the choir] I wanted to say that we appreciate you all when sharing [your prayer] requests.”
In unison and led by pianist Mike Kestler, Grace Choir sang “Pray for the People” (opening lines: Pray for the person on the left. Pray for the person on the right.), encouraging the audience to be active in the prayer sessions.
As the choir ended the service with an up-tempo song of praise, volunteers at the Moreno Valley United Methodist Church prepared food for all visitors to enjoy while they then met and greeted Grace Choir members.