A Denton couple was surprised to learn that feeding the soul is almost as important as feeding the body.

Beverly Hoch and Mike Steinel can do music.

Courtesy Photo

Soprano Beverly Hoch and her husband, trumpeter Mike Steinel, are raising money and collecting musical instruments for a mission project. They’ll appear in concert on Sunday with a host of their contemporaries.

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While other missionaries carry food, clean water and medicine to the poor reaches of Africa, Hoch and Steinel will arrive in Homevale, South Africa, with musical instruments, teaching aids and batteries.

The local couple figures its first Christian mission trip could be disorienting.

Hoch and Steinel attend First Presbyterian Church of Denton, but it’s their work at universities — Texas Woman’s University and the University of North Texas College of Music, respectively — that will serve poor children in the South African village in two months.

Hoch, a soprano, teaches voice in the TWU School of Arts, and Steinel, a trumpet player, teaches on the jazz faculty at UNT. On Sunday, the two will perform a concert with about 15 of their peers in a “Bach & Blues” concert. The concert will help pay for musical instruments and teaching supplies they’ll take to the village, where they’ll spend about a week teaching.

The mission project — Hoch and Steinel call it “Instruments of Change” — evolved through a friendship the couple shares with a devoted missionary.

“We have a good friend who started a charity in Africa called Covenant Children,” Steinel said.

Their friend became a bridge between Hoch, Steinel and a pastor, Tyrone Africa, in Homevale, a village outside of Kimberley. In Homevale, schools have to scramble for the basics. When Covenant Children talked to the pastor about what the children need, the ministry expected to hear things like food, water, water sanitation and medicine. Rev. Africa surprised them.

“He said ‘we need music. The kids need music — instruments, books and anything that can help them learn about music.’ It was surprising to us, but he couldn’t have said anything we were better able to deal with,” Hoch said. “Pastor Africa’s vision is pretty far-reaching. He hopes to incorporate the children into worship.”

Hoch and Steinel immediately began searching for secondhand instruments and planning a weekend concert where people could sponsor or buy instruments that nearly 200 children will use in their first stint in music class. Their aim is to put together a weeklong music camp. They plan to travel to Homevale in August with some teachers, music and instruments the children can share. They’ll also pack batteries, CDs and portable stereos so that the students can continue to learn through listening after the teachers leave.

The mission project wasn’t something the couple expected.

“I’ve never even considered going to Africa,” said Steinel. “I’m sensitive to the plight of poor people all over the world, but this isn’t something I’d ever considered.”

Hoch said she’d thought about mission work in passing, especially when two of their friends talked about some of the things they’d seen in parts of the world where famine and dirty water plunge hundreds of thousands into suffering.

“I told them ‘I don’t know if I want to go that route,’” Hoch said.

Then their friends talked about the joyful singing among the African children they served. That, coupled with the South African pastor’s plea for music makers, planted a seed in the teachers’ hearts.

“We thought, ‘Even if we just go over there and teach music to a few different people, it’ll help,’” Steinel said.

Both said the mission project fits in perfectly with Covenant Children’s philosophy, which is to consult with the communities they serve in order to make meaningful partnerships and do lasting work. Missionaries are listening more and looking harder at poor communities instead of deciding what’s best for a township, which resulted in ministries digging wells and erecting pumps that never get repaired when they break, Hoch said.

“We’ve heard stories about pumps breaking, and when missionaries return and wonder why the people in the communities are walking miles to get water, they find out it’s because the people in the community feel like that was never their pump. They believe it belongs to the missionaries,” she said.

When they get to Homevale, Hoch, Steinel and the other teachers will set about teaching the basics of music to the children and the volunteers who will continue to teach after they leave. Hoch said they’ll probably adapt their teaching techniques to the students. For example, they could do some work to match music notes to the singing the students already do. They have five days together.

“It’s a pathetically short time,” Hoch said. “But we’ll leave them with lots of materials and a promise to come back. We’ll see who comes up through the process there, and who might be able to be a leader once we’re gone.”

The couple has already been given some impressive donations. Hoch walked out of a session at a music conference with an armload of recorders. They got a drum set, and they are inviting audience members to bring their instruments to the concert, even if they need to be re-tuned or repaired. Also, the “shop” set up in the lobby at First Presbyterian on Sunday afternoon will have new instruments and teaching aids for as little as $5 and as much as $700. There’s nothing to keep a group from chipping in on the bigger-ticket items, Hoch said. They’ll accept donated band instruments of all kinds. In particular, they’re looking for flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, French horn, acoustic guitar, percussion, keyboard and method book donations.

Hoch said she thinks she stands as much to gain as the students.

“Whenever you teach a child and the light goes on, and they are making connections about what they hear and what they read, it’s like kicking a door open to a new language. I hope I’ll have the wisdom to leave alone what is good and help enhance it with instruments,” she said. “And this isn’t about imposing some Western thing on them, either. It’ll be interesting to see what they might do, you know? When four of them get together and start playing with their melodicas? I’m curious to see that.”

The Sunday concert will include Pam Youngblood on flute; John Scott on clarinet; Sharon Veazey on violin; Jean Mainous and Harold Heiberg on piano; Jeff Snider, baritone vocalist; Joni Jensen, soprano vocalist; Delta Holl on cello; and Ockert Vermeulen on organ — all from TWU.

Steinel and Hoch will also share the sanctuary with UNT musicians Stefan Karlsson on piano; Jim Riggs on saxophone; Steve Weist on trombone; John Murphy on saxophone; Rosanna Eckert on vocals; and Sean Jacobi on bass.

The program will feature Bach, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Saint-Saens and more.

All donations go to purchase instruments and teaching materials for the project. Checks can be made to Covenant Children, Inc.,  and credit card donations can be made at www.covenantchild.org .

LUCINDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877. Her e-mail address is cbreeding@dentonrc.com .

The Denton couple is inviting donors to sponsor new instruments and teaching materials for the mission project. Audience members who come early can “shop” for these instruments, and pay all or a portion of the cost for any the following items.

* 2 electric keyboards

* 1 Suzuki three-octave chimes set (used)

* 3 autoharps, new or used

* 7 acoustic guitars with case

* 7 ukuleles with case

* 2 deluxe percussion kits for 21 players

* 1 SoundShapes, round nestling drums

* 60 Melodicas, 32-note keyboards that are blown into

* 200 soprano recorders with strap and case

* 1 large vinyl grand staff poster

* 3 large blank manuscript staffs, package of six

* 7 CD player “boom box” portable stereos

* 100 packs or more of C batteries

* 250 instructional manuals with CDs

* 7 pitch pipes to tune instruments

* 3 autoharp tuning hammers

* 1 instructional repair manual

* 3 large rhythm flashcards, pack of 50

* 3 large melody note reading flashcards

* 3 guitar flashcards

* 100 folding metal music stands

* 30 guitar string packs

* 2 five-line, chalk-holding staff makers

* 30 liturgical dance ribbon wands

* Miscellaneous: reeds, pads, standard white chalk, dry-erase markers, tape, custom-made lanyards and hats for assistants, music collections for instruments and voices, adapter plugs for South Africa