mountain view jr. music club

Friday, July 31, 2026

Life Update

Fourteen years ago, we moved our music studio from the Birmingham area down to the Auburn/Opelika area because my husband became the pastor of a small church plant.

During that year of the move, we gave one final recital with our Birmingham music students and took the remainder of the year off to focus on transitioning to a new area.

In the Spring of 2013, we were blessed to start teaching some private music students again. We continued to participate in the AFMC music festivals and the ACEA Fine Arts competitions and our students continued the legacy of winning awards and their gold music cups with the federation of music clubs.

Since that time, all our students that participated in the AFMC received superior ratings and were awarded their gold cup trophies.

In 2013, our church started an off campus church school called Heritage Christian Academy in 2013. Through the years, these students have placed in every catagory they have entered over the last 14 years!

HCA and MVJR music club students have qualified to compete at Nationals in the AACS Fine Arts competition every year we have entered.

To date, we have students who have placed first at Nationals in both brass (2017)and female vocal solo (2024) second in small instrumental ensemble (2024), third in small instrumental ensemble (2022;2026), and third place in sacred piano duet (2026).

We have placed first, second, and third in so many catagories at the state level through the years that it would be too laborious to list every win in this update post.

Student pictures, update posts, video clips and YouTube recitals uploaded on our school Facebook and Instagram page have taken the place of this blog through the years.

I celebrated my 30th year of teaching in 2023! Four of our five children have gone on to become music teachers and teach private music instruction in brass, violin, cello, viola, piano, and voice! Our son is a music pastor of a church and school in Birmingham and our oldest daughter just moved to Arizona to start her own music studio there.

God has blessed us by giving us opportunities to play our instruments and sing all over the world the past 14 years!

To date, we have performed throughout the entire USA, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Chile, Bolivia, Philipines, and Japan.

The youngest four children formed a string quartet known as Heritage Strings and have kept busy performing for weddings, conferences, camps, funerals and church services.

Last year, we went on a mission trip to Chile and our oldest two girls performed in the Netherlands with their college choir which placed fourth in an International choir competition.

Alayna was able to accompany her choir on the violin in several concerts throughout the European region. All of our girls have served as concert masters of their various youth orchestras and our second daughter Ashlyn is currently the concert master for the JSU Civic Symphony.

Many of our MVJR music club students have gone on to study music in college and received full ride scholarships through the years.

We praise the Lord for equipping and gifting these students with all these talents and abilities. God has sent us many gifted and hard working students and dedicated parents that made sure they applied themselves in practice.

It brings us great joy seeing our students using their music to serve the Lord all over the world.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Is it REALLY important to learn music?

Thad directing/teaching a choir workshop to the people of Victory Baptist Church in Panama

A talented young man in Panama who is preparing to serve in full time ministry

What a year it has been for Mountain View Jr. Music Club so far! How blessed we are to have had the opportunity to see the Lord at work in the hearts and lives of people in Panama and Trinidad this summer! When you travel to visit other ministries, you are able to see how important music and musicians are in helping to spread the good news of Jesus Christ!

Digital Piano donated to the Victory Baptist Church by the Mountain View Baptist Church Mission Team

Music can "open the door" to: WITNESS... by drawing a crowd for church services or special meetings.You should see how the people gather at an assisted living center, hospital,or street corner and whip out their cell phones to record a group of musicians singing or playing instruments!..(specifically if it is a group of children and teens.) HELP one to strike up a conversation with a stranger because they see you carrying an instrument around and they are curious to know what you play. ...3. SPREAD the gospel message,scripture and Bible doctrine through song.

Kuna Indian ladies in choir workshop in Panama

....4. AIDE believers in preparing their hearts for worship Small churches around the world know the importance of having a quality music program, yet they can't offer to pay what the big churches offer to have quality musicians play and sing for their worship services. Many missionaries live in mission fields where music teachers are not readily available to teach their children music lessons. Our hearts were touched by the pleas of the teens we met on our mission trips asking us if we would stay for a year so that they could learn how to play the piano and sing!

Mrs. Booth and her daughter

While in Trinidad, the missionary's wife took every opportunity she could to ask questions in order that she could learn how to help her adult, children, ladies, and teen choirs. She was grateful for every piece of music, recording, computer game, and instructional d.v.d that was given to her. In both mission churches, it was convicting to see how their people were utilizing every moment to develop their talents to serve the Lord to their fullest potential! Their church members would sit through four to five hour choir workshops and voice lessons.

Arianna, the talented young lady who gets two to three piano lessons a year, yet is being used greatly as the the church pianist in Trinidad.

Missionary's wife in Trinidad and her ladies ensemble

The missionary's daughter in Trinidad came home from camp and had a piano lesson that started after 10:00 p.m. and lasted until after MIDNIGHT! Seeing the great needs in the churches around us, and throughout the world, has lit a passion within us to equip musicians to serve the Lord and to encourage them to use their gifts in talents in their own church music programs. Although you may attend a church that doesn't seem to "need" any more musicians, you must prepare for the day when you or your child may be used of the Lord to minister through music in a nursing home, hospital, small church, children's church, choir, orchestra, small instrumental ensemble,on a mission field, or with a short term mission team.

Past and present students of Mountain View Jr. Music Club practicing for a special in Panama

MVJMC expects much from it's students because we know that the major opportunity to prepare for future service is NOW during their school years. If students rely upon God to help them to be teachable, to practice correctly, to share their gifts and talents with others as they have opportunity, and to apply what they have learned during lessons, they will find God using them to be a blessing in their local church and possibly around the world!

The Pan/Am orchestra playing Sunday in Panama

Preparing another ladies special for Panama services

Accompanying the church service of another church we visited in Panama. The piano was not in tune and didn't have all the keys, but she IMPROVISED!

There is JOY in serving Jesus

Emily with a piano offertory in Panama

Music method books, vocal training books and DVDs, vocal and piano music (along with the recorded midi accompaniments on a flash drive) were also donated to the Charity Baptist Church in Trinidad. * Special thanks to Kathy and Marissa for recording the accompaniments and to Bill for transferring the midi files from the floppy disks and sending them through email or order that they could be downloaded to a flashdrive and used to accompany the choirs and special music in Trinidad!*

Pan/Am ladies special all in Spanish

Prepare to GIVE YOUR BEST to the Master this year and it is our prayer that you will grow in your personal relationship with God this year. As you live to serve and please God with your time and talents, you will find your musicianship improving! Maybe you will find yourself recording music for missionaries, accompanying a choir or church service, arranging or composing music, organizing a musical group, or providing the special music for your church or community within the near future!

Summer News

Several present and former students of MVJMC, Emily, Garron, Christine('04) Patricia('09), Marissa ('12), and Victoria ('12), took the opportunity to go on a missions trip to Panama this summer. They all were a HUGE blessing to the missionaries and church there in Panama! They helped paint, sew new curtains for the auditorium, sing, clean buildings, pass out salvation tracts and literature, build new benches for the S.S. classrooms, play in the Panamanian/American orchestra, and provide piano and instrumental offertories for the various services. What a blessing it was to see God working in our hearts and lives as well as in the hearts and lives of those we came to minister to. The team went together to purchase a digital keyboard, sewing machine, gospel cd's to distribute, and spanish piano method books for the church members of Victory Baptist to start learning how to play the piano.