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In the fall of 2006, evangelist Glenn Kosiorek of Crosspoint String Band came to play at our church. He graciously offered to give some "bluegrass lessons" to anyone who might be interested in learning an instrument. The next monday evening, several church members showed up for some lessons. He taught us all "I'll Fly Away".... boy, were we excited!!!
Over the next couple of years, we played a little bit, but the Lord called loud and clear in March 2009 to "get busy!" This is when The Seminole String Band officially formed and we started to practice together as a group.
We play old-time hymns in a bluegrass style, good gospel songs about salvation, the Bible and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and a few "acapella" songs, as well.
We love the Lord, and want to lift Him way, way up. We thank God for allowing us to minister and witness through music! |
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Mick Norton
Favorite string band song: Think on these things, because the victory in all of life's battles will be won or lost in the mind. That which you think on...that you will do! II Corinthians 10:3-5. What are you thinking on???
Favorite part of the ministry: When someone comes up and tells you how much the songs helped them with something they are going through. We recently sang at a church in TN and found out the next day that a young man that was there could not sleep that night, because the words in the songs were "troubling him". Long story short... that night he accepted Jesus Christ as his saviour! One more saved from the fire!! Praise our Great God and Saviour, The Lord Jesus Christ!
Hardest part of the ministry: Praying in earnest for the needs of the people who will be hearing you sing. Then, while we are singing, seeing someone's joyless face looking back at you, knowing you have the joy they are missing, and it seems they're not hearing you. It's so sad. Psalm 16:11- It's all about a relationship with our saviour. "In thy presence is fulness of joy"!
Favorite verse: I Thessalonians 4:17... and so shall we ever be with the Lord...AMEN!!!
The King James Bible: Is "The Word of Truth", "the Scriptures", the words of the Living God. Psalm 12:6-7 preserved of God, and "purified seven times". Proverbs 30:5 "every word of God is pure". Why do the other PERversions change the words of God? Psalm 107:11 "because they rebelled against the words of God". John 3:34 you can't preach the "word of God"... if you don't have the "words of God". Fight on!
Favorite food: Wow...hmm? Chicken enchiladas, lasagna... basically anything is good with jalapenos (except coffee and ice cream.)
Favorite saying: What?! You're hungry again? What do you mean you're tired? We've got to bed before midnight 2 nights in a row!... You humans are so annoying.
Hobbies: Storm chasing and deep sea fishing (not at the same time). Farming and ranching. Trying to write songs that have spiritual meaning! Audio recording.
Most embarassing string band moment: While preaching at a church in Florida, I told the congregation to turn with me to Titus chapter 4... duh!
Future aspirations: To be always in the perfect will of God. To see my children walk in truth. To help sinners obtain salvation. To help others recover themselves out of the snare of the devil. To have something at the Judgement Seat of Christ that will pass the fire. Some sweet day to see my Saviour and be able to thank him face to face for saving me and putting up with me.
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Chris Norton
I'm Chris Norton, wife of our great band leader, Mick! My duties in the band vary - printing maps, "googling" directions, setting up our CD table, working on the website and brochures, keeping everyone in chocolate, and the list goes on! I count it all an honor.
My favorite part of the ministry is seeing people sing along while we play. Especially at nursing homes! I have a heart for the elderly, and get a blessing when they get a blessing! I also enjoy it when parents bring their little ones up to the stage to see us play up close. I wonder what they think of it, and will they remember it someday if they get an inkling to play an instrument?
My biggest flesh-struggle with the ministry is just being plain worn-out! But as Bro. Dale Burrell said one time, “If I’m gonna burn out, I’m gonna burn out for the Lord Jesus Christ!”. It will be worth it all!
The verse that helps me the most is Galatians 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Thank God the Bible is true and we can count on it without question or doubting! I am so thankful that we do have a more sure word of prophecy- what a comfort.
My favorite string band song is “It’s Just a Book”, when it says “If it’s just a book, why are you running? If it’s just a book, why ‘you get so mad? If it’s just a book, why ‘you getting so nervous? It’s just a book that knows every thought you’ve had!” A very close second is "Church on the Wall", a song written by Shelby & Beckie about a preacher/missionary in Scotland.
Favorite food: Swedish fish. Favorite saying: Good grief, y’all! Hobbies: None, no time.
My most embarrassing string band moment is when we were playing at Pate’s Music Hall. We were pretty nervous anyway, because we had not played in front of an audience very often. We were “new”. Bonnie was on stage with us and knocked over the music stand with all the song sheets on it. And of course we had to stop and pick them all up because we didn’t know the words to the songs! Arrrgggghhhh!
I am looking forward to the future! My future aspirations are to help my husband in the ministry and to help guide our daughters into Christian womanhood! And beyond that, I am longing for heaven! No clocks, no diets, no devil, no impure influences for our children! Hallelujah!
A few years back, a friend asked some ladies in the church to write a tract of our testimony that she could include in her customer’s purchases at her shop in Foley, AL. I wrote this little tract and included it below to share with you my testimony of salvation.
God bless you and please pray for the Seminole String Band!
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Shelby Norton
Hi! My name is Shelby Norton and I am 16. My physical birthday is February 28th, 1995, and my spiritual birthday is June 8th, 2003. We were living on a pecan orchard in central Alabama and the Lord dealt with my heart on what a friend had told me a few months before about salvation. I didn’t really see the need to get saved until in one of our family’s nightly Bible readings, I realized that I was sinner just like everyone else, and that I was going to hell too if I didn’t get saved. I got down on my knees beside my bunk bed, and asked the Lord to save me the next day.
I believe that the 1611 King James Bible is the word of God, pure and true, tested and tried, containing the answer to every situation in life, everlasting. As seeing that it is written on a 4th grade reading level, it is foolish to run to the Greek and Hebrew, or revise it to make it “easier” to understand. I find it sad that “Bible scholars” feel that they need to change “badgers” to “sea cows” (manatees) so you can “understand it better”. It is obvious that Satan is attacking the Bible in every way he can. There are hundreds of lies (every lie is just a blurred, twisted truth) in these new “bibles” (better known as perversions!) only causing confusion and discord. Satan is a big counterfeiter! “It’s the only one version authorized by the King, God’s wonderful Book, divine!”
When I’m not playing music, I enjoy reading my Bible, writing songs for my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, drawing donkeys and horses, crocheting, photography, scrap booking, making scripture pictures and videos on my computer, and riding “Nina” (my 4 year-old donkey that I broke) with Beckie, my sister, and her donkey, “Penta”. I am also beginning to work with Nina on “driving”. When I was about 12, I loved origami but I stopped because I had nobody to do it with. I have recently gotten back into it with a friend from the band “Broken Strings”, and it is a lot of fun. I also have been raising meat rabbits for about 4 years. I am expanding my “herd” by getting into dwarf pet rabbits and selling them to a large mall in Pensacola, Florida.
I have a lot of favorite foods, but I really like “Green Bean Casserole” (no onions), “Cheeseburger Soup”, fried corn nuggets, Cookies ‘n’ Cream or Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, and Rolo’s. :) I like pretty much any “hardy” food.
I can’t pick a favorite String Band song, but I really like to sing “Lord, Give Me A Burden”, “He Went To Calvary For Me”, and “Lord, I‘ll Wait For You“. “Lord, Give Me A Burden” is a very convicting song about having a burden for lost souls that you come in contact with every day. “He went To Calvary For Me” is basically my testimony of salvation. Just a few days ago, I thought about how that the word “Calvary” is only in your King James Bible. If that’s not the “version” you use, than you wouldn’t even know what the song was about! :) I thank God that I don’t have to sing, “He went to ‘the place of the skull’ for me”! I was going through some mental battles in my mind when I wrote “Lord, I’ll Wait For You”. I believe every young person should be able to say that. It is so sad watching kids dive into the world. If only they would heed wisdom and instruction, how much heartache and sorrow they could avoid, and how much more they would see that “doing things God's way is never wrong”! It is such a joy to be living for the Lord! I am glad that I am “missing out” on everything that this world has to offer! “Jesus is all I need”!
Some of my favorite parts of the ministry are encouraging other people, and just picking around with other friends and bands. My struggle though, is that I get worn out if we play a lot at one time. Some verses that help me are:
Psalm 104:33 I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
Psalms 40:9-10 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
I think that my “new” most embarrassing Stringband moment is when we did “Holy, Holy, Holy” for the first time without the girls at Lee’s Chapel in Tennessee. Daddy had decided to ask everybody to sing along if they knew the words. So, we got to the 4th verse (“all thy works shall praise thy name“) and I sang, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty…” and… I couldn’t remember the rest of the words. I still didn’t figure out what the rest of the verse said until the next morning.
What I am looking forward to the most about rapture is that I can sing and play forever because my throat won’t get sore, I won’t ever be tired, there will be no time limits, and I can see my Saviour who I sing about!
Children are often asked “What do you want be when you grow up?” I want to be in God’s will and continue singing and playing for him. A friend accidentally ended a prayer with “in Jesus’ name we play”. I like that, and as long as that is our focus, I believe God will bless what we are trying to do for him. I would also like to get into leather tooling and train Nina to do log skidding.
My favorite saying is: The true test of your character is if you do right when nobody is watching. (Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.)
Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful And my song shall ever be: Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful Is my Saviour’s love for me!
I pray that reading this has encouraged you.
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Beckie Norton
Hi! My name is Beckie Norton and I am 14 years old. I was saved on March 14, 2007 at our church in Seminole, AL. My favorite String Band song is "Pray Without Ceasing". My favorite part of the ministry is when I realize that I have been an encouragement to somebody and my least favorite part is when we have to get back in the van at night for a long trip home! A verse that is helpful to me is Proverbs 16:32, He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
I love and use the KJV 1611 because it's God's perfect, pure holy word. What I look forward to the most about the rapture is that we can be with Jesus face to face and we will never sin again.
My most embarrassing String Band moment is when I "attempted" to finish "Old Account" at the end of the 4th verse... twice.
When we're not traveling, my favorite things to do are riding my donkey, Pinta, and photography. My favorite foods are chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, soft shell tacos and ranch dressing. |
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Bonnie Norton
Favorite String Band song: How Great Thou Art.
Favorite part of the ministry: Singing at the Fish Camp Restaurant.
Hardest part of the ministry: Singing in front of people.
When/where saved and any interesting details about it: When I was 5 at our church. God and Beckie led me to the Lord.
Favorite/most helpful verse: The whole book of Jonah.
Future aspirations: Getting a blue Volkswagon bug.
Favorite food: Macaroni and cheese.
Hobbies: Playing outside.
Favorite saying: Shelby, guess what?!
Your favorite thing about the Bible: That it saves people.
What you look forward to most about heaven: Having a house to myself and I can play all day.
My most embarrassing String Band moment: Singing in front of people. |
Contact Info: Mick Norton (251) 269-7562 seminolestringband@gmail.com
23619 Browns Landing Road, Seminole AL 36574
You may contact us anytime for more information or scheduling. |
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