Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

'Signs of Worship' use hands, music to share their faith

A Clark County performing arts group, known for signing to Christian music, got its start about a year ago when two Gurdon High School boys learned to sign the alphabet and asked their church youth director about the possibility of signing to contemporary church songs.

Traci Cooper, who leads the youth performance group at Center Grove United Methodist Church of rural Gurdon, said "Signs of Worship" performs twice a month or more at various churches and gatherings.

"This group is very dedicated and the membership numbers and their popularity continues to grow," Cooper said.

Davidson show

The next show on the agenda will begin a 6 p.m. at the Davidson Campgrounds on Sunday, July 30.

The group now has the rule that a member must be 13 years old to participate. Because younger children are interested as well, the organization of a junior high school level "Signs of Worship" is being planned for the fall.

"We performed Testimony on June 14, in front of more than 1,000 people," Cooper said. "It was during the United Methodist Conference at Hot Springs."

The group started with five members in September of 2005. Now they have 12.

Members are Corbin Manzella, Zach Martin, Curtis Duckett, Kellye Johnston, Beth Seymore, Liana Ryan, KB Keeling, Clark Keeling, Brandon Smillie, Pierce Lowery, Lauren Cagle and Brad Bonds.

Duckett and Martin learned the signing alphabet in a Gurdon High School ninth grade science class, taught by A.C. Pilgrim.

Cooper took the knowledge the two boys had, plus her background in Christian music and signing, to start "Signs of Worship."

She gained her experience by taking a signing class and performing it to music while a student at Ouachita Baptist University.

"It took me about two months to teach them our first song, but now we seem to be able to learn a song in three weeks or so, depending on how complicated it gets," she said. "We even perform with black lights."

The first song they learned was "Now is the Time to Worship." Among other selections, they sign to are: "Hes Alive," "Testify," "Our God is an Awesome God," "Jesus Freak" and "Saving Me."

If your church, school or civic group would like to invite "Signs of Worship" to perform, Cooper can be reached at 246-2206 or e-mailed at tcooper022000 @yahoo.com.

Personal views

Cooper, of Arkadelphia, said of her experiences with "Signs of Worship," "We really enjoy this. Its like a family. I feel like these are my kids.

"The main reason we do this is to touch people. We want to touch as many as possible and bring them closer to God."

The youngest member of the group is Manzella, 13, who will be an eighth grader at Gurdons Cabe Middle School this year.

Manzella said of his experiences with "Signs of Worship," "This is pretty fun and it helps people learn about God."

Seymore, 15, will be a sophomore at Arkadelphia High School, said she got involved with the group because, "It is a way to serve God. It is fun and cool, and it is something out of the ordinary."

K.B. Keeling, 15, will be a sophomore at Gurdon High School. He said performing with the signing group gives him an opportunity to impact peoples lives with Christianity.

Clark Keeling, 16, and a junior at GHS, said, "I want to do it for our church and for God."

Other reasons were similar, with friendship, service to church and service to God being the three main reasons cited for staying in the group.

Duckett, a 16-year-old GHS junior and one of the two founding students, summed it up for his fellow performers by saying, "I like sign language. It seems like a really neat way to talk about God to the people."

Cooper said, "We are learning new music and signing to it all of the time. Our latest is Well Fly Away by FFH. We continue to be popular. The group went to Cabots Briarwood Baptist Church on Saturday night, July 8, and gave them 45 minutes worth of signing songs.

"How many selections we do just depends on how many a group has time to hear."