“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” –Matthew 28:19

This week has been one of anticipation. For the past few months The Arthur Button Accordion Group has been practicing and preparing to go global. Well, it has finally happened! No, we are not booked for a trip to Europe. In fact our next stop is the Lion’s Club Duck race here in Arthur. Actually, we are now global in the fact that we are now on the Internet. The group of musicians has been working hard to learn two new songs. With great discipline we have gathered on Wednesday nights to try to play the Newfoundland song, “Wave Over Wave” and the old folk song, “The Leaving of Liverpool”. We had played both of these songs at Arthur United Church’s “Variety and Fun Night” about a week ago. The time was right for us to record ourselves. Therefore, we had the camera set up by our harmonica/ugly stick player, Al Rawlins last Wednesday night. Chairs were configured and we all took our places. The “on” button was pushed and we squeezed, clattered, and strummed out both songs. After reviewing the results on a laptop computer, we decided that it was about as good as we will ever get, so we went on to stage two.
It is a blessing in our community to have a local business that can help us with modern technology. The movie clips were taken to Corey, at Core Central Computers, where he was kind enough to get us uploaded onto You Tube on the Internet. Now, if you have a computer at home, or perhaps you might book some time at one at the Arthur Public Library, you will be able to see and hear us. So far, it appears that over 60 people have viewed us over the last couple of days.
I would not want to say that this move into higher technology is going to make us play any better. Nor would I predict that we will become world famous and that we should be making sure our passports are up-to-date. Still, it is a great way for people around the world to realize that they are not alone in their love of our style of music and the instruments that play it. There are already folks that I contact through the computer from Newfoundland to England, who share our enthusiasm, but now an even larger group of people might learn to appreciate the fun and fellowship we have.
In the Bible, Jesus sends out his disciples with a message too. The new faith had started in a small middle-eastern Roman province, but the excellent Roman road system, the Roman post, and the fact that the seas were protected by the Roman navy allowed that message to spread around the Mediterranean. These disciples had the discipline to use these advantages to spread the “Good News”.
In our day, perhaps we need to review all the means available to us in order to spread the “Good News” too. I know that my church has its own computer website on the Internet, but is it enough? Do we need to look more closely at the means of communication that younger people use?  Our experiment with the Arthur Button Accordion Group’s upload to You Tube might just be the proof we need that even here in Arthur, we need to go global just to get the “Good News” message to the person across town.