Group sings on trains, buses and jeepneys
Heads turned when the sound of a hymn filled the crowded Metro Rail Transit train running through the heart of Manila.
A singing trio on their way to perform at the Manila Central Seventh-day Adventist Church hadn’t had time to practice that week. So they practiced en route.
“At the time, we were just concentrating on practicing, but unknowingly to us, people were listening,” recalled Faelmar Tañada, leader of the singing group, Three for Thee.
After the three men finished practicing “If We Ever Needed the Lord Before, We Sure Do Need Him Now,” a woman sitting near them asked what church they belonged to.
“Well, we’re Seventh-day Adventists,” Tañada said.
“Oh, so you’re Sabidistos,” she replied. “Is this what you do in church? Sing?”
“Yes,” Tañada responded. “We sing.”
Evangelism on public transport in the Philippines is not uncommon in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation. Bible thumping preachers occasionally board buses, trains and the ubiquitous jeepneys to deliver a message to a captive audience before passing envelopes to passengers requesting donations.
But Tañada’s group was different. They just sang.
As the trio stepped off the train, another passenger grabbed one of them by the arm. “I just want you to know how very thankful I am because I was blessed by your song,” she said.
Now the group always sings on public transportation as they commute around the metro Manila area.
“It’s more than just practicing,” Tañada says. “It’s the time we have to share our God with other people. We commute and sing, and people just love it.”
The a capella trio consists of first tenor Tañada, second tenor Alfonso Abrea, and Lloydx Jhoweyee Gudani singing bass. The trio’s harmonic blends and instrument-like vocal effects, was inspired by the United States-based vocal group Acapella.
Tañada and Abrea hadn’t known each other for more than a few minutes before they were performing together. A church elder at an Adventist church south of Manila asked Tañada to befriend a newcomer, Abrea, who was sitting in the corner.
“We were delighted to learn that we were both from Cebu [central area of the Philippines], and we both spoke Cebuano,” Tañada recalls.
Moments later the same elder tapped Tañada on the shoulder, asking him to provide special music for the church service. Not wanting to sing solo, Tañada grabbed his new friend by the arm, urging him to join in singing a duet. “Some may have thought Al sang a very nice vibrato,” Tañada jokes. “Actually, he was shaking in the pulpit.”
The two later met up with Gudani, an old friend who had been on a “spiritual vacation,” as Tañada puts it. “We used to sing together, but he had left the church for a time, so I was really glad to see him back again. I had been praying for him and his brother.”
The three decided to get together the following Sabbath and try blending their voices. Gudani’s deep bass added a rich foundation to the group and before long they were performing for churches and youth gatherings around the greater Manila area.
Tañada is a technical support manager for online learning at the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies and serves as a deacon in his church. Abrea works as a property custodian and is a church youth director. Gudani owns two businesses—a general store and a barbershop—and serves as a church deacon.
The trio, which seems to specialize in impromptu situations, once found themselves singing, unscheduled, in a wedding for friends of another religious faith.
“The wedding took so long the choir ran out of songs,” Tañada remembers of the Catholic ceremony. The choir director knew the trio was Seventh-day Adventist and asked them to sing. They were worried because of the formal occasion in a high church, but got up and sang in their a capella style.
After the song, Tañada tentatively glanced over at the presiding priest to see his reaction.
“He smiled and gave us a big thumbs up.”