A Year of Music

Jay & Sheri Hartzler

Music has the ability to bring people together in unique ways. That’s been the case for Jay and Sheri Hartzler, who are spending a year as Nazarene Mission Corps volunteers in Romania. They have brought the joy of music to children, youth, and adults, and have led both experienced musicians and beginners in worshipping God through song.

Music played a vital role in bringing the Hartzlers to Sighisoara. Five years ago, the Hartzlers, who are active members in the Mennonite Church, were leading the Eastern Mennonite High School choir’s tour through Eastern Europe. While in Sighisoara, Romania, they met Nazarene missionaries who arranged for the choir to sing in Tigmandru, a predominantly Roma village where the Church of the Nazarene ministers. After seeing how the people, especially the children, in Tigmandru had few opportunities to learn music, they began to consider the possibility of returning to Romania to teach music. There is not participatory music teaching in the public schools, so people growing up in Romania have little opportunity to learn how to sing or play instruments.

“They wanted to teach music to young people,” explained Roberta Bustin, Nazarene missionary who ministers in Sighisoara and Tigmandru. “They recognized the needs for music in the church, and working with young people would benefit the church for many years to come.”

Tigmandru Children's Choir

After leading a second choir trip to Romania in 2012, the Hartzlers decided to return to Romania for a year as Nazarene Mission Corps volunteers, but with the added blessing of the Mennonite Church.

Since their arrival last August, the Hartzlers have found many opportunities to use their musical gifts in both the Sighisoara and Tigmandru Nazarene congregations.

Every week, the Hartzlers go to the Tigmandru church to teach music to children. They have formed a choir of nearly 50 children who have sung in special children’s programs as well as Sunday services.

Jay teaching guitar class

“When we started, there were as many notes being sung as there were children present,” Jay recounted. “But eventually they were not only able to sing on pitch, but to change pitches…. The group sang songs in Romanian, English and Swahili, with great enthusiasm. It was rewarding to hear bits and pieces of songs being hummed or sung during craft time and parents reported the children singing the songs at home.”

Jay has been able to use his experience as choir director to develop the worship leaders in the churches and to introduce the congregations to new songs. He formed and led youth and women’s choirs in Tigmandru. He has also taught guitar classes, preparing musicians for both the Sighisoara and Tigmandru churches. Similarly, Sheri has been teaching private piano lessons to students who will soon be able to accompany congregational singing in the churches.

Sheri teaches a piano lesson

“Teaching piano here is one concrete way I see to leave behind a skill that can be used for personal enjoyment as well as in the churches.” Sheri commented.

The Hartzlers have been active in teaching music outside the context of Nazarene congregations, too, mainly in the context of Veritas, a Nazarene Compassionate Ministries partner organization in Sighisoara that serves the community through social and educational programs.

Each week, Jay directs the Veritas Gospel Choir, made up of approximately 20 people from various church backgrounds and ethnicities. In addition to the choir’s normal Christmas and spring concerts, many from the Gospel Choir joined members of other choirs in the town in a performance of Handel’s Messiah in May. Accompanied by Sheri on the electronic organ and professional musicians from neighboring towns, the concert was attended by over 300 people. It is believed to be the first time in 50 years that the Messiah has been performed in Sighisoara.

Gospel Choir singing in the park

One exceptional opportunity to work in the community came when Jay was asked to teach English-language music to two English classes at one of the largest high schools in Sighisoara. Even though the students had little experience with music (it was English – not music – class, after all), they successfully sang as part of the school’s 90-year celebration talent show in April.

Summing up the year, Sheri remarked, “We came to Romania, expecting to do some work with music, but we did not expect the amount of opportunities we would have to lead in a wide variety of settings with various age groups. We also did not expect the enthusiasm for music – for singing, playing, and listening. We have been truly blessed in the relationships and the musical experiences we have had this year.”

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An added bonus to having an online article about music is that you can listen to the various music groups under the Hartzlers' direction:

Over 300 were in attendance when 20 singers from Sighisoara performed Handel's Messiah in May.

The Tigmandru Children's Choir singing "Children Go Where I Send Thee"



Tigmandru guitar students playing "This is the Day"

Teen choir in Tigmandru singing "King of kings and Lord of lords" with the congregation



The Veritas Gospel Choir singing in Sighisoara's ecumenical Christmas concert:

Post by Veritas Sighisoara.

Please pray for the Hartzlers and their music ministry in Romania. Ask God to bless their efforts, and for the light of God’s love to become even more transformative in the lives of those who are learning music.

Reprinted in Where Worlds Meet - July 2014 and NCN News.