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

Live from historic downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of founding father James Wilson, 19th century hymn writer George Duffield, 19th century gospel minister George Norcross, and sports legend Jim Thorpe.

It's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today. Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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

This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 13th day of November 2023, and I'm thrilled to have on the program today a returning guest and also a first-time guest.

The returning guest that we have the honor and privilege to interview today is Diana Volo. Perhaps some of you recall that I've had on the program a number of times her husband, Chuck Volo, who is currently the pastor of Gospel of Grace Community Church in Kinzers, Pennsylvania, but Diana Volo is the founder and executive director of SWAN, which is the acronym for Scaling Walls a Note at a Time.

SWAN includes dedicated advocates for children affected by parental incarceration by providing life-changing intervention through music and mentoring, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to.

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Diana Volo. Hi there, Chris, and it's what an honor it is to be with you and your audience today. Thank you for having us. 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 Amish people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Chuck has a phenomenal ministry, reaching out to the Amish that he has been participating in for years, and I'm looking forward to having him back on with some of those Amish people who had been led to the true gospel.

That would be so exciting. And I look forward to it. Yeah, Chuck has been doing that for about 18 years now. Wow. And I think he has attended every single one of my Iron Sharpens Iron Radio pastors luncheons after I relocated here to Pennsylvania, except one.

I think there was just one time when unfortunately our schedules did not mesh, and he couldn't make it. But I think he's been in attendance to every single other one, and I look forward to seeing him again in June.

I believe it's June 6th is when I'm having my next Iron Sharpens Iron Radio pastors luncheon featuring Dr. Joel Beeky as the keynote speaker. So anybody listening who's a man in ministry leadership, mark that down on your calendar.

Thursday, June 6th, 11 a .m. to 2 p .m. at Church of the Living Christ in Loisville, Pennsylvania. And I will remind you about that every day until the day before that event. 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, Mildred Dixon, who has come to play a very important role in the ministry 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.

Good evening and.

Thank you, Chris, and thank you so much of allowing me this opportunity to be here tonight. I just wanted to express the joy of having SWAN in my lives, for Diane supports my sons through her program.

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

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

Well, I always love to.

Share that story of grace in my life. Thanks for asking, Chris. I was raised in a Roman Catholic family and went to Catholic school for 12 years, and although I do know some people that are in that faith that have understood the true gospel of grace, in my experience, I didn't understand how to be saved.

And I probably prayed my first ever real prayer when I was all of 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.

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

So I immediately put my head down on my desk in school, and I prayed, Lord, let me never lose my faith in you. Now, that was a true prayer, although other prayers I had ever prayed in my life were rote, memorized prayers.

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

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

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 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 Lord in second grade.

Lord, help me never to lose my faith in you. What he did do, though, is he helped me to lose my faith in a system that had a lot of traditions and rules of man. But then when I attended college, I was in college in Philadelphia as a violin performance major.

And in God's sweet providence, there were two things that happened. I had a lot of friends who were born again Christians who loved me, who prayed for me and witnessed to me. And they even took me to church.

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

What a great person to God in his providence. Have the first preacher that.

You ever heard? Absolutely. And, you know, it was interesting. 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. And his preaching was excellent.

What I found was something that was new to me. 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 Boyce, then what the Holy Spirit did was have me think about the word of God and convict me by the word of God throughout the week.

And I was I strangely discovered that I was thinking about spiritual things all through the week. As a matter of fact, at one point I thought, is something wrong with me because I keep thinking about spiritual things?

It was a very new experience for me. But all of that led to me understanding the gospel of grace. And one of the things that I first started doing after one of my colleagues explained the gospel quite clearly to me is I started reading the Bible.

And because I understood the gospel in the Bible, I started understanding what I was reading. And there was such a thrill because the words of scripture just lit up to me. It meant so much to me. And in January 1979, I bought my first Bible and I signed it.

And I I didn't understand yet that God would keep me. I didn't understand that doctrine yet. So when I signed my Bible, my first Bible in January 1979, I thought, wow, 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. And but a year later and subsequently every year later since 1979, I still am thrilled to read the word of God.

And that's because God's grace sustains us. And it was his work in my life which will lead me to heaven. So I praise God for that. 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, by the way I was also raised Roman Catholic, went to parochial Catholic school for eight years. I went to a public high school at my choice.

And I just can't help but remember one of the funniest lines I ever heard Archie Bunker say when when his Catholic neighbors the Lorenzos invited him over for a Friday dinner and Archie was all upset because he hates fish.

And when Edith made that known to Irene Lorenzo, the neighbor, she said, Archie, the Pope allows the Catholic Church to eat meat on Friday a long time ago. And Archie's response was, well I knew he was into real estate but when did he get involved in the meat business?

And I was a Catholic at the time of hearing that, and I still thought it was hilarious. So now let's hear about, very very briefly before we go to.

Mildred's testimony, how did you meet Chuck? Well interestingly, my colleagues, see. I'm a violin performance major at college at the time I was converted, and Chuck was pastoring at a church in North Philadelphia.

And it's pastor of Fleischman Memorial Church was Jim Carrente, who was a Juilliard.

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

Yeah, well he attracted a lot of us college kids who were musicians to the church because he was a Juilliard grad, we spoke the same language. Well wasn't John Thornberry a pastor there once? Well I don't know about that, but when I went to Fleischman Church, Chuck was pastor there, 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 Baptists, perhaps not so much so outside of our circles, but John Thornberry is a well-known historian amongst Reformed Baptists and has written some phenomenal books, including my very favorite biography, A Pastor in New York, The Life and Times of Spencer Cohn.

I'm almost certain that Fleischman Memorial Baptist was a church that he pastored for quite a long time. And was that church, by the way, at one time in the American Baptist.

Association, do you know? You know, I'm not too sure about that. Because I know John... At the time when I went there, I didn't know anything about denominations and things.

Like that, so. Yeah, that's a notoriously liberal denomination, and if it's the same congregation, John Thornberry was a holdout for a long time trying to see if there could be some positive changes made in the denomination, but he eventually pulled the church out of there.

But we'll have to find out if it's the, we'll have to find out if it's the same church at some point. Yeah. And so, I'm glad that you met Chuck, and I'm glad you two got married, and you're a wonderful couple, and as I say, oh by the way folks, you're gonna be hearing possibly, there's a whole bunch of New American Standard Bible ads that we air on the show, and there's a possibility the one that Chuck recorded for us may air, and you may be puzzled to hear him announce that he is the pastor of New Life Community Church in Kingsville, Maryland.

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

Recently, am I right? That's correct. He started this church plan in.

2020. 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. Yes,.

Yes. As a young child, I was raised, and I went to church in a Baptist gospel church, and that was just what we did. You serve the Lord. That was our life, was serving the Lord, and I did that on until I became a young woman.

I mean, I still serve in the day, but as I got married at a young age, I was about 17, 18, and I got married, and I had four children. I had two boys and two girls, and it was just a lovely time in my life, but as prodigal son did, I went out into the world in 1990.

My marriage ended, and I became an alcoholic, Chris. As was I, by the way. I lost my way, and through the grace of God, he brought me back in 2010, but that was only because I suffered the loss of both of my boys being incarcerated for a lengthy period of time, and this is why I am so grateful to Diana.

In 2010, I suffered, in 2009, I suffered a ruptured aneurysm from the loss of my boys into the penile system. The young one is still there. He got 21 to 45 years because he was in a bar. He had just turned 21, and the bar was full with other people, and there was a shooting, so since the judge couldn't find out at that time who was the shooter, he charged all the boys with the same crime.

Wow. That's crazy. 21 to 45 years. Well, it was election year, and we know what happens when it's election. You have to send a message to get reelected for judges, and that's what he did. So you know what?

God is good because that son of mine, my baby son, is Colby Dixon, and he knows the Lord, and he speaks about the Lord. He does sermons in prison, and he's due to come home in a year now. The oldest son, Carl Dixon, was hurt over the baby boy, so he never got over that, Chris, so he developed an alcoholic problem and drank in and out.

So he was in and out of the system on probation, so he violated. He's been gone now for three years for violation. Now, this is the boy's dad that Diane represents, Sivan, which is 15, Jameer, which is 13, and she on God has did a miracle with her, with them.

Under her guidance, they're really fed and spiritually with their music. They're really knowledgeable with it. Excuse me. They write. They read music. They compose music. United Way has purchased their music because of the jingles that they made.

Diana is a swan for kids. If you listen to her theme, that's what my son wrote, Sivan. So I'm like, God has been so good to me, and I'm grateful. I'm grateful today at all the miracles He has done in spite of me going out of His way.

Now, how did you—.

What were the circumstances that led you back to the faith of your childhood?

It was, like I said, it was with my son. It was with my son's—them getting sent away. I just went to God. I went to my knees. I said, I've never been in this position before. You say, you will—they're only at long for us if they're not mine.

So I'm giving them back to you. But in the meantime, while I give them back to you, help me. Help me. Give me that first love you gave me when I met you. I need to fall back in love with you. Amen. And He did that for me, Chris.

Praise God. He did that for me. And through all of that, Chris, them being locked up and everything, He birthed inside of me. He said, Mildred, Mildred, don't you sit there and cry for something that I gave to you on loan.

There's other Mildred sons out there that need you. So out of that, Chris, what was birthed for me is I'm my brother's keeper. That's a prison ministry for the men. Diana protects the children of the parents, and I protect the parents.

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

Well, praise 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. 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.

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

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, I should say, a wonderful organization known as SWAN.

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

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

For example, within 15 months of playing an instrument, there's actual brain growth. So it's no surprise then that scholastically they perform better when they study music. 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.

And then, of course, they have the joy of sharing the beauty of music with others after they learn how to perform. But anyway, I had done that for many years, and probably about 40 years, actually, when 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, Chuck, who's a pastor, was pastoring and counseling criminal offenders. And so we would have a lot of the families and their children over to our home for dinner and get to know them.

And it was then, during that season, that I realized the trauma that the children were suffering. And so the question for me, Chris, it was, what can I do to help? And knowing how much music does help children, I prayed about it and thought about it.

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.

And, of course, part of the mentoring is sharing the gospel and having prayer for the children. And then the other part of the mentoring is to provide trauma management and to have mental health professionals available.

To our students. 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?

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

Yes. Well, first of all, my mother's heart was definitely pulled when I would have the families over. Not only were the parents suffering, but as I said, the children are suffering. And then I started doing a little bit more research on the problem of parental incarceration.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

I wanted to explain in more detail, Chris, when I went back into the world as the prodigal son and picked up my alcohol, I wrapped up DUIs. With those DUIs became prison time. So this is how my boys get caught up in the system.

This is why, listen to what Diane is explaining about the repercussions of kids being at home with parents that are locked up or been in the system. 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.

Well, it's the worst kind of drug because it's easy accessible. You can go to your nearest corner and get alcohol. And this is why it's so dangerous with the children. And this is why I am so grateful for Diana's program because she meets these kids right where they are, Chris.

They're young, they're impressionable. And I speak a lot within my ministry about the importance of trinity, the importance of decision making. And it goes back to mind, body, and soul. Diana edifies these children with their mind and their spirit because she gives them God.

She talks about prayer. She edifies their life back with their body and soul because she deals with the things that, you know, of Christ. Not only is she teaching music, she lets them know about God. And that's a beautiful thing.

Amen. Well, we do have a listener, 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?

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. 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.

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. 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.

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

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

And through that, of course, then people get to know about SWAN and.

Then they sign up for it as well. Well, thank you, Lucretia. We also have Mitchell in York, Pennsylvania, who says, by what percentage do you think from your experience that 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?

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

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

Wow.

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.

And that's the most powerful magnet into our program. We have very few children that once they get in, want to leave. 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? We enroll children from age five through their senior year in high school. Very cool. And what would be the percentage of the the age groups? Because it's a wide spectrum.

Yes, it is. We aim early because we want to have that influence at a very early age. So the bulk, the most students that we teach are in elementary school. But then now we in summer camp, we had we had a lot of boys actually in middle school.

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

Have some high school students. Great. And let's see, we have Boyce in Cleveland, Ohio. And Boyce asks, do you only accept children within the Pennsylvania area?

Boyce, that's a great question. Thank you. Right now, yes, because we operate largely in the school district of Lancaster. 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.

And I'll tell you why. Mental health, the problem of mental health and mental health programs and help is at a crisis in our nation. So we're our Swans program is, we have talked about it with Mental Health America 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.

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. And then by that time, most children won't show up for the appointment.