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Care Gospel on tour in Germany

September 9^th 2010 Care Gospel set off to Germany. We were to attend the 5^th International Gospel festival in Karlsruhe and to give two other concerts in Bramsche and in Konstanz. Our fantastic conductor, Wolfgang Schmitt, was born in Germany. He has spent numerous hours planning our trip and mobilizing his large network of German friends and family. We were to experience more than once during our tour that he had thought of everything! He even drove his car with a trailer full of musical instruments and audio equipment – 6000 kilometers in total!

September 9^th: Our first concert was in the suburb Bramsche just outside Osnabrück in the church St. Martin Kirche where Wolfgang earlier served as cantor. See what the Osnabrücker Zeitung wrote about the concert:

September 10^th: We travelled towards Karlsruhe and the International Gospel Festival by train. In Köln we had arranged for a short stop, just long enough for us to visit the famous and glorious church Kölnerdomen. Upon our request, one of the priests kindly allowed us to sing one song from a stage in the middle of the church. We sang “Oh, Holy Spirit” and tourists stopped and enjoyed the performance. After this breathtaking experience we were off to Karlsruhe. We sang in the church Thomaskirche together with two German gospel choirs: Sound of Joy (from Bretzfeld) and Imbeni (from Karlsruhe). We were the last choir and our performance started about 11 o’clock p.m. The host’s conductor welcomed us in Norwegian, a friendly gesture that we greatly appreciated. About 700 people seemed to enjoy the concert. And so did we! It was a great experience to sing for a crowd like that. Thank you to the host choir for your hospitality!

September 11^th: No concerts this day. It allowed us to stroll along the streets of Karlsruhe and enjoy gospel music from several stages in the city. The largest stage was at the Europaplatz. One of the absolute highlights was the Swiss Gospel Choir singing the Norwegian psalm “Herre Gud ditt dyre navn og ære” written by the Norwegian Petter Dass– in Norwegian!  

September 12^th: Next stop was Konstanz, a beautiful town located by the Bodensee and close to the Swiss border. Our last concert was in the church Pauluskirche together with the local choir Gospel Bridge. It was a wonderful experience. We sang several songs together. And thank you to Gospel Bridge for organizing dinner after the concert.

September 13^th: The tour had come to an end and we returned home. We were all a little tired, but full of joy and thankfulness for all the wonderful things we had experienced. It was an experience for a lifetime. Care Gospel thanks everyone who in his or her own way contributed to making this a success! Thank you to each and every member of the choir, each musician in the band, the sound producer, and last but not least Wolfgang and his friends and helpers in Germany!