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David Bishop-Rowe tells Simon Hope about an opportunity for international encouragement

AS a result of a series of opportune conversations and God moments, an exciting event is taking shape, which will bring young musicians from across the Spain and Portugal Command to the small English town of Cradley Heath.

Starting on Friday 10 May, delegates from throughout the Iberian Peninsula will cross the Cantabrian Sea to experience Salvation Army life in the West Midlands and explore some of its differences and similarities. The UK visit will also involve the young people in a range of experiences inside and outside the corps.

‘We now know the total number of people who are coming will be 20 from Spain and 5 from Portugal,’ says David, who initially organised the event. ‘They are coming from all over Spain and Portugal, so it is really exciting. We reckon about eight of them are going to play timbrels when they come across, and this will probably be the first time they will perform with a live band.’

The West Midlands Fellowship Band and massed songsters comprising members from other corps in the area will begin the weekend on Friday night with a Festival de Música – based on the old Cradley Heath tradition of Sounding Brass and Voices – featuring the young delegates, who will be received with the right degree of pomp.

‘We’ll be using the march “Celebration” as they come in,’ David enthuses, ‘with the old chorus: “We’ll keep the old flag flying,/ Flying round the world.” We already have small Spanish, Portuguese and British flags and we’re just about to make little Salvation Army flags. It’s been done a few times elsewhere, I know, so I’m not claiming any uniqueness, but we thought it would be a nice welcome.’

Tickets are available from the corps and any money raised will go to support the Spain and Portugal Command.

From Camp Sarón to Cradley Heath

The rest of the weekend will be less formal and will include the young people taking part in hymn tune playing outside a supermarket, a visit to a museum, witnessing with Cradley Heath Band during a church visit and supporting the corps in the Sunday meetings, concluding with an old-fashioned ‘wind-up’.

The opportunity for this event came about when David stumbled across the only English-speaking corps in Spain while on holiday. David got to know the corps officers, and his background in conducting championship section brass bands led to an invitation for him to take part in the Spanish National Music

School during the summer. There he began talking with other leaders about the possibility of a Spanish delegation visiting England.

‘Camp Sarón is a permanent camp, just outside the city of Dénia, owned by The Salvation Army,’ explains David. ‘During the summer school, there was a timbrel group, there were bands and singing every morning, and we all joined in. As you’d expect at any music school there were down times with talent shows or something else going on. The officer commanding came along to the school and we started talking to him about a possible trip.’

Compared with many in the UK, corps

Spanish National Music School

in Spain and Portugal are small and are few and far between. David felt that an opportunity for the young people to see his experience of the Army world would prove helpful and inspiring.

‘The aim has got nothing to do with music – although we are looking forward to sharing music together,’ he says. ‘In fact, the aim is to give the young people an opportunity to witness The Salvation Army in a different country, and maybe even in different situations, by sharing worship, fellowship and music together, and hopefully helping them on their spiritual journeys. Across most of the Midlands and London you can walk from one corps to another – that’s a major difference. There’s also the size. When we go to Spain, if I take my family – there are six of us – we can sometimes double the congregation.

‘So the aim is to send the young people back, enthused to know that there are people in other parts of the world who are doing exactly the same things they’re doing. If they go back thinking that The Salvation Army is bigger than they ever thought it was, they will be refuelled to go out and witness and believe that they’re part of a bigger Army.’

David is also quick to assert that the organisation of the visit has been bigger than just his own efforts. The corps fellowship has been instrumental in arranging the event, as David explains: ‘We’ve got people all over the place who are supporting it. For a start, we wouldn’t have the songsters if we didn’t have the support of other corps in the area, and the fellowship band comprises Salvationists and members of churches from all over the West Midlands and beyond.

‘Lots of people are asking what they can do. We’re providing most of the meals at the corps so we’re going to have people doing the background stuff during lunchtime and teatime. And we have somebody who owns his own coach company who is willing to help us in some way or another. Everybody just seems to want to chip in, thanks to the leadership of our corps officers.

‘There are so many benefits from this that you don’t see. It helps the corps come together. I mean, it’s a hardworking corps – it’s a vibrant corps and this is just another part of what we’re doing. Our fundraising has included a tabletop sale and hymn tune playing outside a supermarket. The bandmaster even went on a sponsored zip-wire ride on the world’s fastest zip wire!

‘I feel that this is truly God-led. My wife and I bought our little place in Spain before I returned to the Army. It just happened to be near the only Englishspeaking corps in the command and close to the National Music School campsite. This was just one of a series of God moments where things fell into place. It has come together very well and people have been so enthusiastic about it.

‘Sometimes God’s plan is so amazing that you just have to sit back and admire his work!’

O Festival de Música takes place on Friday 10 May. Tickets can be booked by emailing cradley.heath@salvationarmy.org.uk or calling 01384 563570