STOCKHOLM (BP) – When Eric Haney stepped onto the train platform after a long night of music rehearsal, his eyes were drawn to the wall of posters advertising music groups and concerts. It was all black, with what Eric describes as the “saddest looking people I’ve ever seen.” The wall represented the reason Eric and his wife Anissa moved to Europe 11 years ago and what has inspired their latest project “Stories of Hope.”
Stories of Hope is a multimedia venture that has at its core seven New Testament stories put to music and orchestration. The songs will be performed at the Jazz Festival in Stockholm in October and will be released on a new album in November, which will include a narrative reading of each Bible story. The songs will also be used as the foundation of a devotional series on the YouVersion Bible app and will be promoted through the Stories of Hope website and social media sites.
“We’re starting here, but our dream is that this will be a global ministry. We want to see the music we’ve created used in other countries with the stories being read in their heart languages,” Anissa said. “We want to have posters about our project all over that wall outside the train platform. We want to create a wall of hope and not darkness.”
The vision
Stories of Hope was birthed in Anissa’s heart many years ago. When she and Eric first began their overseas ministry, they heard about the concept of Bible storying through a colleague who works primarily with cultures who learn best through oral methods – telling and hearing stories rather than reading them. Eric is a trumpeter and Anissa a vocalist. Both are well-rounded musicians used to telling stories through music. The idea of relating the truths of Scripture through story form worked beautifully in tandem with their vision to reach the arts community through music.
When they moved to Stockholm, they began to share Bible stories from Scripture and saw an overwhelming response. Storying Scripture helped them connect spiritual realities with the needs of the people around them.
“Wow. These stories in our context connect to personal stories and experiences,” Anissa said. “We started to see how putting these stories to music and song, to help people hear them in a fresh, new way, could be life-changing.”
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Source: Baptist Press
