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This photo of the Son’s Rays was taken some years ago on Artist Point. The picture was believed to have been taken by Lutsen photographer Jackie Odermann. Photo courtesy of Dode Stoskopf
It is hard to believe that 50 years have passed since that first song was sung by seven scared seventh graders gathered around the baptismal font in the back of the church. They did not want to see the congregation. Seeing the congregation made them too nervous! Today we can look back at the many concerts we have sung all over the United States and abroad and realize how God has blessed us, and we are so thankful!
The women have grown up with Son’s Rays as a part of their lives as they traveled through the 7-12th grades.
Wednesday night was the Son’s Ray’s practice. The kids filled the steps at Bethlehem Lutheran Church with a bond that went way beyond song to sharing, crying, and laughing together. No practice or concert was done without beginning with a prayer. We knew we had God with us, and that has held us together when we are apart. And when lives took a hard turn through problems, concerns, deaths, and simply life, we could respond to count on the prayers of our fellow Son’s Rays.
Sunday, August 8, will be the 50th Birthday Celebration Concert. The Rays who can gather will again sing our songs for the community who come to hear them. We will assemble on August 8 for a Prelude of Praise at 9:45 a.m., followed by sharing songs throughout the worship at 10 a.m.
You are all invited!
The offering selections for Son’s Rays Concerts have always had specific criteria. We choose them based on our County, our Northern Minnesota area, and our ties with those places that we have sung away from the US. Our 50th year’s free-will-offering, collected on August 8, will be given to the Cook County Domestic Violence program, the Village Library in Chaguanas, Trinidad (for children’s books and equipment), and the Alliance Recovery Program in Duluth.
Those who need help with the hold addiction has made on their life are carefully and lovingly cared for by this place and its staff. The Agency was started by a West End friend, Beth Buckman Elstad. Her personal story is one of inspiration and courage and will be told in more detail in our Concert program. The Agency’s work is primarily reaching those in the Duluth area, but soon, it will also be connecting with Cook County as far up as Grand Portage. The Rays welcome such programs and want to celebrate this effort being made by Beth and her staff.
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