In just a few hours, Bill and I will be on our way to the airport for our first ever trip to Tuva, in southern Siberia. We are taking a team of eight people on an ethnodoxology survey trip to explore how Heart Sounds International can most effectively encourage the use of heart music among the indigenous peoples of the Republic of Tuva.
The last month has been a whirl of activity for us, as our trip got re-directed from Yakutia to Tuva and we prepared for two of our biggest events this year — 1) the Ethnodoxology Course we helped to teach at Southern Seminary [read an earlier blog to see how it went], and 2) leading our first-ever short-term team to Russia. Having these two events back to back has really stretched us, but the Lord has sent wonderful people to help us; from a friend at OM who volunteered to compile E-Dox course evaluations for me, to an ethnomusicology intern from Moody (with us for 6 weeks) who is doing immense amounts of research on Tuvan music for the team. As an extra bonus, one of our team members is studying music in Moscow, and his parents are providing a “home base” for us there as we enter and leave the country. The greatest blessing of all is that we have a wonderful group that we’re taking with us; all of them are people we know and love — and all are wonderful musicians with a heart for ethnodoxology. We’re off!