What the general public seldom grasps is the sacrifices that Harlem Ambassadors' performers make when they are on the road for two or three months at a time. Sure there is the excitement of performing and travelling. Entertaining audiences and bringing joy and happiness to others can be very rewarding. But life on the road can be very challenging when you're hundreds of miles away and a family member is hospitalized or a loved one has passed.
The Harlem Ambassadors are professionals in show business with a heavy performance schedule. Audiences buy tickets for shows and, in the words of that old show business axiom, the show must go on. But how can you go on with the show when you are miles away from your loved ones and grieving.
Although I'm not a regular performer, I've found myself in that very same spot. In the early days of spinning off a second tour, I was scheduled to train a new announcer at the start of a tour. The show is nearly impossible to announce until you've seen it two or three times and I was the only one in our organization available to train a rookie. A day before the tour was to start, my father-in-law passed in Chicago. While I explored every possible alternative, the bottom-line was this: while my wife, my daughters, and my entire family was mourning in Chicago, I was on-tour with the Harlem Ambassadors' in Montana. The show must go on!
The only way that I could get through that isolation was to call on the Holy Spirit to be a comforter to me and an interpreter for me. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit does both of those things. Check out 2 Corinthians 1:3-6 and Romans 8:26. I needed to call on the Holy Spirit to comfort me and my family during our time of grieving and my time of isolation. And I needed the Holy Spirit to help intepret my actions to family members and help them understand why I wasn't there. The awesome thing is that He did all that and so much more!
At the present time, we have several performers going through that isolation at a time of loss or during family crisis. I'm praying that each will be able to be where they need to be with their families when they need to be there. I encourage each of them to trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding. Trust in the Holy Spirit to comfort yourselves and your grieving families. Trust in Him to work out travel and performance schedules and He will come through for you!
We encourage all of our righteous supporters to keep our touring performers lifted up in prayer for we know that "the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective." James 5:16
