The Echoes had travelled almost 3500 miles north to reach Assiniboia last weekend from their starting point in Texas. The Echoes are a travelling music quartet of Bible college students. The quartet entertained local parishioners by playing some vibrant gospel music with a distinctive Latin flair at the Assiniboia Alliance Church on May 25 beginning at 7 p.m.
The Echoes featured Manuel Bravo, Hadlai Salas and Everlin Sandoval from Mexico. Zabdy Mendez originates from the United States. On Saturday night, the band played a mixture of songs, including a few salsa-inspired reinterpretations of church favourites such as How Great Thou Art and There is Power. Between their sets, each of the band members introduced
themselves to the audience, describing why they are attending Bible college and what their future plans are after graduation.
The Echoes are students at The Rio Grande Bible Institute, which provides a four-year Christian college education program for Spanish speakers in Edinburg (not Edinburgh). Edinburg is a South Texas city close to the Mexican border and the Gulf of Mexico. The Rio Grande Bible Institute was founded in 1946 by Rev. M.C. Ehlert, a Baptist pastor who arrived in the Rio Grande Valley in 1937 to do tent evangelism. Ehlert believed there was a need to train Hispanic believers and converts, because there wasn’t much Bible-related education available for them at the time.
The daily curriculum at the Rio Grande Bible Institute involves a mixture of classroom time and work duties performed on the campus. In this way, students are able to save money on their courses each semester. The college – existing as a Christian institution for 75 years – currently costs the students $1500 per term. Moreover, the teachers at the college don’t take salaries, which also cuts educational costs for their scholars, who originate from the United States, Mexico and Latin America. The college also houses a language school and a radio station on campus.
