Imani Milele Children’s Choir returns for PC performance Wednesday, Nov. 13

By Judith Brown | November 12, 2024 |

In November, 2020, children from the Imani Milele Choir performed at Camp Fellowship. Photo by Judith Brown

Clinton, South Carolina – In late November, 2020, children and staff from the Imani Milele Choir gave a final departing concert on the sun-dappled banks of Lake Greenwood at Camp Fellowship, where they had spent eight months during the pandemic.

Now the choir is back on tour from Uganda for a performance in Clinton, this time hosted by Presbyterian College for a 7 p.m. concert at Edmund’s Hall which is free and open to the public. The group is also back at Camp Fellowship, which is providing the choir with a home base during a week of area concerts.

The Imani Milele Choir last visited the Upstate in 2020 to close out their cross-country tour with concerts to be hosted in Laurens County and surrounding areas. Those concerts never happened, and their scheduled two-night stay at Camp Fellowship would turn into 281 days because of the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The camp and local community came together to help shelter the choir when they literally had nowhere else to go.

Now, four years later, the choir is returning with these special “thank you” performances, part of their Light of Hope! tour.

“We are thrilled to return to Camp Fellowship, a place that has always felt like home,” said Choir Director and Leader Samuel Straxy Kiberu. “The love and support we’ve received from this community strengthen our mission to share the message of hope, faith, and perseverance with the world.”

Kevin Cartee, executive director of Camp Fellowship, remembers the unexpected joy the children brought to the community during such an uncertain time.

“These children brought such joy with their songs and devotion to God’s love! This provided us all with continual encouragement we needed in those times and a reminder of our connectedness to people around the world,” he said. “What we first saw as the crisis of having to shut our doors on retreats and a whole summer camp program turned into an immeasurable blessing accompanied by the choir’s beautiful spirit!”