Our sixth European Woodbury Chorale and Bell Ringers Tour to Ireland was nearing its end. We sang for morning Mass, and played a full evening concert in St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Killarney.

We performed during Saturday evening Mass in the Church of the Resurrection, also in Killarney. We had raised over $1,500 for the “Children of Chernobyl Fund”; a fund to bring children from the Russian nuclear disaster city to Ireland for a two-week summer vacation.

On Sunday morning we had performed for a packed church for the 12 o’clock Mass in Blarney. After church some of the group actually kissed the Blarney Stone! On Tuesday at 1:15 p.m., we performed a full concert in the famous Christ Cathedral in Dublin. The choir and bells performed beautifully.

We received standing ovations and wonderful compliments wherever we performed. I also had the opportunity to concertize on several beautiful organs. Everything was going according to plan.

Until…here I must mention that we had had several “equipment rehearsals” just before our departure from home. From prior experiences, I knew that sometimes “set-up” time before a road concert could be hectic (tight spaces and little time).

Various members were given specific tasks to do. Everything had worked like clockwork, so far. Just before morning Mass in St. Eunan Cathedral in Letterkenny, one of our members tried to be helpful by doing something they were not assigned or trained to do. He plugged an amplifier chord into the wrong socket. There was a loud crackle, sparks flew and I knew that we were in big trouble.

Our amplifier, the heart of our sound system and the power for our electric keyboard, was dead. Praise be to God, the church possessed an old upright piano that was in reasonably good shape, and it even was in tune. It was the only church piano we saw on our entire trip.

We sang for the morning Mass and then it was problem-solving time. For the evening concert, we could get by with the borrowed upright piano, but some of our music needed the special sounds that our keyboard was able to give.

I inquired if there might be a repair shop in town that “maybe” could fix our amp. There was, so off we went to the shop. A very sympathetic and very helpful gentleman looked at our amp and determined that he did not have the required parts that he would need to fix it, nor were they available anywhere else in town. Plus, it would take too long to drive to Galway, if the parts could be found there; and in addition, it was Saturday and all the electronic shops closed at noon.

What to do?

Back to the church. Mary Ellen, the wonderful church secretary, came to our rescue. She knew of a man in the congregation, Barney, by name, who played accordion in one of the many local pubs. He had his own amplifier. Maybe we could use it for the evening concert?

She called him and he was agreeable. He said he would bring it later in the afternoon. Wonderful! However, there were more problems to solve. We were scheduled to sing for two services in the Shrine Cathedral in Knock, a huge church with a seating capacity of 7,500. We would end our tour with a Mass, a mini-concert and an organ solo in the famous Galway Cathedral.

After spending considerable time on the phone, I was able to work things out for the two services in Knock. We could tap into their sound system. Galway remained a problem.

It was a weekend; and besides, there was no way (with all the shops closed) that we could borrow an amplifier from a local music dealer.

Back to Barney. I knew it was a difficult “sell,” but we had no other choices left. I thanked him for the help that he had given us, and then, in my humblest voice, I asked him for the one remaining favor. Would he allow us to take his amp to Galway on the bus in the morning, use it for the concert and then return it to him, by taxi if necessary, after the concert?

Poor Barney. Part of him wanted so much to help us, but the other part, the more practical part, said “no.” He told me that on weekends he played in the local pubs and that the income from those gigs paid, in a large part, for his weekly living expenses. I fully understood. You don’t loan out a valuable piece of equipment to a group of strangers, even though “he knew that we were nice people and would take really good care of his amp.” But it involved his livelihood. I told him I understood, thanked him again for his letting us use the amp and said “goodnight.”

One of the choir members asked, “what are we going to do? What can we do?”

I replied, “everybody pray like you have never prayed before, and I’ll do the same.” Remember the line from “The Sound of Music”. “Sometimes when God closes a door, he opens a window.”

That night, after a tumultuous day, I was able to turn the problem over to the Almighty, for whom nothing is impossible.

I slept soundly, knowing that the problem was in better hands than mine. The next morning we loaded the two buses, had breakfast and finished our roll call, making sure that no one was left behind.

Just as our driver began to pull away from the curb, somebody yelled, “Hey, Gerrit, look. There’s Barney! Sure enough, there was Barney’s little pickup truck pulling up next to the bus, and there was Barney, Angel Barney, carrying his amp.

As I ran towards him he said, “I couldn’t sleep last night and I talked it over with me’ wife and we both agreed to let you use the amp.”

He also explained that he had called our bus driver, and they had worked it out so that right after the concert our driver would bring the amp to the local bus station; and a couple hours later the amp would be back with its owner.

That morning we all learned something very important. Angels don’t always fly…sometimes they drive little pickup trucks. Remember, God answers all prayers, giving us what we need, and sometimes He even gives us what we ask for.

And that’s no Blarney!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Gerrit Lamain is a former Copper Country resident who served as a music professor at Suomi College. He has published a book, “Gerrit’s Notes: A compilation of essays,” which can be found on Amazon. His email address is gerrit.lamain@gmail.com.