At the bandshell Tuesday in Edgewater Park, four girls of the India Children’s Choir dance to the click clack of sticks held by four boys of the choir. The choir sang songs about the conversion of the Hmar tribe of headhunters to Christianity in the early 20th century and of the pursuit of the remote tribe’s children for education. The India Children’s Choir returns to Albert Lea to perform at about 8:15 p.m. July 3, roughly 15 minutes after the Third of July Parade, at Fountain Lake Park.
In the middle of a 10-month tour of the United States, the 22-member children’s group India Children’s Choir will stop in Albert Lea Thursday to be in the Third of July Parade and perform a free concert afterward at the Fountain Lake Park Gazebo.
They will perform the same musical drama that they did June 24 at Edgewater Park called “Headhunters to Hearthunters,” where they told the story of their people’s transformation from being fierce headhunters just two generations ago to now being ambassadors for Christ.
The event will begin at roughly 15 minutes after the parade at the Fountain Lake Park Gazebo on the north end of Broadway. That should be about 8:15 p.m.
At the performance, there will be a table set up with homemade goods and other items from India, along with CDs of the children’s music for sale. This event is sponsored by Youth for Christ’s Prairie River Camp in Bricelyn.
“We wanted to bring the children as a gift to the community,” said Renee Groskreutz, assistant director of Prairie River Camp.
The choir’s tour is organized by Bibles for the World, an organization that was founded in 1972 with the dream to give the Bible to every family on earth.
From the hills of Manipur in northeast India, the children perform in churches, chapel services for ministries, schools, retirement homes and civic events all over the world.
The choir and the Bibles for the World organization came about after the transformation of their tribe’s people in the early1900s when a Gospel of John was given to the tribal leaders.
In 1955, Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision, along with evangelist Billy Graham brought a man named Rochunga Pudaite, a second generation Christian from the tribe, to Wheaton College in Illinois to translate the entire Bible into their language. Rochunga later developed the Bibles for the World organization.
Now, about 98 percent of the people in Manipur are Christians.
The children in the choir, who range in age from 8 to 12, are direct descendants of those former headhunters.
They have previously performed in evangelical mega-churches such as Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral, Chuck Swindoll’s former church in Fullerton, Calif., and Charles Stanley’s First Baptist Church of Atlanta. They have also appeared on numerous television programs, as well as in other churches, schools, retirement homes and other venues.
The performance is free, though a donation will be accepted after the event. Proceeds go to the Bibles for the World organization. People are asked lawn chairs or blankets.
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