2010
Since the last update, we’ve had lots of opportunities as a family to minister with music. In January, we took a trip (with Dena, Nate & baby Craig) in an RV to Alabama to participate in the “We Care Prison Ministry” for a week. It was a wonderful experience for the whole family.
We provided a harp program in four different prisons… they made for some of the best audiences we’ve ever played for (very responsive and appreciative). This spring we were back to the studio working on a family CD which we hope to be finished by the end of this year.
This CD will be special, as it will have many of our family favorites and will include all the children.One special event that took place this June was when our family took a trip to Colorado (with Dena, Nate & baby Craig) to see our other daughter Joanna, her husband Stephen and baby Nicolas. We had the privilege to do a harp program for Joanna’s church in Grand Junction, CO, where all the children were together again playing instruments and singing.
Presently this summer, Alex is busy catching up on harp orders and the boys have been regularly coming to the shop to help. Alex continues to make harps at the wood shop at the school where he teaches, but we are looking into starting a new shop location in the town of Blue Ball so that the boys can work full time on harps this fall and winter. Pray for us
Since the last update, we opened up a new Marini Made Harps shop in the town of Blue Ball this August. We’re renting a small area in back of the Blue Ball Machine Company. It was a big project installing new equipment, and moving harp stuff from the school where Alex was building harps to this new location. It took a number of weeks till we were operational, but now it has really made a difference in productivity… we are moving quicker through our customer list and the boys can come whenever they want to work on harps.
Alex has recently been experimenting with a new “Ultra-Light” harp which is 34-strings and only weighs about 14 pounds (see above picture to the right). Hopefully if it passes the test of strength it will be a popular one at the conventions.We still provide harp programs throughout the year for a variety of events. Dena, and her husband, Nate, continue to help with the programs; and baby Craig usually steals the show with his cute smiles during one of the songs where Emily holds him to play the hand chimes. As the family grows, and the older children find other interests, it is uncertain as to how long we will continue these programs… but we are thankful that we have been together this long. Paul and Emily are now playing duets for special events, and enjoy this type of work. Emily is in her junior year, and looks forward to graduating next year. Mark just started high school, so he has a ways to go yet.
We enjoy watching our grandchildren grow, and Grandma is looking forward to her trip to Colorado in June to welcome Stephen and Joanna’s second child. God has been good to us, and we continue to look to Him for direction.
