AFTER NEARLY A year, 19 members of the acclaimed St. Sabina Selah Youth Choir on Monday, November 20, left for Cape Town, South Africa, to sing at the Breede Valley School of Skills and other churches, sharing their many talents and spreading love and hope throughout that continent. On the eve of their departure, Father Michael Pfleger held a corporate prayer for their safe passage, then shocked the youth when he gave each a $50 bill. (Photo by Chinta Strausberg)
Pfleger prays for safe travels, surprises choir members with cash gift
Father Michael Pfleger stunned members of the St. Sabina Selah Youth Choir during Sunday’s November 19 worship service when he held a corporate prayer for their safe trip to South Africa, then handed a crisp $50 bill to each of the 19 choir members.
The choir, along with several adult chaperones, including Reverend Fred Wilson, assistant Minister of Youth at St. Sabina, left for South Africa on Monday, November 20, after spending nearly a year in fundraising activities.
According to Wilson, the choir members will perform at the Breede Valley School of Skills and at other churches throughout South Africa. The road to the African continent was far from easy for the youth ages 6-18.
The choir had faced a September 14 deadline by which they had to raise $95,700. They missed the deadline, but somehow by baking more cakes, cookies and receiving donations, including one from St. Sabina’s Sabor Latino Ministry, the group came up with enough funds to travel to South Africa.
Working closely with the choir, Jacinta Warnie, Minister of Youth for St. Sabina Church, called the trip “a lifetime dream” they were determined would “become a reality.”
According to Warnie, the St. Sabina Youth Choir has sung on national TV, at the Gospel Music Festival, at the UniverSoul Circus, at Mayor Brandon Johnson’s pre-inaugural Interfaith Breakfast and at the City of Chicago’s Interfaith Indigent Memorial Service.
However, Warnie explained “that the seeds of this mission to travel were planted in August of 2019 when we produced an online, livestreamed performance under the direction of Selah choir director Sam Williams and me at Oakdale,” Warnie recently told the Chicago Crusader.
Back then the Selah Youth Choir had partnered with counterparts from Trinity United Church of Christ and Oakdale Covenant Church. The three-tiered youth choir was originally known as “The Better Together Unity Choir,” according to Warnie.
When members of a South African church, with which the Oakdale Church had a long-standing relationship, saw the Selah Youth Choir sing online, they invited them to come to South Africa. However, COVID-19 surfaced, and the trip was canceled.
Fast forward four years, and Warnie said that invitation was renewed with the youth scheduled to sing in Cape Town just before Thanksgiving. While that was the good news, the bad news was that the trip had increased to $2,900 per student.
It took nearly a year for the St. Sabina Selah Choir members to raise tens of thousands of dollars for the trip baking, selling cookies, cakes and accepting donations from many.
On the eve of their departure, the choir members were shocked when Pfleger and the congregation not only prayed for their safe passage, but the pastor presented each with $50 to spend, which in the South Africa Rand is worth about 18.29.
