This morning we are honored to celebrate a beautiful time in the life of Grace of Christ | First Pres. 50+ years ago a man and his wife were invited to help lead the youth (and from them … the church and the entire community) into a celebration of faith, music and life! Sonny and Linda Salsbury brought their love for Jesus, guitars and drums, their gift with song, and transported a dose of the California Jesus movement to Yakima, Washington … and Gospel Pres took off. What happened then is still happening today. Members of the original Gospel Pres band and choir come together to remember, to celebrate friendships, and to commit themselves again to the power and call of Jesus. We get to join in as they led us this morning. All across this valley, this state, this nation, are those impacted by the passion and faith of the Salsbury’s.

They returned to Yakima in the mid 1980’s – 1990’s to lead at Ghormley, and then made one more trip north to spend these years with us.

Songs like, “The first Song I Sing Today,” and “How’s About a Boa,” and “Are the Mountains Out?”, all come from the heart and pen of the mountain man, the trail boss, the youth pastor, choir leader, musical maestro, Sonny, and Linda too. One of my favorite songs written by Sonny, one I’ve sung at camps, in church services, on my own driving or hiking from one place to the next is this, based on Psalm 19:

Don’t you wonder why, the stars are in the sky? They’re telling you and I of the glory of God. And every towering tree, is there for folks to see, so there no doubt can be of the glory of God.

So let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, do the same thing for thee and a witness be, to the glory of God.

Then come the morning sun to make the darkness run and say our day’s begun to the glory of God. But when the shadows fall and the night winds call, they’re telling one and all of the glory of God.

So let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, do the same thing for thee and a witness be, to the glory of God.

What song is God singing in you right now? I want the song I’m singing, whatever the source, to be a witness to … the glory of God.