August 26, 2005

On their scenic way home from a retreat at Dunes Bible Camp near Ocean Park, Wash., student government and resident hall leaders came to the rescue of the Oysterville, Wash. Jazz and Oyster festival.

After worshipping in a restored church in Oysterville, the 51 student leaders and their sponsors wandered over to the festival area next door, on the grounds of a restored schoolhouse.

There were oysters a-plenty, but no jazz.

“Can you play? We need some entertainment for maybe 20 minutes,” one of the festival organizers said to Terry Williams, Corban’s director of residence life.

“It seems the people who were supposed to perform called to say they were delayed in traffic,” Williams said. “They ended up not showing until their time to perform was over, so we did, for more than two hours.”

Williams knew Junior Matt Oakes had his guitar, and called him to get it.

“I got to play for about 30 minutes, original songs I had written,” Oakes said. “I was a little nervous because it was an older crowd than I’m used to, but a lot of them came around later and thanked me and that was really encouraging.” Oakes has been playing guitar for three years and writing his own music for two. He’s a worship arts major.

Despite their need to return home, the Corban students continued to perform for the Long Beach Peninsula crowd when the group that had been hired did not arrive.

“The people were really grateful,” Oakes said. “We got to share a lot about God. I talked about God before my songs, and Nic [Sedor, PVG resident director] and I sang This is the Day, and we talked about giving God glory each day and in every type of circumstance.”

Newspaper reports later simply said the students played everything from Gospel to rock.

“I was just talking to some folks who said that in a lot of ways it was better than if we’d had a formal band,” said Dick Brown, festival president, according to the Chinook Observer. “They were spectacular!”

Williams agreed.

“It was such an unbelievable deal,” he said. “Matt’s got an unusual presentation. He was fantastic and the people loved it. Nic got to tell them what our group was doing there; that was a real testimony. Then Nic sang and one of the ladies said, ‘Oh, is he professional?’”

Heather Combs, Yvonne Cisneros and Michelle Howden sang as a trio, followed by Pam Horton and Christine Hayes as a duo.

“We said we’re from Corban College, and Terry gave a short spiel about what we’re about at our school, what Corban means,” Oakes said. “It’s just cool to see how God allows us to serve Him in these random situations with the talents He has given us. It’s neat how God allows us and provides occasions for us to share the gospel in ways we enjoy.”

As their time on stage came to a close, people in the audience passed a hat, which they gave to the students to buy meal tickets at the festival.

“This was one of those unexpected moments; I would call it a divine appointment,” Williams said. “This was not on our schedule, but I think our students were rewarded with the satisfaction of knowing they were helping out and they had an opportunity to share their faith in song.”

--By Karen L. Willoughby