Grand Inauguration to the Sound of Trumpet and Pipe Organ

The race against time to have everything ready came to a conclusion on the glorious day of 27 April 2022 when the new vocational hangar was inaugurated. Attending were His Excellency the German Ambassador in Lebanon Andreas Kindl, the General Secretary of EMS Rev. Dr. Dieter Heidtmann, our German partners from EVS/EMS Rev. Dr. Uwe Gräbe and Ms. Kerstin Sommer, our Swiss partners from SVS Rev. Ursus Waldmeier and Dr. Hans Pfister, the pastor of the German-speaking congregation in Beirut Rev. Jürgen Henning, Father Khalil Rahmeh and Father Ricardo Chiriani from the Pipe Organ Society in Lebanon, Rev. Dr. Habib Badr Pastor in Charge of the National Evangelical Church in Beirut and Chairman of the Schneller Board in Lebanon accompanied with Mrs. Wadea Badr and board members Dr. Rene Ghattas, Ms. Dania George accompanied with her mother Rene, Mr. Richard Aramouni accompanied with his wife Nada.
JLSS students, teachers, trainers, educators, and members of staff were standing outside the hangar to welcome guests and witness this great event for our school.
The program started at 10:30 AM with trumpet music performed by Britta Giesecke von Bergh who travelled from Germany with our dear friend Klaus Schulten to perform the organ and trumpet concert in celebration of the inauguration of our new vocational building.
Rev. Dr. Habib Badr then said the prayer of dedication for the new building. Then short messages were delivered by H. E. Ambassador Kindl, Rev. Badr, Rev. Haddad, Rev. Gräbe (in Arabic), and Rev. Waldmeier.
Ms. Sommer presented a gift to the carpentry trainers and students which was a wooden insect house asking them to start making some and putting them in various locations of the school campus.
Rev. Waldmeier also presented the carpentry trainers with a few hand tools of the trade which are known to be the best in the world according to his son who is a carpenter by profession.
Our honorable guests then planted three cedar trees to commemorate this great event. They then untied the white ribbon at the West gate of the hangar and explored the new carpentry workshop and the classroom-floor above.  Everyone then headed to St. Michael's church for the concert.
The concert was a celebration of trumpet and organ music as a demonstration of music as language that is understood by all humanity. This is what makes music a bridge for peace bringing people together.
The program was as follows:
1. Henry Purcell: March from Sonata No. 2 for trumpet and string orchestra in D major
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: German Dances, KV 509
3. Giovanni Bonaventura Viviani: Andante - Allegro - Allegro vivo from Sonata in C major
4. Johann Sebastian Bach: Partita O Gott, du frommer Gott
5. Joseph Haydn: Andante from Concert in Eb major for trumpet and orchestra
6. W. A. Mozart: Sonata F-Dur KV 332/547a
7. François Couperin: Fanfare from  'La Triomphante'
It was a remarkable program demonstrating to JLSS students how the variety of music expression is understood by everyone. They enjoyed the music from the Purcell march to Mozart's German dances then pieces of Viviani's sonata and then Bach's prayer followed by Haydn's Andante back to Mozart's sonata and finally Couperin's La Triomphante.
Students were able to appreciate the lovely music through the variety of expressions. The magnificent conclusion was Couperin's La Triomphante demonstrating the hope for peace to triumph among people's of the world and music as a tool for its realization.
The concert was thus not only a celebration of the great event of the day but rather an integral part of the mission of Johann Ludwig Schneller School of Education for Peace. What better method for that than the amazing music that the whole audience enjoyed as both Klaus Schulten and Britta Giesecke von Bergh excelled in performing their magical music!
We express our most sincere gratitude to our dear friend Klaus Schulten and to Britta Giesecke von Bergh for the great concert they performed and for travelling from Germany especially for this historic event of our school.
We also express our sincere gratitude to our Swiss partners SVS and Klaus Schulten for sponsoring the travel costs of this concert.
We praise God for this amazing development in our vocational training program now that JLSS has an ideal carpentry workshop and a complete floor of modern, well-equipped, and spacious classrooms that are suitable for the Corona age.
This project has been a dream for our vocational departments for so long. Our vocational students finally no more have to be in inadequate small classrooms in the basement of BBH2 building which they used for so many years.
We thank our German partners EVS/EMS for completely supporting the cost of this new building in addition to also contributing towards the new classroom furniture along with our Swiss partners SVS and our American partners LBMS to whom we are also most grateful.
We express our gratitude to H. E. Ambassador Kindl for honoring our school through his presence, kind participation, and message to our students and members of staff on this historic day for our school. We also thank him for his friendship and kind support.
We thank all our partners, board members, and friends for joining us on this splendid occasion.
27 April 2022 was a great day that will be remembered by all our students and guests for many years to come.
A most sincere thank you to all those who made this day so special for JLSS.