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BILL GAMMIL sings "Deep in the Heart of Texas" at an ancient Roman amphitheater during a tour of Spain by the Singing Men of Texas.
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Singing Men become Cowboy Ambassadors
___By Mike Creswell
___SBC International Mission Board
___MERIDA, Spain--Call them gospel music missionaries or cowboy ambassadors of good will, but the Singing Men of Texas brought down the house during a concert series in 11 Spanish cities April 20-28.
___Their professionalism tinged with Texas twang won the hearts of thousands of Spaniards during the closely scheduled 10-day trip. At least a dozen people prayed to receive Christ as Savior during or after their dozen concerts, and more than 1,000 people
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JONATHAN ARAGON, music consultant for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, speaks with a prisoner at Central Peniteniary.
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turned in address cards and will be visited by local Christians.
___But beyond such immediate results, David and Joy Borgan said the tour had advanced Baptist missions work in Spain by perhaps 25 years. The Borgans, who planned the concert series, are Southern Baptist church planting missionaries based in Caceres, a city in central western Spain near the Portuguese border. He considers Texas his home state; she was born British.
___Xoan Castro, director of evangelism for the Evangelical Baptist Union of Spain, enthusiastically agreed.
___"The testimonies and music have had the great effect of breaking down barriers so people can hear the gospel," he said. "There's a great evangelistic result from that."
___The North Central Texas chapter of the Singing Men of Texas included 55 singers, a 13-member music ensemble and a 14-member handbell choir. The entire group with support personnel and wives totaled 105 people. Two city buses were required to transport the group and equipment across the southern half of Spain.
___Most of the singers are ministers of music with Texas churches and paid their own
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PEDRO ACEDO PENCO, mayor of Merida, tries on the new Texas hat presented to him by Russell Dilday.
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way to take part in the massive missions support project.
___Director Don Blackley, minister of music at First Baptist Church in Richardson, led the group through a 90-minute program that ranged from classical to gospel, in English and Spanish. The group won standing ovations and repeated "encore" calls, especially during a rousing rendition of "Deep in the Heart of Texas" with a solo by Bill Gammill, in which most audiences joined in with clapping. Choir members donned red cowboy bandannas for that number.
___In Madrid, the group performed at the Royal Palace, where they left a signed poster for the queen. In Seville, they sang for at least 2,000 people in the city's largest Roman Catholic cathedral and on the steps of the city hall with the mayor.
___At Merida, they performed at an ancient Roman amphitheater and were featured on regional television with an audience estimated at 2 million. In Cadiz, they took part in a forum on the family with the city's mayor, a key political leader in southern Spain. The discussion was carried on one of the national television networks watched by an estimated 7 million viewers.
___At the prison of Caceres, they performed before prisoners. Two of the men who made spiritual commitments were Muslims from North Africa, responding to preaching in
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RALPH GIBSON gives away a card with his testimony and also shows prisoners pictures of his family in Texas. (Photos by Grace Robinette)
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Spanish by Mike Gonzales, director of ethnic evangelism for Texas Baptists and a former missionary to Spain.
___Overall, the concert tour was intended as much more than entertainment. David Borgan used the group like a gospel-edged plow to break up the hard soil of Spanish resistance to the gospel and to Baptists, who most often are seen as a suspicious cult. Instead of singing before existing churches, Borgan took the Texans to secular auditoriums and Roman Catholic cathedrals and arranged for them to meet city leaders.
___"We were officially greeted in eight cities by mayors or city hall staffs, and mayors came to three of our concerts. In the city of El Puerto de Santa Maria, the mayor stood during 'I Bowed on My Knees and Cried Holy' and led in a standing ovation. He was very moved," Borgan said.
___The Singing Men took along their own team of heavyweight political leaders, again to convey the message that Baptists are a legitimate group.
___Brigadier General Thomas Stone carried letters of greeting from Texas Governor
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TOMMY STONE explains to an audience in Merida, Spain, why Texans wear big hats.
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George W. Bush to city leaders.
___Griffin Wilson, mayor of Corsicana and active member of First Baptist Church there, presented keys to his city and samples from the new candy factory there. William Thornton, former mayor of San Antonio, also brought greetings. And Russell Dilday, president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, represented Texas Baptists, making remarks in Spanish.
___To "sell" the singing group, Borgan prepared a jazzy audiovisual piece on his laptop computer, complete with pictures of the group and Texas, moving text and recorded music. He then visited city halls and let them know this American group wanted to perform in Spain.
___The results? City governments provided meals and accommodations in some areas, plus places to perform. For example, usually the Roman amphitheater in Merida costs $15,000 to use. But the Texans got it free of charge.
___In the "Gran Falla" Theater in Cadiz, a crowd estimated at 1,200 people led the mayor to ask if this were the Baptist congregation. Actually Baptists there number only about 50.
___The current series was facilitated by a visit to Caceres two years ago by a singing group from First Baptist Church of Mineral Wells. Steve James, minister of music there and leader of the first tour, also was back with the Singing Men.
___As yet further evidence of God's hand in the trip, Joy Borgan points to the concern the Texans had about incurring extra baggage charges for their instruments on the return flight to the United States. It turned out that the ticket agent on duty was an evangelical Christian--and a musician. There were no extra charges.
___More information about the tour is available at http://members.xoom.com/borgans.
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