Flowers and Friends

This evening, a special event took place right here in the comfort of our own home.

Our dear friend and JV teammate, Shelby Flowers, put on one of her "Flowers and Friends" concerts that she's done over the past few years here in the Ostrava area.

Except this year, the friends were not there as musicians (as the concerts have always been live with her musician friends), but rather were those of us WATCHING the concert, Shelby explained!

We had one sleepy friend and one VERY interested friend at Shelby's concert!

Shelby is an incredibly gifted pianist, and blessed us all with an hour long concert, done from her home, in the midst of this Coronavirus quarantine we're all in right now.

She played a mixture of music - jazz, hymn arrangements of some of the songs she finds most beautiful, and her own compositions. She wrote on her Facebook page, "The inspiration for this event is the phrase "for such a time as this" - finding opportunity in the midst of crisis and peace in the midst of restlessness."

What a SPECIAL concert it was! So full of heart, love, kindness and beauty. If you want to watch it for yourself (since maybe you're at home too), you can find it on her FB page HERE. Click "See all posts" and scroll down just a little bit and it will be there.

Charlie was quite captivated by Shelby (until called by his dad to take his bath!). I happened to take a video of him at one point when he touched the screen, where her piano was, and then started playing his fingers, as if he too was playing the piano! Wish I could post the video, but a picture taken about the same time will have to do.

During the concert, one of her pieces was a medley of music she composed and recorded for our JV Prayer Room (she's recorded 210 minutes of music for it!).

Before she played, she asked if those watching would pray as she played, for the doctors and nurses, scientists and police officers impacted by the Coronavirus, and for people, whether sick with it or struggling with the quarantine. It's at about the 38:00 minute mark of the video, if you want to listen there.

She also let the online audience participate in helping her compose a song during the concert! You just have to listen to hear the amazing piece she composed right there on the spot!

Jenna was with me for most of the concert, asleep, but surely hearing somewhere in her soul, the music of a gifted woman who was kind enough to share her gift with all of us this evening.

Thank you Shelby! I love and treasure you, as I know many others do!