Southern Gospel Concerts

The annual Southeastern Firefighters’ Burn Foundation benefit concert was held in Augusta, Georgia on September 27.  The list of featured performers was impressive:  Tim Lovelace, Garry Jones, Dove Brothers, and Triumphant Quartet.

Tim was up first and performed several of his crowd favorite songs and comedy routines and he was just delightful.  He ended on a serious note with I’m A Child of the King and then emceed the rest of the program.  Garry Jones was marvelous on the keyboard and played How Majestic Is Your Name, I’m Getting Ready to Leave This World, Blessed Assurance, and a wonderful patriotic medley.  My friend that used to accompany me to Mercy’s Mark concerts and I always wanted Garry to play more, so it was great to be able to see him as a soloist!

The Dove Brothers performed several crowd favorite songs.  Here’s what they sang:

• Have a Nice Day and You Don’t Know God’s Love
• You Can’t Fix It
• Taking It Back
• One More Miracle
• You Would Think He Would Learn
• I Can Pray 
• Get Away Jordan - How much fun is this song?!?  They’ve been doing this for a long time and it seems like the crowd always wants more!

Triumphant Quartet finished off the first half of the program by singing these songs:

• Don’t Let the Sandals Fool Ya
• For God So Loved
• The Cloud He’s Coming Back On
• Forgave Me, Saved Me, Raised Me
• Goodbye, World, Goodbye (piano and harmonica)
• The Old White Flag
• Hallelujah Chorus (solo by Jeff Stice)
• He Is

Then everyone got together for some songs directed by Garry Jones:

• Glory Road
• I’ll Fly Away (with McCray Dove and then Jerry Martin on the lead)
• Looking for a City — with Jerry Martin and David Sutton, you know it was fun – and very high!!!
• How Beautiful Heaven Must Be (with Eric Bennett on the lead)
• And the grand finale —- Midnight Cry (with Scotty and Clayton Inman sharing the lead)

The singing raised over $8,000 for the Foundation but is just one part of their fundraising effort.  During the 15 or so years that the foundation has existed, I think they said they’ve raised over $300,000.00 for burn care for patients and supporting services for their families.  The Dove Brothers have been a part of this benefit for several years and were even presented with a plaque establishing them as Ambassadors for the Foundation.    David Hester told the crowd about his experience when he was badly burned as a young man, so helping out the foundation means a lot to him.    If you want to know more about the Southeastern Firefighters’ Burn Foundation, go HERE