Jaime Jorge came to the Tri-Cities on Dec. 6, 2008, and played a Christmas concert to a packed house. Members and visitors filled the sanctuary at the Kennewick (Wash.) Church, eager to hear the world-renowned violinist in a brand-new acoustic space.
As part of the program, Jorge told how his family came to America from Cuba in December of 1980, with nothing…except opportunity. After a few weeks in Florida, the family moved to Wisconsin. They had no heat in the house and no warm winter clothes, but they had freedom and each other, and they huddled together for warmth. With the arrival of his first paycheck, Jaime Jorge’s dad went to the academy and turned it over to the business office—there was no purchase more important than getting his children into school!
Jorge’s story of leaving communism found a subtle note of harmony in one of the highlights of the evening. He played a violin duet with 7-year-old Tommy Mayhew, whose mother had come to America from Albania, the only communist country actually to write into their constitution that they believed there was no God. Anila Mayhew had never even heard of Jesus until she was 19 years old! She came as an exchange student to America, eventually meeting and marrying Tom and together they found Adventist truth.
Jaime Jorge plays to a packed house in Tri-Cities, Wash., on Dec. 6, 2008. The program included a violin duet with 7-year-old Tommy Mayhew.
