CEE Story From The Mission Field
Sing a Joyful Noise
August 12, 2002
Serving the Lord takes on a different look to every believer. For one it may be preaching to a church full of people, to another walking the city streets and ministering to the people who make their home in its sewers and on its curbsides, to still another it is teaching eager young children about the One who made them and loves them. For Rhonda Fleming, it is none of these things, but something else unique and crafted just for her.
Rhonda is a coffee house musician in Kielce, Poland. As students from the nearby University come to hang out and visit with friends, Rhonda gets to help them understand what it means to worship God and have a relationship with him -- and she gets to do it through her music. For many Poles the concept of a personal God is as foreign to them as the missionaries that come bearing that news. Through sharing her times of worship with the students, they see for themselves that God is personal and many are amazed that Rhonda sings "straight to God."
No one was more surprised than Rhonda that there was actually a request for a missionary to come and play music in a coffee house. She had been doing that very thing all through college and even joked with her friends how she wished there was a full time job that would allow her to lead worship and disciple new believers. As she prayed about her future she decided to find out about the Journeyman/ISC program of the International Mission Board, a short-term missions commitment ideal for single men and women.
"I went to conference honestly 95% sure that wasn't what God wanted me to do," she said, but God surprised her! "As I looked through the books of over 2000 jobs, I saw one for a guitarist to play in a coffee house and work with students. I almost fell out! It was exactly what I wanted to do, but...Poland?"
Yes! Poland! Rhonda's gifts and desires fit perfectly with the needs there and now she is able to do what she loves to do -writing and playing music, worshipping and discipling-- in a place where it desperately needs doing. None of this came easy. Though she was a believer at a young age, it wasn't until her sophomore year of college that she began to use her music publicly. Even then it was not voluntary, per se. She knew God wanted her to, but felt physically sick at the thought of singing in front of people. As she stepped out in obedience she began to understand that it was all about God and not about her at all. She began to truly understand worship as a lifestyle.
"As we die to ourselves and focus on Him in praise and let His Spirit worship through us, we are doing what we were created for... to worship Him and to bring Him glory. We join with the angels and creation in telling or showing God what He's worth even though we can't comprehend the extent of Him. I had never understood any of this before."
"The Bible says that God inhabits the praises of His people. I really believe that when the Spirit has control and is worshiping through us, that people notice Him. Many come face to face with Him and feel His Presence. They notice that there is something different and many begin to realize that this worship is what they were created for." This is what is happening in Poland. Young people are seeing something different and it's changing them.
View the photo essay of "Make a Joyful Noise."