On the behalf of Pastor D., thank all students for the time and effort you’ve invested in musical training. Your choice to take musical training has not been in vain, but rather a plus to your life and service to God. As a instructor, a major part of my purpose and mission in life is fulfilled each time a student blossoms into the service of the music ministry. God has blessed each of you in a unique way to survive the constant changes and struggles of life that threatens devotion to becoming a confident and productive musician. You’ve survived! 

Looking back over the years, each of you have grown in commitment, skillfulness, patience, confidence, and versatility. Having spent so many years submitting to my guidance, experience,  and wisdom, have shown each of you to be of integrity and purpose driven. Considering the many people who have attempted to take lessons from me, something special about each of you have established you as far above the “average”. What is most significant is not whether you reached someone else level of skillfulness or every personal desire, but that you have migrated so far from where you started. None of this could have occurred if God had not blessed you with health and a determined mind along the way.  Yes! Yes! Yes! Look where you are now compared to the day of your first lesson. It is more than enough to keep thanking God continually.  

Greater meaning and fulfillment has blossomed in my life because of the many years of teaching. Wonderfully bonded relationships have been birthed into my life through the years of working with students. I know some of you would probably sat that it took time to understand me your instructor and time for me to understand each of you and what was best for working with you. It was a matter of trial and error. Thank God, a few squabbles along the way never severed our relationship. All of it has been worth it. Nothing last forever, therefore I expect to sadly see each of you eventually move on to execute to the fullest what God has gifted you to do. But until then, I hope to still pour meaning in your life musically or spiritually for many, many years. 

Hopefully, the many years of teaching you Gospel music has clarified the motives behind the strategies I’ve used in teaching and communicating. All of the “staying on your case” was to press you to give your very best while you still have a margin of youth to maximize it. What’s most important is that you chose to serve God with your gift and do it beyond personal pleasure. Doing what God gifted you to do identifies each of you as a “maestro”.

With great sacrifice and risk along the way, I’ve given up many personal pleasures of life to share my many gifts through teaching. Teaching & more teaching is an eternal gene given to me by God. Where I’ve progressed depended largely on what I’ve learn through the trials and errors of teaching. In other words, you have been the reason for me excelling as a Music Educator.

Choosing to share my skills with others goes all the way back to the childhood age of ten years old. Even as a inwardly motivated child, I consciously tried to organize friends to teach and form “little bands”. Many high school classmates who attended Fulton High school(1995) class reunion said they remember me teaching them to play different instruments as children.

All of this climaxed with my receiving the “Outstanding Student for Talent” award in my senior year of high school. Therefore, all the variety of what I've done all my life has proven to be an indicator of God’s purpose for blessing me with such vast skills and wisdom. My sole purpose is to teach and create rather than join the glamour of the professional fields of music. Teaching encompass every element of my thoughts, ideas, mentality, conversation, and external pleasure!  

Teaching music initially was very difficult, because very often I lacked quality tools to work with. Yet, the little bit shared week by week, day by day has continue to multiply. As a instructor, I’ve grown just as each student. By God’s grace, we all must continue to glorify God with our musical skills.  Now that each of you have matured so tremendously, it will surely require more weight of responsibility, accountability, application, and vision to take what you have learned and engraft it into a music ministry. Thus, your maturity gives me added excuse to push you even harder, but smarter!  

 By shear perseverance each of you are by far the cream of the crop!