Mitchell G. is one of the young musicians at LCH. He organized the first Children’s Benefit Concert for Heifer International in 2006 and another in 2007.

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LCH Stewardship 2007—Temple Talk by Mitchell G.

Hi. I’m Mitchell. This is why I play.

I play for three groups of people. I play for my family. I mean, why not? They do so much to support me and I know they really enjoy hearing me play. I play for the audience. I know you guys really enjoy seeing me play and I like to see you enjoy it. And last but not least, I play for the poor, sick, unhealthy people that benefit from the money that comes from the Heifer Ark Project. That’s why I’ve done the Heifer Benefit Concerts.

One day in the car I was talking to my mom about doing a concert. You see, I had been listening to an audio book of Anne of Green Gables. So I said, “You know, they did a lot of concerts in Anne of Green Gables. How about we do a fundraising concert for Reid and my club, the Exo-mynas?”

My mom said, “You know, I don’t think many people would give money to the Exo-mynas. People like to give to charity groups, like Heifer International.”

Then I said, “Yeah, let’s do it for Heifer. Do you think we could actually make it happen? We can get all the kids to play for it.”

My mom said, “Building a robot I cannot help you with, Mitchell, but doing a benefit concert I can.”

When the first concert actually happened, I was ecstatic. Watching everyone perform gave me the feeling that my heart had wings and lifted up. I was so glad to see everyone play and I enjoyed watching the performances. When it was my turn to play, those wings turned into a Boeing 747. My heart was jumping up and down inside its socket with the rush of adrenaline. It took most of my focus to perform for the crowd. It was one of the largest performances I had ever done—a real benchmark. The adrenaline died down, the plane landed, and the wings came back.

Why not stop? Why not quit doing it since we’ve already done so much to help those poor people? Why not? We’re trying to stop world hunger, right? World hunger isn’t going to stop by us doing two benefit concerts and then quitting. It’s going to take lots of churches doing lots of projects and a more peaceful world to stop world hunger. I still have the same feeling about doing it as I did when I was eight.

You can do it. Some of you have already done it. Some of you are doing it today. Use your talents. Share with the world. Or you can do it at the Ark IV Benefit Concert on February 9th. Whatever. But please come! Thank you.