November 13, 2023 Show with Diana Vuolo on “How God’s Gift of Music Can Transform Troubled Young Lives”

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Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer

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George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend

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Jim Thorpe, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

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Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Proverbs, chapter 27, verse 17, tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

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And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 13th day of November, 2023.

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And I'm thrilled to have on the program today a returning guest and also a first -time guest.

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The returning guest that we have the honor and privilege to interview today is Diana Volo.

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Perhaps some of you recall that I've had on the program a number of times her husband,

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Chuck Volo, who is currently the pastor of Gospel of Grace Community Church in Kinzers, Pennsylvania.

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But Diana Volo is the founder and executive director of SWAN, which is the acronym for Scaling Walls, a

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Note at a Time. SWAN includes dedicated advocates for children affected by parental incarceration by providing life -changing intervention through music and mentoring.

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And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Diana Volo. Hi there,

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Chris. And it's what an honor it is to be with you and your audience today. Thank you for having us.

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And it's a thrill to have you back on the program. And remind your husband that I want to have him back on the program for another interview on reaching out to the

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Amish people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Chuck has a phenomenal ministry, reaching out to the

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Amish that he has been known to participating in for years. And I'm looking forward to having him back on with some of those

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Amish people who had been led to the true gospel. So that would be so exciting.

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And I look forward. Yeah, Chuck has been doing that for about 18 years now. Wow. And I think he has attended every single one of my

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio pastors luncheons after I relocated here to Pennsylvania, except one.

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I think there was just one time when, unfortunately, our schedules did not mesh and he couldn't make it.

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But I think he's been in attendance to every single other one. And I look forward to seeing him again in June.

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I believe it's June 6th is when I'm having my next Iron Sharpens Iron Radio pastors luncheon featuring

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Dr. Joel Beeky as the keynote speaker. So anybody listening who's a man in ministry leadership, mark that down on your calendar

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Thursday, June 6th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. at Church of the

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Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania. And I will remind you about that every day until the day before that event.

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And I hope that as many of you who are men in ministry leadership can attend. But we also have a first -time guest, as I mentioned,

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Mildred Dixon, who has come to play a very important role in the ministry

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SWAN. And it's my honor and privilege to have you on for the very first time ever on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Mildred Dixon.

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Good evening, and thank you, Chris. And thank you so much for allowing me this opportunity to be here tonight.

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I just wanted to express the joy of having SWAN in my lives, for Diane supports my sons through her program.

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God has allowed her to be a beacon in their life, offering music, yeah, through music and everything.

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And I'm just really excited to be here. Amen. Well, Diane, even though you have given us on your first interview on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, your salvation testimony, which is something that I always have first -time guests do when they are on the program, even though you have already done that, it's been so long, unfortunately, and we have to make sure we don't repeat this long period of time before we have you back.

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But it's been so long since you've been on. I'd like you to, once again, give a brief summary of your salvation testimony, which would include the kind of religious atmosphere, if any, in which you were raised and the kinds of providential circumstances our

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Sovereign Lord raised up in your life that drew you to himself and saved you.

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Well, I always love to share that story of grace in my life. Thanks for asking,

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Chris. I was raised in a Roman Catholic family and went to Catholic school for 12 years.

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And although I do know some people that are in that faith that have understood the true gospel of grace, in my experience,

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I didn't understand how to be saved. And I probably prayed my first ever real prayer when

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I was in second grade. I got scared because during our religion class, we were told that if we didn't go to church on Sunday, and if we were well enough to go to church on Sunday, if we missed church, it would be a mortal sin.

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And that was a sin that could never be forgiven and for which we would end up in hell forever. And I was scared, so scared about that.

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The nun in our school said that oftentimes a lot of adults lose their faith in God.

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So I immediately put my head down on my desk in school and I prayed,

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Lord, let me never lose my faith in you. Now, that was a true prayer, although the other prayers

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I had ever prayed in my life were rote, memorized prayers. But that was a heartfelt prayer.

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And in a very unusual way, the Lord answered that prayer. First of all, through my years in Catholic school, he disillusioned me with the

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Catholic faith. There were some inconsistencies and some terrible circumstances, honestly, of abuse that really disillusioned me with the church.

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But one of them would have been when Vatican II met, they were going to change the rule that we could eat meat on Friday.

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So prior to Vatican II, if we ate meat on Friday, it would be a cardinal sin, which is a pretty serious sin.

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And I would have to spend many days in purgatory suffering for that sin. And then the very next week when they decided to change that rule, all of a sudden

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I could eat meat on Friday. It wouldn't be a cardinal sin. I wouldn't have to suffer in purgatory. So there were many circumstances, as I said, that led up to a disillusionment, which was the first part answer to my prayer that I prayed to the

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Lord in second grade. Lord, help me never to lose my faith in you. What he did do, though, is what he helped me to lose my faith in a system that had a lot of traditions and rules of man.

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But then when I attended college, I was in college in Philadelphia as a violin performance major.

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And in God's sweet providence, there were two things that happened. I had a lot of friends who were born again

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Christians who loved me, who prayed for me and witnessed to me. And they even took me to church.

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And the first evangelical church that I ever attended was 10th Presbyterian Church. And the first evangelical preacher

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I ever heard was James Montgomery. Wow. What a great person to God in his providence.

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Have the first preacher that you ever heard. Absolutely. And, you know, it was interesting,

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I went to church not because it would be a mortal sin if I didn't go. I went to church because I wanted to.

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And his preaching was excellent. What I found was something that was new to me.

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It was something that was given to me by God's grace was that as the word of God started coming into my heart and my mind through the biblical preaching of James Montgomery voice, then what the

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Holy Spirit did was have me think about the word of God and convict me by the word of God throughout the week.

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And I was I strangely discovered that I was thinking about spiritual things all through the week.

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As a matter of fact, at one point, I thought, is something wrong with me? Because I keep thinking about spiritual things.

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It was a very new experience for me. But all of that led to me understanding the gospel of grace.

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And one of the things that I first started doing after one of my colleagues explained the gospel quite clearly to me is

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I started reading the Bible. And because I understood the gospel in the

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Bible, I started understanding what I was reading. And there was such a thrill because the words of Scripture just lit up to me.

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It meant so much to me. And in January 1979, I bought my first Bible and I signed it.

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And I didn't understand yet that God would keep me. I didn't understand that doctrine yet.

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So when I signed my Bible, my first Bible in January 1979, I thought, wow,

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I wonder if by next year I'll still be as excited about reading the word of God as I am now. And the thought that I wouldn't be that excited about it a year from now really disappointed me.

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But a year later and subsequently every year later since 1979,

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I still am thrilled to read the word of God. And that's because God's grace sustains us.

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And it was his work in my life which will lead me to heaven. So I praise God for that.

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And I'm still reading my Bible and enjoying it. Well, hallelujah. And I have to because of your comments about eating meat on Friday.

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By the way, I was also raised Roman Catholic, went to parochial Catholic school for eight years.

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I went to a public high school at my choice. And I just can't help but remember one of the funniest lines

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I ever heard. Archie Bunker say when when his Catholic neighbors, the

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Lorenzo's invited him over for a Friday dinner. And Archie was all upset because he hates fish.

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And when Edith made that known to Irene Lorenzo, the neighbor, she said,

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Archie, the Pope allowed the Catholic Church to eat meat on Friday a long time ago.

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And Archie's response was, well, I knew he was into real estate, but when did he get involved in the meat business?

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That is funny. And I was a Catholic at the time of hearing that.

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And I still thought it was hilarious. So now let's hear about very, very briefly before we go to Mildred's testimony.

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How did you meet Chuck? Well, interestingly, my colleagues see

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I'm a violin performance major at college at the time I was converted. And Chuck was pastoring at a church in North Philadelphia.

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And there and its pastor, a Fleshman Memorial Church, was Jim Kurenti, who was a

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Juilliard pianist. I know, I know, Jim. I've seen him perform and years ago had him on my show.

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And yeah, well, he attracted a lot of us college kids who were musicians to the church because he was a

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Juilliard grad. We spoke the same language. Well, wasn't John Thornberry a pastor there once?

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Well, I don't know about that. But when I went to Fleshman Church, Chuck was pastor there.

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And that's how I met my husband. Wow. I've got to ask Chuck because John Thornberry is a he's very well known amongst reformed

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Baptists, perhaps not so much so outside of our circles. But John Thornberry is a well known historian amongst reformed

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Baptists and has written some phenomenal books, including my very favorite biography,

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A Pastor in New York, The Life and Times of Spencer Cone. I'm almost certain that Fleshman Memorial Baptist was a church that he pastored for quite a long time.

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And was that church, by the way, at one time in the American Baptist Association? Do you know? You know,

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I'm not too sure about that because at the time when I went there, I didn't know anything about denominations and things like that.

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Yeah, that's a notoriously liberal denomination. And if it's the same congregation,

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John Thornberry was a holdout for a long time trying to see if there could be some positive changes made in the denomination.

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But he eventually pulled the church out of there. But we'll have to find out if we'll have to find out if it's the same church at some point.

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And so I'm glad that you met Chuck and I'm glad you two got married and you're a wonderful couple.

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And as I said, oh, by the way, folks, you're going to be hearing possibly there's a whole bunch of New American Standard Bible ads that we air on the show.

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And there's a possibility the one that Chuck recorded for us may air.

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And you may be puzzled to hear him announce that he is the pastor of New Life Community Church in Kingsville, Maryland.

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That was a church he pastored until fairly recently, because he's only been back in Pennsylvania fairly recently.

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Am I right? That's correct. He started this church plan in 2020.

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Okay, great. All right, Mildred, we're all on the edge of our seats waiting to hear your story now of your salvation by the blessed grace of Jesus Christ.

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Yes, yes. As a young child, I was raised and I went to church in a

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Baptist gospel church. And that was just what we did.

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You serve the Lord. That was our life was serving the Lord. And I did that on until I became a young woman.

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I mean, I still serve in the day. But as I got married at a young age,

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I was about 17, 18. And I got married and I had four children.

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I had two boys and two girls. And it was just a lovely time in my life.

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But as prodigal son did, I went out into the world in 1990.

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My marriage ended and I became an alcoholic,

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Chris. I lost my way. As was I, by the way. I lost my way.

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And through the grace of God, he brought me back in 2010.

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But that was only because I suffer the loss of both of my boys. Oh, wow.

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Being incarcerated, being incarcerated for a lengthy period of time. And this is why

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I am so grateful to Diana. In 2010,

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I suffered in 2009, I suffered a ruptured aneurysm from the loss of my boys into the penile system.

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OK, so they the young one is still there. He got 21 to 45 years because he was in a bar.

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He had just turned 21. And there was the bar was full with other people. And there was a shooting.

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So since the judge couldn't find out at that time who was the shooter, since he charged all the boys with the same crime.

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That's crazy. And he did 21 to 45 years. Well, it was election year.

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And we know what happens when it's election. You have to send a message to get reelected for judges.

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And that's what he did. So, you know what? God is good because that son of mine, my baby son is

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Colby Dixon. He knows the Lord and he speaks about the Lord. He does sermons in prison and he's due to come home any year now.

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The oldest son, Carl Dixon, was hurt over the baby boy.

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So he never got over that, Chris. So he developed an alcoholic problem and drank in and out.

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So he was in and out of the system on probation. So he violated. He's been gone now for three years for violation.

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Now, this is the boy's dad that Diane represents. Sivan, which is 15.

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Jameer, which is 13. And she, God did a miracle with her, with them.

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Under her guidance, they're really fed and spiritually with their music.

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They're really knowledgeable with it. Excuse me. They write.

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They read music. They compose music. United Way has purchased their music because of the jingles that they made.

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Diana is a swan for kids. If you listen to her theme, that's what my son wrote,

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Sivan. So I'm like, God has been so good to me. And I'm grateful.

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I'm grateful today at all the miracles he has done in spite of me going out of his way.

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Now, how did you, what were the circumstances that led you back to the faith of your childhood?

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It was, like I said, it was with my son.

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It was with my sons, them getting sent away. I just went to God.

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I went to my knees. I've never been in his position before. You say, they're only at long for us, that they're not mine.

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So I'm giving them back to you. But in the meantime, while I give them back to you, help me. Help me.

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Give me that first love you gave me when I met you. I need to fall back in love with you.

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Amen. And he did that for me, Chris. Oh, praise God. He did that for me.

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And through all of that, Chris, them being locked up and everything, he birthed inside of me.

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He said, Mildred, Mildred, don't you sit there and cry for something that I gave to you on loan.

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There's other Mildred sons out there that need you. So out of that,

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Chris, what was birthed from me is I'm my brother's keeper. That's a prison ministry for the men.

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Diana protects the children of the parents. And I protect the parents.

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And that's how God has brought us together in our ministry together. Well, praise

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God. And now we've got to hear about this actual ministry that Mildred has already insinuated here, has been an enormous blessing, not only to her, but to her sons.

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And we will have an explanation of the history of this wonderful organization and exactly what it's all about when we return from our very first commercial break.

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If you have a question for either of my guests today, send it to ChrisArnzen at gmail .com,

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C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. As always, give us your first name, at least your city and state and your country of residence.

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Go to royaldiadem .com and mention Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. We're now back with Diane Volo and Mildred Dixon, and we are talking about SWAN, which is a wonderful organization that I have known about for quite a number of years.

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It stands for Scaling Walls, a note at a time. And Diane, I know that you've already mentioned your background in music as a violinist, but tell us how this gift from God that you have turned itself, or by God's grace, became,

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I should say, a wonderful organization known as SWAN. Well, thanks for asking,

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Chris. Of course, I'm a violin performer and teacher, but I was also a mother of three children, and I homeschooled my children.

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I was very grateful to be able to stay with them and educate them, because I do love education and I love being with my children all day.

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So that worked out really well. And of course, I always taught a lot of students and saw the impact that music had on their lives.

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But additionally, I did research and learned how music can help children neurologically.

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For example, within 15 months of playing an instrument, there's actual brain growth.

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And so it's no surprise then that scholastically, they perform better when they study music.

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And music helps children emotionally and socially, and it helps them with disciplines such as self -control and perseverance and working together as a team.

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And then, of course, they have the joy of sharing the beauty of music with others after they learn how to perform.

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But anyway, I had done that for many years and probably about 40 years, actually, when

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I found that I had an empty nest. And during my empty nest years, when I first had a little bit more time on my hand than usual, my husband,

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Chuck, who's a pastor, was pastoring and counseling criminal offenders.

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And so we would have a lot of the families and their children over to our home for dinner and get to know them.

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And it was then, during that season, that I realized the trauma that the children were suffering.

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And so the question for me, Chris, it was, what can

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I do to help? And knowing how much music does help children, I prayed about it and thought about it.

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And the Lord led me to start a non -profit organization to help children affected by parental incarceration and the resulting trauma by providing life -changing intervention through music and mentoring.

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And of course, part of the mentoring is sharing the gospel and having prayer for the children.

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And then the other part of the mentoring is to provide trauma management and to have mental health professionals available to our students.

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Now, what were some of the things that you began to notice from the children of incarcerated parents or a parent who is incarcerated that led you to realize that these children were indeed experiencing troubled lives?

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I'm sure there are quite a wide spectrum of situations that occur in the life of the children of incarcerated parents.

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But can you tell us what made your mind start to go into overdrive, thinking to yourself, wow, we really need to do something in regard to mentoring these kids?

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Yes. Well, first of all, my mother's heart was definitely pulled when

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I would have the families over. Not only were the parents suffering, but as I said, the children are suffering.

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And then I started doing a little bit more research on the problem of parental incarceration.

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And I realized that nationally, more than 5 million United States children have had a parent in jail or prison at some point in their lives.

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Today, the parents of one in every 50 children in the United States are in prison. And for Lancaster City, where I'm very familiar with Lancaster City, there's well more than 3 ,000 children on any given night that have a parent in prison.

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And when a parent goes to prison, their children often suffer physically, mentally, and emotionally.

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It can have as much impact on a child's well -being as abuse or domestic violence. They often experience the trauma of separation of a parent, of abandonment, homelessness, and continued or deepening poverty.

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And also, many of the children we know, they're facing substance abuse in their own homes, sadly, drug overdose with a parent or someone they love.

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And, you know, those things have, you know, children can't express the deep hurt, the emotional turmoil they're going through.

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But it often does result in behavioral issues and substandard academic performance.

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And if you do want a personal testimony, I think that Mildred, who's with me today, she's been such a great supporter of SWAN, and her two grandsons are in our program.

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She might want to share a little bit about her family's experience and why perhaps that she believes

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SWAN is important to them. Yes, Mildred, if you could continue. Okay.

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We have to look at the full picture here. Diana brings an excellent source of support to the boys and to the children, not just my children, to all.

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I wanted to explain in more detail, Chris, when I went back into the world as the prodigal son and picked up my alcohol,

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I wrapped up DUIs. With those DUIs became prison time.

36:52

So this is how my boys get caught up in the system. This is why, listen to what

36:57

Diana is explaining about the repercussions of kids being at home with parents that are locked up or been in the system.

37:09

And they're open to alcoholism or drug stuff around their lives because when they have parents at home that are active addicts, whether it be alcohol, which society tell us that's common, that's normal because it's not like regular drugs.

37:30

Well, it's the worst kind of drug because it's easy accessible. You can go to your nearest corner and get alcohol.

37:39

And this is why it's so dangerous with the children. And this is why

37:44

I am so grateful for Diana's program because she meets these kids right where they are,

37:51

Chris. They're young, they're impressionable. And I speak a lot within my ministry about, you know, the importance of trinity, the importance of decision making.

38:06

And it goes back to mind, body, and soul. Diana identifies these children with their mind and their spirit because she gives them

38:16

God. She talks about prayer. She identifies their life back with their body and soul because she deals with the things that, you know, of Christ.

38:29

Not only is she teaching music, she lets them know about God. And that's a beautiful thing.

38:36

Amen. Well, we do have a listener,

38:43

Lucretia in Roosevelt, Long Island, New York. And Lucretia asks, how do the parents who are incarcerated find out about your organization in order to get their own children on the outside involved in it?

39:02

Oh, thank you for asking that question. It's a very important one. What we have found is that we have to work very hard to get parents to enroll their children in SWAN.

39:17

There are a lot of programs, beautiful programs for underserved children. But what we have found is about 75 % of our students would never have gotten signed up for those programs because when parents are going through the trauma of court hearings and being in prison and back and forth with law enforcement, the last thing they tend to be able to think about is a program for their children.

39:44

They're just trying to make it through each day at a time. So we have to be very proactive in getting parents to sign their children up.

39:54

And we do that through the school counselors. In the city of Lancaster, in the school district where we work, the school district of Lancaster, there are estimated 900 to 1 ,000 homeless children.

40:08

They are our children. They're the children we serve. And the guidance counselors, the family counselors know who those homeless children are.

40:18

So they are often the ones that they'll approach and get to know a little bit more and see if they can plug them into programs and SWAN would be one of them.

40:26

So we owe an awful lot to the school district of Lancaster for being very proactive in having counselors become involved with children's lives.

40:39

And then, you know, often when our children are performing, they perform so much for the community. And Mildred's grandsons have done so much.

40:48

See, our children receive something from SWAN, but the beauty is that they give back to their community.

40:56

They perform so often for the community and they put a lot of smiles on a lot of people's faces as, you know, they're showing their appreciation and they're just sharing the gifts they've been given.

41:07

And through that, of course, then people get to know about SWAN and then they sign up for it as well. Well, thank you,

41:13

Lucretia. We also have Mitchell in York, Pennsylvania, who says, by what percentage do you think, from your experience, the children who are first introduced to SWAN have little interest in it and may be combative about being a part of it as compared to those who are fairly quickly on enthusiastic to participate?

41:43

Yeah, you know, I would say that we have had students enrolled who might not have wanted to be initially, but they're drawn in.

41:55

And I would say the biggest magnet that draws all of our students in is the power of love.

42:05

We have very loving mentors. And when you read in the scriptures that love is the greatest of all graces, we see that in action.

42:17

It's a magnet. Some of our children do not get any eye contact throughout an entire week.

42:26

And when you have a teacher that will give eye contact and not only care about them, but then ask how they can pray for them and then pray exactly the way the child wanted them to pray, the child knows that they're being heard.

42:44

And that's the most powerful magnet into our program. We have very few children that, once they get in, want to leave.

42:52

We do have a good retention rate. Great. And Zeke in Wyandanch, Long Island, New York wants to know, what are the average ages of children who are enrolled with SWAN?

43:06

We enroll children from age five through their senior year in high school.

43:13

Very cool. And what would be the percentage of the age groups?

43:20

Because that's a wide spectrum. Yes, it is. We aim early because we want to have that influence at a very early age.

43:27

So the bulk, the most students that we teach are in elementary school. But then now in summer camp, we had a lot of boys actually in middle school.

43:38

We were thrilled. But some of those, of course, had started in grade school and continued. And we do have some high school students.

43:46

Great. And let's see, we have Boyce in Cleveland, Ohio.

43:53

And Boyce asks, do you only accept children within the

43:58

Pennsylvania area? Boyce, that's a great question. Thank you.

44:05

Right now, yes, because we operate largely in the school district of Lancaster.

44:12

But I will tell you this, that I have great hopes that we will be able to expand from district to district and from state to state.

44:21

And I'll tell you why. Mental health, the problem of mental health and mental health programs and help is that a crisis in our nation.

44:36

So we're, our Swans program is, we have talked about it with Mental Health America.

44:46

And Mental Health America said that Swans program of music and mental health is, will be one of the most successful programs that they've heard of.

44:58

And I'll tell you why. In our country, if you were, if your child was in a mental health crisis, they probably wouldn't get an appointment for three to six months.

45:10

And then by that time, most children won't show up for the appointment. Or if they do show up for the appointment, they won't talk.

45:20

Swans model is this. We have mental health professionals floating from one of our music classes to another.

45:28

So when children are in their music class singing or having group lessons, ensemble lessons, or private lessons, there's a mental health professional right there going in and out of the classrooms and assisting the classes.

45:41

So the children, while they're making music, while they're, and of course, music helps them to relax.

45:48

It helps them to, you know, be more open.

45:55

While they're in that environment, they're also getting to know a mental health professional. But say, for example, in our classes, there's oftentimes there'll be a trigger and a child will act out for one reason or another.

46:09

They'll get immediate help from a mental health professional. They won't have to wait three to six months, number one.

46:18

And then number two, that mental health professional tailors trauma management classes for the students, all within the

46:29

Swan program. So see within the Swan program, they're getting music, they're getting

46:34

Bible and prayer, they're getting trauma management and immediate access to a mental health counselor.

46:42

So we're running now these extended programs during our summer school classes, and then also as an extended afterschool program.

46:52

The School District of Lancaster is the first school district in the nation to get this program.

46:58

So they're looking at it very carefully, studying the outcomes, and they'll be doing that for the next three years.

47:03

And then what we hope is that and trust is that in about three years, the

47:09

School District of Lancaster will be able to be leaders to other school districts throughout

47:14

Pennsylvania and across the nation with this new mental health model. Great. Yeah.

47:19

And Cleveland isn't that far from Pennsylvania. No. Thank you so much,

47:25

Boyce. And I was originally wondering if Boyce was named after the aforementioned James Montgomery Boyce, but I just realized he spells it differently.

47:33

So thanks for that excellent question. We have an anonymous listener and the anonymous listener asks,

47:42

I think it is absolutely wonderful and refreshing to hear that you include biblical teaching in your music instruction.

47:51

But I was wondering if parents perhaps who are incarcerated, who are either

47:56

Muslim or Jewish or from some other religion, do they have to submit to the that is a part of your curriculum?

48:07

Yes, they do. It's actually in our application. It's something that all parents sign off on.

48:15

We fully inform them that they will be receiving instruction from the Bible and the children will be being prayed for.

48:22

So that's one of the things that they'll sign off on when they apply to SWAN. It's just the way we run our program.

48:28

Yeah. And have you ever had pushback? I would think that people would just be grateful that somebody is looking after their kids in such a profound way.

48:39

Well, you know, SWAN is a free program. We're free. Right. And it's a service. So people can decide, well, they want us or they don't want it.

48:48

And so we haven't gotten pushed back. We just have the people that want to sign up for it.

48:54

But you've never had somebody back out of it or anything because of religious reasons? No. Oh, praise

49:01

God. You know, actually, the children. Oh, I was going to make a point with that.

49:08

I deal with parents that are incarcerated and I have pushed

49:14

SWAN on them with their kids from the Lancaster area. They have no problem.

49:21

Some, when they get to the prison, what you need to understand is when these guys get locked up, they're forced to choose what religion they're going to do.

49:32

If I'm going to be a Muslim, if I'm going to be this or that. But it's not really them.

49:37

It's what they're doing to cope while they're in that predicament. So when I explain it to them that this is what

49:45

SWAN has for your child, you know, and are you interested? They are elated.

49:52

They love it because they never had that chance or that choice to be that young and then given that offer and that gift that what

50:02

Diana is offering. So we've been across that road. And a lot of the parents, they love the idea, regardless of what religion they're serving.

50:11

Amen. And yeah, I have supported a wonderful organization on Long Island called the

50:19

Timothy Hill Children's Ranch, which for decades has been a Christian home for abandoned and abused children and also the children of incarcerated parents and also orphans.

50:35

And they have the same kind of a model where that is a part of the program that the kids are going to be instructed in the in the

50:47

Christian faith and from the scriptures and so on. So and they do have kids who have different or are from different religious backgrounds.

50:56

But that, from what I understand, doesn't ever seem to be a major concern of the families of the parents of the kids there.

51:08

Well, we have to go to our midway break right now. Please be patient with us, because the midway break is a bit longer than the other breaks in the show, because Grace Life Radio, 90 .1

51:21

FM in Lake City, Florida, is required by the FCC to localize

51:28

Iron Sherpins Iron Radio geographically to Lake City, Florida. And they do that by airing their own public service announcements and other local things in the middle of the show, while we, on the other hand, simultaneously air our globally heard commercials.

51:44

Please use this time wisely. Write down as much of the contact information as you possibly can for as many of our advertisers as you can, so that you can more frequently and successfully respond to our advertisers.

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But when you can't do any of that, there's one thing that every single Iron Sherpins Iron Radio listener can do, if you really love this show.

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Simply contact our advertisers and say, thank you for sponsoring Iron Sherpins Iron Radio.

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52:33

So please, at the very least, thank our sponsors. And also, write down your questions for our guests today,

52:40

Diana Volo and Mildred Dixon, and send them to chrisarnsen at gmail .com,

52:47

c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n at gmail .com. As always, give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence.

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Always mention that you heard about them from Chris Arnzen of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Before I return to my guests today,

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Diana Volo and Mildred Dixon, who are discussing the wonderful ministry

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Swan, Scaling Walls, a note at a time, we just have a couple of very important announcements to make.

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01:12:29

Christ -honoring, biblically faithful, theologically sound, doctrinally solid church like Gospel of Grace Community Church in Kinzers, Pennsylvania, I have extensive lists spanning the globe of biblically faithful churches and I've helped many people in our audience all over the world find churches that are biblically faithful, sometimes within just a few minutes from where they live, and that may be you too.

01:12:54

No matter where in the world you live, if you are without a biblically faithful church home, send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com

01:13:00

and put I need a church in the subject line. That's chrisarnson at gmail .com, put I need a church in the subject line.

01:13:07

That's also the email address where you could send in a question to our guests today, Diana Volo and Mildred Dixon, chrisarnson at gmail .com,

01:13:19

chrisarnson at gmail .com. And I was curious,

01:13:27

Diana, what else do you do to promote what you are doing to the greater community, at least in the

01:13:40

Lancaster area, so that word may be further spread about this wonderful organization?

01:13:50

Well, our best advertisement for swan4kids .org are our children. They perform for the community, as I said, so we give them gifts of music lessons, but then they work hard, they diligently practice, they work together as a group, and then they're the ones that bravely go on from stage to stage to perform.

01:14:13

And we often tell our children, please, you know, just focus on giving the joy and beauty of music to others and put just one smile on one face.

01:14:23

So word does spread through their performances. And most notably, we're so excited for our students because they were recently invited to perform for the

01:14:36

Pennsylvania Governors at the Pennsylvania Governors Residence for the opening there on December 10th.

01:14:45

And, and I'll tell you how that happened. We went to a luncheon and we had our students perform for a lot of business people that were at the luncheon.

01:14:56

And there were a couple of senators, teams there.

01:15:01

So they followed up with swan because they're very interested. Our government is very interested in mental health for youth.

01:15:11

And they are very concerned about trauma and its impact on children.

01:15:17

So they took an interest in swan. And then when I spoke to a couple of the senators, they shared the word with the governor.

01:15:25

And lo and behold, I got contacted by the governor's team. We had a zoom meeting.

01:15:30

And again, I have been very impressed with their desire to help children who are experiencing trauma with mental health.

01:15:42

And they do see and appreciate the fact that we are combining music and mental health together.

01:15:52

So anyway, we got invited to the governor's residence that will make a lifelong impression and impact on our students.

01:16:02

And that's how word gets around. They're our best advertisement. Well, tell us about some of the other places where the kids have performed.

01:16:11

Well, the favorite places that our children love to perform at are at retirement residences.

01:16:21

So we'll often have our students take time in class to make cards for the residents.

01:16:30

And they understand that the residents are in prison in a certain way themselves.

01:16:36

Many of the residents are prisoners within their own bodies. And we prepare our children to let them know that, you know, they'll be seeing people that can't move or that are can't talk or that are sitting in wheelchairs.

01:16:48

And we'll tell them that their goal is simply to put one smile on one face and to give them a card and to give them the beauty of music.

01:16:57

So they'll go to the retirement residences. And this summer, when they performed for one of them,

01:17:05

I will always remember what one of our students said afterwards. He said, well, first of all, he was so impressed that they put smiles on everybody's faces, not just one, one person's face.

01:17:17

But he said, I felt like a superhero because he knew that he had made an impact on others.

01:17:26

And sometimes, you know, when you're going through severe trauma, as I had mentioned earlier, and that would be trauma that because they're affected by parental incarceration and many other difficulties, sometimes, you know, they do fail in school or they have trouble with their behavior.

01:17:47

And so sadly, sometimes succeeding is not something they do easily.

01:17:53

But when they get in front of an audience, they get immediate feedback. A lot of people smiles.

01:18:00

They get immediate success. We often our children often get standing ovations.

01:18:07

Wow. And so that makes such a great impact. Well, well, maybe one of these days, the

01:18:14

Swan kids will perform at the nursing home or my brother is a resident here in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

01:18:20

I'd be thrilled to be awesome. That's Forest Park, which, by the way, this actually reminded me

01:18:28

I was going to open up the show with a prayer request. And unfortunately, it slipped my mind.

01:18:34

But I'd like our listeners to please pray for a individual named

01:18:40

Bob, who is 84 years old. He is the father of the woman who led me to Christ in the 1980s.

01:18:47

Bob, Bob was found on the floor of his home unconscious yesterday.

01:18:56

And he is now in a hospital and he is unable to speak and unable to respond to any thing addressed to him.

01:19:09

They believe he had a massive stroke. So I would appreciate the prayers of all of you for Bob, not only physically that he is physically restored, but spiritually that he would truly come to know

01:19:23

Christ Jesus, the King, the only Lord and Savior for sinners.

01:19:30

And I would appreciate that very much. Let's see, we have

01:19:37

Tyrell in Redding, Pennsylvania. And Tyrell asks, how do people support you other than financially?

01:19:47

Can we also be a part of your musical training staff and so on?

01:19:53

Well, we love to have community people help us. We're always looking for music teachers and classroom assistants.

01:20:04

And then what we have found with volunteers, when we meet with volunteers, they often have a passion or an interest to do something for us and they'll run it past us and we just go with it.

01:20:16

Because when somebody has a unique idea and they're passionate about it, not only does it benefit them, it benefits us, of course, but it's contagious because they're so passionate about it.

01:20:30

And so we're up for a lot of ideas. We'd love to interact. So please feel free to email us at info,

01:20:37

I -N -F -O, at swan4kids .org, info at swan4kids .org.

01:20:44

And we will interact with you about your interest to volunteer.

01:20:50

And by the way, since Tyrell brought up your need for financial support, why don't you let our listeners know how those funds are used?

01:21:01

Yes, financial support obviously is key. We direct, oh,

01:21:10

I think that the last figure I heard was something like 82 % of our budget to our program.

01:21:17

So funds will be directed towards music lessons for our students.

01:21:23

More and more of our students are receiving both private and group lessons each week.

01:21:30

They also get chorus that also involves learning sign language and dancing to go with their music.

01:21:39

Then we also support the mentoring, which includes

01:21:44

Bible class, trauma management class, and having mental health professionals available to our students.

01:21:54

So that's what it supports. Now, we run as an afterschool program in the public schools in Lancaster City during the school year.

01:22:03

But then during the summer, we run a six -week full -day summer music program.

01:22:12

This past year, we ran that program from 830 to four o 'clock, Monday through Thursday for six weeks.

01:22:19

And then our students not only learned an entire program, but then they shared that program by performing for others.

01:22:26

They had at least six or seven performances in the community. And that was all accomplished within six weeks of the summer.

01:22:34

We kept kids off of their devices. We kept them off the streets. We kept them from being on videos all day.

01:22:42

And instead, they learned how to play violins, violas, cello, basses. They learned how to play ukuleles and guitars, hand drums and drum kit, keyboards.

01:22:52

And they also learned to write their own songs and learn how to do GarageBand, which was an app where they composed music.

01:22:59

So that's where those dollars go. And I hope that you receive more of those dollars as a result of today's show.

01:23:07

In fact, I can remember the last time you were on, there was a listener who sent you quite a generous gift, did he not?

01:23:15

Yes, we have had very generous gifts from your show. Thank you, Chris. And this Friday, we have an especially important day of giving.

01:23:24

Every year, Lancaster City runs a campaign that they call

01:23:29

Extra Give. It's a 24 -hour online day of giving.

01:23:35

It's this Friday, November 17th, from midnight to 11 .59

01:23:42

p .m. And what we encourage listeners to do, if they can just even donate $10 during the

01:23:51

Extra Give this Friday, that would be a tremendous help. There's options to, of course, donate more, but if a $10 donation would be something that you would want to do, it would greatly bless us.

01:24:07

Thank you. And they would do so by going to swan4kids .org,

01:24:13

correct? Well, yes, but if they want to directly go on to that online campaign, that's this

01:24:19

Friday, it's swan4kidsextragive .org. So that's swan4kidsextragive .org.

01:24:31

Great. Let's see here. Oh, before I go to a listener question, I wanted to get

01:24:37

Mildred to tell us, I don't recall, other than you are an aggressive spreader of the word for Swans for Kids, are you purely a volunteer?

01:24:53

Are you a staff member? What are your roles with Swans for Kids?

01:25:00

I am a grandmother, a proud grandmother. She has my voice. But like I said,

01:25:08

I have my own ministry as well, but I am with her a grandmother. Yes, her grandchildren,

01:25:15

Siobhan and Jameer, are gifted musicians. And their story is that they bonded with their father, who is currently serving in prison right now.

01:25:25

But their main way to bond with their father was through music because music has generational, you have generations of musicians in your family,

01:25:37

Mildred, and that gift is very evident. Siobhan and Jameer are gifted musicians.

01:25:44

They're in junior high and high school. And Siobhan is a gifted composer and pianist.

01:25:53

And Jameer is a gifted drummer. And the brothers work together beautifully.

01:26:00

Siobhan composes music, and then the brothers perform the music. And that's how we met

01:26:06

Mildred. And she's been such an advocate of our program that I often bring her along when we do interviews.

01:26:14

Let's see, we have Drake. And Drake is from a city that is probably one, if not the most comical name for a town

01:26:25

I've ever heard. Bird in Hand, Pennsylvania, it must be Amish. It must be.

01:26:32

It is. Okay. Not saying that our listener is Amish, but that area must be.

01:26:37

Okay. We have Hamilton in Bird in Hand, Pennsylvania, who wants to know, can churches invite your students to sing for them as a vehicle perhaps to convince the churches to provide for you financially?

01:26:55

They absolutely can. And Bird in Hand is local to Lancaster, so that would be an easy thing to do.

01:27:02

And as a matter of fact, I first met Mildred Dixon at a church. It was St. Thomas Episcopal Church, where Siobhan, during the offertory, played a beautiful piece that he composed, and Jameer accompanied him on drums.

01:27:17

And it was really a very suitable piece for the offertory. And that's how I met Mildred.

01:27:22

We would be happy to do that. Again, contact us at info at swan4kids .org.

01:27:29

Now, would the students, is that an appropriate way to describe them, by the way?

01:27:35

Students? Yes. Would the students, would you have them travel only within the borders of Pennsylvania, or do you ever go outside into other states?

01:27:49

Well, we would certainly go beyond the state border. We are, say, for example, we're going to Harrisburg.

01:27:57

Of course, it's within the state of Pennsylvania because we were invited to, our students were invited to perform at the governor's residence.

01:28:05

But the School District of Lancaster is very supportive of that. So they are underwriting the school bus that will take both the students and their parents to the governor's residence for that open house that they're performing for.

01:28:18

And I would imagine that if the event is out of state and the school district understands the value of it, they would support that.

01:28:30

And I would ask our listeners to join us in praying that there would also be a benefit for the kingdom of God through the travels and performances of these

01:28:44

SWAN kids that may lead people to Christ unexpectedly.

01:28:50

Who knows? Government officials, principals, schools, and we could go on and on and on with the kinds of people who have varying roles in the community.

01:29:04

When they hear the story of SWAN and when they hear even the testimonies of people like my guests,

01:29:13

Diana Volo and Mildred Dixon, who knows what the Lord will do with that.

01:29:20

Well, we are going to be going to our final break. And if you have any questions for Diana Volo and for Mildred Dixon, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

01:29:35

chrisarnson at gmail .com. As always, give us your first name at least, city and state, and country of residence. Don't go away.

01:29:42

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01:43:37

Well, we are now back with Diana Volo and Mildred Dixon as we continue our discussion on the wonderful ministry

01:43:45

SWAN, which stands for Scaling Walls a Note at a Time. And if you have a question,

01:43:54

I'd like to join others who have asked questions on the air. Send it to Chris Ornzen at gmail .com.

01:43:59

Give us your first name at least, city and state and country of residence. Diana, why don't you share with us some stories, anecdotal stories about some of the kids who you have trained and mentored with SWAN?

01:44:19

Oh, I always love sharing impact stories. That's what it's all about, right?

01:44:24

So we had a little eight -year -old girl join us in SWAN and she was taking lessons.

01:44:32

She was doing hand drumming. So we always try to have a very safe performance for their first one because, of course, performing for the first time feels like diving off a high dive,

01:44:43

I think, for a lot of us. And so we had a group of hand drummers on stage and when this little girl, she showed up, she was in tears and she was with her mother.

01:44:56

So her mother gave her the choice of sitting back and just watching the performance or joining in.

01:45:04

And our little student decided that she would go on stage if her mother sat next to her. So that happened.

01:45:10

And so tears dried up and she had a good performance. And then it was at the end of the year, that was the springtime, that was her first performance ever.

01:45:19

And then she went to our six camp. And the first camp that she went to, we had about 12 performances.

01:45:28

Well, her confidence just grew and grew over from one performance to the next, to the next.

01:45:36

By late August, they were performing at the Southern Market in Lancaster and that particular performance was filmed.

01:45:45

I forget what television news station it was filmed on, but it was filmed. And after the children performed, the cameraman asked, would anybody like to be interviewed?

01:45:57

And lo and behold, our little student raised her hand, was the first one to get that microphone on her.

01:46:04

And she was bright eyed and she said how much she loved performing. She did a beautiful interview, saw herself on television that night.

01:46:13

And then she did something very special, which really impressed me because mind you, she was only eight years old.

01:46:20

She wrote a song and I talked to her and her mother about her song. And what the song was about is,

01:46:28

I forget the title now. It was something like feeling strong. If you look on our blog, you'll be able to find that story.

01:46:37

But I asked her, what is it about? And she said, it's about when people are mean to me that I will stand strong.

01:46:46

And I was just amazed that from spring through summer and into the fall, this little girl blossomed from being scared and crying at her first performance to volunteering to put on the television camera, the microphone, and then internalizing what she had learned about standing.

01:47:12

Oh, the song was called Standing Tall. And what she had internalized with confidence and her voice and her ability to find a voice and find her words to write a song about standing tall when people were mean to her.

01:47:29

Um, so in her eight year old way, uh, she just demonstrated what

01:47:36

Swan is all about. We want to empower children. Um, our children are affected by many traumas and some of them are very severe.

01:47:47

And when we're traumatized as children, we lose our voice. We can't fight.

01:47:52

We can't flee. So many times children just shut down and they become invisible, but through music, our children find their own voice.

01:48:03

And sometimes they're so sorely traumatized that they can't even attend class.

01:48:11

They're given private one -on -one instruction during the day, but you know, music, um, gives a child a way to express their deepest feelings without even a word.

01:48:24

So they could be frustrated or angry, or they could just feel sad and lonely or sometimes happy, but they can express that through the music.

01:48:36

And, um, that's done, um, through music and it makes an impact on all of our children.

01:48:46

Well, we have Kyle in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, and Kyle asks, do the children perform sacred, secular, or both kinds of music?

01:48:58

They perform both. Um, we do have oftentimes spirituals that they sing.

01:49:05

Um, and you can, by the way, you can hear some of their performances online, uh, through our blogs or through Facebook and Instagram.

01:49:15

So they perform both spiritual and secular, but the ones that we, we always make sure that are the songs that we're teaching our children have a positive, uplifting message.

01:49:27

Uh, because you know how it is when we get a song in our mind, ends up going around and around and around.

01:49:33

And so we want those words to be very positive and uplifting words, words of truth and words of empowerment.

01:49:40

Well, actually, uh, that young girl that you, uh, just spoke of who sang a song called stand tall and it had to do with standing tall in the midst of being mocked and ridiculed.

01:49:53

I have to remind myself about that every time I read the mail from my listeners. Uh, and my question of my own is, uh, has any of the students of SWAN ever had their musical careers launched through being mentored by you initially?

01:50:19

Yes, they have. Actually, one of our, our, one of our first students, her name is

01:50:24

Brianna. She's very special young woman. I met her when she was 10 years old in a parking lot in North Philadelphia.

01:50:32

And that's when her grandmother signed her up for SWAN. Uh, sadly within that year, her grandmother died of cancer and Brianna had a history of abandonment.

01:50:44

She was living with her grandmother. They were couch surfing, so they were homeless. And, um, her parents were incarcerated ever since she was a little baby.

01:50:54

So she was used to being passed around from one place to another. She was definitely living in poverty, but she was also bullied to the point where she would come home from school bloodied.

01:51:05

Wow. And, uh, SWAN was able to give her a full, well, through SWAN, we were able to get her a full scholarship to attend, um, classical

01:51:16

Christian school called Dayspring Christian Academy where she, um, she started going to that school when she was 11 years old.

01:51:27

And Brianna had a very, has a very special gift of singing. Six, a few, only a few weeks after her grandmother died, she was actually, uh, she bravely stood on the pitcher's mound of the

01:51:41

Lancaster minor league baseball team and sang the national anthem to open the game. Wow. And that was at 10 years old, just a few weeks after her grandmother died.

01:51:51

Um, but we had her perform, perform, perform. And we had her, uh, we gave her excellent, um, voice instruction and she scaled her walls.

01:52:04

Uh, she graduated Dayspring Christian Academy and was given a full scholarship to Edinburgh, uh,

01:52:13

University in Western Pennsylvania, where she is studying music therapy, music and art therapy.

01:52:22

Uh, and she has said that SWAN saved her life. Wow. And she wants to become for other children what

01:52:28

SWAN was for her. Yes. Praise God. Well, I'd like us in the, uh, little bit over four minutes that we have left,

01:52:39

I'd like, uh, Mildred Dixon to give us her final thoughts that she most wants etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners.

01:52:47

And then I'd like Diana Volo to do the same. Mildred, if you could. Yeah. And I want to thank you guys again for having me tonight.

01:52:57

This is a pleasure and thank all that's in the audience as well as you, Chris, for opening this, um, gathering tonight, you know, to just let us voice our opinion on how important it is to support

01:53:11

SWAN. These kids need a voice. These kids that are at home, some are forgotten, some, you know, they just need help.

01:53:21

They need a little guidance. And it's so important that you donate. It's so important that you get behind this program because like I said, my boys never had this chance and they were in the music.

01:53:35

We didn't have the right donors to get behind. And Diana, she sent from God, she helps my grands and I just admire this program.

01:53:45

And you get a chance to get them and embrace them before they get to me.

01:53:52

I'm the last step. I'm the young man that lost the dream and lost the hope.

01:53:58

They're incarcerated. Right now, you have a chance to foster these babies and get them before they get to me.

01:54:05

God bless. Well, praise God. Thank you for that. And Diana, if you could close with those thoughts that you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners about SWAN.

01:54:16

Well, thank you for taking the time to focus on children affected by parental incarceration and the resulting trauma.

01:54:23

Of course, the most, the biggest need we have is for our children to learn and understand the gospel and be saved.

01:54:31

And I'm grateful that we're able to do that within our program. We're also grateful that music is such a wonderful way to have children be given a voice and be given skills to succeed because music does help them scholastically and behaviorally in all ways.

01:54:55

And then we're also very, very grateful that within that context, we're also able to give them trauma management classes and give them immediate access to mental health professionals.

01:55:08

So anyone who would be inspired to support SWAN, of course, that would be a great blessing as well.

01:55:14

But we also really appreciate your prayers. That, of course, is the most important request, is prayer request.

01:55:20

Thank you. And thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be on the program today.

01:55:27

I want to remind our listeners that you can also hear not only an interview, or actually interviews plural, with my guest's husband,

01:55:42

Pastor Chuck Volo. And Pastor Chuck, once again, is the pastor of Gospel of Grace Community Church in Kinzers, Pennsylvania.

01:55:54

You can hear interviews with him that I've conducted on this program.

01:56:01

If you go to the archive of Iron Sherp and Zion Radio, ironsherpandzionradio .com, and you go to the podcast in parentheses past shows section, you can type in the search engine

01:56:18

Volo, because every person that I've interviewed by that last name is related to each other.

01:56:25

V as in victory, U -O -L -O. V as in victory, U -O -L -O. You'll not only hear

01:56:31

Pastor Chuck Volo's interviews involving his outreach to the

01:56:37

Amish, but you'll also hear interviews I've conducted with their son,

01:56:42

Jeremy Volo. Jeremy, who was at one time a professional soccer player.

01:56:50

Wasn't it the San Antonio Scorpions, if I'm not mistaken? Yes, and the Red Bulls, New York Red Bulls.

01:56:56

That's right. And Jeremy was at one time a pastor in Laredo, Texas, and now

01:57:04

I know that he went to the Master's Seminary in California, the seminary founded by John MacArthur.

01:57:09

Is he on staff there, or is he just studying there? He's doing both. So he's finishing up his doctorate degree at the

01:57:17

Master's Seminary, and he's also on staff. And he,

01:57:23

Jeremy, that is, is married to Ginger Duggar Volo, and Ginger, God willing, is going to be my guest again.

01:57:36

She had been on the program with Jeremy for a brief interview when I was conducting on -site interviews at the

01:57:45

G3 conference, which I do every year, and that was all the way back in 2018.

01:57:50

I can't believe it was six years ago. But I interviewed Jeremy and Ginger on the program during one of those on -site interviews in Atlanta, Georgia.

01:58:01

But she is returning to the program to discuss her book, Becoming Free Indeed, My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear.

01:58:12

That's Becoming Free Indeed, My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear. We don't have an exact date yet, but I hope to have that date written in stone very soon.

01:58:22

Well, also, please don't forget, folks, the websites that you need to have to get in touch with Diana Volo and this very invaluable ministry,

01:58:35

SWAN. Go to swan4kids .org, and that's swan4kids .org.

01:58:44

And for those of you who are either living in or traveling through Kinser's, Pennsylvania, or if you have family, friends, and loved ones in that area, please pay a visit to the

01:58:56

Gospel of Grace Community Church in Kinser's, Pennsylvania, where Chuck Volo is the pastor.

01:59:03

That website is gospelofgracecommunitychurch .com. Thanks again,

01:59:12

Diana. Thanks again, Mildred. Thanks again to all of you who listened, especially those who took the time to write.

01:59:17

I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far, far greater