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l a n o i g Re VOLUME 13 NUMBER 40
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2015
Music a weapon for Tim Neufield and the Glory Boys STACEY LAVALLIE WEEKENDER REPORTER While it was full of stereotypical Canadiana, the short film showed by performer Tim Neufield and his band, the Glory Boys, drew laughter from the crowd gathered to see them perform at Stettler Alliance Church on Tuesday, Sept. 22. What most people didn’t realize at first was that the bright, cheery and funny story had a dark and seedy underside. The video, a sleek, professionally shot short film, showed Neufield and a fellow band member on a dusty roadway in Cambodia, playing hockey with ministicks with poverty-struck children. The children were laughing, playing, and learning about hockey and Canada and being what Canadians would consider very normal. The fact was, these children lived in poverty that “would shock Canadians,� Neufield said. He and his band are ambassadors for World Vision, working through their performances to help foster children. All of the children the band try to help are specifically from Cambodia. “We went to (World Vision) and asked them, ‘what country needs the most help?’ We thought it would take a while for them to respond,� Neufield recalled. “Instead, they immediately said Cambodia.� While most people are familiar with World Vision’s sponsorship tactics — the flies crawling on hungry, bony children with bellies distended for lack of nutritious food — Neufield said he wanted to show Canadians and Americans, as well as the other countries in which he performs — children they could relate with. “I wouldn’t say it’s ‘easy’ to not sponsor a child when you see those videos,� he said. “Of course, you feel sorry for them. But you can’t relate to them. We wanted people to relate to the children
in our videos.� But poverty and hunger isn’t what makes Cambodia such an urgent quest for World Vision. No, the reason is more sinister and horrifying, and almost completely driven by the first world, western countries. And that reason is sex tourism — in specific, sex tourism with children. The south-east Asian country is home to more than 15 million people, with an estimated 1.2 million children enslaved in sex-trafficking rings. The average age that people who report sexual abuse in Cambodia is 12, and over half — 64 per cent — of children say they know another child that has been abused. World Vision took Neufield and his band on a tour of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and brought them to the red-light district where they could see for themselves what went on. And according to Neufield, his soul twisted inside him to see children as young as six offering themselves up from the windows and doorways and sidewalks of the brothels located there. “It was the worst moment of my life,� he said. “My soul just sickened.� When those children looked at him and his white skin, they saw him as just another tourist looking for what all tourists visit their brothels for. It was a relief when his World Vision guide took them away, and brought them to the armed compound where children who are rescued from the sex trade are safely educated and counselled. It’s an armed compound, its location kept as secret as it can, because the sex traffickers are reluctant, to say the least, to lose their sex-slaves. That’s lost money for them, and it’s become dangerous for the employees of World Vision and the child-rescuers. There have been attacks, murders. Inside the compound, girls and boys are given good food, health care, clean clothes and home. They’re counselled, which helps them cope with the terrible happenings of their lives. When
Stacey Lavallie/Weekender reporter
Tim Neufield performs in Stettler at the Alliance Church on Sept. 22, 2015. they grow up and leave the place, they will have a skill, a way to survive that doesn’t include prostitution. Neufield is passionate about helping these children. He and his wife sponsor a couple of children themselves, and a few for their two children as well. It’s a passion that helps World Vision help these kids — and several people at the Sept. 22 concert went away with a pamphlet, a child’s face and name inside. A child who will be helped, and rescued from that life, because of the money they send each month. The concert was pretty much standing-room only at the Stettler Alliance Church as Neufield and the Glory Boys lit up the room with lights, personality, and music.
The concert was a mix of all sorts of music, some Christian and some secular, some ripped from movies and television and others with lyrics straight from the Psalms and New Testament. The performance brought in local members of the church and their families, as well as others from the community who were interested in the ecclectic mix of country-rock that has become Neufield’s way of testifying his belief in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. The BC performer’s popularity in Alberta was declared loud and true by a pack of about six people who travelled from Three Hills, and who had made all of his central Alberta concerts. “You could call us his groupies,� one girl said, backed up by her friends, before the headed inside to dance to the music. At one point, Neufield invited people to call out their faiths. Catholic, Baptist, Mennonite, Anglican — all were children of God, he said, and came together. And, he noted, it’s important that “we play songs that we can all sing, no matter our faith.� He said he had just the song — and swung into a rendition of Stompin’ Tom Connors’ Hockey Song, bringing laughter, and then singing, from the crowd. Neufield played songs from his album Trees, as well as others released prior, lyrics flashing up on the screen behind him at times to bring people into the music on more than just the audio level. At other times, he played classics, such as Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash. For their part, the crowd didn’t passively just sit by and listen, instead getting into the music. Little kids danced, adults clapped and stomped, and at times sang along. Several times, Neufield led the gathered fans in prayer, a theme oft-repeated in his words: We are so lucky in Canada. Thank you, God, for letting us be so lucky. And having seen and heard of those children in Cambodia, no one in the room disagreed.