Chapter 133
6:15 PM CST Day four of 1260 Kansas City, Missouri - Liberty Memorial, staging area, Reverend Thomas
Thomas had the choirs and singers in place on the stage and was doing a last minute check with the sound technicians and the cameras. He had a featured renowned international singing star that was going to sing with the award winning acclaimed Black Choir from Center Church in Chicago. The choir had made the pilgrimage at their own expense, paid through donations from their church. Sarah would be singing the lead to “Amazing Grace,” which was the last song before Jack came onto the stage. He also had three other choirs from the Kansas City area that would be performing before her.
They were all in the display building at the south side of the Memorial, where the directors from Bear News were giving last minute instructions to the performers. He noticed also that some very high profile local talents were there. Clyde West, a local country singer was going to sing an Elvis spiritual song, ‘Mama Liked the Roses.’ He would be first on and backed up by the local Methodist Church choir, his band and the Kansas City Philharmonic, as all the singers were singing with them. With the philharmonic volunteering, this was turning into quite a production. The Philharmonic was also performing one of the scores from Handel’s “Messiah.”
Thomas felt he had done as well as he could and he hoped Jack approved of the songs. Jack had been lenient in letting him choose the songs for the pre-sermon entertainment. Thomas knew that people expected this prior to hearing God’s word, as it put them in the mood. Song and prayer always did.
He walked up to Clyde and said, “You have about ten minutes. I will start with a prayer, and then you will come to center stage. You and the choir need to get into position now, please.”
“No problem Reverend,” Clyde said. “I am ready. I just need to plug in my guitar and the band is already out there. We practiced with the orchestra. It’s gonna sound pretty.”