December 9, 2002

Christmas begins in Pearl when choir sings
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___PEARL--Christmas officially starts Dec. 8 this year in the Central Texas community of Pearl.
___At least that's the way it feels to longtime residents like Ruth Penny, who mark the beginning of the season with an annual community concert by the Baylor Religious Hour Choir.
___The tradition began in 1984, and for Penny, "it just starts Christmas," she said. "I can't get in the mood for Christmas until the Baylor choir."
___Penny has served as pianist at Pearl Baptist Church about 45 years. She and her husband, Richard, who is the church's music director, live next door to the Pearl Community Center.
___The annual Country Christmas concerts have been held at the Community Center every year but the first year, after the crowd nearly burst the small church house at the seams.
___A capacity crowd of more than 200 people was expected for this year's concert Dec. 8, marking the 18th year of the holiday alliance between the rural community 45 miles west of Waco and the volunteer Baptist Student Ministry choir of Baylor University.
___The Pennys have been there for them all--except, of course, the one year bad weather forced a cancellation.
___The students "just make our Christmas every year," Penny said. "They're so full of energy 'til you can't help but get a little bit rubbed off on you."
___Mark Bumpus, now pastor at First Baptist Church of Mineral Wells, was pastor at Pearl when the concert tradition began. His wife, Earl Ann, had been assistant director of the Baptist Student Union at Baylor and suggested the BRH Choir be invited for a Christmas concert.
___The first year was such a success that the choir was invited back the next year to a bigger venue at the Community Center, a renovated high school auditorium.
___"The second year, the atmosphere was just electric," Bumpus recalled. "People came out of the woodwork to attend. News had traveled about how good it had been the year before."
___With churches of other denominations canceling Sunday evening services to attend, the community atmosphere reminded Bumpus of a scene from "It's a Wonderful Life."
___It was "nostalgic and heart-warming," he said.
___And it still is, according to Rebecca Kennedy, adviser to the BRH Choir.
___"The students love it," she said. "It's something consistent for them. For older members, it's a great tradition to pass on. They love to see familiar faces in the crowd. They love the small-town mentality.
___"It's not their home, but it's kind of their home. It's something they look forward to every year. They love the hominess of it."
___The people of Pearl are "very warm, very inviting, very down-to-earth," Kennedy explained. "They are just so friendly and love for the students to come. The students are loved on and appreciated."
___The evening begins with a dinner for the choir--a spread that has become legendary itself.
___In addition to tables of homemade pies and cookies and cakes, "they always have a special dessert called Blueberry Dump, and the choir talks about it every year," Kennedy said.
___After the concert, there's a community reception, "so everyone stays and eats again," she added. "It's kind of like what you would expect your grandparents to have done. It's a step back from the students' normal chaotic routine."
___This year's concert, like all the others, was to begin with a few selections from the choir's fall repertoire, then segue into Christmas favorites. "Sometimes we have a sing-along in the middle," Kennedy said. "We'll have them call out a favorite Christmas song, then we'll all sing it together."
___The theme of "Country Christmas" is portrayed visually by a backdrop of seasonal homemade quilts across the stage.
___Admission is free, but the community provides a love offering for the choir that helps fund the group's mission work throughout the year.
___Sometimes, though, the choir members leave with even greater blessings than the love offering or the good cooking.
___Penny recalls one year two students arrived a bit late and were rushing to get from the Community Center to the church for dinner. As one of them sat down in the car seat, his pants ripped.
___"He looked up at me and said: 'Ma'am, I just ripped the seat of my britches. What am I going to do?' I said, 'You're going out to my house, and we're going to sew them up."
___And they did. And the concert went on as planned, with everyone fully clothed.
___The Bumpuses continue to draw satisfaction from the impact of the holiday tradition, even though they don't live in Pearl anymore.
___"I ran into a Baylor student one day, got acquainted, found out he was a member of the BRH Choir, and he began to tell me about a tradition the choir participates in at Christmastime," Bumpus said. "He proceeded to tell me about the Pearl Christmas concert.
___"I just listened with pleasure as he told me about how meaningful it was to him, the choir and the Pearl community."

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