Page 32 - Joshua's Journal

More Than a Melody: The Youth and Young Adult Choir Minister Beyond the Walls of the Sanctuary By Karl Thomas, Nikki Akinyeye and Teon Abrams Philemon 1:6: “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” I f no one else has ever witnessed the power named Monte Hatcher who asked if he could speak to us. He then proceeded to share a story of God’s calling, anointing, healing and deliverance, the Youth and Young Adult about a young man named Jawhar Stokes diagnosed Choir (YYAC) of Reid Temple AME Church, Glenn Dale Campus, without a with a rare form of cancer known as Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma (ASPS). He told us about a docu- doubt, has. In the following testimonies, readers mentary he was working on with Jawhar titled will learn how the choir ministered to Jawhar Stokes “You Begin to Die, When You Stop Dreaming.” He before the Lord called his name and how Jasmyne said Jawhar needed some encouragement and asked Bracey was raised from her “bed of affliction” to us “Can you help?” We all agreed and said “Yes”. return to service. We decided to go to Children’s National Medical On January 20, 2014, about 40 members from Center, where Jawhar was receiving medical treat- ment, to visit this young man and his family. Reid Temple’s Youth and Young Adult Choir Christopher Holbrook (YYAC) traveled down to the Verizon Center What we didn’t expect was that he would be the one ministering to us. We went to the hospital to sing at the Washington Wizards halftime and sang songs of praise and prayed with Jawhar show honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the family. While we were trying to figure out Prior to the sound check, Choir President, what song to sing next, one of the choir members Teon Abrams was approached by a gentleman 30 • Joshua’s Journal • Winter 2014