A four-week concert tour of Russia and the Baltic States has left 22 college students marveling at the impact their music and their faith had on both their audiences and themselves.

"It has not just been another choir tour," noted the Rev. S.T. Kimbrough Jr., as the Youth Mission Chorale 1998 prepared July 15 for its 28th and final concert. Kimbrough, who is associate general secretary for mission evangelism with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, was the group's director. The mission agency sponsored the tour.

Members of the Youth Mission Chorale 1998 in Kaliningrad, Russia, shared their music and their faith during a four-week concert tour of Russia and the Baltic States.

The students agreed.

"Our impact, I felt, always came at times when we didn't expect it," said Taemin Sohn, a recent graduate of Brown University. "It was amazing how we kept hearing report after report of how God was using us."

The group arrived June 1 at the United Methodist Hotel Viktoria in Hasliberg, Switzerland, for two weeks of rehearsals. They learned 35 sacred music selections in 14 different languages before spending a week each in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and St. Petersburg, Russia, giving concerts, offering testimony and visiting people.

Audiences at their concerts "ranged from as few as 12 to as many as 700," noted Joyce Sohl, chief executive of the board's Women's Division, who accompanied the chorale during the trip.

Fellowship after each concert allowed interaction with the audience. Although local United Methodists were present, an estimated 95 percent of the listeners were from the community, not the local church, Sohl said. The largest audience was in Vilnius, Lithuania, which has no formally organized United Methodist congregation.

"Wherever we traveled, we sensed the power of music as an avenue of mission and evangelization," Kimbrough reported. As an example, he cited an occasion where a woman rushed up to the tour bus after hearing a performance and tearfully asked to pray with one of the missionaries.

Clinton Rabb, the tour coordinator and a board executive for new church development, reported that the concerts were "high-impact" events, leaving an image of a church that sings what it believes in its heart.

The students were impressed by the commitment of the small congregations they encountered. Katrina Van Gorp, a student at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., said she had never "really appreciated what our church stands for before this (trip). It was so inspiring to see these people worshipping together just because they could."

The tour also strengthened the personal faith of the participants. LaDonna Brown, a student at Bethel College in Mishawaka, Ind., called herself a "baby Christian." But she soon learned that her lack of experience didn't mean she couldn't minister to others. "I have learned more of God's love on this trip than I have in the past two years," she wrote.

In his written reflections, Shawn Curtis of the University of Wyoming called the tour "my own personal 40 days in the wilderness." He learned that "we are all the angels delivering the message, not only to those who would listen, but to each other."

The students who participated in the tour and their institutions are:

Danton Bankay, Brooklyn (N.Y.) Conservatory of Music
LaDonna Brown, Bethel College, Mishawaka, Ind.
Shawn Curtis, University of Wyoming, Laramie
Emily Dawson, Colorado State University, Fort Collins
Shea Dibley, Gettysburg (Pa.) College
Laura Englehardt, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Ill.
Andrea Ezzell, First State University, Boone, N.C.
Shannon Gayk, Duke University, Durham, N.C.
Nicole Gerber, George Washington University, Washington D.C.
Kenneth Griswald, Millsaps College, Jackson, Miss.
Shaneik Isaac, Bennett College, Greensboro, N.C.
Tomoko Nakajima, Boston University School of the Arts
Janice Pennington, Willamette University, Salem, Ore.
Leatus Reed, Lindsey Wilson College, Columbia, Ky.
Jason Rockney California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Johanna Salgado, Delaware Technical and Community College, Dover
Matthew Shimmin, Western Illinois University, Macomb
Carrie Ann Smith, Western Carolina University, Cullawhee, N.C.
Thomas Bryson Smith, Ferrum (Va.) College
Taemin Sohn, Brown University, Providence, R.I.
Katrina Van Gorp, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa.
Ginger West, Spartanburg (S.C.) Methodist College