ON HARMONY...

Today, I enjoy being able to play the trumpet!  And it`s all because of my early days, learning the fundamentals of music.

Flutophone

My first experience with music was in the third grade in Grammar School, Houlton, Maine. A note was sent home to the parents that there would be Flutophones available to students who wished to learn the basics of music and play an instrument. I was eager to play the Flutophone. If I remember correctly, the cost was $3.00.

Flutophone Orchestra

Mrs. McGillicuddy was our music teacher and once a week she would come to our school to teach us. First we learned to play the C scale on the white flute style instrument. Then we learned to play several songs like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Red River Valley and You Are My Sunshine. Then we performed before the rest of the school in the auditorium and we were simply called the Flutophone Orchestra.

When I entered the fourth grade I moved next door to the Lambert Elementary School. Once again, at the first of the year, a note was sent home to Mom and Dad explaining that students could enroll in the School Band. The note gave a list of instruments that a student could choose as their band instrument. I remember going down through the list with my dad. He explained to me that if I learned to play a three valve brass instrument like the trumpet or cornet I would be able to play most any three valve brass instrument. So I chose the Baritone. Before I went to bed that night he made me promise that I would practice one hour each day. I agreed!

Baritone

I recall going to the school band room for my first band class with Mr. McGillicuddy. That day I received my Baritone. Now if you have never seen a Baritone before, it’s about 15 lbs of brass tubing twisting around until the end flairs upward into a large bell. It is just a little bit smaller than a Tuba. Since I was always quite short...(thanks mom!)...it was literally as tall as I was, without any exaggeration. That same day I carried the Baritone in its’ big black case all the way home from school, stopping every few feet to switch hands. The thing was a monster. I didn’t know how I would do this every day! I remember climbing the long set of steps to our home on the second floor of the church in Houlton, stopping at each step to catch my breath and to re-adjust.

When I finally struggled through the door, I thought my dad was gonna “split his sides” as he burst into laughter when he saw me carrying the huge Baritone case that was bigger than I was. He literally stood there laughing his head off!  He said, “Let’s see it, son!” as he chuckled. When I got the baritone out and sat down to show him how to hold it, he took to laughin’ again! Then he said, “Let’s try something!” He got me to get into the big black case and lay down. I can still hear him laughing as he closed the top and fastened it!! I was pounding on the case for him to let me out! .......Folks, It’s no wonder my head is so messed up!! HAAA!

Alto Horn

For one full week I carried that thing back and forth to school until one night dad said, “We need to look the list over again because there must be something a little smaller that you can choose.” That night I chose the E-Flat Alto Horn which was about one third the size of the Baritone. Much nicer! I played that horn for the full school year. Each school night Dad made me practice the horn for one hour...as agreed! Thanks Dad!

There were many great things that I learned during those early years of playing in the school band. I learned about the importance of being in tune and playing in harmony with the others.

Harmony is defined as the use of simultaneous pitches, tones, notes, or chords played or sung together and in balance. Harmony usually sounds pleasant to the ear when there is a balance between the consonant and dissonant sounds. Therefore disharmony is an imbalance between sound pitches and tones and is most often unpleasant to the ears.

It wasn’t hard to recognize when an instrument was out of tune or when the student wasn’t playing the right notes during a song. Believe me, the first few weeks of ‘school band” was almost unbearable. The sounds that came from us would have made a grown man cry! Thank God Mr. McGillicuddy had faith in us!  The wrong tone or note always stood out and would literally mess up our performance. There were even times when my horn was out of tune and Mr. McGillicuddy would stop everyone and he would help me tune my instrument by adjusting the tuning slide on my horn. Every day he would bring out the “Tone Generator” which was a device that was perfectly tuned to “concert C” or another note if so desired. The Tone Generator would sound out the note and individually we would bring our instrument in tune with the sound from the Tone Generator. Sometimes it took quite awhile, but he knew it was very important that every instrument be in tune with the same reference point.  He never tuned one instrument to another instrument. He always used the Tone Generator. This guaranteed an orchestra in perfect tune!

The success of the orchestra depended on all of us being “in tune” and playing the right notes at the right time. And eventually we did it!! And we sounded great!!

I say all that to say this. Everything we do in life requires HARMONY. Whether at home or at work, at play, or even in the church, harmony is so very vital! The Apostle Paul talked in several places about disharmony and how detrimental it can be to everything around us. 

Marriages need harmony and that is something that doesn’t just happen. Sometimes we as married couples need to stop and get ourselves in tune with Jesus so that the home will always be a place of harmony and joy.

In our Christian faith we need to walk in harmony with each other. Sometimes there are disagreements but in those times we need to stop and examine the Word of God and bring ourselves back into tune with the harmonics of the Bible. You see, the Bible is our “tone generator”, our “Concert C”, our reference point! If people would tune themselves constantly to the Word of God and more particularly, Jesus Christ, there would be no division in any aspect of our lives. 

The Apostle Paul said it like this, “Confusion?...We have no such custom!” Because confusion is like disharmony and it just sounds awful! Another place in the Bible says that confusion is not of God, therefore it must be of Satan!

The Bible speaks of unity, which, in a manner of speaking, is like harmony. Psalms 133 describes what unity is like. It's like the anointing oil of the Lord that runs down upon us and we all know that oil always makes things run smoother! That oil creates in us a spirit of kindness and love.

As for having harmony, sometimes it’s just learning the Bible way of being kind to one another! And YES!!....LOVE HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH IT!!   SRR

Let me out of here!

PS:   By the way, when I die, just find me an old black Baritone case...I fit! I tried it one day!!



Click here to hear a Flutophone Concert

ON POINTING FINGERS...

Kids are so awesome! So much can be taught as we look, listen, and learn!

My Son-In-Law, Pastor Len, was preaching last night at VBC. He made a reference using the word, “temptation”. A little girl spoke up asking, “What is temptation?” Len repeated her question with a pondering look and then went on to say, “Temptation is when you see some candy on the shelf in a store and something says to you, “Go ahead, take it, just put it in your pocket, no one will know. That’s temptation. But you know that would be stealing, right?” 

Without hesitation another little girl shot her hand straight up in the air, and with her other hand, pointed her finger across the aisle toward the other side of the tent and shouted out, “Yeah, my brother, Ethan steals everything! He steals all the money that he finds in our house and even steals from.....” The tent went totally silent as she went on and on and on telling all the details until Len finally had to interrupt her! I looked across the tent to a poor little boy who was white as a ghost with a look like he was saying, “What are you doing to me girl?” He seemed quite humiliated!!

Reminded me of the story where the disciples brought the woman to Jesus who had sinned! They wanted judgement! How often do we see the speck in another person’s eye when we have a mote in our own? Have you ever wished you could point your finger across the aisle while the preacher is preaching? HAA!

The Bible instructs us to examine our OWN heart and to work out our OWN salvation...not everyone else’s! Next time the preacher is preaching be careful of the “temptation” to point a finger!  SRR

ON BIG MIRACLES FOR LITTLE PEOPLE....

We are always amazed at the little people God sends to Victory Bible Camp each year.  This year we have already heard some incredible testimonies from some of the children. Testimonies that have brought tears to our eyes.

Marc and Pastor Roach

We have a beautiful child with us this year who survived the earthquake in Haiti! His name is Marc.  He was living in Haiti at the time. When the earthquake struck he and his aunt were in a building that collapsed. As he and his aunt were buried alive, a steel pipe impaled his aunt through her abdomen killing her and the end of the same pipe entered into Marc's head. You can see the scar on his head and the many scars on his body. When everything settled, he was stuck, hanging upside down next to his aunt. For ten hours in this position he was helpless and was literally being crushed to death under the heavy debris. Needless to say, it is only a miracle that he is alive today.

What  a privilege to have this "miracle boy" with us this year at VBC!


We never know who we can minister to at this camp. We have lots to tell! God is doing great things! Thanks for praying for us. We have over 90 on the campground this week! Largest Children's Camp ever, at VBC!  SRR

ON SOME THINGS JUST DON’T MIX...

Growing up in the Roach home was often like living in a "glass house". We were observed by people inside and outside of the church most of the time. Incidentally, that is one of the reasons why many PK’s (Preacher’s Kids) do not continue to serve the Lord. The standard of living is often too much for some kids to bear and as a result, the "glass house" becomes very disenchanting for them. 

Being raised in a Pastor’s home meant that my life was a very sheltered life. I was sheltered from much of the world’s way of living. I had never smoked a cigarette, never tasted beer, and swearing or cursing was strongly prohibited along with many other things! Every time the doors of the church were open, I was there. I was involved in the music of the church ever since I was eleven years old playing my trumpet and the drums. Not at the same time. :-)  I always knew that someday I would be involved in the Work of the Lord for my entire life.

I remember when I was 16 years old. I had just passed my driver’s license test and was pretty proud that I only got one question wrong. I thought I was pretty cool! You know that time of life when you are a much smarter than you really are? HA! It was also a time in my life when I thought it would be cool to run with a different crowd. The non-church crowd! I soon learned that the “road of the world” was not such a delightful road.

I remember each day at noon many High School students would leave the school and head for the shopping center in Oromocto for lunch. We usually ended up at the A&W. I loved their whistledog, fries and cold Root Beer.

One particular day I was walking with a group of guys toward the Center and I wanted so much to be accepted by them but could never really seem to fit in. They were guys that were not church goers by any means. It would be difficult for me because they only knew me as the “Preacher's Kid” and my personal Christian status prevented me from being “just one of the boys”! Apparently they felt I wasn’t the right kind of material, being a so called, “Bible Thumper”! Well, I was determined to show them that I could qualify as one of them!  It was this day, just after a nice rain storm, that I purposely stepped into a mud puddle soaking my pants all the way up to my knees.

Now to many it might not seem like such bad thing, but at that moment I let out a four letter curse word to the top of my voice! It actually felt kinda good rolling off the end of my tongue! Right then it was as though time stopped dead! Every one of the guys stopped in their tracks, went silent and just stared at me! They were obviously shocked to hear that come out of my mouth! Two things went through my head. First, I thought, this has let them see that I can be a “tough guy” too and secondly, I felt very embarrassed and stupid...all at the same time! We continued on our way and none of them commented or said anything about my abnormal behaviour.

That afternoon, I got on our school bus for the trip home to Hoyt. One of the guys, a couple years older than I, that was more or less the leader of that pack, who had witnessed my earlier demonstration, slid onto the seat beside me. He sat there in silence. Once the bus got out onto the road, he turned toward me and for the next little while he read the “riot act” to me about my little episode. It was like a father reprimanding his son. He said things like, “Who do you think you are? You know better than to think you are like the rest of us. Don’t you EVER think you’re going to change your ways and live like us. You’ve got a great life with a great family and you don’t ever want to give that up! Furthermore, what would your father think?” He lectured me most of the way home. Remember, this guy wasn’t a church goer! He told me of things that had happened in his own life that weren’t very pleasant. Things he had witnessed because of the crowd that he hung with. He even lifted his pant leg and showed me a flat bottle of hard liquor protruding from the top of his boot! He explained how he was hooked on that stuff and how he wished he could be free of it! I was stunned! I was humiliated! I felt dirty in my heart!!

The Church in Hoyt, New Brunswick

When the school bus dropped me off at the parsonage, I remember going directly into the church alone and falling on my knees at the altar and pouring my heart out to God asking for His forgiveness. With tears, I repented, telling God how much I loved Him and that I would serve Him all the days of my life!

Never again did I desire to run with the “Wild Horses”. That was not the life for me! Some things just don’t mix! In fact it was that same year that I attended the Annual Youth Convention in Fredericton and in one of the last services I remember how God transformed my life! It was in that Convention that God put His CALL upon me and ever since then, I have never looked back!

To this day I still have NEVER smoked a cigarette nor tasted beer! Sadly, I can’t say that about the cussin’! I should have had my mouth washed out with soap!!

After going to St. Paul, Minnesota for Bible College, I heard the great news that the same guy who had lectured me on the bus, GAVE HIS HEART TO LORD IN THE CHURCH IN HOYT!  SRR